Sumner HS/EHS celebrated the end of the 2024-2025 school year with an End of the Year Carnival with our children and families! We truly appreciate all of the support and engagement our families provided throughout the 2024-2025 school year and wish all of our students and families a fun and relaxing summer.
Wishing the best of luck to our students that are off to Kindergarten and really looking forward to those returning to us for the 2025-2026 school year as well!
Last month, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand visited our Sumner Head Start to argue passionately for continued funding of Head Start and Early Head Start. Now Congressman John Mannion has secured more than $7 million in federal funding to support the nearly 1,000 low-income children and families that PEACE, Inc. serves every day. We’re grateful for his unflagging advocacy. And we’re more devoted than ever to providing a solid, well-rounded foundation for our youngest learners. Thank you, Congressman Mannion, for seeing and stressing that early investments are the best investments we can make!
What a perfect day for ‘Light a Candle for Literacy’! We were delighted to join dozens of community organizations and children’s book authors this past Saturday for a packed house at Brighton Academy. It was an absolutely beautiful day for the parade and festival and hundreds of families came by to listen to live music, meet authors, learn about a wide range of community supports, and take part in a marvelous book giveaway with selections ranging from current bestsellers to cherished classics. Even Cinderella showed up!
Special shoutout to Joan and Toria who brought oodles of charisma to PEACE, Inc’s table. Congrats to both of you on connecting with some new, potential Head Start families!
Our Baldwinsville Head Start ended the year with a bang! Parents fundraised for and helped produce a fantastic carnival and ‘moving up’ ceremony. They had activities galore – bowling, fishing, duck pond, dress up, Plinko, pin the nose on the clown + 100% of parents showed up to support and celebrate their little learners!
On June 6th, STEAM at Dr.King Elementary collaboration site with Head Start held a Luau event for pre-k and their families. All who attended enjoyed games, crafts, and had chances to win prizes. Parents also had a chance to view tables with helpful information regarding developmental milestones, Kindergarten registration, and our very own PEACE Inc. This was a fun filled event and a great send off to summer!
PEACE, Inc.’s Head Start programs are always looking for ways to integrate parents into their practice. Recently, kids were enjoying a gross motor skills class, learning all the things one can do and make with boxes. Some very imaginative parents swooped in and built a big, fun bus! Kids were delighted and that bond between home and classroom became just a little bit stronger. While the activities may be whimsical, forming and strengthening those child-parent-school bonds is serious work. It’s through these kinds of activities that we create a culture of trust and comfort where everyone benefits. This was a brilliant example of how Head Start is a whole family endeavor.
This past month must’ve been the dreariest, rainiest, muckiest May in memory. But the budding artists at Merrick Head Start were undeterred! They leaned into their creative sides, making artwork that ranged from self portrait to collage to rocks and pebbles painted to look like fruits and veggies. (We’re particularly fond of the watermelon!) The resulting Art Expo – open to the public – was a huge hit, delighting a great many visitors who were otherwise soaked by the incessant precipitation. What a colorful, welcome relief to a grey day. Special thanks to Ms. Jessica and Ms. Lashantay for making this expo happen!
PEACE Inc.’s Merrick Head Start brought the outdoors indoors! While the last month has been unseasonably rainy, that didn’t stop our teachers from facilitating an outdoors experience inside their classrooms! Kids got to huddle inside a tent and practice their s’mores technique over a very safe fire — ingeniously made of red and orange tissue paper. They also observed their classroom cocoons start to split and butterflies emerge. The day piqued the kids’ inherent curiosity about nature and everyone had a ball. Thank you teachers for always leaning into your imagination to create these wonderful experiences for our kids!
