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.