One of our newest Tugboats enjoyed his first HCS music class this week, which was a hit, as always!  Those of us who have been enjoying our Wednesdays with Jessica were excited to show off how well we’ve learned the songs she’s been teaching us.  A group favorite is one we call “The Tra La La Song,” in which this children help come up with different actions we can do: “I can dance, dance, dance, tra la la la!”  After Jessica had left for the day, I came upon a small group of children during clean-up time singing, “I can clean, clean, clean, tra la la la!”  I’d say they are thoroughly enjoying our new enrichment program!

We’ve also been practicing a few projects related to our letter of the week, R.  We’ve used race cars to mix red and yellow paints around a racetrack, decorated Rs with ribbons, and collaged rainbows with bits and scraps of beautifully-colored paper.  These projects have demonstrated just how much the Tugboats have developed their fine motor skills.  Several of the children took great care in deliberately placing the ribbons very close together on their Rs, trying to fill the entire letter and doing so with purpose.  Just a few weeks ago, projects like this resulted in mostly scattered and random placement of decorative objects.  It’s so thrilling to see these advancements in their desire to sharpen their creative ideas, as well as their ability to use their hands to carry out a plan to greater detail!

As our students get older, the growing “4 Club” and the brand new “5 Club” have developed a serious interest in reading!  All of the children are confident at reading each other’s patters.  We use a unique system of labeling and organization that we use to teach the pre-reading concept that visual symbols represent words that have meaning and sound.  The 4- and 5-year olds are excited to transfer that skill to the organization of letters.  We’ve been reading a simple board book called Bright Baby First Words. Each page has a photo of a recognizable object with text at the bottom naming the object.  The children identify the object and identify the letters of text.  As they say the name of the object out loud, they begin to connect organizations of letters and the sounds that they make into words.  Watching the noticeable growth and progress that the children go through is absolutely one of the most amazing and exciting parts of teaching.  They are just so remarkable!