Thursday

We had a great day today. We talked a lot about recycling and went to work cleaning up our yard and ended with a picnic to celebrate the warm weather! It was fun to lie on our backs and watch the clouds so swiftly moving across the sky and we wondered if we could jump up, grab onto a big cloud and take a ride with them! There was a lot of earnest work going on with shovels, scoopers, and buckets of all shapes and sizes. The children also enjoyed playing with the Tangoes tangram shapes as they constructed many pictures and we played the board game, Labrynth, where each person takes a turn building a maze to go through. This inspired the making of our own mazes outside to challenge each other!
We ate veggie burgers, pita chips, salad, and hummus and heard the story of The Moon Princess.....ask your little one if they remember the little girl who shared her jewels with the sky to help light up the darkness. We will hear it again next week and focus more on recycling in art, music, and activities.
A very Happy New Year to all of you!

A New Year, Recycling

Thank you all so much for your expressions of kindness and generosity over this past week. Your thoughtful and creative gifts have been so special and meaningful!
I hope your crystals are growing and that they will be a small and colorful reminder of how love grows in the hearts of these children when tended to with honor, care, and love!
This week we are talking about recycling.

Monday: Food scraps and leftovers. What can we do with these? It's good for our earth to try not to waste things. We will make recycled art!

Tuesday: Have you ever wondered where paper comes from? How can we make more trees? How can we reuse paper? Old paper can be turned into new paper. Today we will make our own paper!

Wednesday: This week we will celebrate New Year's Day. Do you know what year it will become?
We will make noisemakers!

Thursday: People can save their used paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, and metal and recycle them into new things. We will sort recyclables today.

Friday: The new year is a great time to think about our daily routines and see if we would like to change anything. What things can we do each day to make our work easier? (lay our clothes out before bed, set the table before meals, clean up our mess right away,etc.)

This week we will be also making Potato Paper, recycled noisemakers, and finding lots of creative uses for old things!

Nature Walk Verse:

" You look around on your Earth,
As if she for no purpose bore you;
As if you were her first born birth,
And none had lived before you!"

"One impulse from a vernal wood
May teach you more of man,
Of moral evil and of good,
Than all the sages can."

Books we will share together:

Garbage and Recycling by Rosie Harlow and Sally Morgan
Why Should I Recycle? by Jen Green
Where Does the Garbage Go? by Paul Showers
Recycle Every Day! by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
Recycle: A Handbook for Kids by Gail Gibbons
Eco Art by Laurie Carlson
The Wartville Wizard by Don Madden
Cecil's New Year's Eve Tail by Marie Fritz Perry
Re-Cycles by Michael Elsohn Ross
A Box Can Be Many Things by Dana Meachen Rau
Joseph Had a Little Overcoat
All the Year Round Story that will be told this week - adapted from Emilie Poulsson

Garbage

Pick up garbage, and throw it in the bin!
Push it down, and stomp it in!
Carry the cans to the street
for the garbage trucks to eat.
When the truck comes roaring by,
workers lift the cans up high.
Garbage falls into the back.
Crush it, mash it, smash it flat!
Set the cans down with a thump.
Now drive that garbage to the dump!

Down at the Dump
-sung to Down by the Station

Down at the dump early in the morning,
See the dump trucks standing in a row.
See them dump the garbage
In a great big pile.
Dump, dump, dump, dump,
Watch them go.

Pretty soon our dumps will all be full,
We had better figure out something to do.
We could all recycle
Some of our garbage,
Recycle, recycle,
Watch us go.

This week's reflection: Recycling
"The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard."
-Gaylord Nelson, former governor of Wisconsin, co-founder of Earth Day

"Making wise choices for our planet now, even though the result may not directly benefit you, is the ultimate way to send love back to the life force that sustains and provides for you. The future of our earth is in your hands. What can you do today to make it a beautiful place for future generations?"
-Little Acorn Learning

This week's schedule

Hello wonderful families!
I just wanted to remind you all that there will be no school this week from Wednesday through Friday. Enjoy the time with your precious loved ones and have a beautiful Christmas!!

Wonderful day....

We had such a special day today.
We read a Russian tale called Uncle Vova's Tree by Patricia Polacco and also have been reading The Nutcracker which has captivated the children's attention. After our reading this afternoon, we all used pastels on paper while listening to a fully Orchestrated version by Tchaikovsky. The children practiced saying this difficult name and we talked about what was happening during some of the pieces of music.
I also told a story about an evergreen tree that provided a home for a bird with a broken wing and we learned all about trees that stay green throughout the winter. We heard about spruce, pine, and juniper trees and looked at pictures of each of them.
This week we will be making winter bird treats to hang in our trees, drawing sketches of trees in our nature journals, learning more winter songs, poems, and fingerplays and talking about the third week of advent.

Second week of Advent, Love,, St. Nicholas, and St. Lucia Feast of Light

Light one candle, Advent's here
Light one candle, Advent's here
Light one candle, Advent's here
Christmas time is near (clap, clap)

Light two candles, Advent's here
Light two candles, Advent's here
Light two candles, Advent's here
Christmas time is near (clap, clap)

St. Lucia Verse
Night goes with silent steps
Round house and cottage
Over earth that sun forgot
Dark shadows linger.
Then on our threshold stands
White clad, in candlelight
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia

Santa Lucia
Santa Lucia, thy light is glowing
Through darkest winter night,
comfort bestowing.
Dreams float on dreams tonight,
Comes then the morning light,
Santa Lucia, Santa Lucia

The children have heard the stories of St. Nicholas, St. Lucia, and The Shoemaker and the Elves this week. We have focused on love and giving to our friends.
Today we sang "If you love somebody, clap your hands" to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it.."
We then made watercolor heart halves on paper and folded them over to make whole hearts.
We lit our advent candle and took turns giving hugs and love.

Books we have read this week include:

Lucia and the Light by Phyllis Root
The Light of Christmas by Richard Paul Evans
Celebrations of Light: A Year of Holidays Around the World by Nancy Luenn
Light the Lights by Margaret Moorman
Winter Lights: A Season in Poems and Quilts
The Nutcracker by ETA Hoffman
The Legend of St. Nicholas by Demi

We have talked about Christmas celebrations around the world and listened to a variety of Christmas songs from other countries.

Fun experiments with water and ice filled our afternoons and many projects involving snowmen!
The children enjoyed writing their own letters to Santa, friends, and family to illustrate their own ideas and wishes for the season.

We have played with dominoes, uno, and memory games at which the children are becoming quite skilled. Hide and seek was a popular game this week as well.

Join us next week as we celebrate St. Lucia day on Monday with wreath crowns for the girls and moon and star hats for the boys!

This week's reflection: Love

"Accustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul."
-St. Teresa of Avila (1515 - 1582)

"Love must be remade all the time to keep it new and fresh. Letting love sit inside of you without showing it in new ways deprives yourself and others of feeling its joy. Keeping love consciously alive in your mind, your actions and your words will change the way you see the world. How can you show your love in a new way to the people in your life this week?"
-Little Acorn Learning

WELCOME BACK

Welcome back to school!
It's great to have everyone here and we hope you all had wonderful Thanksgiving celebrations with family and friends.
Please update your mailing and email addresses and current phone numbers as soon as possible.
You may send this information to threeredleaves@yahoo.com.
There is a parent letter coming out this week and we would like to start sending these through email. There will also be a printed copy for you this week, along with our weekly lesson plan, and a new December calendar with important dates to remember.
Thank you and blessings upon you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing all of our families a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!
May your travels be safe and your celebrations filled with fun.
For those of you who will be here, this week we are only open on Monday and Tuesday.
There will be no school Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.
Payment schedules are the same for the week.
Thanks to everyone for all your support!
It is a joy and blessing to be working and playing with your precious little ones!

Native Americans, Thanksgiving, and Gratitude

We Thank Thee

For flowers that bloom about our feet;
For tender grass, so fresh, so sweet;
For song of bird and hum of bee;
For all things fair we hear or see,
Father in Heaven, we thank thee!

