November 16th, 2022

As we are preparing for our upcoming Thanksgiving Feast on Tuesday, November 22nd at 11am,  we are remembering how we've celebrated this special event before. In the past, the celebrations have been smaller, as every classroom celebrated separately in their own classroom. We are beyond excited to celebrate this year's Thanksgiving Feast  in the "traditional" St. John's way, all three classrooms together with our families in Blake Hall. During a large group conversation, we also reflected on the different centerpieces we have created over the past two years and the techniques we have explored together over the years. We especially focused on the Thankful Tree we created during our Brown Room year. 

Frannie: Because it’s Thanksgiving. It’s near Thanksgiving. 
Hugh: Jack needs to make one. (add to the tree)
Jade: Jack needs to see what the tree looks like. It’s about Thanksgiving. 
Cape: We need to make a new tree. 
Hugh: For being thankful about stuff. 

As we read our individual thankful notes on our  Brown Room Thankful Tree during snack time on Monday, the children reflected on their thoughts back then and compared them to their ideas today. Many noticed that they are now thankful for something different and were eager to draw out their ideas for our updated Tucker Room Thankful Tree. 
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I want to draw my car because it helps me move. - Cape

I'm thankful for Misty, my new cat. - Wilder, who just adopted a kitten named Misty last weekend

I'm thankful for my wonderful friends that I have. - Finlay

Frances, Luke and Michael shared that they are thankful for their family

Frances drew her family, including mom, dad, her sister Louise, her nanny Tita, her dog Lucy and her lovie "Rainbow Unicorn Sparkle".

I'm gonna draw James, Teddy, my mom and dad and Grace and Gurlie. I'm gonna draw my whole family. - Luke, (work in progress)

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Michael drew his family, including his mom and dad and his borthers, Jack and Kian. He also added a snowflake to represent winter.
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I'm grateful for winter because I love snow. - Michael



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Many children shared that they are thankful for their lovies:

I'm thankful for Puppy. (his lovie) - Lucas

I'm thankful for Auz. (her lovie) - Jade

I'm grateful for my Marshmellow (her lovie). - Cate, she also added all of her other unicorn lovies to her drawing

I'm thankful for a notebook (left) and bike (right). - Remy
She also added "Ridley Jones" and a love note to her lovie Piggy

What makes your notebooks special to you? - Ines
The blue one is from daddy. It's from New York City. The pink one because it's from Lily. It has all things in it to remember Lily. It's from her birthday. It has photos and spells and one page it has the spells headquarters. It puts quarters in someone's head. That's one of the spells. And it's the dangerous one. - Remy 

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Expanding on the idea to create a new, updated version of our Brown Room tree, sparked the idea on what materials to incorporate in this new project ...
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If we made a new tree, would it be different from our Brown Room tree?

​Finlay: We could draw on it. 
Luke: We could draw on tape. 
Michael: We can add our symbols and names onto different colored paper leaves. (similar idea to what he created in BR)
Finlay: Can we use fake leaves? Or wire. You could shape the wire into a leaf and make a wire circle and attach it to make it look like a leaf on the tree. (attach it to a branch)
Cape: We could use clay. 
Luke: We put some beads on like and hang it. (continues to recall making wire ginkgos in RR)
    That was when I was three and I could probably do it better now.  
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This provided a wonderful opportunity for us to further expand on the children's current interest in leaves in our outdoor classroom.

​It's hard (working with wire). I focused.
It helps me creating new things. - Remy

It used to be just a brown branch and now it's rainbow. - Cate

We are looking forward to keep working on our branches and adding more beautiful wire creations. If you would like to bring in any branches or leaves you collected together with your child, please bring them in by Thursday. Thank you!