June 18, 2025

Dear Families,                                           

It’s almost 8:00 on Tuesday night.  Aishah, Andrea, Anika, and Grace are putting finishing touches on their end-of-year exhibitions of student work.  On Wednesday, their classes will be the last to hold their museums of student work.  On the nights before the other classrooms’ exhibitions, teachers performed similar work.

In this photo from a few minutes ago, Andrea is hanging up students’ watercolor sketches from Central Park.  These are sketches that students made to help with their projects, not the projects themselves. Wall displays are only the background for the featured presentations.

Mostly, this is a display made for one day.  After Wednesday’s exhibition, students have just one more day in class.  Next week, teachers will pull down these watercolors.  They will place each child’s sketch inside a portfolio.  Students will open that portfolio late in fifth grade.  This old work will help students reflect on what they accomplished at CPE1 and how they grew.  Seeing their work from younger years will help them write an essay about themselves for the fifth grade yearbook.  This is a planful cycle.  Teachers’ work each June prepares for the Junes of the future.

But first, mostly at hours when children cannot see, CPE1 teachers transform their classrooms.  Many students work more attentively and energetically because they know the community will see their projects.  The temporary gallery surrounding the presentations makes them more special.  Teachers invisible hours preparing these galleries make children’s work that much more visible. 

Graduation – Friday 9:00 a.m.

This Friday, June 20, we hold graduation in the auditorium at 9:00.  Everyone is invited.

If you have not seen a CPE1 graduation before, you should.  Last year ended with many current parents crying – and their kids weren’t even the ones graduating.

After graduation, fourth grade families host a reception in the courtyard for fifth grade families and the graduates.  If your child is in third grade now, get ready.  Next year, when your child is in fourth grade, you will make the reception for those families who are making it this year, just as families with children a year younger than yours one day will do for you.

Family Outing on Monday

Our annual family outing in Central Park will happen on Monday, June 23.  Please join us at Tarr Family Playground, located at West 100 Street and Central Park West.

Please bring lunch, lots of water, sunscreen, and a blanket to sit on.  Children play inside the playground, and out on the grass nearby.  The sprinklers in the playground will be on, so your child may want to wear a bathing suit and water shoes. 

You can drop your child off in school, or go straight to the park with your child.  We will have drop-off and breakfast in school as always.  Teachers will walk their classes to Tarr Family Playground by 10:00.  We will have bag lunches available for children who do not bring lunch from home. 

Appreciation from Students

I am sharing a note from Aleeyah, Cammie, Kai, Jonathan, and Yasmin from Kiyah’s class.  These fourth and fifth graders asked me to share this letter about a project they completed earlier this month.

Greetings CPE1,

We would like to tell you that the lemonade stand, the sandwich drive, and the care kits were a big success! All together we raised $715.76 from the lemonade stand, and from community donations.  We made 150 sandwiches for the Common Food Pantry, plus 50 care kits containing shampoo, conditioner, body wash, deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste, socks, wipes and affirmation notes from the 4/5 students.  

We appreciate the donations for the care kits, and for purchasing our lemonade. We also thank the parents for giving their time and effort to help us put together the sandwiches and for helping us make the lemonade. At the end, we had $128.82 leftover.  We made a check for $64.41 to the Common Food Pantry, and $64.41 for the Coalition for the Homeless.

Thank you for helping out our social justice issue of homelessness and food insecurity.

Those fourth and fifth graders are appreciating our community, and I appreciate them for raising money and taking action. 

I hope to see you at Tarr Family Playground on Monday.