For blue of stream and blue of sky;
For pleasant shade of branches high;
For fragrant air and cooling breeze;
For beauty of the blooming trees,
Father in Heaven, we thank thee!

For mother-love and father-care,
For brothers strong and sisters fair;
For love at home and here each day;
For guidance, lest we go astray,
Father in Heaven, we thank thee!

This next week will bring themes of Native Americans, Thanksgiving, and Gratitude.
Our projects will include a Tree of Thanks with Leaves of Gratitude, homemade cranberry sauce, corn cob painting, leaf garlands, Thanksgiving Day name cards, Native American bead crafts, games, and jewelry. We will be discussing all the wonderful aspects of Thanksgiving, being grateful for all we have in life, and learning about the history of Native Americans.

Some of the books we will share together:

Thanks a Million by Nikki Grimes
Giving Thanks: A Native American Good Morning Message by Jake Swamp
Thanks for Thanksgiving by Julie Markes
Cranberry Thanksgiving by Harry Devlin
Squanto's Journey by Joseph Bruchac
The Gift of You, The Gift of Me by Nila J. Webster
Grateful: A Song of Giving Thanks by John Bucchino
The Secret of Saying Thanks by Douglas Wood
The Circle of Thanks by Joseph Bruchac
Moonstick: The Seasons of the Sioux by Eve Bunting

This week's refection is Gratitude.

"If you have no friends to share or rejoice in your success in life - if you cannot look back to those whom you owe gratitude, or forward to those to whom you ought to afford protection, still it is no less incumbent on you to move steadily in the path of duty; for your active excretions are due not only to society; but in humble gratitude to the Being who made you a member of it, with powers to save yourself and others."
-Walter Scott

"How often do you look at your life and all of the things in it with gratitude? Often, we find ourselves focusing on how things could be better in our lives or on what we are lacking rather than the good that is surrounding us. What an amazing purpose you have in this world! It is no mistake that these little souls have been placed gently in your care. They were led to you for guidance. You are here to show them all the beauty and good the world has to offer. You were chosen to be their guide. Be grateful for this wonderful responsibility and remind yourself daily how special the work you do truly is!"
-Little Acorn Learning








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Other fun things

Our week has been full of wonderful fun and learning!
The children were deeply moved by the stories of St. Martin and were especially inspiring as they acted out the helpful ways of this great man. Taking turns being St. Martin, everyone had a chance to bring blankets and food to poor, cold, and sick individuals outside. We also sang "This little light of mine" and our lantern song that we sing in November:

"The sunlight fast is dwindling
My little lamp needs kindling.
Its beam shines far in darkest night,
Dear lantern, guard me with your light."

We talked about the light we all have inside and how it shines brighter whenever we help those around us. Making a list of tangible expressions of kindness helped the children see how they could show love and get along peacefully with their friends.

Monday is music day and this week we have been listening to Mozart and reading books about him as well. We also read the book My Family Plays Music by Judy Cox and talked about the many types of music and instruments that were shown. Our music basket came out and we all took turns with the different sounds and made up our own songs!

Friday is art day and this week we read Katie and the Sunflowers by James Mayhew. His books are a wonderful way to expose children to great artists within the context of a lively adventure!
Focusing on Vincent van Gogh, we picked his work, Sunflowers to imitate in our own art for the day as we made paper vases with stems and flowers and glued them on a background of colored construction paper.

We will be focusing closely on Mozart and Vincent van Gogh for the remainder of the year so the children can have a fuller grasp and understanding of the works of these artists.

Other books we looked at this week:

Children's book of Art
I Spy a Freight Train by Lucy Micklethwait
The Children's Book of Faith by William J. Bennett
Mozart: Scenes from the Childhood of the Great Composer by Catherine Brighton

The Wind, St. Martin, Living Peacefully

.

The Playful Wind

The wind came out to play one day.
He swept the clouds out of his way.
He blew the leaves and away they flew.
The trees bent low and their branches did too!
The wind blew the great big ships at sea.
The wind blew the kite away from me.

This week we will be discussing the wind with stories, circle time songs, poems, and activities.
We will hear a story told, called " The Wind and the Sun."
Exploring the many aspects of wind we will experiment with fans and kites and observing the many results. We will read and look at photos of windmills and discuss the importance of using this natural source for our energy needs.

Books we will look at include:

When the Wind Stops by Charlotte Zolotow
Wind Says Good Night by Katy Rydell
How the Ladies Stopped the Wind by Bruce McMillan and Gunnella

We will also be hearing about St. Martin, who was said to be a man of peace and generosity. He did not want to fight but obeyed the law . He took his earnings and gave it to needy families. One story tells of how he cut his own cloak in half to warm a homeless beggar on the street who was Christ in disguise.

Monday: A special afternoon tea
Tuesday: Kite day
Wednesday: Windy wind chimes
Thursday: The Windmill Game
Friday: Game of the Weather Vane

Nature Walk verse for the week:
"Whichever way the wind doth blow,
Some heart is glad to have it so;
And blow it east or blow it west,
The wind that blows - that wind is best."

This week's reflection:

"Do not judge men by mere appearances; for the light laughter that bubbles on the lip often mantles over the depths of sadness, and the serious look may be the sober veil that covers a divine peace and joy." - Edward Chapin

" In times of conflict, it is important for us to approach the situation without judgment. This requires us to be conscious of our ego's desire to make our point of view 'right' and the others 'wrong'. We do not know what experiences have formed our opponent's opinion. We cannot tell what lies in someone's heart from outward appearances or actions. The answer is to step into their soul and see outward through their eyes. Only then can we move forward with peaceful action."
-Little Acorn Learning

November

The Centaur, Sagittarius, am I,

Born of Ixion's and the cloud's embrace;

With sounding hoofs across the earth I fly,

A steed Thessalian with a human face.

Sharp winds the arrows are with which I chase

The leaves, half dead already with affright;

I shroud myself in gloom; and to the race

Of mortals bring nor comfort nor delight.

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The first week of November is a special time when we celebrate All Saint's Day and remember loved ones. We will also be discussing the many aspects, characteristics, and uses of fire this week.

Please bring a photo of a loved one for your child to share with the class this week.

Morning talks will look something like this:

Monday: We will be sharing happy memories of people who we have loved. Memories are special because they help us to remember the people we love and the things we do/did together.

Tuesday: Discussion of fire. Why is it important and how does it help us? What good things can fire be used for? If fire gets onto your clothing, what should you do? We will practice together.

Wednesday: Where can an adult make a fire safely? Should children go near fire?

Thursday: Firefighters

Friday: Elders. People who are older than us. Talk about grandparents. What types of things can someone who is older teach us?

This week we will make soul cakes, watercolor "flames", paper torches, having a marching parade, a very fun and peaceful fire drill, playing a fire bucket game, and visiting with an elder.

Autumn Fires

In the other gardens

And all up the vale,

From the autumn bonfires

See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over

And all the summer flowers,

The red fire blazes,

The grey smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!

Something bright in all!

Flowers in the summer,

Fires in the fall!

Books we will share together:

Granny's Cozy Quilt of Memories by Pamela Kennedy

Runya the Fire Fairy by Simone Lindner

The Fire Children; A West African Folk Tale by Eric Maddern

Fire Race by Lanny Pinola

Forest Fire by Fraser

Making Memories by Janette Oke

The Secret of the Red Shoes by Joan Donaldson

Remembering Grandpa by Uma Krishnaswami

Lifetimes by Bryan Mellonie

The Next Place by Warren Hanson

Felipa and the Day of the Dead by Birte Muller

The Memory String by Eve Bunting

A Ladder to the Stars by Simon Puttock

The Magic Memory Box by Debbie Haney

We will also focus on a story that will be told called Burg Hill's On Fire - A Celtic Fairy Tale by Elizabeth W. Grierson

This week's reflection:

"It is often said that something may survive of a person after his death if that person was an artist and put a little of himself into his work. It is perhaps in the same way that a sort of cutting taken from one person and grafted onto the heart of another continues to carry on its existence even when the person from whom it had been detached has perished."

