Autumn

Harvest Festival

° October brought many parents to watch their own Tweety Bird, Woody, and Buzz Lightyear parade in costume at our Halloween parade. The Bear Cubs and Sunflowers tricked and treated the citizens at Notre Dame Senior Plaza and sang songs.

° We celebrated the Day Home's 85th Anniversary with a special reunion in November where two of our oldest alums, Frank Portman (from 1917) and Marie Mathieu (from 1927) held court with their warm memories of the Day Home. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi and Supervisors Jose Medina and Michael Yaki joined the festivities.

° Our Harvest Festival was a

Christmas Festivities

s lively as the season. Participants sang Thanksgiving songs, played games, joined in making a scarecrow and mudpies, painted autumn leaves, and took turns pinning the tail on the turkey.

Winter

° At our family Christmas celebration parents joined their children, enjoying a snack, making Christmas tree ornaments, and then gathering in the yard to decorate the community tree. Santa and his elves made a surprise visit to each classroom bringing sweat shirts, stuffed animals, and candy canes; and John F. Rinaldi, a Day Home graduate in the 1940s, brought his electric trains, which yielded squeals of pleasure from the children as they watched six sets of trains racketing around their tracks. Sister Marianne coordinated the donation of a huge gingerbread house from the Sunol Golf and Country Club. After everyone enjoyed the viewing, it was broken up into bite size pieces for all tummies to enjoy.

° In January we hosted the SPCA Dog Talk Visit. Furry four-legged visitors brought their owners to each classroom. Dog care hints, advice on how or whether to approach dogs, and some great canine tricks were shared.

° We concluded our 85th Anniversary year celebration with a special luncheon on January 20th honoring 28 Sisters who had worked at the Day Home. Pam Moore of KRON-TV News was a hit, along with a Sister dressed up in the "old habit." A wonderful display of historic pictures rounded out the great day of reminiscence, but everyone agreed that the group of pre-K children from the Spaghettios and Starfish classes stole the show with their action songs. Spring

° SLUG (The San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners) taught the Spaghettios about gardening and started a compost box for their class. With SLUG-help, the children prepared the soil and planted Spring flowers and plants. Singing Happy Birthday to our six-year-old "Earth Day Tree," we began our annual Earth Day celebration, which included making Spring fruit smoothies and recyclable jewelry and painting pet roc

Earth Day

ks. We created a leaf collage, decorated Mother Nature, and enjoyed a recyclable bottle toss.

° In May African Drummers entertained the children with a variety of African drums and other instruments. Encouraged to join in, the children learned how to make different sounds with the instruments.

° At graduation our Kindergarten "Wizards" entertained with singing and dancing and shared their answers to the question: What do you want to do when you grow up? A parent-produced feast followed.

Summer

° The Wizards went on a Summer Safari made possible through a grant from the Northern California GrantMakers Summer Youth Project. This included field trips to the SF Zoo and the Steinhart Aquarium, a nature hike through Tennessee Valley, a light and water show at the library, and a trip to the Pier 39 Marine Mammal Center.

° Every month, each class walks to the Eureka Valley Library for story time and more. One of the most exciting trips this year included a visiting magician. He engaged the children in some amazing tricks, such as pulling scarves from a top hat into which he had poured water. And no one will forget watching one brave Spaghettio agree to lie down on a table and then float up above the table's surface. Do you believe in magic?