So let’s get started with our Fall nature table!

From MS_OCT_NOV1

Here are some indoor play photos, and a glimpse into how in depth their play is as a group.

From MS_OCT_NOV1

Here are some lovely photos of children helping harvest from the garden to make a surprise basil/tomato/mozzarella salad for Saniyah and River’s family with the arrival of their new baby boy. Congratulations to your family!!

From MS_OCT_NOV1

Here are some photos of the children all playing together outdoors with the large blocks. They built a jet plane and decided to fly to africa. Beck and Wyatt were the pilots. Monty and Saniyah served the food and and made sure everyone had their seatbelts on (the smaller flat boards you see across their laps). If you look at the far side of the plane, you will see a stack of long flat boards that Sedona and Saniyah are adding to the cargo hold as these are the children’s surf boards getting loaded onto the plane before take off. In one photo, you’ll see Monty talking to the passengers on his little speaker phone (hand held to mouth). They then journeyed by boat after the plane landed, you’ll see them in the boat with beck at the wheel (hula hoop). There are also some random play photos in this batch.

From MS_OCT_NOV1

Here is a sugar pumpkin we grew in the garden. We added it to our pumpkin recipes. There is also a photo of Alana mixing pumpkin muffins with our pumpkin.

From MS_OCT_NOV1

Here are photos of the back garden when the pumpkin king came to visit and turned the garden into a pumpkin patch, three of children playing on teeter totter and swings.

From MS_OCT_NOV1

This was our Bat making project. They came out terrific.

From MS_OCT_NOV1

A big Happy Birthday to Bo. He turned 3 years old. Our little Gnome and our elf friends came to celebrate with us.

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Here we are preparing for our Halloween Festival and we have a special visitor. Ember came to help us out. Here the children are enjoying their pumpkin carving. Thank you to all the families who helped out in carving extra pumpkins.

From MS_OCT_NOV1

During our Halloween Festival here is Morgan the witch telling her funny stories about her dog and her magic spells gone wrong. We also have some pictures of the kids in costume as well as Justin dropping River off and he was in disguise. There is also some photos of all the pumpkins, and photos of the front garden.

From MS_OCT_NOV1

Here are some photos of the back garden on Halloween day, the Pirates surprised everyone and had been for a visit (threatening to sail our boat off to look for treasures). The children are playing in the pirate boat with the treasure maps that they left behind (they also left gold coins, they were in such a hurry to go because morgan the witch scared them off).

From MS_OCT_NOV1

How creative. These little boats are so amazing. Dusty Gnome (aka “Rick” for this project) was so kind to bring his tool box and the bases of the boats for the children to build their own sail boats. Thank you parents for sending in the fabric.

From MS_OCT_NOV1

Here are the photos of nature day and the sailing of our awesome boats. Here are photos of a group of children playing at tall stumps, pretending they were on a train and that was the spot to get and give the tickets. Nathaniel was the conductor. A couple are of the children who were riding on a large tree branch they found (at one point, all of the children were on it together) and they learned about working together to get the branch to go in the direction they all needed to move to get anyplace.

From MS_OCT_NOV1

From MS_OCT_NOV1

We hope you enjoyed the blog. We will do one more before the end of the year. Enjoy and Happy Thanksgiving.

Many thanks to the families who have brought the flowers in this past few weeks! The choices have been vibrant and lovely, bringing in the colors of nature and adding beauty to our nature table and the center of our snack table.

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Flowers 20110922

Thank you to Big Nana! We received a gift of apples and pears from Jack and Sedona’s Big Nana’s garden. The children took joy in sharing them as special snacks; we also baked apple muffins with them for our snack one day!

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From Baking 200110922

We appreciate everyone remembering the soup day contributions, we have had colorful and tasty soups and the children are learning to try new things. The children love to contribute to the soup and help chop and peel the veggies, and it’s lots of fun to see the end result and get to taste each thing that we find in our bowls.
Last week we harvested from our gardens, Morning Song grew swiss chard, basil, yellow squash, tomatoes, Rosemary and onion that all went into the soup in addition to the veggies brought from children’s homes. Dusty Gnome brought lentils and fresh garlic for the soup, he always likes to add something too! River and Saniyah brought in the tiniest bell pepper we have ever seen and a bag of little carrots that they grew in their gardens, as well as other wonderful things children shared! This week we added butternut squash from Saniyah and River, Potatoes and beans from Beck and Alana, Snap peas, Cilantro and carrots from Theodore!

