Blossom House Sprouts: 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!

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!