Downtown College Prep Tree #105

Our tree was decorated by the 9th graders at Downtown College Prep, Class of 2017! Every freshman at our school made an ornament for our tree. There were about a dozen students who came out to assemble the tree over Thanksgiving weekend.

Literacy is the theme of our first tree at Christmas in the Park. The theme was chosen in large part because the majority of the freshmen come to DCP as non-readers. Our curriculum focuses on building a love for reading and an excitement around books while following CCSS criteria. The magic happens very quickly and the students wanted to celebrate their successes.

Ornaments are handmade replicas of the first book they finished this year (for a number of kids it was the first book ever!) or a book this year that changed their life. Each book has a bookmark at the top with the student's name on it and the number of books he/she has completed this year (Sept 18th - Nov 27th). The tree is topped with the total number of novels read in the freshmen class to date. There are just under 100 freshmen enrolled at DCP.