Saturday, September 11

First week of school!


















We'll be spending a couple of weeks celebrating Early Autumn in our homeschool. Our "circletime" is really just a time for singing, movement and observing the seasons/festivals of the year as they roll by.
 
Here are the rhymes and songs from our Early Autumn Circle (the bits in italic parenthesis are notes to myself about movement or how to link one song/verse to the next) :

(standing and with wide, expansive hand gestures:)
Good morning, dear Earth! Good morning, dear Sun!
Good morning, dear stones, and flowers, every one!
Good morning to the bees, and the birds in the trees!
Good morning to you, and good morning to me!
 -from our parent/tot group


(counting on fingers :)
1,2,3, nous avons un grand chat.
4,5,6, il a des longues griffes!
7,8,9, il a mange un oeuf !
10,11,12 il est jaune et rouge.
-adapted from "Receuil de poemes..."

(let's take a walk among the trees of the forest...)

(walking quietly around circle on tip-toe: )
Quietly I step step step
In the woods so dark
Carefully I tip tip tip
Making not a mark.
My feet are silent like a cat
They do not make a sound
The birds they do not hear me pass
I hardly touch the ground.
-from Marsha Johnson

(some leaves are beginning to turn colors)

(pass a beanbag around front and back of body/ balance beanbag on head/ let drop into hands: )
Front and back, front and back
Around me the leaves do swirl
Up on top, up on top
From the sky a leaf does drop!
-adapted from Marsha Johnson


(some old apple trees are growing here)


(skipping around circle/ repeat skipping opposite direction: )
Come along my dear one, come along with me
Come into the orchard and shake the apple tree
I will pick the high ones, you will pick the low
When we’ve filled our baskets, home with them we’ll go.
-adapted from "Sing Through the Year"


(repeat several times, catch beanbags/ toss into basket to the rhythm of:)
Reddish-yellow-golden-green,
Prettiest apples ever seen!
Pick them high and pick them low
Wonder how many in will go!
1,2,3…

Pommes rouges sur le pommier,
Moi je viens avec mon panier.
Pommes, sur le gazon tombez!
Moi je veux bien vous manger!
-adapted from  "Receuil de poemes..."


(now we have so many apples…look, a squirrel!)

(sing: )
Squirrel Nutkin with his coat of brown,
Quite the loveliest in Woodland Town.
Two bright eyes look 'round to see
Where the sweetest of the nuts might be.
 -from parent/tot circle

(strew nuts and return them to basket using toes while repeating )
Grey squirrel, grey squirrel, swish your bushy tail
“             “         “        “             “      “       “         “
Wrinkle up your little nose
Pick a nut up with your toes
Grey squirrel, grey squirrel, swish your bushy tail!
-from Wynstones Autumn book



(now we have basketfuls of apples and nuts...time to return home for a story)

(walking quietly around circle on tip-toe: ) 
Quietly I step step step
In the woods so dark
Carefully I tip tip tip
Making not a mark.
My feet are silent like a cat
They do not make a sound
The birds they do not hear me pass
I hardly touch the ground.
-from Marsha Johnson

(sit)

(Ah, we’re home…let child settle, light candle and sing song for storytime)

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Baking for this week was a scrumptious banana bread using this recipe (but substituting coconut oil for the canola).

















Handwork was making a few more beanbags to use in our circle verses above. We needed 16 in order to play the game of tossing "apples" into a basket to the rhythm of  the "Reddish-yellow-golden-green" poem (we tossed a beanbag on every other beat in the poem...so, 4 tosses for each line : REDdish YELlow GOLden GREEN, etc). I stitched up the bags and Toucie had the challenging job of filling them. We normally use sand or rice in our beanbags, but this time we had dry chickpeas on hand, so....
 

















For Painting Day we used a poem to inspire a wet-on-wet watercolor using only the color red. You can see our work in progress at the top of this page :)

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