From Baking 200110922

You may have heard your children sharing their stories about Rick passing through now and then in the school (and even lending a helping hand when we need extra help). It is hard for the children to engage in anything else when Mr. Rick is here, he has become a favorite of every one of the children. Rick has a tool belt and tools that capture the children’s attention and they all begin telling their stories of “their tools” or experiences with workers at their homes. Beck shared with Rick that he is a “worker man” too, and that it is a lucky thing, because his house needs a lot of work. Last week he played on the playground with them and many of them watched him do some pull-ups and begged to try too, so they learned how to do pull-ups with the trapeze bar.

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We always have the enjoyment of listening to the children’s stories. They are such creative little beings, it is amazing sometimes to hear the stories. One child shared that his dogs have a bad marriage. I asked him why, he said that there was a tornado the day they got married so now they fight a lot. He went on to say because of this, the boy dog wants a new wedding place and the girl dog does not, so they fight about it. I talked about some ways he could help them to come to a peaceful resolve and agreements, he said the problem is getting the girl dog to listen.

We also got to hear the story of a child’s dad who is growing an “air beard”. I asked what this is and was told that the beard needs air to grow, so dad stands outside in the air to make it grow.

We have been enjoying a story about little mouse and little flea. Flea goes off to tend the garden and leaves the pot of soup on the stove, asking the little mouse to be careful to not fall into the soup pot while he is away. While gone, little mouse wanders into the garden and feels sleepy, laying down under the rose bush to take an afternoon nap. When little flea returns, he can not find little mouse anywhere and is saddened at the thought that his dear friend has fallen into the soup pan. He cries on his way out the door, passing the table who asks little flea why he laments; little flea replies “little mouse has fallen into the soup and has been burned and I can not stay here anymore” and the table said “if you, from here, will be gone….then with you I will come along” and the table lifted himself up and followed the flea out the door. Subsequently, baking trough, the door and the tree all followed along, the door taking itself off of it’s hinges, the tree uprooting from the earth, etc. and they all paraded down the path. Of course, when they passed the rosebush, they saw little mouse curled up and sleeping under the rosebush. Upon the discovery of their little friend, they all began to dance and sing, and put themselves back where they each belong, the tree stretching its roots back into the earth, the door placing itself back on it’s hinges, etc.

Other stories, the children have learned about Octopus, who always gets her legs tangled, jeremy mouse helps bee, who lost his buzz (grumpy old cactus took it), and the worm loses his squirm.

The children have had a great time in yoga, here are some photos of a few of their poses during the unfolding of their yoga story.

Yoga 20110922

Circle time has been taking us on the journey of a dear little boy, all bonny and gay, who went out for a walk on a bright sunny day.
Over the course of the journey, the boy’s feet get all sore and he cries out that he can’t walk anymore….he says “I do wish that someone would listen to me, I wish that someone would carry me”.
In his adventure he is carried by a murmuring brook, a fine little boat, a snail, a kindly horseman, a shepherd who is leading the sheep along to the fold and eventually his mother, who carries him back home like a bird to it’s nest.

It is possible if you ask your child to tell you the story about “A dear little boy all bonny and gay”, by now they may be able to go on to tell you the entire story (and could possibly act it out for you, too).

Nature day was a huge hit. The weather at Fairy Glen was glorious. We enjoyed circle time in the woods and went on to have many outdoor adventures. The children made sailboats, gathered materials to make a raft with Rick, went fishing, climbed trees. It was wonderful to see the more timid children come out of their shells and courageously try things that they have never tried before. It was very sweet to see the children who were not ready to try some of these things living the experience through watching the joy of their friends accomplish such a feat.
We woke up our listening ears and noticed the many sounds of the outdoor world…the crows, the neighborhood dogs, the breeze in the trees, the birds singing, the street sweeper, the “family of bikes” as the cyclists passed, the water in the creek, etc. We learned about some ways we are thankful for the tall timbers, the canopy above us made by the branches, the home of different critters and bugs, the protection they offer etc. It was a very successful and special day.

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Please remember our parent meeting coming up Thursday, Sept 29th, 2011. The gathering will be short and informative and will begin at 5 pm. You should be able to head back home in an hour to an hour and a half at the most, it is really a chance to say hello to one another and cover a few things that for most of you, will serve as a reminder. If you are able to bring finger foods, please let me know what you will bring.

