Thanksgiving

The Children enjoyed making squash soup served out of a pumpkin and each child brought home some home made cranberry sauce to their families for Thanksgiving!!

Halloween Festivities

Making ornaments with pumpkin play doh and we felting our own wool pumpkins highlighted our Halloween time together!

Martinmas

Autumn is my favorite time of year and the children and I enjoyed ourselves so very much, I would like to share some snap shots of a beautiful season together! This is our Martinmas celebration. Martinmas is a European celebration honoring the Saint Martin who was know for his kind acts of giving to others especially the poor. It is celebrated around Thanksgiving time so it is a perfect time for us to learn about acts of kindness in our own community as well. Each of the children worked very hard constructing a lantern made from their painting. That day at rest we heard the story of St. Martin and prepared out feast! After eating, we lit our lanterns and headed into the park together, gathered briefly and sung "Im walking with my lantern, my lantern is walking with me....". It was a nice community moment for the children and they loved it very much,

"Love is in the Air"

We had such a great week celebrating Valentines Day. We delved into caring and love full force on every front. Not only did our treats and crafts reflect the celebration but we even heard the fairy tale of Briar Rose before rest time every day. Also, a new added part of our day, book story time upon waking from rest has been a big hit and we heard tales of love, they were both tales of how our moms and dads love us and how we love others. The children loved them both "In My Heart" as well as "I love you with all my Hearts". After we took time to share who we loved, and who was in our heart. All your children said they loved mommy and daddy, some shared sisters and brothers and grandparents, pets and one child even insisted only "he" was in his heart. I think he meant this quite literally that his heart was in his body :)

On Monday, our typical painting day we painted with Red and then saved our painting for later in the week.

Tuesday we made home made play doh, it was pink and vanilla scented and they all loved playing with it and taking a small heart home with some inside.
Later that week we made heart shaped valentines brownies for snack which were delicous. We took our play dough we had made and made heart ornaments. Each child cut out a heart out of her play doh and we baked them. They came out so pretty and everyone was so excited to give one to mommy or daddy. Later that week to culminate our week we took our paintings and put our hand stamps on them for a special present for the mommy's.

More fun during our week together:

Circle Time-Our winter adventure

Circle time is such a lovely time for children, older and younger it is a time for us to come together hold hands and take an outward breath. In working with young children it is thought that children thrive best when their day is rhythmical; in that their are periods of inward and outward breath. In my opinion these are time of either movement, excitement, and play vs. times of quiet and peacefulness. The rhythm to our day exemplifies this component to early childhood education in that circle time is a time for movement big and small, and singing loudly. Our story time or meal time with a candle lit, a familiar blessing, and hand holding creates a calm and peaceful environment where we are more within our self.

This winter circle has been this ever evolving adventure. We always begin acknowledging morning with our two welcome songs as we warm up our bodies by stomping our feet, clapping and skipping.
"Good Morning, Good Morning, it is a chilly day, We clap our hands and stomp our feet and turn around to see, (repeat other side) Good Morning, Good Morning , Good Morning to the world."
"Down is the Earth, up is the sky, these are my friends and here am I, Good Morning friends". (and we all shake hands)

As the snow began to fall we began with our "Mitten Song" we learned it was time we all don our wear for our hands, we heard the story of the Mitten that week and even made our own mittens with a wee mouse tucked inside:
"Thumbs in the thumb place
Fingers all together
That's what we say, in mitten weather
Hats on our heads
Scarves around our necks
Warm boots, warm boots,
So we don't get wet "

We then added our song about "Snowmen" and some children in fact constructed a snowman!
I'm a little snowman short and fat
Here is my broomstick
Here is my hat
When the sun comes out I melt away...
Down, down, down,....woops now I'm a puddle!

As we covered our week about animal friends, and made treats for our bird friends we added
"Chickadees" a fast and fun finger play:
5 Little Chickadees sitting in a row, one few away and then there were 4
Chickadees, chickadees happy and gay, chickadee, chickadee, fly, fly away
4 Little Chickadees sitting in the tree, one flew away and then there were 3
Chorus.......... All the way until we get to 1.