-Marcel Proust

"Our loved ones truly do survive within our souls. Even though they are no longer physically here, so much of who they are still lives inside of us. Reflect on the beauty that has been brought into your life by loved ones who have passed on. Ask yourself what memories you are creating with the people in your life now and make the necessary adjustments to ensure that you leave a legacy of love."

-Little Acorn Learning

Pumpkins, Caves, Bats, and Spiders

We have had a fun week with many adventures!

Caves became a favorite focus as we discovered the many types of animals who live in these habitats and created our own "caves" to simulate the experience.

We heard a story of little gnomes who work hard to find crystals in caves and learned a little song they sing: "Hack, hack, the rocks we crack. To find some crystals for our sack"

Using different shapes from felt, we designed our own faces on pumpkins, carved actual pumpkins, observed the insides with all of our senses, looked at the seeds, roasted them, made a pumpkin collage, paper bag pumpkins, hanging spiders, watercolor paintings with orange, play-dough bats, clay caves, and pumpkin bread!!

Stellaluna was a popular book among the children and we read, sang songs, and acted out the story together.

Our Halloween circle time was filled with songs, stories, poems, and fingerplays that revolved around our theme.

Other books we shared together included:

Hello Bumblebee Bat by Darrin Lunde

Stellaluna by Janell Cannon

Bats at the Beach by Brian Lies

Let's Take a Field Trip to a Cave by Kathy Furgang

Caves - Mysteries Beneath Our Feet by David Harrison

Pumpkin Fiesta by Caryn Yacowitz

Anansi the Spider by Gerald M. Dermott

Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin

Up, Up, and Away by Ginger Wadsworth

Dream Weaver by Jonathan London

Next week our theme will be Fire, All Saint's Day, and Remembering Loved Ones

Happy Weekend to everyone!

Soup Days and Sand

Soup Days are back every Thursday!
Please bring a vegetable to share on Thursdays. The children gain a great sense of satisfaction and joy when they are able to contribute something special to our meal. We all help wash, cut, and chop the vegetables together and participate in the making of a different soup each week. It is fun to see the result of each soup day!

THANK YOU to everyone who has helped out with SAND!!
We are in the process of putting together a nice big sand play area, which will be covered at all times except during our hands on sand time!!

There is a note coming home soon about parent participation.
It is a heavy load of many hours (about 15 every day) to run Apple Blossom Preschool and parent help and participation are vital components of any healthy school community. WE are a small program and requests will be made increasingly for help in a variety of ways as the children are growing and needing developmentally appropriate activities.
Thanks again for all your help and support!

Apple Day!

Apple Day was fun and successful!
The children enjoyed the peeling, slicing, and coring machine and participated joyfully in the making of homemade applesauce. The variety of apples sure made it sweet and delicious!
Thank you for sharing all the apples with us!
We talked about the different names for the apples, drew pictures of them in our nature journals, and learned special poems to go along with our day.
We have found apple stars, examined many seeds, made apple prints, and talked about picking apples at an apple orchard.

The Apple Star

Take an apple round and red.
Don't slice down
Slice through instead.
Right inside it you will see
A star as pretty as can be!


My Treasure Box

This is a little treasure box;
Although it has no keys or locks.
A wondrous treasure does it hold
More precious than a purse of gold
These shining pointed seeds you see,
Each one contains an apple tree.
But every little seed we've found
Must first be hidden in the ground;
And by and by, the fairy elves,
Sunbeam and Raindrop come themselves,
To make each little seed they see
Into a glorious apple tree.
How strong it grows! How green and fair,
Tossing its myriad leaves in air!
In spring, its white and roseate blooms
Scatter a thousand sweet perfumes.
And then, at last, one splendid day
Foretold by all the blooms of May,
A hundred rosy apples swing,
Sweet sequel to the flowers of Spring.
Hundreds of apples from one seed!
Ah! 'Tis a fairy tale indeed!
No wonder, tho' it has no locks,
I call this apple, "treasure box."

We have also heard a sweet German story called The Sleeping Apple which illustrates how we must be patient and wait for some things. When they do arrive, it is at just the right time!

Other books we have read and discussed:

The Seasons of Arnold's Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons
Share and Take Turns by J. Meiners
How Do Apples Grow? by Betsy Maestro
Autumn is for Apples by Michelle Knudsen
Apple Picking Time by Michele B. Slawson
Applesauce by Shirley Kurtz
Johnny Appleseed by Reeve Lindbergh
Ten Red Apples by Pat Hutchins
Our Apple Tree by Gorel Kristina Naslund
Out and About at the Apple Orchard by Diane Mayr


We did a floating fruit experiment, observed all the parts of an apple, learned circle time poems and fingerplays about apples, and acted out our apple stories.
Letter and word stamping have been fun ways to play with new words and we have been creating our own word collections in small recipe boxes, making our own poems, and constructing word boards where everyone takes a turn putting together different words to make stories.

This week's reflection: Patience

"Have patience with all things, but first of all with yourself."
-St. Francis de Sales

" We are so very hard on ourselves. We have so many expectations of where we feel we should be or what we think we should be doing differently. Take time this week to stop and focus on totally loving and accepting yourself where you are right now. Forgive yourself for not being perfect. Allow yourself the space to be human. Look back on your life and see where you have come-all in good time. Be proud of the things that you have accomplished in your life. Continue to strive to do better and grow, but be patient with yourself in the process. Never give up and allow yourself the freedom to start over and over again."
-Little Acorn Learning

Moon & Stars, Harvesting

The Harvest Moon is the full moon closest to the Autumn Equinox and is often more bright and colorful than other moons. In Chinese culture, the Mid-Autumn Festival is celebrated at this time as a way to honor the end of the summer harvesting season.
We have been talking a lot about the moon and hopefully you have had a chance to observe the moon with your children over the last two weeks at night.
There was great excitement in putting together a solar system puzzle and we discussed the different characteristics and names of each planet. We made our own moon and stars with watercolor paints and glitter and heard a very special story called "The Star Dollars" by the Brothers Grimm. We gathered on our story circle rug while I told this precious story about a little girl who gave all she had to strangers in need of help. She was rewarded at the end with little star dollars sprinkled around her feet. We used little white felt cut outs of stars and passed them out to each child with a reminder to show kindness and help everyone around us who is in need.

Gathering In

Through the spring and summer hours,
Fed and warmed by rain and sun,
Bud has bloomed and fruit has ripened;
Nature's cared for everyone.
Now her messengers will scatter
Seeds for flowers another year
But with us she shares her bounty,
So our harvest time is here.
See! Our barns are brimming over,
So no winter's cold we'll dread
Let us thank our Heavenly Father,
Who has given us our "daily bread".

Books we have read:
Planets, Moons, and Stars by Laura Evert
Hello, Harvest Moon by Ralph Fletcher
Possum's Harvest Moon by Anne Hunter
When the Moon is Full by Penny Polluck
I Took the Moon for a Walk by Carolyn Curtis
Bunny Lune by Kae Nishimura

This Week's Reflection: Harvesting

"Care for those around you. Look past your differences. Their dreams are no less than yours, their choices no more easily made. And give, give in any way you can, of whatever you posses. To give is to love. To withhold is to wither. Care less for your harvest than for how it is shared and your life will have meaning and your heart will have peace."
-Kent Nerburn

"What do you have right now to give? It may be something simple such as extra tomatoes from your garden...maybe you have knowledge in a specific field or craft...maybe you have patience...or the ability to connect with young children or animals. You may have the ability to show someone else the way to a more simple life. How can you share your gifts with others? Take time this week to think about how you can share your harvest with those around you."
-Little Acorn Learning

The Family, Working Together

We have completed a week focusing on our families.
Activities included:

Nature Journals with special attention to the birds we saw
Drawing our families
Talking about different aspects of family life each morning: family size, who does the cooking, brothers and sisters, helping out with chores and work around the house, parents' jobs, and games we play.