As tomorrow marks the first day of autumn, we will venture into the season together filled with nurturing and warm experiences.

xo
Miss Linda, Chay and Miss Christina

Valentine's 2011

Here the kids are actually performing a puppet show of the story we did in February. It is Mashenka and the Bear. Here are photos of them acting it out in a play, we did that for a couple of weeks and it was great fun.

Mashenka Play

Winter circle to early spring circle, learning about the process of making maple syrup.
The children have been busy going out on our daily adventure into the woods and through the snow to find the maple trees, strong and tall. We learn that during the sunny warm days and the frosty cold nights, that’s when sugaring time is right. We work hard to chop wood for the stove, take just the right tools with us to hang our bucket and spout on the tree and wait for the sap to drip out. We have been reading books and looking at real photos of family maple sugaring farms, the children are very excited about it. (Beck even says he has a maple tree at home and makes maple syrup all the time….we thought it would be fun to come and see, hahaha).

The children have been learning about the lazy gnome. While all of the other gnomes are working hard preparing the earth for the work to come in the spring, the lazy gnome decides he would rather be lazy and just play around. Therefore, he is sent out of the kingdom until he is willing to do work with his brothers. He goes and sleeps in a hollow tree trunk and the wakes up and sees the flower fairies and he wants to play with them. They can not play because they are busy working hard. The gnome then meets the fairies working with the water at the waterfall and they appear to be having so much fun that he asks to play with them. They tell the gnome they can not play with him because they are busy working very hard sending the water up into the air so that the clouds can bring it around the land and make beautiful rainbows. He then meets the sky fairies in the night and sees them bringing stardust across the sky. He asks if he can play with them and they tell him they are not playing, that they are working and that he is a creature of the earth and can not join them. Later along his journey, he hears a song from his brothers who are busily working beneath the earth. He feels lonely and it sounds like they are having so much fun. He decides to join them and work side by side and he was never lazy again.

Thank you to Sedona and Jack for bringing the large bag of navel oranges from Nana’s house, what a treat for all the children.

Happy birthday to Nathanial and Wyatt, they turned 3 last week! We will celebrate their birthday at school this week, though they did bring a cake in on Friday of last week and the children all got to sing for them. Here are some photos from their birthday.

N & W Birthday

Leprechaun day and all of the preparations that went along with it kept us very busy. The children worked hard to build the leprechaun trap and make a lovely invitation to lure Liam the Leprechaun into our room this year. We came up with lots of brilliant ideas to catch him and we all thought about what we would do with him when we did. We decided we were going to sit that naughty little guy down and give him a good talking to about traipsing around the country side and making off with everyone’s treasures. What a surprise when we came into the class on Thursday morning to find that not only had the leprechaun been in our room during the night, he played with all our toys and built towers of chairs up on our tabletops. He lost his shoe while in the classroom playing, and left us a letter asking us to use our spying eyes and help him find it. He promised to leave us each a treasure if we could find his shoe. We are waiting for him to return for his shoe and leave us something…oh, the anticipation. Maybe we will get our hands on the little guy when he returns. Here are some great photos from our visits.

Leprechaun

What glorious weather we are having, it’s so nice to spend so much more time in the back garden swinging, running, playing. We really can feel joy in the air! We have been working in the gardens clearing the new weeds that have decided to take over the gardens. There is much work to be done and we look forward to coming back after our spring break and planting lots of fun things! We are singing songs of planting in our gardens, the rain fairies bringing water to the plants, father sun shining down his warmth so that the little seeds planted in the earth will wake up. But watch out, here come those little brown rabbits popping their heads out of the grass looking for gardens to munch, munch, munch!

We planted our spring garden baskets this week, each child has his or her own basket they chose and we planted wheatberry and oat seeds in them. We will water them each day and hope that by next week we will see some sprouts popping their heads out to see the wonderful outside world.

Spring Baskets 2011

We are excited about spring and having been singing songs about spring coming. One of the favorites is:
Spring is coming, spring is coming
Birdies build your nest
Weave together straw and feather, each one doing his best.

Spring is coming, spring is coming
Flowers everywhere
Roses lilies, daffodillies
All are coming through

Spring is coming, spring is coming
joy is in the air
shimmer glimmer on the river
love is everywhere.

