Deborah and Jacob’s Class

4s:

Sofia: “I remember when I met one of my best friends in the sandbox in the fours. We were very unsteady but we’re still here in fourth grade, still best friends and a little more steady. I really hope we’ll always be friends.”

Grace: “I remember the turtle. His name was chocolate and his favorite food was cantaloupe.”

Ella: “I remember the time in Beth’s class when a pigeon flew in and landed in the tomato sauce. Then when the pigeon walked, it got red feet marks on the lunch table. We just laughed.”

Kindergarten:

Violet: “The eggs are hatching. Just like a sunrise coming up, the eggs cracked as the little birds peaked out. So beautiful, so precious, kindergarten.”

Verity: “I remember meeting my best friend Beckett and knowing he was my bff.”

First Grade:

Eli: My memory is when we did the restaurant. I was a chef and I made waffles with fruit and maple syrup. It was called the LREI Brunch Cafe.

Madiba: I remember making a lot of money in the restaurant. And we donated it to the animal shelter. We had a delicious menu.

Tess: I remember the Cutie Circle. We would roll Cutie in a plastic circle until we got picked up at the end of the day. We would start with the whole class and when your parent came you left the circle. One time Amelia and I were the last ones and we rolled Cutie for twenty minutes, finally our parents came.”

Second Grade:

Ren: “I liked Twizzle in second grade because he was so cool. He was a pink toed tarantula. He was funny because our grown ups would flip.”

Cassidy: “I remember doing the Brooklyn Bridge play. I remember going home and practicing my one line over and over and over again until I mastered it. And my line was pretty long.”

Dennis: I remember in second grade going to dim sum in Chinatown. We were studying all of the different cultures in America. We went to see what people eat in Chinatown. There were pink chicken dumplings that tasted really good. It was fun.
Third Grade:

Jett: “In third grade I loved Mr. X and the City of the Future. I liked trying to build the machines to help the City of the Future. We built a job wheel that helps you pick your job.”

Myles: “I remember in the Lenape Museum painting people’s hands whatever clan they wanted to be: either the wolf clan, the turtle clan or the turkey clan.”

Shoshi: “My strongest memory from the third grade was doing cursive boot camp with Charissa. I remember dreading it because it would hurt my hand so much. But it was actually really fun!”

Zach: “I remember making the Lenape museum and studying the Dutch coming to America.  I really like making the longhouse. I also liked my part – I made fires in my clan.”

Fourth Grade:

Kate: “One of my favorite memories was writing the historical immigration narratives. We were all so focused. I remember every kid just felt so good after we finished, I really liked that.”

Alfredo: “A great memory is the Ellis Island trip but it was a little embarrassing  being in our costumes in public.”

Beckett: “I remember learning about the street vendors. I liked trying all of the foods, finding out more about the street vendors and finding out that I could help them.”

Rubie: “I remember in science Shoshi and I were partners and when we were supposed to figure things out in science we invented new ways to solve the problem and it was really fun.”

Zach: “My favorite part in fourth grade was the play. Mostly, because it was fun and I liked my group and I learned I liked making songs, but it was also a fun learning experience.”

Dan and Shayna’s Class

4s:

Sadie: One thing I remember from the 4s is when I brought in a play wedding dress and we would throw weddings for boys and girls in our class. I was always the bridesmaid because I never wanted to be the bride.

Jack: We made a fun game where we hid small rubber bears and the winner was the person who could hide their bear the longest. I often won because I would hide my bear in my pocket or I would hold it up so high that no one could reach it. j

Luke: I remember having a sandbox and making sand castles. It was fun because we got to do whatever we wanted to do except for throwing it in people’s eyes.

Jessica: One time, we played with shaving cream. I was having so much fun that I didn’t realize I had made a big mess. I got it all over me.

Kindergarten:

Crosby: In kindergarten, we had chicks that hatched in class. At the end of the year, I got to bring the chicks to a farm in the Hamptons to grow up. A year later, I visited them, as chickens, on the farm. They were laying eggs.

Dylan: I remember when the chicks hatched. I named one of them Oreo and another one Cookie.

First Grade

Jesse: In first grade, we made restaurants. My job was to be a waiter. I had to wait on my parents’ table. My dad pretended that he did not know who I was. He was a difficult customer.

Cyrus: I remember in first grade when Gina threw a party for me after I came back from Argentina. We had a disco ball and donuts to celebrate.

Penny: One of my favorite memories of 1st grade is when we finished making our “How To” books. The teachers took us to get hot chocolate at a diner. I had whipped cream in mine. The whole class was so proud that they had finished their books and that the parents were going to come in to see them.

Second Grade:

Isabelle: I remember in 2nd grade, we had a tarantula named Twizzle as a class pet. One day, Twizzle got out of his cage. People started searching for him by calling out “Twizzle. Twizzle.” Some people freaked out and hid in the corner. Finally, we found him under a bookshelf. It was freaky but also exciting.

Simone: I was really scared on my first day of school because it was my first day at LREI. At first, not a lot of people spoke to me. Then a few people talked to me and I was excited.

Amos: I remember my Chinatown project. It was a huge cardboard box that was painted red and gold with lanterns and all the festive stuff. My sister painted Mandarin characters all over it.

Clara: I really liked the Brooklyn Bridge play because the teachers were really nice when they taught us how to memorize our lines. Some of us had a hard time learning our lines so the teachers let us have our scripts during the play just in case.

Third Grade:

Asher: One of my fondest memories of Third Grade is doing the Lenape Museum. I remember walking in and seeing the longhouse and my head going BOOM!

Willa: My 3rd grade teacher was Jessie. Her husband is in a band called Panama Wedding. On her birthday, we all rewrote the words to one of his songs to make it a personalized birthday song and sang it to her. She thought it was really cool.

Finn: Cyrus and I made a great exhibit in the longhouse for the Lenape Museum. We had this game that was like darts where you throw corn through a hula hoop. That was my favorite part of third grade.

Fourth Grade:

Alexa: Fourth Grade was my first year at LREI. One of my favorite parts of the year was the Fourth Grade play. I was really surprised that it all came together so well. A few days before, it didn’t seem like we were ready. I loved my part in it.

Reid: I loved our field trip to Ellis Island. It was so fun to pretend to be an immigrant and to dress up. We actually got to see the place where some people got detained.

Layla: Sometimes when our class wasn’t being quiet or lining up, Dan would say that if we didn’t listen, he would punish us by singing. He warned us that it would sound horrible. He was right. He sounded awful. Keep your day job.