February 2018 Activity Calendar
January 31, 2018
Preston Pointe in March – What Not to Miss
March 1, 2018
100th Day of School Wisdom
Residents of Preston Pointe celebrated the “100th Day of School” with first graders from Chesterbrook Academy of Cary on Monday, February 5th, 2018. The first graders wanted to know what life and school were like when our residents were six years old. A few of our residents went to share their wisdom with the children; their age ranged from 80-101. Preston Pointe’s only centenarian, Sylvia (101), participated as well as Rose (98), Jeane (97), Jackie (87), Marie (80), and Skip (85).
The children asked many questions, and the residents shared stories from when they were young children. The children couldn’t believe that cell phones, tablets, and TVs didn’t exist and that the residents had to walk to school. Some residents even walked home to have lunch. Students were also surprised to learn that there was often more than one grade in the same classroom. The residents told the children that they did not have playground equipment to play on at recess. They had open areas with only some grass and a few trees. They often played marbles and tag during a break.
Sylvia recalled being in a school play when she was six years old. She played a Dutch girl wearing wooden shoes. When she did a kick as part of a dance routine, her wooden shoe went flying off the stage. Now that’s some great entertainment! The children started laughing, but Sylvia said it’s a true story.
Rose told the children that her teacher had to live with her family. There was not a boarding house in her small Italian mountain village for her teacher. The children were quite surprised that a teacher would live with a family she didn’t know. They ask Rose where would the teacher sleep in her house. Rose said that she had her own bedroom.
We also had a math lesson as students calculated how many years it would take some of the residents to reach 100. They were quite surprised when they learned that our resident Sylvia is 101. Needless to say that the math lesson was entertaining to our residents.
To end our visit, the children gave our residents sweet smiles and warm hugs. Our residents agreed that those smiles and hugs were their favorite part of their visit! Our residents at Preston Pointe Retirement Community enjoyed sharing their words of wisdom with the 1st graders at Chesterbrook Academy.