Next week we hope too that the Easter Hare just might make an early visit and leave something for us in our baskets!

Matteo gets the Morning Song cycler of the century award….he rode his bike to school on Wednesday all the way from Sausalito! Wouldn’t it be fun for a few more friends to meet up with him and ride to school sometime too? He was so proud of himself and for great reason.

Important Reminders:

Dear parents (on sunny days) please leave the front garden children’s sitting benches free of carseats and other things so that when we bring the train of children out, the benches are available. Thank you for your cooperation.

A message from the bloggers and Miss Linda:
Before we get started I want to mention the blog. The blog is a wonderful way to communicate what is going on in the classroom and provides everyone a chance to see class pictures. However, the blog should be thought of as a special gift. I think it is most important to know that Miss Linda uses her energies towards preparing for the class and for class time. It can also be distracting for the children to see the camera taken out and it takes away from their school experience and takes them out of the moment. With this said, the blog will not be a weekly occurrence, but will be written when we have enough material and the time to compose it. Please feel free to call Miss Linda or send her an email at any time if you have any questions about classroom activities or how your child is doing. She will be happy to make the time to speak with you or respond in detail to an e-mail. Please remember, drop-off and pick-up times are not the time she can have these types of discussions.

So let’s get on with this long awaited blog!!!

I would like to thank Matteo’s family for the lovely Lily’s that you see in the photo. I also want to remind everyone to just check the flower fairy list and make a note of when their turn is, if they have not done so. Especially if your child only comes on Thursday and Friday, we want to make sure that they get the flowers to the classroom the prior Monday they come to school. Also, if you need to trade weeks, you can check with other families to do so.

Jan28Flowers

So the children are interested in making something other than Stone Soup for Thursday’s……hint we need more participation in bringing in soup ingredients… Here are a few possibilities….left over pasta can be used, or fresh pasta, lentils, split peas, spices or herbs, garlic and any veggie. We have even had people send in cooked rice or other funny things like corn on the cob that we cut off of the cob (it was washed and ready), or corn chip strips for corn and tortilla soup. Beets have been fun, anything creative.

We have celebrated three birthdays, Cammie, Beck and Alana all turned four! A very Happy Birthday children. Here are some photos from their school celebration.

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We are working with Mashenka and the Bear, very sweet story. We have woven in another story about Johnny Chuck and Grandfather frog, and the story of eating and eating to get very fat and then sleeping for a very long time while the north winds blow and king winter and jackie frost visit. Sleeping all the way until the tender young shoots are here again! Johnny Chuck learned this trick when the first North Winds blew and he was not prepared, the green shoots went away and everyone got very, very hungry and very thin over the months. His idea to dig deep into the earth and make a hallway that is very long with a room at the end to curl up and sleep was a good one! Neither Jack Frost or the north wind could reach him there. he has continued this practice ever since.

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We have been clearing the gardens during outdoor time and preparing the beds more for what is to come. Some of the kids love helping with it, but many want to run and play while I do the work. Thats fine with me, I love them to know that they can come and go as they please. Its more fun for them when we begin our planting. Right now they enjoy looking for earthworms when I turn the soil and clear things out.

The play in the classroom is wonderful. The older children really are taking the younger children by the hand and helping them to learn everything we do. We are seeing some testing of the boundaries and rules in various ways. One example is clean-up time. Several of the children now suddenly have to go potty at clean up time. Or they are all thirsty all of the sudden. So we are practicing patience with getting a drink and “holding it” until we have all worked together to tidy the room. The clean up goes quickly that way, we remind them that many hands make light work. If we suspect a child really does need to go because it’s been a while, we take her or him, but when many want to come along we remind them that only one can sit on the potty at a time and the other can clean up while waiting to go. THen they forget all about having to go potty and engage fully in the cleaning.

The children’s favorite game we are playing right now is Jackie Frost. They may have told you about it. One child gets a turn to be Jackie Frost and wear the hat, while the others get dressed in their winter wear and we all go outdoors and play. When Jackie Frost comes along to pinch our nose or our toes, everyone runs to try and get away. Whomever Jackie Frost gets is the next one “it”.

