P.S. 128 celebrates Thanksgiving with school-wide parade

Watch out, Macy’s!

Students at P.S. 128 in Bensonhurst marched in their first-ever school-wide Thanksgiving Day parade on Wednesday, November 26 to kick off the holiday.

Inspired by New York’s traditional Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, students brought in homemade floats that mimicked some of the originals New York City has seen over the past 87 years.

“Being that this is the first year, we really left it very broad,” said Katie Downey, an ELA literacy teacher for grades four and five and coordinator of the event. “We went through the different types of floats that Macy’s has, and that’s what our parade is inspired by.”

Principal Jessica Drzewucki said that she hoped the parade would also inspire “family engagement.

“Many of our children come from other countries, so this is a time where we can come together and celebrate an American holiday outside of the different religious holidays that the children celebrate,” Drzewucki said. “We wanted to give them an opportunity to be creative and to work with their families, so we had the children create the floats at home and then bring them in to celebrate together.”

Striving for authenticity, the parade had four students at the front of the auditorium act as commentators through all of the turkey, pilgrim and Native American-themed floats and signs.

“Thinking about Thanksgiving, we wanted to do something different than just [have the students] wearing a certain color or a t-shirt,” added Downy. “[We wanted] something to get the students involved artistically.”

Parent Coordinator Rose Ann Montemurro said that the children were “thrilled” and “excited” to show off their floats.

“As they entered the building each morning, they showed me, ‘look at what we did for the parade.’ Parents got involved in decorating as well. It was a whole family affair,” said Montemurro.

P.S. 128 is located at 2075 84th Street.

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