There have been many traditions that have been established within ECDC’s community over the years. One of the students’ favorites is Movie Night, where they get to dress in their pajamas after school hours, eat cookies and drink hot chocolate, then watch a few holiday movies with their peers.  For many years there was the tradition of Gingerbread Night for the Butterfly class (4/5K) where families who had created a model of their home, answered questions with their child related to state standards, then spent an evening decorating their gingerbread house, which would be on display in the hall for Movie Night.  This activity grew out of a study of our families, home and community. The downside was that it required a heavy load of food-based supplies which were thrown in the trash shortly after the gingerbread houses went home.

This year we created a new tradition.

As the teachers began to think and plan for the school year they decided that the Gingerbread House tradition could be altered to be more sustainable and meaningful.   As members of the College of Charleston we are encouraged to consider more sustainable ways of thinking.

“What a pleasant surprise to be hand-delivered fresh cookies made by ECDC friends! When I think about how much effort they put into making, decorating, and packaging the goodies, I am so impressed. Add to that their courage to use their “big kid” voices to present the cookies to adults they may not personally know. Wow…what a fantastic experience for the children. Thank you!”  – Courtney Howard, Acting Dean, EHHP

Last school year one of our parents shared his knowledge of running a sandwich shop.  We wanted to recreate this activity of having the children make something that could be shared with others.

The beginning of this year was spent getting to know students and families as we create our classroom community.  Students share their family page that goes into a book for everyone to read and enjoy.

We put student pictures on a large map of Charleston to see where we all live in the greater community, and this year we even included the workplaces of Moms and Dads.

These activities naturally led to exploring our immediate community (Memminger, College of Charleston) and this is how the idea of creating something to share with others was born.

We were also interested in keeping the tradition of families coming together in our classroom community, so we decided to decorate cookies.   We cooked pre-packaged cookies of a certain size that families decorated on “Cookie Night.”  The children in each family could enjoy one cookie the night of, then we packaged the rest to distribute.

The next day, the children walked around the community to deliver cookies to our neighbors.

“I was surprised by the confidence in particular children to approach a complete stranger as we delivered cookies.”  – Mary White, Master Teacher

The event was well received by all and we look forward to continuing this tradition in the future!