This Year at Jenks: The beginning

This Year at Jenks is an idea taken from Kevin Peter whose blog “Knowing Henry” has become a source of information for potential and current C.W. Henry School families.

This blog will contain personal observations of Vanessa Yingling, a kindergarten parent at J.S. Jenks, about our first year at Jenks. I hope to provide information that both current and potential parents may find helpful.

As the feeling of hope and change are in the air, I am starting this blog to add another positive voice to the John Story Jenks School community. John Story Jenks is a vibrant community located in the Chestnut Hill neighborhood of Philadelphia. I had much anxiety about changing schools but have been very pleased these first 2 months at Jenks. I encourage other neighborhood families to visit Jenks and get to know the faculty, staff and students and I am sure you will be pleasantly surprised.

Here is a brief list of what Kindergarten has been doing thus far….

They have been working hard, having fun and are beginning to really get to know each other.

They write in journals everyday and are reading voraciously as they try to complete the 100 book challenge.

Believe it or not my daughter loves her homework and how wonderful to learn to love all aspects of school so young!

They are thrilled with their teachers, Ms. Tish and Ms. Donaldson and especially the student teacher, Ms. Colleen. I was surprised and pleased that they work with a different specialist each day.

Monday: Spanish/Art

Tuesday: Music

Wednesday: Physical Education

Thursday: Computers

Friday: Spanish/Art

I had the pleasure of going to Styer Orchard with the kids, where they picked apples and pumpkins and then made applesauce in class. My daughter’s favorite part of the trip was the pumpkin seeds that Ms. Colleen brought into class. They will be visiting the Philadelphia Museum of Art next week. They also had a great time parading down Germantown Avenue on a beautiful Halloween afternoon.

Jenks’ students have also been involved in community events including Philadelphia Cares Day where volunteers from around the city helped to clean up the playground and school grounds. Students also helped sell pretzels and water at the Chestnut Hill Fall for the Arts Festival.

We are very happy with our decision to attend Jenks. We love Chestnut Hill and it’s feeling of a true neighborhood, so we decided to utilize and support one of the main cornerstones of many neighborhoods, the public school.