Fall/Winter Overview:

Our Fall was filled with a stream of activity.  In classes children threshed grain, winnowed it, ground it into flour.  We shucked corn, dried it, and later shelled it for popcorn, and the cobbs are used for kitchen play within the children’s classroom kitchen.  We peeled carrots, chopped squash, ground the herbs we had dried.  We peeled, cored, and sliced apples - eating many - and hanging the peels to dry, and later eat.  We made butter in mason jars by shaking the jar  a long, long time and listening to the buttery ‘splash-thump’ as it separated from whey into creamy butter.  We peeled baked beets by hand leaving lots of color on our hands for washing.  Wooden dishes were polished with mineral oil and left to dry, apples were polished to later take home for eating.....some eaten in the late afternoon had their seed homes extracted with a melon baller to dry and later use for crafting as flower forms.  These were many of the activities that filled the Fall days. 

The Fall proceeded into the celebration of our school wide festival where families came on a Saturday to our lovely play yard  for just two hours to do all these activities again, together.  We ate, we circled, we fished for prizes, we sawed wood, we gathered pumpkins,  enjoyed each others company, we shared our thanks and said our goodbyes.

Soon after Halloween where school closed early so that children could get a ‘second wind’ before going to a nearby ‘Journey’, our many activities faded into scenes of class play, where houses were built, where kitchens were feeding folk, where buses and cars were taking trips to the mountains with families and babies, needing bags and bags of ‘things’.  Airplanes were prepared to fly with the captain announcing departure from DIA to New York, La Guardia.  Mechanics were replacing wheels, tightening screws, baggage helpers were loading sacks full of ‘oak’ logs into the luggage compartment, while stewards and stewardesses were asking if anyone wished pretzels.  To peek in on the house play, one saw all the little dolls being dressed in fresh clothes each morning, complete with hat, socks and traveling blanket so that they could be later taken home for the evening away from school to return the following day, dressed again and so on. 

We painted blue, blue and more blue for our lanterns which we lovingly make each year to celebrate a walk by candlelight on an early evening in November along with mothers fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, aunts, uncles, sisters, brothers.....whomever wishes to come with, we walk our lantern and see our little lights shine.  Children’s eyes are filled with sparkle to come to school when it is dark out, listen to a short story before leaving with lantern in hand for our walk in the dark. 

Just this darkness leads into the Thanksgiving time, when late in November every table and stand is covered with pods, seeds, nuts, squashes, gourds, pumpkins, wheat grasses all shining softly golden, where splashes of the color of deep orange from the Chinese Lanterns at the table centerpieces remind us of the warmth of the earth beneath our feet.  Everything is falling, falling, falling in the Fall.  Bundles of wheat in great vases are in every room as reminder of that for which we give thanks.......our daily bread, and the Earth which sustains us.

Thanksgiving passes into the Advent of the year, where quiet fills the preschool, if it can be believed.  This time is heralded in by the celebration of the Spiral Garden Ceremony where as community and as individuals we join in creating a space of growing light.  The mood of the classroom in early December is filled with glowing warmth.   Doll babies are bundled, mittens are put on, and dolly is ‘hauled’ from play scene to play scene by its faithfull  mother who loves it most dearly.  The little ponies, and lambs, the woodsman and gnome come for a time in early December which finds all manner of sheltering the intent of the children’s play.  Like the seed pods in the earth beneath, children enter this time of stillness and quiet waiting.    At nap times we see deep, deep sleep.  All stories are of Earth Mother who lives in her cave and cavern, who greets each little creature as it enters her doorway, notes its tattered jacket or hat, and gently, softly lays it upon a mossy bed, covers it with a mossy blanket and sings it to sleep for a time.

‘In Winter when the fields are white and there’s sunny weather; we take our sleds and off we go up the hill together.’  As with this song, the winter brings on activities outdoors filled with navigating depths of snow, falling down, rolling over to try to stand again, where divine dispensation is making a snow man, or an igloo.  Not a child is without mittens, not one.  Mothers have been knitting all Fall long three pair of mittens each for their child, and in some cases, children.
The cold has not stopped us from going outside for play in ‘rarified’ elements of ice and snow.  Very windy days will still keep us indoors, but few of those have been the case this winter. 