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Last week our circle is a very cold and snowy one. We are singing and dancing together while making snow angels, hot cocoa, throwing snowballs and racing downhill in our sleds. We also catch a chill when Old king winter comes out to play with the North Wind. We become snowflakes falling on the treetops and the bushes, and on the mountains afar. We also build snowmen and decide what to use for all of the “parts” such as the hat, scarf, arms, hands, nose etc. Afterward, we all become snowmen and learn how it feels to stand strong with our broomstick and hat until the sun comes and melts us away…….oooops, now I’m a puddle, upon the ground.

During circle this week, we took a snow train up to the mountain to look for the groundhog, to see if he came out to see his shadow.
While there, we found some hardworking gnomes mining for stones and we sang about different treasures they discovered, such as rubies, quartz crystals and rose quartz. We also took a peek inside the gnomes world and learned about what they do each hour of the day. The funny little stories cracked the children up.

We have been playing a Valentines circle game and the children have had fun taking turns skipping and singing around the circle while bringing a letter to their love, and when they drop it along the way, the child it is dropped behind must jump up and they both run around the circle to see who can get back to their seat quickest. The child who does not sit on the floor quick enough is the next one to take the letter around.

Here are photos of the children preparing their Valentine Day craft.

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Thanks so much to Juliet for the effort she puts into touring families. We had eight families come tour this last week and without her, it would be very difficult to accomplish this on top of all of the fun we are having.

This week on Tuesday the re-enrollment forms are due. I am working with new applications and hope to have enrollment finished before the spring. If you want to make sure we hold a spot for your child, please do not delay in returning the forms. After Tuesday I will begin offering spaces to outside families who have toured and are applying.

Here is our nature table, which currently has a “star ladder” with an angel coming down one star every day. She moves down while the children are sleeping, and she started the first day of advent and will continue until she reaches the earth.

Advent

When she reaches the bottom, where the candle is, this will be christmas day.The children will not be here of course, but they like to see the angel moving down the star ladder and counting down the days till christmas each day when they come to school.

Two weeks ago we celebrated the mineral kingdom.
we lit a candle and said verses for the mineral kingdom and sang a song each day.
As we lit the candle every day, we sang:
One little candle lighted in the wreath, the earth below….begins to glow.

Our daily verse was:
In the first candle of advent
shines the light of the crystals in the mines.
The rocks, the jewels, and the stones.
The seashells and even our bones.

Now that we have moved onto week 2 of advent, we sang and said the week one verses, and added to it the
honoring of the plant kingdom.
You will see the lovely orchid in the center of the second advent wreath photo, this is a gift from Sophia’s family, thank you!

Advent

In the lighting of the second candle, we sang:
Two little candles lighted in the wreath, a plant lifts up….a blossom cup.<

Our verse for the plant kingdom each day was:
In the second candle of advent, shines the nuts and the berries on the vines.
The grasses, fruits and the trees,
and all the lovely flowers that we see.

Next week we will be celebrating the animal kingdom.
Then the children will go home for the holidays and that last week of Advent we would be celebrating the human kingdom.
It is a special way to recognize the four kingdoms.

You will see in the photos Rick sharing face masks (new ones of course) with the children who wanted one, he was running around here working and using one himself and the children were fascinated and wanted to play with them.

From Masks Dec10

Here are pictures of the children searching for earthworms in the garden.

Looking for Worms

I (Nicole) was so surprised and delighted to see the boys bring home those amazing gnomes. What a special handmade gift that we will always treasure. Thank you Miss Linda and Chay. Here are photos of children busily stitching their gnomes.

Sewing Dec2010

Here Ember and Theodore are hard at work making holiday cookies.

Making Cookies 20101217

A very Happy Birthday to Theordore!

This week is our last week before the holidays and we wish everyone just so much love and magic over this time!

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Our story this week was about hedgy hedgehogs early prep for his winter sleep, while squirrel nutkin decides to keep working to gather nuts even on the chilliest days so that she can store them away. We observed the changes in the sky, the feel of the wind temperature and the rain fairies bringing drinks to the earth.

Hey parents, do we really want our kids eating stone soup???? Poor little guys. We told the story of stone soup this week because out of nine children, only two brought in vegetables for the soup. Please don’t forget veggies on Thursday!!! This limits the number of helpers we can have in making of the soup because we don’t have much to do! The children are not really expected to remember, so we dont say anything to link them to not bringing anything, the story is just very inspirational and the children all begin to talk about what they want to bring next week. Here the children are hard at work peeling and cutting the one carrot and zucchini we had in the basket.

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On baking day the kids are making gingerbread muffins.