We played "Mother May I?" and learned many new fingerplays that were incorporated into our circle times.
"Little Thumbkins", "The Happy Family", and "The Finger Family"

It was fun to see the children recognizing many of the trees and nuts we have learned while taking our nature walk this past Wednesday.

Art projects have included A Family of Hands with watercolors, making our own play dough, and a bird chart.

Nature Walk verse:
"The crickets are calling,
The red leaves are falling,
The meadows are brown and sere;
The birds are not nesting,
The earth begins resting,
Because it's the fall of the year"

Books from the week:
A Mother for Choco by Keiko Kasza
I Loved You Before You Were Born by Anne Bowen
If You Were My Bunny by Kate Mcmullan
My Dad/My Mom by Anthony Browne
A Circle of Friends by Giora Carmi

This Week's Reflection:

Working Together

"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."
-Henry Ford

"Without the love and support of others in our lives, our riches lose their value. Without our own hopes and dreams, our souls long for more. How do we create harmonious relationships with those around us while pursuing to our own desires and passions?

Balance is the answer to so many of our questions and problems. We each have strengths that we can contribute to the whole of our family or workplace. We also have talents and interests that should be fostered separately, which in turn fill our soul and enhance our relationships.

Do you strive to bring out the best in others or do you point out their weaknesses? Do you shine light on the gifts and strengths of those individuals that have been placed in your path? Do you nurture their hopes and dreams? Do you encourage them toward greatness?

Do you take time for yourself daily to sit and think/reflect? Do you follow your passions and make time to express yourself creatively? Are you making yourself a priority? How do you feel about who you are? Do you focus on your beauty, gifts, and talents? Are you thankful for all you have? How do you nurture and love yourself daily?

As parents, teachers, and caregivers, we often tend to everyone else's needs and forget our own. Spend time this week finding the balance you need in your life."
-Little Acorn Learning

Happy Fall to everyone!
This next week brings our attention to the moon, stars, and harvesting.

Squirrels, Nuts, and Preparation

Little squirrel living there

In a hollow tree,

I've a pretty cage for you

Come and live with me.

You may turn the little wheel,

That will be great fun?

Slowly round, or very fast,

If you faster run.

Little squirrel, I will bring

In my basket here

Every day a feast of nuts?

Come then, squirrel dear.

But the little squirrel said,

From his hollow tree,

"Oh! No, no! I'd rather far

Live here and be free."

So my cage is empty yet

And the wheel is still

But my little basket here

Oft with nuts I fill.

If you like, I'll crack the nuts,

Some for you and me,

For the squirrel has enough

In his hollow tree.

We have had a wonderful two weeks studying squirrels and nuts!

Our activities have included a daily morning talk about squirrels, looking for and observing squirrels with binoculars, collecting nuts, cracking them open, and making our own nut butter.

The children's nature journals are coming along nicely, we made tree bark rubbings, and played lots of fun games with baskets of acorns, walnuts, almonds, and peanuts.

We also incorporated a new "Mystery Box" game where we knock in different patterns to make the box open, close our eyes, and reach in to pull out one item at a time. This week it was a collection of different art prints that we would then look at and discuss.

This past Friday we played with an anatomy game where the children worked at placing different stickers of body parts on a body outline card.

Our nature walk verse:

The bright eyed squirrels, furry, fleet,

A-gleaming go with puttering feet.

Brown nuts polished by early frost

On the moss below by the winds are tossed.

Some of the book titles we have read this week:

Berries, Nuts, and Seeds by Diane Burns

Rabbits, Squirrels, and Chipmunks by Mel Boring

The Legend of the Kukui Nut by Brandon Henderson

Nuts by Paula Gerritsen (group favorite)

The Busy Little Squirrel by Nancy Tafuri

The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin by Beatrix Potter

Animals in the Fall by Gail Saunders-Smith

All children need to be adequately dressed for the weather. Especially when it is wet and/or rainy, everyone needs to have rain boots and pants to protect clothing. We play in all weather and it is extremely messy when children don't have appropriate footwear or clothing covers. There is only one child who consistently brings rainboots and rainsuit so we really need to work on this! Our new parent guide is coming soon and one of the new requirements will be that every child must have rain boots and rainsuit that stays here at school. New parent handbook will be going into effect starting October 1st. Thanks for your help!!

This week's reflection: Preparation

"If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first hour sharpening the ax."

-Abraham Lincoln

"Taking the time to evaluate our current situation and to prepare for upcoming events can save us a lot of time and energy. Our lives are so full it is often hard to find the time to think ahead.

This week spend 5 minutes each day in silence focusing on the present moment. Let your mind be at peace with where you are now. When your time is up, take out a pen and paper and make a simple list of areas of your life that would be wise to prepare for in the upcoming year. Keep this very simple and stay grounded in the present...it is the only moment we ever fully have."

-Little Acorn Learning

Boat trip day success!

Our Friday boat trip adventure was a huge success.
First we all went over to the world map and decided where we were going to sail.
Africa, China, Sweden, Ohio, New Zealand, and "a blue place" were the destinations of the day.
Tickets were made, necessary items packed, and we headed outside for our morning circle time.
Each child had the opportunity to describe the things they brought and why they would be helpful on a boat trip. I then walked over towards the boats and called everyone individually.
"I am looking for a Charlie Harp. Charlie Harp, you may now board your boat." He handed me his ticket, and he was off....
The children played out many different scenarios with all of their equipment and props and had many happy hours of fun.
We also made little wooden boats, painted them, and floated different types of boats in water as well.
Thanks to everyone for bringing in so many extra things to help us create a lively and enriching boating experience!
A special thanks also to Shane Minor for installing our new tree swing on Friday! The children were captivated by the men hanging from the tall tree and of course loved swinging for the rest of the day!!

Boats

We made boats today and discussed many different types including a schooner, sloop, dory, rowboat, skiff, kayak, scow, houseboat, and a tugboat. Each child picked out their favorite and we drew big pictures with chalk, designed our own with flat wooden blocks, and then glued one on paper. We measured the shapes and talked about the benefits and purpose of each kind of boat. It was fun seeing the children work together and independently on these projects of the day!

Thanks!!

Thanks to Banon, Ulysses, and Meredith for bringing such wonderful and delicious veggies from their garden for us to enjoy and for the lacing cards!! The lacing cards are a new interest for many of the children as they learn to string beads, cards, and finger knit and the ocean/sea creatures theme is perfect as we move into our new learning and play adventures this week.
Thank you also to everyone who has brought in old magazines...these help a lot with cutting, pasting, collage projects, and more!
We were so happy about the change in weather today and are looking forward to cooler days ahead.
It was fun having Roman come to play with us today and the children were excited to have him join in our day.

Playing

This week we have been following many of the children's ideas for play.
Wonderful houses, forts, and cities have been built, a little teddy bear playground, lots of water activities including observing the effects of magnets, and even a bit of wishful winter longing complete with blankets and scarves. I think there is a definite sense of the extreme heat as we imagine a variety of ways to deal with it.
Thanks to Charlie and his mom for bringing in lots of paper, puzzles, and books for our classroom and a delicious cantaloupe from the farmer's market yesterday. It is so wonderful to see the children get excited about fresh fruits and vegetables! This was the best and sweetest melon and we could smell it all around the room even before we cut into it. You would have thought we were opening a new toy by the gleeful sounds from everyone when we sliced it and passed it around.

Friday will be a Fairy Fun Day as we search for fairies outside, play games, and have a special tea party to celebrate Genevieve's 3rd birthday.

Next week we will be moving into our new theme of boats, oceans, and sea life.