The next week brought story's of Jack Frost and North Wind, we made ice sun catchers, looked for signs of Jack Frost on our windows and sung:
"Jack Frost is fairy small, I am sure he's out today...
and he is busy pinching me when I go out to play
Jack Frost he pinched my fingers, Jack Frost he pinched my toes
So I ran into the house and I shut the door... and that little Jack Frost couldn't pinch me anymore..."

Along with Jack Frost we did not leave out North Wind, "The North Wind doth blow and we shall have snow, and what will the robin do then, poor thing...
He'll sit in a barn and keep himself warm, and hide himself under his wing

The North Wind Doth Blow and we shall have snow and what will the

sparrow do then, poor thing, Oh do you not know he's gone long ago

To a country much warmer than ours."
Lastly this week we celebrated Candelmas and Ground hog day and added to our circle:
"Ground hog in your hold so deep, laying still and fast asleep.. If your shadow makes you leap, curl back up and go to sleep."

We constructed felt ground hog finger puppets and read "Gretchen the Groundhog" learning much about Candelmas and Ground hog day! We ate festive foods traditional of Candelmas including crepes with strawberries and whip cream and whole wheat blueberry pancakes. We learned we ate these things as they represent the sun which is circle in shape. I took this and expanded as we learned all about circles and found circles in our cucumbers, organges, marbles, and so much more in our world. We made circles out of soft dough and even played I Spy outside for circles in nature!!

Our Winter circle takes us on a journey of music and movement that has had this slow progression each week introducing a new song (letting go of an old one) while tying in a theme for the week. Next week and the following, I hope to bring our winter adventure to a completion as we play a Valentine love circle game. Not too long after that we will begin to sing songs looking for early signs of Spring. The children love circle time, I love watching them, especially during the finger plays when they work hard to use their fine motor coordination.

We close our circle with a sharing time, we pass around our magic sharing stone and who ever is holding it gets to share something, some children share something fun they did, many like to play an instrument and some with Miss Jamie's help are teaching us sign language. This activity has proven most valuable as they are all learning the value of taking turns, giving someone else our attention and being supportive to our friends!

A friend sharing his harmonica playing skills!!

Other fun moments this week:

Its a snow birthday cake! Happy Birthday Rylee!

Winter reigns again!

Winter Reigns Again!!

Well the temperature has taken a dip again and it is apparent that Old Man Winter is here for awhile. We took advantage of expanding on our winter adventures by introducing a new song into circle: "Old Man Winter came out to play and said he's going to make this a very cold day, so he blew to the South... , to the East, and the West, but when he blew to the North he said thats the best, The Old North Wind is my very best friend and when we play we make a very, very, very, very, very, cold day"! Still continuing with our songs about Jack Frost and our tale at rest "Old North Wind and Little Jack Frost" we rounded out our focus on Jack Frost and North Wind by making ice sun catchers. We took the morning to gather seasonal items from nature; twigs, leaves left over in the garden, cranberries and various pines that Miss Jamie used the snips to gather. Each child was able to place various items of their choice in her water filled plate. It was interesting to see some of the children heaping mounds of treasures into their plates and others placing each so very carefully as if making a masterpiece. We then set them out to freeze. Some of the children noticed by dismissal that there was a very thin layer of ice on them, and by morning they were frozen solid. They came out just beautiful!!! This was one of those crafts that suprised me how beautiful they turned out!!

This coming week we look forward to one of our first celebrations here, the celebration of Candelmas, officially occuring on Feb. 2. We know it as ground hog day and historically it has been deemed a time of "new beginings" and the begining of Spring. It is the mid way mark between the winter and summer solstice. It was often the time that the fields were readied for the coming planting. We will be making a craft to celebrate Candelmas as well as enjoying traditional foods eaten on this day. We have much to look forward to this coming week as we put Jack Frost, and North Wind behind us and look forward to the coming Spring. (How long until we feel that suns warmth?)

Wintery Fun!

With our exploration of Jack Frost fully under way as well as singing songs of snow men in circle we have taken every chance this past week to get outside and experience the elements (and the temperature has taken a rise as well) On Tuesday with the snow falling gently in the morning we got outside for some winter fun.

This is the process of building a snowmen....