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These are the indoor play pictures. The rainbow houses were “kitty houses” for a while, and then castles. The children all played together beautifully this week, which is not uncommon at Morning song. However, this weeks games that they played nearly always included every child, whereas sometimes there are a couple of children here or there playing something else.

It was very sweet to see Saniyah pretending to paint childrens faces (see her “painting” Cammies in three photos) to get them all ready for the festivities.
They played medicine makers and took care of one another. At one point, the medicine was the shell that sits on top of the stacked blocks in the center of the children in the photos.

Pretend Play_20101123

We talked about many things we are Grateful for and learned a bit about Thanksgiving. We all had a chance to talk about one thing each that we are grateful for. When a child’s turn came around and
we got to hear what he or she is grateful for, we all acknowledged it and elaborated on why we too are grateful for this.

Matteo said: Plants, Cammie said: dogs, Sedona said: flowers, Sasha said: Rainbows, Sophia said: mommy, Beck said: firemen, Alana said: unicorns and Saniyah said: Chickens. So fun to hear what they are thankful for.

A very warm and loving thanksgiving to all!

Important Notes

As a reminder, when dropping your children off to always say their goodbye BEFORE opening the door to classroom. It takes 12 to 14 hours to warm the room up before school in the morning and when the door gets opened and left open during kisses and goodbye hugs, the cold comes in and replaces the warmth very quickly.

Also, please make sure children are WEARING their coats to school in the mornings, not carrying them, and we will take them off inside the classroom and hang them. Please do not take them off of child outdoors and place in cubby. We like to put warm coats on them when it’s time to go out.

First we will start with a Thank you to Wyatt for the flowers this week. He cut all the flowers by himself from his garden.

From Wyatt Flowers

Our story is of Reuven, the stonecutter. Every day, he would climb the highest mountains and ban his heavy hammer to make stones. Then he sold these stones to the people to build their walls and houses. He feels unsatisfied with his role as stonecutter-looking for something that appears stronger than he. One day, he see’s the King come to town. He say the splendor of the Kings carriage, his glorious robes and jewels and servants obeying his every order. He said to himself “oh, how I wish I were the King” and Whoosh…..Reuven became the King of the land. He rode in a splendorous coach and wore glorious robes. However, at noon, the hot sun beat down on him, making him hot and sweaty. He said “I see the sun is much stronger than even a King. Oh, how I wish I were the sun.” And Whoosh….Reuven became the sun, shining down on the earth, making the trees and grass grow.

He journeys through various experiences as he wishes to be something different each time his wish comes true, deciding the cloud is stronger than the sun because it blocks the sunlight from reaching the earth….then the wind, stronger than the cloud who blows the cloud across the land and the leaves from the trees. Eventually the wind blows until it hits up against a mountain and cannot get through, leading Reuven to believe the mountain is the strongest – and he wishes to be the mountain, casting his long shadow across the land. Until one day….he heard the clanging of a hammer and felt something pounding on his back….and it’s a stone cutter. He discovers that the stonecutter is strongest of them all, and wishes to be a stonecutter once more. He finds satisfaction and happiness knowing that he was just right the way he was, before wishing to be all of the other things.

Here the children are enjoying the story of Reuven……

Reuven Puppet Show

We have been learning about the Autumn, the fall leaves turning from green to red, yellow, orange and brown. We are raking and singing together and observing the differences now that the weather is turning chilly. We are learning about the critters and the work they do as they prepare for the winter – singing of squirrel nutkin in her coat of brown, who is busily storing nuts away before winter comes with cold and storm. The children are having a lot of fun playing indoors together. The stories and depth of their group play is a joy to watch. Relationships are deepening and they are navigating their way through situations that are sometimes bumpy and challenging. They are learning about kindness, taking turns and respecting others feelings and wishes. We always honor a child’s request to play alone if they feel the need to. This is a great learning experience for the others who would like to play with that child, as they have to understand they are not being rejected personally and that we are just honoring a child’s need for space and time to be with him or herself.

The sunny days outdoors have been glorious, fall crisp air and still the feeling of warmth in the sun on our skin. The photos are of outdoor play, the children actively building houses and ice cream shops with the large blocks.

Outdoor Play 11/12/10

Another funny quote…..a child washing his hands got soap on his wrist. He said,” Miss Linda look, I got soap on the ankle of my hand!”.

