Dear Harbor Families,

You have probably heard from your children that yesterday was a(nother) special day at Harbor. We had a pumpkin farm and petting zoo right here at school! Students had the chance to meet two alpacas, a rabbit, and a goat, and to pick out a pumpkin from our own “pumpkin patch”. It was such a pleasure seeing their eyes light up when connecting with these beautiful animals, and yesterday’s weather was icing on the cake!

If you were at Harbor last year, you will remember that the “raise the paddle” portion of our auction was to support in-house experiences to complement our curriculum. These funds supported yesterday’s farm experience, and have provided - and will continue to provide - further on-campus programming of cultural and educational enrichment.

Another such program took place a few weeks ago with Ghanaian musician and Wolf Trap teaching artist Kofi Dennis, who brought music and story-telling through drumming to our students a few weeks ago. This experience was connected to our first grade unit of Sound and Vibration and provided a very special musical and cultural experience for our entire student body.

And there are more school-wide programs in the works! Related to the preschool 4s unit on The Five Senses, we are planning to bring a science program through Nature on Wheels in the next month. And, we will be partnering with the KID Museum in January and February for maker-centered learning programming in conjunction with our Spiral curriculum. Stay tuned to learn more about these upcoming on-campus experiences, and more - and thank you to those who raised your paddles in last year’s auction, which enabled us to bring these enriching experiences to our students!

Speaking of your support, I would also like to thank you all for keeping your children home tomorrow for our professional development day. This time devoted to professional development is another way that we continue to enhance the students’ experience at Harbor; tomorrow will be dedicated to further cultivating our repertoire of teaching strategies for learning differences, which benefits all students. We look forward to a productive and professionally rewarding day!

Warm regards,

Leah Musico
Head of School
The Harbor School