Students were able to explore the idea of community through a variety of lenses in the past two weeks.  The opportunity to be exposed to a topic in diverse ways enables students to think more deeply about what they are learning and provides background knowledge to...

This past week students had the opportunity to invite their families into the classroom to share about some of their experiences as a second grader.  PNA does these student led conferences every year in order to have an official check-in with families about how the...

Even as second graders, students at PNA know that they are encouraged and expected to be creative.  When we were writing our classroom guidelines at the beginning of the year, one student proposed "Be Creative" as one of our guidelines for the class to work towards...

​According to a recent survey, only 21 states are requiring their students to learn cursive.  While this is not surprising, as current educational focus has shifted to skills more aligned with technology, there are opportunities being missed with the disappearance of...

You've probably heard of the devastating fires wreaking havoc in Australia recently.  So many people and animals have been affected by these deadly fires and it's easy to feel helpless and hopeless.  However, PNA's 2nd and 5th graders learned this week that they can...

If you look at the picture above, you might notice some kids deeply engrossed in playing with legos.  While this would be true, there are also a multitude of other things occurring that aren't as apparent at first glance. Renowned psychologist Jean Piaget notes, “Play...

The second graders finished up their latest PBL project with a community event right before break.  The annual 2nd Grade Store was a great success and the store opened just in time for holiday shopping. This yearly project has many different facets.  Students are...

What does it really mean to be a collaborative community?  Our newest PBL project combined with our recent Parent Lunch gave some insight of what a collaborative community can look like at PNA. Students are deeply involved in the current Class Store project, in which...

Students in Bridges 2 math class have been working over the last few math sessions to identify the key information in a story problem, working collaboratively as well as individually to solve story problems, expanding their repertoire to create their own story...

"Courage is not the absence of fear but action in spite of it." The word courage is an integral part of our school's mission, forming a triad with vision and integrity, that helps to guide us everyday.  Courage can mean a lot of things to different people but...