June 22, 2026

Dear Families,

On Tuesday, our school community will come together one last time this year.  Please come to the annual family outing in Central Park.  The whole school will be around Tarr Family Playground, located at West 100 Street and Central Park West.

You can drop your child off in school or go straight to the park with your child.  We will offer 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. 

Please bring lunch, lots of water, sunscreen, plus a blanket to sit on.  Children will 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.  The sprinklers provide plenty of cooling water; please do not bring squirt guns, water cannons, or water balloons.

This event is always a good way to close the year.  I hope you can be there.

Classroom Environments, Rec Days, and September

Last week, teachers stayed late for several nights, transforming their classrooms.  Children exhibited their work in re-arranged, re-decorated space. 

Remaking classrooms as galleries conveys the importance of students’ work.   A real audience asking about their construction and their sewing and their writing (or, in the case of fourth and fifth graders, the themes of the play they wrote and performed) makes most students pay more attention to small details.  The audience plus a special environment helps children value what they create.

Classroom environments always matter, and especially at CPE1, where we expect children to learn through the physical projects they make.  This week, classroom teachers will take the first steps to prepare their classrooms for September.

Rec days began many years ago to reset the room for deep cleaning.  Children do not enter their classrooms for the final three days of the year.  While they are out, teachers move each child’s work from walls and folders to collection folders, the big portfolios children see for the first time in fifth grade.  Teachers clean and pack materials, wrap and seal their shelves.

Over the first few weeks of July, our custodial waxes floors and makes minor repairs.  Some teachers start setting up their rooms by the end of July.

Of all the schools I know, CPE1, by far, has the most complex and ready classroom environments on the first day of school.  That first day of school is a communication, too: children see right away that the room is designed for them to learn and create.

Rec days are an essential first step.

Preparing Your Child for Rec Days

Rec days will happen this Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  Students should arrive on the yard as usual, but they will not go up to their classrooms.

During rec days, children mostly stay outside.  Some of that outdoor time will be in our school yard, and some will be walking trips, such as to Central Park.  (We will not be inside watching the World Cup, or any other television.)

Students will eat lunch in the cafeteria during rec days.  They may bring home lunch or get school lunch.

To prepare for all of this outdoor activity, children need a water bottle and sunscreen.  Children should know how to apply the sunscreen themselves.

With sprinklers in both our school yard and in the park, there is a good chance your child will get wet.  Your child’s backpack should have comfortable water shoes, a towel, and a change of clothes.  Kids need to be able to run and climb, so please send them in closed-toe shoes instead of sandals or flip-flops.

Have a great time at the family outing on Tuesday.