First you roll the body.....

Then you carry it by sleigh across the yard to your designated location....

Then Voila, a beautiful snow man you have...

More snap shots of winter fun....

Jack Frost

"Jack Frost is Fairy small.
I'm sure he's out today.
And he is busy pinching me, when I
go out to play.
Jack Frost he pinched my fingers,
Jack Frost he pinched my toes.
So I ran into the house and I shut
the door, and that little Jack Frost
couldn't pinch me anymore".


This was the song we introduced into circle on Monday morning with anticipation for our next two weeks of learning and exploring. The children were excited to begin our painting. We painted with the color blue as we heard a Jack Frost tale, then as the painting dried the snow fairies came and sprinkled glittery "snow" on them. They came out beautiful and the children were so proud of them!
















At rest time we introduced a new tale "The North Wind and Little Jack Frost" which tells a tale of the two winter forces effects and how we need them for all of our winter fun times, told from the point of view of a little boy named Willie. We will continue to explore with Jack Frost for the next week, making ice sun catchers and hopefully with the frigid temperatures upon us again can take some opportunities to look at windows Jack Frost has made pictures on.

Our first week....

Familiar, yet different, the children entered Blossom House with a comfort level, yet I am sure unsure of how we might proceed with our day in this different house!! They very quickly were comforted by our rhythm, we started our day with circle, singing our old favorites acknowleding the season and singing songs of snowmen and donning our mittens. We then enjoyed our rice for Monday is rice day and set forth with our painting project. Intead of taking up or paintbrushes for our usual wet on wet watercolor painting we used our hands to paint and added our hand prints to our bags to hold our belongings. The children enjoyed having their hand painted and even more so enjoyed the soapy water play after! This project was to help them take some ownership and put their individual stamp on their bags here at Blossom House.

Much like mothering I have learned that often your "plans" are not the childrens plans and you often have to simply let them lead. My plan and theme for the week was quickly changed when during our outdoor time a beautiful black capped chickadee kept landing on our (empty) birdfeeder often times only a foot or two from the children. (They often are rather bold around humans compared to other birds) My intention was next week to focus on the birds and winter etc. but this event and close interaction quickly changed my mind. The children loved hearing his "song" and seemed to be interested in him. I took full advantage and fast forwarded my next week plans. I explainded very simply that father winter has came to town and covered the ground with snow and so the birds do not have access to food, little chickadee was prompting us to help him eat and get him through the rest of winter. So right away we filled the feeder with seed and waited for his return.....


Tuesday came and in circle we began our new fingerplay song "Five Little Chickadee's" which they loved, some connected it with our previous days experience with our bird friend. During our seasonal craft time we sat down to make some edible ornaments for the birds on snowflake garland. (I have to tell you, fruit loops is the cereal of choice of the birds for this activity, not very holistic I know) However the children asked if they could eat any and your amazing children did not eat a one! I told them it was cereal made for the birds and not good for growing children, and we would snack on apple wedges instead. The activity proved to be two fold, it was an excellent activity to develop fine motor coordination as they strung the cereal on a thin wire, we discussed colors as some chose to limit their colors and others not. AND the best part was that we were decorating a Christmas tree for our bird friends and helping them get through the winter. Later in the week we finished some more ornaments for our bird friends and our tree was decorated so nicely!

After rest they were so excited to decorate their tree with the ornaments, it was truly magical!

The next few days were filled with cooking home made soups and baking fresh made bread which the children loved! Some of them eating 5 slices with honey butter at snack time!


Outdoor time has become a favorite with "sledding" down this tiny hill in the front at top of the list to do, as well as watching for our bird friends to come down a visit with us which the children love. On bread day we saved our crusts and the children placed them out by the feeder for the birds and not only did the birds find the treat but ole squirrell nutkin had a snack too and we watched him in the window!!

Mornings have taken a twist as well with an official music time every morning where we listen to various types of music and take our turn at instruments. This week the favorite was the train music, which gave us opportunity to learn some about rhythm and tempo.

I could not have asked for a better week with the children, we found our rhythm to our day (I am sure we will fine tweak it a little) but for the most part everyone seems very happy and we have a great group!!