The meeting last week was informative and interesting. It helps us deepen our understanding of the effects on a broader level, described well in this parents response “that it’s not a matter of good and bad, but to think about things like whether, for example, he is kept in a “hyperventilated” state, one of unresolved stories and overstimulation v. resolve and calm. This is true of books, TV, the stories we tell. ”
Thanks to all who took the time to attend.

Enjoy your week!

From Halloween Classroom

From Halloween Classroom

In circle time this week, the children enjoyed circle games with the pumpkin.

Circle Time with Pumpkins

Our baking skills have advanced to pie and tart making. Here the children are hard at work creating their culinary masterpieces, “Pumpkin Pie” and “Pumpkin Tarts” with fresh pumpkin. They look like they are having so much fun. We baked a special pumpkin pie for our friend Katie the witch in hopes she would stop off and visit us at school for our party.

Baking Tarts

The children did such an excellent job carving their pumpkins. It’s amazing how they are able accomplish such a difficult task. These Jack O Lanterns turned out ghoulishly fantastic.

Carving Pumpkins

The children also finished up their jack o lantern faces to hang in the windows and scare the goblins away.

Jack O' Pictures

We were very happy to arrive at school on Friday and see Katie the witch’s shoes and broom outside the classroom!
Our pumpkin party was magical and fun, with Katie the witch telling stories about her beginning days as a young witch and learning how to make magic.
She also told us a delightful story about how she met her kitty, Shadow. We made witches brew together and sang songs. In parting, Katie the Witch shared goodie bags with each child that the Pumpkin King asked her to give to each child.

Witch Katie

It has been a very busy couple of weeks, and so much fun!

Happy halloween to everyone!

I also know that I speak for all parents in saying “Thank you Miss Linda, Chay, and Miss Christine for all the effort, love and magic you put into making our children’s Halloween so special”. It truly is magical.

Important Reminders:

The upcoming meeting is this Thursday at 4pm sharp. Miss Linda is still waiting on RSVPs.
If anyone is having a parent stay home with their children and is willing to have a classmate over to play so that other parents can attend, please let us know.

There is a growing up green week again with Sloat Garden from November 5th thru the 15th. We will receive a percentage back in a gift card, supporting our school garden. Please consider participating, it really helps our children enjoy the garden even more.

A big thank you to Sashas family for the beautiful flowers.

From MSB20101023

Circle has been full of witchy adventures. We are flying on our broomsticks and visiting our witches garden, where we are stirring our brew and adding things each day to the cauldron. We are singing the songs of the goblins and the jack o lanterns, and recognizing that the jack o lanterns were all once yellow pumpkins, growing on a sturdy vine before they became a jack o lantern with a little light that shines.

From MSB20101023

Our current story is of a goblin who wakes up from his cave after a long day of sleeping and finds that mischief has come over him…..so he ventures into town and causes all sorts of trouble (sneaks into houses to put salt in the sugar bowls, hide everyones clothes and open all the windows….and also sneaks down to the farms where he pulls all the cows and makes such a clanging and clattering with pails that the hens won’t lay eggs!!). The townspeople eventually get so fed up with the trouble that they “hatch a plan”. The next time the goblin comes around to their homes, he sees scary faces peeking out of every window at him, and also down at the farms from each cow’s stall……and because goblins can’t see very well, he does not know the scary faces are really just pumpkins carved into jack o lanterns! The goblin leaves and never returns to the town again, or any town!

Our pumpkin adventure here is very fitting with our current story. It was very exciting for the children to visit the back garden, they were surprised when they found we got a visit from the “Pumpkin King”, who left the children haystacks and lots of pumpkins to play with and some for carving into jack o lanterns. The children spent the entire week carrying, wheel-barrowing and organizing the pumpkins in various ways. At one point they lined them all up in a pumpkin row, another time they tried putting them up on the haybales (until they fell behind, giving them an extra challenge trying to get them back out of the hole), and some of them were hidden under piles of straw. Several of the children played pirates in the ship during the week, and almost the entire outdoor play in the garden was spent in the new play area by all of the children at once.

Pumpkin King Garden

Our back garden is really coming along. We still have plenty to do. We have some digging and finishing some of the river area, woodwork here and there, a mural to make on the back fence and some prime and painting of the beams and posts for the new swing area. As the Fall weather is rolling in, the leaves are starting to swirl in the air and the leaves are all changing. It will be time to clear our gardens out soon! The Monday children got to paint outdoors in the back garden. It was very nice.