Frogs and persistence

Persistent Frog
The Moral: Keep Swimming


Two frogs fell into a deep cream bowl.
One was an optimistic soul,
but the other took the gloomy view.
"We'll drown," he lamented without ado.
And with a last despairing cry,
He flung up his legs and said "Goodbye."

Quote the other frog with a steadfast grin,
"I can't get out but I won't give in,
I'll just swim around until my strength is spent,
then I'll die the more content."

Bravely he swam to work his scheme,
and his struggles began to churn the cream
The more he swam, his legs a flutter,
The more the cream turned into butter

On top of the butter at last he stopped.

What is the moral? It's easily found.
If you can't hop out, keep swimming around!

Jumping into our new theme of frogs has kept us fully engaged this past week!

We had a frog hunt, searching for real photos of Missouri's most popular frogs and toads that were hidden around the classroom, acted out stories about frogs, pretended to be frogs, played leap frog, lily pad hop, made thumbprint frog scenes on watery paper lily pads, and painted with green paint.
The children are narrating some of their own stories and "reading" these to their friends, doing many counting activities with little teddy bear counters as they line them up and sort them according to color and size, and learning many new frog fingerplays that have been incorporated into our summer circle time.
Our morning talk sounds something like this:

Monday:
"What color do you think of when you hear about frogs?"
Can you find other items in this room that are green?
This inspired an "I spy green" hunt

Tuesday:
"Do you know where frogs come from?" (eggs)
The mother frog lays eggs in the water.
When the eggs hatch, the baby frogs are first tadpoles!
Have you ever seen a tadpole? (we look at photo)
The frogs do not yet have their legs. Those will grow later. First they look like little fish.

Wednesday:
"Do you know where frogs and tadpoles live?
They live in ponds, lakes, and other bodies of water. (We observe photos)
Would you like to go on a frog hunt?

Thursday:
"Do you know how frogs move?
Do they walk?
Do they crawl?
Do they fly?
They hop!
Let's hop like frogs
Let's catch bugs with our tongue
Let's croak like a frog

Friday:
Listen to actual frog and toad calls to identify the various kinds that live here in Missouri

Yoga Time: Froggy Fun
Tadpole Tugs
Swimming Frogs
Jumping Frogs
Sunning Frogs
Follow up activity:
draw or write in journal or take turns speaking about each other's experience as a frog

Books we are reading about frogs:
All Eyes on the Pond by Michael J. Rosen
From Tadpole to Frog by Wendy Pfeffer
If You Hopped Like a Frog by David Schwart
A Frog Thing by Eric Drachman
Days with Frog and Toad by Arnold Lobel
Frog Prince by The Brothers' Grimm
Growing Frogs by Vivian French

We are in need of pond water, tadpoles, a ten gallon fish tank, aquarium gravel, plant life, a large rock, a small can or container with a poked lid to hold eggs, tadpoles, and frogs.
If you would be able to gather any one of these or all of these items, then we will have the chance to put together an indoor tadpole habitat and help the children observe tadpoles growing into frogs to further enrich our studies in the next few weeks.

Last week on Friday we were able to take a field trip to the Art Museum and look for paintings of water...which we found. A whole exhibit called "The beauty of water". We also searched for green in the art and talked about what pieces would most likely be good places for frogs.

This weeks reflection: Persistence

"The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night."
-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

When we forge ahead and keep trying, we are able to release our unique gifts and amaze ourselves and others with the results. Keep trying even when it seems too difficult to continue. Keep moving forward, dreaming and creating and watch what the power within you can do. You are meant to do beautiful things. Move forward.

Little Acorn Learning

A special thank you to Grace for the dried lavender which added a peaceful aroma to our room, and to Amy for the huge roll of blank sticker paper that will be used for a long time. The children love to incorporate stickers into their art and this will give us a chance to be creative and make our own to go along with whatever subjects we are studying!

Birthdays, peaches, park, and storytime

Birthday celebrations are very important around here.
All the children make their own coloring page for a unique birthday book to give, we tell a birthday story, make honey muffins together, sing songs and play games. Happy birthday to Sierra and Addi, our most recent 3 year olds.
Thanks to Sierra and Amy for bringing in delicious peaches to share on Friday and a new sand/water table for the children's outdoor play space. The excitement was fun to watch!
Thanks for all the nature magazines from Charlie and Finn's mom, Jennifer. These are always needed and used for many projects we do.
If I have forgotten to thank someone, please forgive me. I am so grateful for each and every one of you and for all the special ways you encourage and support my work and efforts with your children.
Today, we took a joyful walk to the park and flower gardens. We observed the weather, talked about the names and characteristics of various flowers, and played on the playground.
We returned just in time for a snack before the story lady from the library started her songs and books about pirates. Pirate hats, stickers, and finger puppets were the highlights!

The gift of today or "Amy's inspiration"

Sometimes the day takes on a life of its own based on one of the children's interests or an inspiring idea...in this case it was Sierra's mom, Amy, who suggested that we work on a grocery list for their trip to the store later this afternoon. Spontaneous creativity is a must here, especially in the mornings when children might need a little extra help transitioning into the day. So all of the little ones earnestly dictated the specific items they would all be needing at the store and we each made our own list complete with drawings of the necessary foods. This led to much discussion about meal plans, parties, and cooking. Taking our lists and shopping bags, we headed out to the stores to pick up, buy, and deliver food with the help of good friends.
This hard work ended with well deserved silly bubble cooling off time in the water tables and wading pool.
Rain shower excitement carried us into the house for storytelling, soft singing with the lyre, and lavender foot massages before finally drifting off to sleep.
Another beautiful and successful day......
Thankful for the gift of each of you,

Fireflies and Optimism

The Pessimist Firefly
-Sam Waller Foss

The pessimist firefly sat on a weed
In the dark of a moonless night;
With folded wings drooped over his breast
He moped and he moaned for light
"There is nothing but weeds on the earth,"
said he,
"And there isn't a star in the sky;
And the best I can do in a world like this
Is to sit on this weed and die."

"Then be your own star! Then be your own star!"
The optimist firefly said,
"If you'll leap from your weed, and will open your wings
And bravely fly afar,
You will find you will shine like a star yourself,
You will be yourself a star;

Yes, the thing you need
Is to leap from your weed
And be yourself a star."

We are learning about fireflies, lights, optimism, and bringing our own beauty to the world.
Today we read:

Ten Flashing Fireflies by P. Sturges
When the Fireflies Come by Jonathan London
Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney

Other books we will be reading over the next two weeks include:

Fireflies in the Night by Judy Hawes
Fireflies by Megan E. Bryant
The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle
Fireflies by Hall and Margaret
The Night of the Fireflies by Karen B. Winnick
Fireflies for Nathan by Shulamith Levey Oppenheim
Firefly at Stony Brook Farm by Wendy Pfeffer
Aristotle: The Firefly's Message by Elizabeth M. Brown
Fireflies at Midnight by Marilyn Singer
Lighthouse Fireflies by Anne Margaret Lewiis

It would greatly enrich your child's learning experience if you would check out some of the above listed titles to reinforce the concepts we are talking about and they would have fun reading and sharing one of the books we read here with you!

We have a short morning talk everyday about our current subject of study and we will be observing the parts of the firefly, making our own paper fireflies, a jar full of "fireflies", reading like fireflies with flashlights in a dim room, discussing lights, playing firefly math games, memorizing and reciting poems, songs, and fingerplays about fireflies, and bringing our stories to life as we act them out and pretend to be fireflies.
Taking important thoughts from these stories we will also be discussing how we can each bring our own light to the world to make it better and more beautiful.....

Our new nature walk verse:

"Like sparkles glancing to and fro
Among the new mown grass
The fireflies gleam; how strange the show!
As back and forth they pass"
-Jones Very

This week's meditation for teachers and parents:

"Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine"
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"If we would only get out of our own way imagine what we could accomplish!
This week, pay special attention to how often you respond or think negatively about the events and day to day occurrences in your life. Listen to how you speak to others and how you speak to yourself. This is particularly effective to do when things aren't going as you had planned. Can you stop and redirect yourself? Can you act as if everything will work out fine? You will be surprised
at how quickl this change of attitude changes your life. Make note of the times when your speak or think negatively. Journal about it and be more mindful of changing your self talk by using positive affirmations."

