Navigator News
Thank you for Supporting Literacy, Art, and Academic Success
Dear NPA Families,
I want to take a moment to express my sincere appreciation for the incredible support we continue to receive from our NPA community!
Our book drive has already brought in 800 donated books! We are absolutely thrilled with the response and so grateful to the families who have generously contributed. Your donations will help us continue building our library and providing more reading opportunities for our students. It is wonderful to see our families and students coming together to make a difference. Thank you for being such an important part of the NPA team!
We have also received several generous donations of art supplies for our art classes. Thank you to everyone who has contributed! We are still in need of colored pencils, so if any families would like to donate a set or two, we would greatly appreciate it. Every contribution helps us provide our students with the materials they need to explore their creativity.
Honor Roll Recognition
Next week, we are looking forward to recognizing our 5th through 8th grade students who have earned a place on the Honor Roll! We are proud of their hard work, dedication, and academic accomplishments. We look forward to celebrating their success and encouraging all of our students to continue striving for excellence. As always, thank you for your continued support of our students, teachers, and school community. It is through our partnership with our wonderful families that we continue to make Navigator Pointe Academy a special place for our students to learn and grow.
Michelle Petrulsky
Executive Director
NPA Student Ambassadors Lead the Way in October Book Drive
Our NPA Ambassadors are hard at work collecting and counting donated books and updating the Book Drive tally on the bulletin board in our front lobby.
Stop by to see our progress as we work together to put more books into the hands of our students!
There is still time to participate! Please continue donating books through October 31st as we build a stronger culture of reading and literacy at Navigator Pointe Academy.
Every donation helps grow our library and encourages a love of reading throughout our school community.
More Than Meets the Eye
What makes each of us unique? Is it the way we book, the clothes we wear, or something more?
Recently, our Kindergarten through 3rd grade students explored those questions through a creative art project called, “Uniquely Me Silhouettes.” Led by Fine Arts instructor Mrs. Rowley, students began by creating silhouettes of their own heads. After cutting out their silhouettes, they filled them with drawings and words representing the things they love, enjoy, and care about. Inside each silhouette was a glimpse into what makes each student special. From favorite activities and hobbies to the people, interests, and experiences that make them happy.
The project gave students an opportunity to see themselves in a different way. Their silhouettes may show what they look like on the outside, but the pictures and words inside tell a much bigger story.
At NPA, we want our students to understand that who they are is about so much more than their appearance. What matters most is what they carry inside, their interests, talents, character, kindness, creativity, and the things they value.
Science Scramble
Our 7th-grade students recently took their science lessons to new heights! To wrap up the their unit on physics and structural engineering, students participated in an egg drop experiment.
The challenge? Design and build a protective container to shield a raw egg from a high fall.
Students engineered a variety of creative structures, experimenting with shapes like pyramids, cylinders, and crumpled paper cushions to discover which design could best absorb kinetic energy and protect the egg from breaking.
The moment of truth arrived when Mr. James climbed on to the roof of the school and launched each creation over the edge.
Thanks to some incredible engineering, there were a few eggs that survived the plunge! Congratulations to all of our 7th graders for demonstrating excellent critical thinking, teamwork, and innovation.
NPA Staff Spotlight...Meet Mr. Kuchinski, Paraprofessional
Something interesting is happening at NPA. A mysterious trail of clues has appeared, and they all seemed to point to one staff member, Mr. Kuchinski. His story began in New Jersey, then moved through California and Colorado before finally leading to Alaska. Alaska? Why would anyone choose a place that cold? Maybe he was looking for something. Or maybe something was looking for him.
His school history was almost as mysterious. Mary E. Roberts Elementary. Then Janesville. Falcon. Finger Lake. Wasilla High School. Colony High School. And finally, the University of Alaska. Wherever he went, he loved art, science, and geography. But then we have discovered something truly shocking. He can read and speak Russian! Luckily, he says he knows just enough Russian to keep himself out of trouble. What kind of trouble? Nobody is brave enough to ask.
Now comes a very curious thing. He loves photography and owns a collection of telescopes. Telescopes! Why would anyone need that many? Perhaps he is watching the stars. Perhaps he is searching for distant planets. Or perhaps he is watching for something coming from the darkness of space.
O.K. Things are finally beginning to make sense. Mr. Kuchinski’s journey into education started when he volunteered at NPA. See his children went to school here. Helping with pizza days and in the media center is where he got his start. After seeing how much his children loved it here, he wanted to give something back.
Now he hopes NPA students discover that they can do hard things, appreciate the value of a good education, and learn that learning can actually be fun. Still, if you see him outside after dark with a telescope pointed at the sky, you might want to ask what he's looking for.
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