Fall Fun at AOG!

 The last two weeks at The Academy of Gateway have been packed with creativity, hands-on learning, family involvement, and plenty of fun! From celebrating special national days to welcoming the first signs of fall, our children have had so many opportunities to explore, create, and make wonderful memories together.

During our first week, we celebrated National Coloring Day! Our children enjoyed expressing their creativity through coloring, and each child got to take home crayons and coloring pages so the fun could continue with their families.

We also brought learning outdoors with a special bird nest activity. The children worked together to search for sticks, leaves, grass, and other natural materials they thought a bird might use to build a nest. This was a wonderful opportunity to encourage teamwork, observation, and curiosity about the world around us.

Our families joined in on the fun, too! We sent home family recipe pages for everyone to fill out with a favorite recipe and return to the Academy. We are collecting them to create our very own AOG Family Cookbook filled with recipes shared by the families who make our school community so special.

One of our favorite family activities was our Parent Photo Challenge! Parents chose a photo of their child that had previously been shared and did their best to recreate it themselves. We loved seeing everyone's creativity and sense of humor shine through!

We finished the week with another delicious celebration—National Cheeseburger Day!

Our second week brought even more excitement. We started with Dress Yourself for School Day, giving our children a chance to show off their independence and personal style. We loved seeing the outfits they picked for themselves!

As we welcomed the first day of fall, the children explored a fun sensory activity with cinnamon cloud dough. The cinnamon scent helped bring the feeling of fall into our classrooms while giving the children an opportunity for hands-on sensory play.

We continued our fall celebration with our Harvest Market Grab & Go. Each child got to choose an apple, banana, or orange to take home. It was a simple and fun way to celebrate the season while encouraging healthy choices.

To finish off our fall-inspired activities, our little artists got creative by painting beautiful sunsets. Each painting was unique and gave the children a chance to experiment with colors while creating their own version of a colorful evening sky.

These past two weeks have been a wonderful reminder that learning can happen everywhere—from building bird nests and mixing cloud dough to choosing an outfit or sharing a family recipe. We are so thankful to our AOG families for participating in our activities and helping us create experiences that extend beyond the classroom.

We can't wait to see what adventures the next few weeks bring at AOG!

Back to School Fun at AOG!

 The past two weeks at Academy of Gateway have been filled with so much fun, learning, creativity, and family connection! As we welcomed our families back for a new and exciting year of learning, our classrooms were filled with smiles, excitement, and anticipation for all that the new school year will bring. During the week of August 31- September 4, our families enjoyed a fun Back-to-School Photo Booth where they could capture special memories together, and our children got creative with mirror self-portraits as they explored their own unique features and expressed themselves through art. We also hosted a wonderful Open House where we had the opportunity to connect with both our returning and new families, share information about the exciting year ahead, and introduce everyone to the amazing Frog Street curriculum we are preparing to begin. We are so excited to bring engaging, hands-on learning experiences into our classrooms and watch our children grow throughout the year! On Friday, our Academy was closed for our Fall Teacher Conference, giving our teachers and staff an opportunity to come together, learn, collaborate, and spend meaningful time building connections as a team. We believe that when our teachers continue to learn and grow, our children benefit too, and we are excited to bring our new ideas and learning back into our classrooms. During the week of September 7- September 11, we began with a day off for Labor Day and returned ready for another fun-filled week! Our families helped make our classrooms feel even more like home by sending in sweet family photos for their children to display. These photos help children feel connected to the people they love while creating opportunities for conversations, language development, and a sense of belonging within their classroom community. We also celebrated National Teddy Bear Day, giving our friends the opportunity to bring a favorite teddy bear from home to enjoy throughout the day. Our classrooms were filled with cuddles, smiles, sharing, and imaginative play as our furry friends joined us for a special day! We also showed off our Academy spirit by wearing green and orange and celebrating together during our fun-filled Academy Spirit Rally. To end the week, we celebrated the wonderful grandparents and special family members in our children's lives with a special breakfast in honor of Grandparents Day. It was a beautiful opportunity to recognize the love, support, wisdom, and encouragement that grandparents bring to our families. From welcoming our families and preparing for a new year of learning to celebrating our teachers, family connections, teddy bears, Academy spirit, and grandparents, these past two weeks have been a wonderful reminder of what makes our Academy community so special. We are so excited for all of the learning, growing, and memories still ahead as we continue to Grow, Learn & Play together! As always thank you to all of our wonderful families for trusting us with your little ones, supporting our Academy, and being such an important part of our community. We are so grateful to have you growing, learning, and making memories with us!