Little Acorn Learning

What our day looks like

What do we do here all day?
We follow a very predictable routine that looks something like this:

7:45 - 8:30 a.m. Arrival with a planned activity and/or free play
8:30 - 9 Story and planned activity based on day of week and current theme
9 - 9:30 Learning games and circle time
9:30 - 10 Washing hands, setting table, preparing & eating snack
10 - 11:30 Outside time/large motor activity/group games/stories/ nature exploration/daily chore
11:30 Washing hands, setting table, preparing & eating lunch
11:50 Storytelling, soft singing, kinderlyre harp playing, lavendar foot massage
12:15 Resting Time
3:15 Children begin waking up, we wash hands and faces, brush hair, quiet story
3:30 Snack/outside time/Planned artistic activity/Stories

The Sun, Midsummer, Letting Go

Bright, sunny, and hot days have provided the backdrop for our current summer solstice/midsummer theme.
Some of our activities have included washing the windows to let the sunshine in and talking about the sun:
The sun warms our planet and helps things grow and live
The sun's shape is a circle
There are many different colors the sun shows like yellow, orange, red...
Have you ever seen the sun rise in the morning? Set in the evening?
What colors do you see in the sunset?
The sun is helpful to us.
What does it do?
It gives our world light and warmth, it helps living things grow, it wakes people and animals up each morning.
We have talked about what we use in the sun and other things that resemble the sun's colors and temperature.

We made Sun Bread, played a sun ball game, used the Sun's colors in watercolor painting, and read the following stories:

Midsummer Magic: A Garland of stories, charms, and recipes by Ellin Greene
Midsummer: Magical Celebrations of the summer solstice by Annea Franklin
Bella's Midsummer Secret by Anna Nilsen
The Summer Solstice by Ellen Jackson
Under Alaska's Midnight Sun by Deb Vanasse
Sun Up, Sun Down by Gail Gibbons
The Sun is my Favorite Star by Frank Asch
Sun Bread by Elisa Kleven
Wake Up Sun by David Harrison
The Sun Egg by Elsa Beskow
What the Sun Sees, What the Moon Sees by Nancy Tafuri
Sunshine Moonshine by Jennifer Armstrong
Lemonade Sun: And Other Summer Poems by Rebecca Kai Dotlich
When the Sun Rose by Barbara Helen Berger
Sun Song by Jean Marzollo
Sun Mother Wakes the World: An Australian Creation Story by Diane Wolkstein
The Sun Seed by Jan Schubert
How Raven Stole the Sun by Maria Williams

The big round sun in the summertime sky
Winked at a cloud that was passing by
The little cloud laughed as it scattered rain
Then out came the big round sun again

Sunshine over the meadows wide
Where the bees hummed in the clover
And sunshine filling the lily cups
Till every one brimmed over.

Sunshine over the hazy hills
And over the dimpling river,
And I wished the sun and the summer day
Might shine and last forever.

Nature Walk Verse:

O lovely June! O lovely June!
You're everything together
Your skies so fair,
Your flowers so rare,
Oh stay, delightful weather!

This week's reflection:

Letting Go:
"The things we love we have to learn to leave alone." Dr. Wayne Dyer

Letting go is one of the most difficult things we must do in life, but without doing so, we remain stuck and unable to move forward in peace.
The only way to truly let go is to shift your attention away from the event, thing or person, and focus immediately on where you are now and what you need to do for yourself.

If you have trouble letting go, you can repeat a simple statement to yourself as a release and a reminder. For example, "_______ is now released from my concern and (the person/event/concern) is now free to do what it is meant to do without my attachment." or "I now fully release my (worry, concern, fear), and let go with love." These types of freeing statements can be repeated, written down and meditated on over and over again until you are able to work yourself back toward finding the peace you need."

Little Acorn Learning

Comments and suggestions

Do you have a comment or suggestion for our activities?
Let me know if there are particular skills you would like me to focus on with your child or if you have any ideas for projects or learning themes.
You may post your comments, suggestions, questions, and/or concerns here or send me an email at fourlittlebugs@gmail.com.

The role of early childhood teacher

"The early childhood teacher works with the young child first by creating a warm, beautiful and loving home-like environment, which is protective and secure and where things happen in a predictable, regular manner. Here, she responds to the developing child in two basic ways.

Firstly, the teacher engages in domestic, practical, and artistic activities that the children can readily imitate (for example, baking, painting, gardening, and handicrafts), adapting the work to the changing seasons and festivals of the year.

Secondly, the teacher nurtures the children's power of imagination particular to the age. She does so by telling carefully selected stories and by encouraging free play. This free or fantasy play, in which children act out scenarios of their own creation, helps them to experience many aspects of life more deeply. Pine cones, wood, cotton, silk, shells, stones, and other objects from nature that the children themselves have collected are used in play and to beautify the room.

Sequencing, sensory integration, eye-hand coordination tracking, appreciating the beauty of language and other basic skills necessary for the foundation of academic excellence are fostered in the preschool and Kindergarten. In this truly natural, loving, and creative environment, the children are given a range of activities and the structure that help them prepare for the next phase of school life."

whywaldorfworks.org

Tea parties, swimming, and roses

"Mine is the month of roses, yes, and mine
The month of marriages! All pleasant sights
And scents, the fragrance of the blossoming vine
The foliage of the valleys and the heights
Mine are the longest days, the loveliest nights
The mower's scythe makes music to my ear
I am the mother of all dear delights
I am the fairest daughter of the year"

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

This is quite a lovely month here with excited shrills and splashes filling our very warm days.
We enjoyed a tea party last Thursday. Thanks to Finn and Charlie's mom for sending honey muffins to accompany our tea....I think we just may add this to our weekly routine. Thursdays at 4 p.m.
Swimming in little pools has been a new experiment this year and the children have had wonderful fun floating all sorts of boats and pouring water into a variety of cups and pitchers.
Our themes for the month include bugs, boats, summer solstice, and roses.
If you have roses growing in your garden and could share some with us, we will be using them for many activities in the next two weeks.
We will also be making little wooden boats on woodworking days and doing many hands on projects revolving around bugs as well.

Books include:

The Rose in My Garden by Arnold Lobel
Wanda's Roses by Pat Brisson
Nora's Roses by Satomi Ichikawa
The Sleeping Rose by Angela Elwell Hunt
The Blue Roses by Linda Boyden
When the Sun Rose by Barbara Helen Berger
The Magic Rose Garden by Sandra Woods
Linnea in Monet's Garden by Cristina Bjork
Flower Garden by Eve Bunting

Remember to pack sunscreen, hats, bug spray, and swim wear!
Happy weekend to you.

Mud, worms, and lots of rain today = perfect fun

A wet, muddy, and rainy day here which translated into a lot of splashing fun!!
We had an extensive circle time in the playroom with singing, stomping, stretching, and learning new rhymes and songs.
"Here we go Looby Loo"
"I like to eat apples and bananas"
"Over in the Meadow"
"Here's a branch of snowy May"

Today we read:
Mr. Gumpy's Outing by John Burningham

This story is about an older man who gets out on his boat for a peaceful ride. Then some children and many interesting creatures want to accompany him. What happens when the boat gets too full of people?
We talked about being a good friend which ties in nicely with our new emphasis on SHARING and TAKING TURNS. This is a difficult concept to grasp and the children are working hard on this.

The second book we read today was:
Share and Take Turns which is an excellent introduction to the different ways in which we can share with our playmates. It is geared for ages 4 - 8, however the ideas present some very useful tools we can begin to use.
Talk and Work it Out is another book in this series published by Free Spirit Press which is also a helpful guide with some new strategies for peaceful conflict resolution among little ones.
We will be working extensively on these issues in the next few weeks and I highly recommend checking out the books at the library or buying them for your own use at home to reinforce the concepts.

