We continued our conversation about thankfulness today at snack and project times.  With Thanksgiving approaching, we’ve been delving into the very abstract, very challenging concept of gratitude and what it means in our personal lives.  Last week, the Tugboats thought about the word “Thanksgiving” and noticed that it begins with the word “thanks,” which we all know is short for “thank you.”  We pondered different circumstances that cause us to say “thank you,” and came up with quite a few: when a friend shares a toy, when a teacher or parent gives us something we need or want (like a snack or a special treat), and when someone gives us a gift.  After thinking and talking it over, the Tugboats decided that we say “thank you” when someone does something that makes us feel happy and lets us know that they love us.

Once we decided on a general rule for thankfulness, we started thinking about things we are thankful for all of the time, but maybe don’t always say “thank you” for.  It’s no surprise, a common response was “our moms and dads!”  The class unanimously agreed that our parents almost always make us happy and certainly always let us know that we are loved.  Many children also felt thankful for Harbor City School, which melted their teachers’ hearts!  When we asked a few more questions, they were able to explain that coming to school, playing with old friends and meeting new friends made them happy and gave them more opportunities to feel loved and give their love.  I’d say that’s definitely something to be thankful for!

After generating a list of think for which we are thankful, we got to work on our Thankful Turkey!  Last Friday, Peter painted a very silly turkey body for us and we all made red, orange, and yellow handprints around him to make up his tail feathers.  Today, we traced the Tugboats hands onto red, orange, or yellow paper and wrote their personal thankful message on each hand.  We’ll add these hands to our Thankful Turkey’s tailfeathers.  Once  everyone has had a chance to trace their hands, you’ll see our big ol’ grateful bird prominently featured in the stairwell at HCS!

In other exciting news, the talented and generous Edson Dias has finished up our school photographs and they look great!  The album is password protected, so feel free to contact me at carissa@harborcitykids.org if you’d like access.  The photos are available for purchase as a fundraiser for the school, so keep those in mind as you plan for your holiday gift-giving season!

We kicked E Week off with a bit of a “field trip” to the Blue Line Airport T station!  Just a short walk through the Bremen St. Park and we eagerly arrived at our destination with 2 goals in mind: the elevator and the escalator!  We got some adorable photos of the kids’ excited faces as we rode up and down both e-named devices, but the camera is not cooperating for uploads today.  The elevator seemed like a magic trick as we entered through a set of doors, then exited the same set of doors to a completely different space!  From the second-floor mezzanine, the children enjoyed watching the trains come and go and waving to the passengers.  I may be biased, but I do think we brightened quite a few grumpy faces this morning!  The escalator was a great coordination and gross motor activity, as the children had to carefully time their steps on and off of the escalator.  With Kristy as our parent teacher today, we had plenty of hands to help our friends who needed the extra support.

We are looking forward to working on our thankful turkey this week, as well as some of the usual alphabet projects.  We’ve got some new E-activities up our sleeves as well as an E-themed snack!  Stay tuned!

For today’s D-themed activity, we decorated our Ds with dots!  Designed by curriculum team member Kristy, the children were each given a large capital letter D cut from white construction paper.  Each child was given a page of colored dot stickers and the freedom to decorate their Ds any way they chose.

It was a big hit!  The act of pulling the stickers from the page was an excellent practice for strengthening fine motor skills, a challenge for many 3-year-olds.  They also had the opportunity to express their personal choosing skills by opting for specific colors and patterns of dot placements.  Some children focused heavily on one or two colors while others used a variety.  Many children decorated the front and back of their Ds!

Once the dotted Ds were completed, the children had the option of trying the connect-the-dot activity.  Each week, Peter has been experimenting with new ways to demonstrate the letter writing.  This week, he made each “dot” a different shape and color, following the order of colors we use on our classroom calendar.  We are really seeing some remarkable growth in the children’s letter formation, even over 4 short weeks.  It’s as exciting for us as it is for them!

Messes do not always have to be a yucky disaster!  We’ve taken a turn in our alphabet curriculum this week and added a new project: sensory letter formation.  For the first few weeks, Peter and I drew upon the students’ obvious interest in coloring, markers, and the early stages of forming letters.  During weeks A, B, and C, we were able to observe where our Tugboats are in terms of pre-literacy skills like holding a marker and letter recognition.  Many of our students love the connect-the-dots letters we’ve been creating, while others gravitate more toward the stencil letters we’ve been painting.  One project relies heavily on fine motor skills, while the other prominently features the ever-popular sensory element of paint.

Today we debuted a letter project that is a hybrid of the two previous projects: shaving cream letters!  Each child was given a mixture of shaving cream and liquid glue (which helps the cream remain on the paper once it dries instead of flaking off), and they used their hands to spread the mixture over their papers.  With the careful, step-by-step instruction of a teacher, each child made a line from the top of her paper to the bottom, then made a curved line connecting the top and bottom of the line.  If they were unhappy with their letters, they could simply smear the shaving cream and start over again!  Peter and I were able to visit with each child individually, offering the scaffolding they needed in order to be successful.  Some children benefited from having a model drawn on their page while others appreciated a teacher guiding their hands across the page.

First, I have thrilling news to share: we finally got our stop signs!  Although Peter and I did not appreciate the sounds of the jackhammer during nap time, we were more than appreciative to finally have this safety measure in place!  I big thank you to Councilor Sal LaMattina, Neighborhood Coordinator Ernani DeAraujo, and HCS mother Tina St. Gelais Kelly for their continued support in securing this much-needed stop sign.

Now, the fun stuff!  We had our first school-wide HCS party yesterday and it was a raging success!  The children were so proud to parade through the Bremen St. Park in their costumes, they loved sharing their families with their friends, and Eri Takano coordinated some very delicious snacks and treats with a few other parents.  A big thank you to everyone who contributed to yesterday’s party.  I think the families had as much fun as the kiddos!