PreK Move UpOn Saturday, June 4th, Philadelphians gathered to celebrate something truly momentous: The first ever Pre-K Move-Up Celebration.

Held at the Please Touch Museum, the inaugural Pre-K Move-Up Ceremony was an opportunity for friends, family, and educators to celebrate the city’s future leaders “moving up” from quality pre-K programs and into kindergarten.

The Mayor talked about the importance of celebrating pre-K students and the hardworking parents and educators who prepared them.

“We have to start celebrating pre-k graduation the way we do high school or college graduation because the research shows the two are very clearly linked.” -Mayor Kenney

While at the Move-Up Celebration, we asked some of the best champions of pre-K what they thought was most important about quality pre-K programs. Here are their answers.

Ciana says pre-K got her excited about learning — and her future.

Margaret thinks learning and playing go hand-in-hand.

Hanaa enjoys learning new things through reading.

The ceremony even included caps, just like in high school and college.

Lindsay and Jerel love to learn with new friends in pre-K.

Pre-K has inspired Timmy to be a teacher.

These graduates can’t wait to learn more.

Robin learned more than just the alphabet in pre-K.

Briella says she loves learning — and helping her friends learn new things, too.

Pre-K taught Lin–well we’ll let her tell you:

Jaden says pre-K prepared him for school and taught him that language can be fun.

Pre-K taught Charlie that he can do anything he puts his mind to.