MARMORA — A “generous donation of paper bags” sparked the imagination of teachers and the creativity of kindergartners for the inaugural Alphabet Fashion Show on Jan. 15 at Upper Township Primary School.
Each of the 127 students was assigned a letter, excluding the more difficult ones such as X. At home, they and their parents decorated the bags, formed into vests, with pictures and words corresponding to the letter.
Back in school, they donned their alphabetical outfits and marched down the hallway, showing off their fancy fashion-forward fanaticism.
Teacher Christine Kiefer said the kindergarten team collaborated on the project.
“We do a lot of work on alphabet recognition — letter names and sounds — in kindergarten and we decided to make a little fun activity for the kids and get the parents involved at home,” she said.
Kiefer said they do not have 26 children in each class — more like 17 to 19 — but they did get nearly the entire alphabet represented by the student body.
“We covered a lot of the letters, most of the alphabet,” teacher Janine Ragan said. “We tried to think of letters that they would be able to gather.”
Other teachers involved were Michelle Inserra, Jenna Frankel, Jennifer Garwood, Sharon Giambri and Jaime DeFazio, the school’s Teacher of the Year.
Superintendent Allison Pessolano said this is one of the first projects that teachers sent home for students and parents to do together and that teachers were hearing a lot of good feedback.
“They really did do it together, even the ones that come in looking like the parents did all the work,” she said with a laugh. “The kids were talking about how they sat with Mom or Dad and put it together.”
In that sense, she said, the project went far beyond simply learning the alphabet.
“It’s important to have that home-school connection and for the parents to be involved in what we are doing here,” Pessolano said.
– STORY and PHOTOS by CRAIG D. SCHENCK/Sentinel staff