We also read:
A Letter to Amy by Ezra Jack Keats

This was a perfect story for today because it's about a little boy who is writing a letter to his friend, inviting her to his upcoming birthday party. He puts his letter in an envelope, puts on a stamp, and goes out to put it in the mailbox when suddenly, the wind and rain swoop it away. He chases it all over town.
Inspired by the letter idea, we immediately set to work on writing our own letters to family members, put them in envelopes, and affixed post- it star shaped "stamps". Several children took turns working at the "post office" and took the letters, sold stamps, and carried the letters around to different destinations.

Playing outside today was incredibly exciting with light rain falling down, many huge puddles in which to splash, and joyful singing. I am sure you realize how muddy and wet everything gets and it is my hope that the children will all come with rain boots, pants, and rain jackets on days like this!! It sure makes things easy to manage when there is a full rain suit that covers all the clothes. Then we just slip that off and the clothes underneath are as good as they were initially.


New binders are coming home for parent newsletters and articles of importance on such topics as television, sleep, eating, play, toys, and warmth for your young child. These are just some of my favorite resources I have collected over the years and hopefully you will gain some valuable insight from them as well. I started off with a few printouts of the effects of television because this is such an important issue in the lives of children. There is definitely a difference in the play value among children who are not exposed to this influence compared to those who are even slightly exposed. I have been working and playing with children for twenty years now and I see firsthand how drastically play changes after a child has viewed movies, cartoons, or even so-called "educational" programming. Play becomes focused on characters that have been seen instead of their own ideas and it becomes increasingly harder for them to listen attentively during circle and/or story times. We want our little ones to think creatively and come up with their own imaginative ideas at this crucial period of their development. Thank you for taking the time to read these pages. A new article will come home in your child's bag every week that you may add to the binder.

Stephanie Norander recently reminded me of a great book called How to Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk. Even though it seems initially geared for older children, many of the skills and tools can be tailored to your child's age so that they can begin to understand the principles in a simplified form. It also helps us, as parents, to begin to talk to our children in a way that will encourage, support, and strengthen our connection with them and help foster positive interactions and responses from them when we speak to each other.

Do you have old magazines such as National Geographic, nature themed, Missouri Conservationist etc. that you no longer need? Thanks to Jennifer Harp for tucking in her latest issue of the Conservationist. We also get that here, but it's nice to have duplicate copies when there are so many beautiful photos. The children were enthusiastically picking out flowers to arrange into a spring collage this week.
We do various projects with cut outs from magazines and always appreciate any donations you have.
This week we are looking for extra buckets, shovels, dirt, seeds, and little wooden chairs you may have. If you happen to see some at secondhand stores, please let me know.

Have a peaceful and fun weekend.

Happy May

May is off to a wonderful start!
Our focus has been on Spring, Seeds, and Manners and we have tied our stories into a variety of activities.
Books we have read include:
The Carrot Seed by Ruth Krauss
I'm a Seed by Jean Marzollo
Muncha Muncha Muncha by Candace Fleming
Carrot Soup by John Segal
Mrs. Rose's Garden by Elaine Greenstein
A Fruit is a Suitcase for Seeds by Jean Richards
And the Good Brown Earth by Kathy Henderson
Jody's Beans by Malachy Doyle
One Watermelon Seed by Celia Barker Lottridge

These stories have been so fun to read and fill our days with wonder, inspiration, and many possibilities to make related connections.
There is a recipe for carrot soup that we will be making, we have been planting seeds and watching them sprout, sorting, classifying, and counting seeds, matching seeds to their fruits and vegetables, cutting open lots of fruits and vegetables to observe the seeds with a magnifier, talking about gardens, finding pictures in magazines of gardens, plants, flowers, vegetables, etc.

Drawing lines and designs in cornmeal has been a captivating sensory experience for the children as they will spend quiet focused time tracing through the cornmeal with sticks, fingers, scoopers, cups, measuring spoons, and little cars, rocks, stones, and shells. This is a great pre-writing skill and also a very calming activity as well.

Our roads have become more extensive with chalk drawings illustrating towns, houses, driveways, parks, rivers, and community places, such as stores and smoothie bars. We have even included plots of land for planned gardens with the children making suggestions for the types of plants they wish to start.

Happy Birthday Banon!

Today we celebrated Banon's birthday with a special birthday story, a birthday book made by everyone, songs on the grass, and bug, flower, and fairy catching!
Thanks to Banon's mom, Meredith, for bringing over the bug nets...the children had a magical and fun time with these!

HELPING

There has been a new recent interest in helping each other here.
Someone may get stuck on a bike across the yard and another child runs to help. We are learning how to be a good friend. Good friends help each other.
Cooperative play is a growing concept happening as well. Pushing and pulling each other in wagons, riding together on a bike, driving cars respectfully behind one another, and taking turns with the basketball and hoop are all new pursuits.
We have also been talking about good manners, especially at meal times. When we see good manners being displayed, we acknowledge it.

Washing Day

Today was washing day!
Did you know that there is a specific domestic activity happening here based on the day of the week?
Each day has its own "job" that we do with love and care.
For example we may do dusting on Monday, washing outside toys/clothes on Tuesday, bread making on Wednesday, woodworking and sweeping on Thursday, and inside toy cleaning on Friday.
This type of work for a child helps them connect with the natural rhythms of the days of the week in a tangible way. They may not understand that today is Wednesday, but they know that it is bread making day and that the next day will be a time of woodworking.
Therefore, young children have a framework of time and feel a security and peace in knowing what will happen and what to expect.

The car washing today was wonderful fun and everyone earnestly helped to get many vehicles shiny and clean!

Projects

You may be wondering where all the artwork is going that your child is creating here.
There are always lots of projects happening and we have decided to do a few different things with them.
First, we are in the process of making our own books based on the stories we hear and read together. We read or hear a story for usually two to three weeks to let the ideas fully internalize. Then we will act out the story and do a variety of related projects based on the themes we are learning.Then we also draw a special picture as a reminder and this is what we are using for each "book". The collected drawings and projects will be sent home during the last week of May.

Preschool Evaluations

Preschool evaluations will be ready during the first two weeks of June.
This is a fun time of meeting with you and discussing your child's development here and specific things they are learning individually.
You will get an evaluation form with helpful checklists for a handy way of keeping track of learning and development at home and there will also be forms filled out by me that you may keep in your personal files.
We will start setting up the parent appointments during the last week of May.

Spring days

We have been delighted with the weather of this past week.
It's time to include sunscreen and a sun hat in your child's bag for these sunny and warm days!
There are baby kittens here and the timing worked well with our story of Papa Piccolo.
Geography studies have taken us to Venice, Italy, where the story takes place. We have located Italy on a map, colored pictures of cats, gondolas, flags, and canals, and acted out the story with many great "cats".
New words we have learned: bambini, caro mia, (my precious dear), Buon giorno (good morning).
Talking about fatherhood has been fun as we have discussed the many ways that fathers are able to care for little ones. We are also focusing on how we can each take care of our friends and those around us who are smaller.
Occupations on the water we have learned include laundry barges that carry fresh linens to the hotels, garbage barges, police motor boats, and water taxis.
Many new words have been introduced as well such as:
canal, trinket, sardine, ledge, signora, situation, chime, carnival, regatta, skiff, gondola, persistent, forlorn, glum, and gilded.
We have also used language to match descriptions. For example, on p. 8 of Papa Piccolo it says "And then Papa Piccolo sang a little song he remembered from long ago about stardust and moonbeams and goldfish". Papa sang a lullaby. Together we thought of some phrases that would put a dog to sleep like "I'll sing of bones and treats, slippers and silver-lighted dog houses" Then we discussed what we could sing to put a butterfly to sleep, a tree, or an eagle, etc.

There have been many mud cakes, stick, and rock collections forming, and new interest in basketball, soccer, and balls in general.