Painting

We painted orange pumpkin paintings with the children on Monday and Thursday. We later turned them into jack-o-lantern cut outs to hang in the windows. We have made these before and they are so fun for decorating. It’s nice to give the children chances as they get older and more coordinated to make them again, doing more of the drawing, cutting and gluing without as much adult help.

Jackie O

Our baking day was fun. We got to cook pumpkins and make pumpkin muffins….not all of the children wanted to help but the ones who did worked very hard! The cracking of the eggs is always fun, they love the idea until it starts to come out of the shell and get on their fingers. The room smelled sweet and full of spice.

Baking

The laughables of the week are endless, but here are a couple…
one child said, “I just had a jamba juice the other week, and when I drink a drink that cold it makes my body do funny things”. We asked him what his body does when he has a cold drink. He said “It makes my head go down and my arms go up, like this”…. and he showed us by bending foward and tucking his head down……and putting his elbows up like chicken wings.

Another was when a child said that rainbows are red, and thats why he has a blue rain jacket without any fishes on it. How lucky we get to hear their thoughts and ideas.

Important information for the week: PLEASE READ

We look forward to our celebration this upcoming Friday. If your child shows fear toward halloween like visuals, please let me know soon. We will have a surprise for the children, a witches magic tent with a cauldron and brew, with a real witch and broom. She is fun and magical, bringing only stories I create with her to make sure it’s all age appropriate and not scary. Sometimes just the sight of a witch in the room is a little scary to a child now and then, but its all fun and smiles from her. Please do not tell your children anything, we will be talking about the week and the celebration with them in our own words and do not want to spoil the surprise but we will carefully be leading up to the idea that “Katie” the witch might be visiting us this week and we will be making her a pumpkin pie on Tuesday in hopes she will come for it. Parents will not be able to be inside for the celebration, but I’ll try and video tape it. I tried last year and failed, but if it works this year, I’ll try and turn it into one you can see. When you bring your child to school Friday morning for the party, you will take their shoes off and send them into the main house, where a teacher will be waiting and reading stories until we all go together in the classroom. Once you drop your child off, you can go peek in the classroom where the tent is if you like.
I’ll take photos that morning for you. PLEASE do not tell your child that there is a witch inside or anything else, and do not let your child peek into the classroom.

If you feel your child is not going to be comfortable with the celebration, please wait out front or in your car in case we need to bring your child to you. We want the witches experience to be great for all of the children, so if one is scared and needs to leave we want to be able to hand the child off quickly so that the others can continue to enjoy it and the child who is upset does not have to stay.

Please remember the costume guidelines. FYI, i f your child comes in a costume that is large, we will likely have to remove the large parts to all be able to join in the tent. No face coverings or face make up, no media or scary images on fabrics and no play weapons of any kind.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!

The Enormous Turnip has turned into a play. Here the children are working so beautifully together in making the story come to life. In the beginning they are singing with our bells over head to begin our play. It takes all to pull together to harvest the enormous turnip. Here is the end scene where the turnip is in a large pot and all are enjoying the feast together.

Enormous Turnip Play

The back garden is almost complete. It is looking great! Rick is doing such a wonderful job. We thank him for all of the hours and hard work he is putting into it.  The children have started playing in the new play area and are all really enjoying it.

The back garden has transformed into a wonderful setting that is fostering the children’s imagination. They were very busy taking magical boat rides on the beautiful river that leads to the ocean. Here  they are fishing, crabbing, seeing sharks, hiding, steering to miss a whale, and and then they stop the boat to cross the bridge to go on yet another adventure.

Outdoor Play

Nature Day was also full of adventure. The girls are playing a jumping game together with a long branch, the boys looking for stones in the gnomes home (laying on their tummies). Alana and Matteo are standing on a large tree shaking the branches and singing our “Shake shake shake the Apple Tree” song.

Nature Day

Here the children are hard at work and concentrating on their stories that they were drawing.

Coloring Time

Soup day was a yummy success. We made sweet butternut squash. Thank you for all of your contributions.

Lastly a big thank you to all who shopped at Sloat Gardens in supporting our school. We will receive a gift card and  we hope you will join us again next month for our November “Growing Up Green” week, November 5-15, 2010 at any Sloat Garden Center. If you need another coupon, let Linda know.

Have a wonderful week. Until next time!