Just now we are passing into early January.  Soon both children and adults will feel a little ‘edgy’ as late January turns to February.  By March that edginess diminishes and slowly begins to fill in the spring, and with that time another description of this special schooling.

Songs:

Anytime during the day...
(words/music: Donna Hamann )

In my little green garden,
The hollyhocks grow so tall.
In my little green garden,
The purple thyme grows so small.
Larkspur, lilac and lupine grow quite close to the wall.
In my little green garden,
The hollyhocks grow so tall.

Circle Time Song:
(words/music: C. Hodnet & K. Perlas)

Let us form a ring
Dancing as we sing
Ring-a-ring-a-ri-a
Ring-a-ring-a-ri-a
Now I turn myself around
I watch birdies fly up and down
Ki-kir-ri, Ki-kir-ri, Ki.

Circle Opening Verse:

The earth is firm beneath my feet
The sun shines bright above
And here stand I, so straight and strong,
All things to know and love.

Circle Song, late summer:
(Polish Folk Song)

On a Monday morning, sunny Monday morning, sowed the hay...father and I
Sowed it when the sun was high.
On a Tuesday morning, sunny Tuesday morning, mowed...etc.
           Wednesday morning, sunny Wednesday morning, dried...etc.
           Thursday morning, sunny Thursday morning, raked...etc.
           Friday morning, sunny Friday morning, hauled....etc.
           Saturday morning, sunny Saturday morning, sold ...etc.
           Sunday morning, sunny Sunday morning, we gave thanks, father and I
            We gave thanks, to GOD, on high.

Finger games:

Traditional:
(adapted by N. Foster)

One, two, buckle my shoe....etc.

Henny Penny
Penny Roo
Roo Whistle
Mary Tostle
And Old Mr. Bom-bel-lo

On Foggy Mornings:
(unknown)

One misty, moisty morning
I spied a little elf man
A-cloth-ed all in leather,
(repeat)

And he said, 'How do you do?' and, 'How do you do?' and, How do you do, again.

On Bright, Hot Days:
(unknown)

This is the sea, the wavy sea, the wavy sea, the wavy sea
And this is the boat that carries me, that carries me, that carries me.
Down below, all the little fishes wiggle their tails, wiggle their tails, wiggle their tails,
And......away, they all go!

Late Summer Overview:

Late summer in preschool; the air is still pleasantly warm in the afternoons; the mornings have been cool and damp from overnight moisture and dew on the grasses.  The garden is colorfull with brillant gold, red, yellow, blue, purple orange and white blossoms.  The cabbages are ready to harvest, the herbs are standing high, the rye grass remains tattered as a reminder of the late spring hail storm. 

For our young three year olds, the first three weeks of the new school year have focused on 're-membering' routines established last year when they were two.  Our entrance has changed very little, save for the new introduction of entering with greater quiet in the morning from walk or ride to school.  "Go find Teacher", can be heard as parent after parent sends their child on to the playroom where Teacher is already busily engaged in the morning activity.  We have recalled, 'Please, may I have it after you?'  (The saying that spares all the tussles of who plays with what toy, and when.  Teacher has reintroduced the ditty softly sung as a child exits the bathroom: 
                       'Did the toilet flush?
                        Did the door go down?
                        Did I wash my hands around and around?
                        And did I use one towel?
                        And did the light go out?'
All that followed by the child imitating Teacher, who has said, "Yes, Teacher".
(Children love to hear and sing this.)  We have recalled where all toys are, and how to fold cloths, and how to sit at and clear table, how to whisper if a child has not yet awakened.  We have learned again the playground routines, and finally the exit for the day when we greet Teacher goodbye with a handshake and walk to the car with parent or sitter.   

Following the beginning of the year, children will find more emphasis on Fall activities in preparation for Fall itself, and our Fall Festival (see calendar for date and time).