Our spring circle time is going along nicely and in the next few weeks our focus will be on planting seeds.

We have designed many creative "ball runs" with long cardboard tubes and blocks to direct the paths of little balls, cars, and anything else we can find to roll down the tunnels.

It has been another fun and inspiring week with this lovely group of children and we wish you a happy and peaceful weekend!

Winter's come and gone

We have definitely enjoyed the change in weather this past week!
Winter's come and gone has been one of the songs we have listened to by Elizabeth Mitchell and we are transitioning into our spring circle time which warms my heart as I think about how long these little ones have been in my life.
Wrapping up our story called, "Mama, Do You Love Me?" we ended with pictures of the various animals from the book, a book of Inuit poems, maps and books of Alaska, and a recording of whale songs.
Papa Piccolo will be our next book to read over the next few weeks. This story is about a tomcat who finds responsibility, joy, and satisfaction as he decides to adopt kittens! We will take a closer look at Venice, Italy, Italian words, Fatherhood, flags, Marco Polo, water occupations, matching descriptions, fables, color matching, counting, and types and breeds of cats. There will be age appropriate activities for each child here to integrate different subjects from the reading.


Our menu for the week:

Monday: Organic brown basmati rice with broccoli
snacks: rice cakes with almond butter, grapes
Tuesday: Oatmeal with flaxseeds, raisins, and syrup
snacks: oat muffins, apples
Wednesday: Millet tacos, corn tortilla chips, salsa
snacks: bananas, trail mix with walnuts, sunflower seeds, dried fruit
Thursday: Vegetable barley soup
snacks: sliced oranges, carrots, cubed tofu
Friday: Homemade bread, apple pear sauce

snacks: sliced vegetables, hummus, kiwis

Other books we have read lately:

Animal Crackers
Willow on the River
River of Life
Whoever You Are
How People Live
Hello World! Greetings in 42 Languages
Songs Are Thoughts poems of the Inuit
Arctic Stories
My Granny Went to Market: A Round the World Counting Rhyme
The Little Island
Rickie and Henri
Over in the Meadow
John Denver's For Baby

Spring is coming!

Spring is coming as our little crocus flowers announce new beginnings on the front lawn....
Our story focus for the next three weeks will be Mama, Do You Love Me? by Barbara M. Joosse.
This is a very tender and sweet tale of a child testing the love of her mother which proves to be unconditional. The setting for the story is also quite captivating as it revolves around life in the Arctic regions. We will be talking about all of the different animals in the book, the interesting clothing we see, the weather in the region, and of course, parent and child relationships.
A personal book for each child is being put together as well that will be a special keepsake and memory of all the stories that we are reading together. The pages will have a simple drawing or other creative artistic expression related to each story.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

We will be celebrating Valentine's Day this Monday and Tuesday. Our days will include sharing Valentine's Day cards with friends, going on a heart hunt, making pictures with our "finds", and reading stories about love. Please make very simple Valentine cards with your child to bring for their friends here on Monday or Tuesday, depending on which day your child is here.

Sunshine today!!

Thankful for the sunny day today!!
We got outside for a little bit and collected snow for our clear bag activity. I had everyone try to predict what would happen to the snow and how long it would take for the snow to melt in various places. Some snow melted faster than others and some ended up all over the table to be played in by little animals....

In the story of The Snowy Day, Peter drags his feet through the snow and makes various tracks. We acted out parts of the story by dragging our feet, dragging a stick, and climbing a mountain.
Peter also tries to save a piece of winter by putting a snowball in his pocket. He takes this into his warm house only to discover a while later that the snowball is gone. So we talked about what the children thought happened to the snowball.

We are not done with this story and will be working with it through next week as well.
Part of our activities will include making our own collection book of all the stories that we will be reading together.

Some questions to talk about with your child (especially the older ones):
How did the snow get piled up along the street?
Where do you think Peter lives?
Peter knew he wasn't old enough to join the snowball fight. How do you think he felt?
What is something you will do when you are older?
Peter put a snowball in his pocket. When he looked for it later, it was gone. What happened to it?
What do you think Peter and his friend will do in the snow?

We made banana bread together and added lots of raisins to it.....delicious!!

Snow, Love, and Soup Days

This week we are beginning to work with the story called The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats. You may want to purchase this book or check it out from the library to reinforce the story and concepts we are learning together. It's also a fun way to talk with your child about what we are doing here and create a stronger connection between home and school.
The pictures are a combination of watercolor and collage. We will be making pictures with watercolors and colored tissue paper just like Keats.
We will be discussing types of weather: snowy, sunny, foggy, rainy, hail, and sleet.
Snowflakes have six main points which we will also be closely observing.

A song we have been singing goes like this:
Yellow is the sun
Six is five and one
Why is the sky so blue?
Seven is five and two.
Salty is the sea
Eight is five and three.
Hear the thunder roar
Nine is five and four.
Ducks will swim and dive
Ten is five and five.

Other stories we are reading include a book of poetry called Animal Crackers,
Mama Do you Love Me?
Baby I Love You
The Day it Rained Hearts

Our winter circle time includes the following poems and action rhymes:

Little light snowflakes
Whirl around
Little light snowflakes
Fall to the ground
Fall on the tree
And fall on me
Make the earth white
Make the earth bright

Let's put on our mittens
And button up our coat
Wrap a scarf snugly
Around our throat
Pull on our boots
Fasten the straps
And tie on tightly
Our warm winter caps
Then open the door...
And out we go
Into the soft and feathery snow

Mark your steps
with your feet
On the white snow
Little holes
Bigger holes
Look, where you go

We will work with the above with motions and lots of gestures and full body movement for a week and then add a few more verses until the winter circle time is complete and fully ingrained in the children's hearts.

Our menu for the week looks like this:
Monday: Black bean soup
Tuesday: Brown basmati rice with teriyaki tofu
Wednesday: Homemade bread with almond butter
Thursday: Sweet potato soup
Friday: Millet squares topped with fruit

Of course there will be a variety of snacks throughout the day as well.

Handouts this week include The Wisdom of Waldorf, which is a great introduction to the Waldorf method of early childhood education and beyond, and an article about inspiring play at home with your child.
As many of you know, I am considering the early childhood Waldorf teacher training at Sunbridge College in New York. This is a part time program that consists of three weeks in June, one week in October, one week in March of 2011, and a final three weeks in June of 2011. Miss Meghan, Audrey, and Tesa will all be here to help during this time.

Thank you for your continued support, encouragement, and love!!

Latest adventures

This has been a full week of joyful discoveries.
We had a park day on Wednesday morning, yoga and lavendar massages with Miss Meghan on Tuesday and Thursday, and lots of play with a variety of objects on the light table. The children have been enjoying playing in our many indoor "forts". They are presently listening to a sweet and tender story about a mouse who comes out of the ground to discover the snow and explores the journey of a particular snowflake and its continued journey into various forms from stream, cloud, fog, and rain. Circle times include nursery rhymes and a song about tea time after which they transition to getting ready for snack time and going outside to play. Our daily schedule usually follows this routine:

8 - 8:30 Arrival and free play
8:30 - 9 Planned learning activity related to the current story of the week
9:15 Circle Time ( very important time to get all children and teacher connected for the day)
9:30 Snack Time/Story
9:50 Outside Play
11:30 Lunch
11:50 Quiet songs with the lyre/kinderharp/Story
12 Rest/sleep
3 Snack
3:30 Outside Play/ Art activity
5 Clean up and preparations for going home/Story

Did you know that by the time most children go to kindergarten, they have spent more than 5,000 hours in front of a TV? Enough time to earn a college degree. Be Out There is National Wildlife Federation's initiative to inspire families across America to open the door and get outside. To start the new year off right take the 2010 Be Out There Resolution to Know, Go, and Grow. www.nwf.org/Get-Outside/Be-Out-There.aspx

Have a happy and peaceful weekend!