We were lucky this week to have some warm enough weather to be able to play with water, and even go barefoot! It may be the last chance for awhile, so it was nice to get it in. On the playground, the children have been enjoying lugging bricks here and there, often using the wagon to pull a whole load. The big blocks were used to build a pirate ship, and the popular food to catch was octopus, which they ate happily on board the ship. When the children get exhausted, they often wind up resting in the nooks and crannies found in the hay bales. Some new paintbrushes added into the mix this week inspired some "painting" with water. 

Inside, the children have been enjoying using our heavy beanbags to create beds for their kitties, or roads to carefully walk on. Our circle time this week is all about leaves, and our finger plays are a fun way to mimic the movement of leaves. One that the children love goes like this, see if they can show you the movements:
Autumn leaves are falling down
They make a carpet on the ground
Then SWISH! the wind comes whistling by 
And sends them dancing to the sky
All the leaves are falling down
Red and yellow, orange and brown
If you listen, you'll hear them say
"Wintertime is on it's way!"
Fingerplays seem like just a fun little game to play with children, but they work on the child's development in so many ways. Fingerplays engage the child's attention and allow their hands and their brains to work together to imitate careful movements. At the same time that they're imitating fine movements, they are repeating careful rhymes. The movement and the rhyme must come at the same time, neither being too fast or too slow. So we are engaging the brain, the voice, the ear, the hands and the eyes all at once. 

Well, this blog is back to my phone photos. In contrast to last week's gorgeous photos, these are a little less magical, but there's still those wonderful kids. It's harder to capture them with my phone, which doesn't appreciate the constant movement of children! 
 
A fun game has been taking place when we're out in the woods, and I'm sure you've all played it at some point in your childhood. I like to call it "Save me (cough, cough), I'm falling!" This is when you have a nice steep hill and someone has made it to the top, and someone else climbing reaches up an arm and says "Help!", and the person at the top says "I'll help you! Grab my hand!" with much drama. Everyone makes grunting, heaving noises and everyone makes it to the top, thanks to the strength of their comrades. My thought is that this is a universal game. I'm happy to see it form here, as it tells me that the children are reaching a point where they can both imagine a scenario of struggle, simultaneously, and work together to make it have a happy ending. It expresses to me the human drive to reach for help and also reach out TO help. Sort of the best parts of humanity, right there in a child's game. 

The children enjoyed another story with their friend Old Gnome. This story is a variation on the one last week, in which Hedgie finds a home in a pumpkin. In this story, we have the perspective of Old Gnome, who while cleaning up his garden, discovers Hedgie living in a pumpkin. He watches Hedgie prepare his home, so as not to frighten Hedgie. Then a spider comes and asks to spend the winter with Hedgie, and closes up the hole with a spider web. The two sleep safe and warm inside their "pumpkin hotel" as Old Gnome calls it, with the leaves forming a warm blanket on top. Old gnome leaves out little bits of food for Hedgie to find. 

We've also started a new circle, which I only just had enough voice to say on Thursday. Same for the story. The children will hear much more of the circle and be able to enjoy the story more fully now that I have 80% of my voice back! I will tell you many of those verses in the next blog, when we've had more time with them! 

A fun time was had making a little "squirrel snack" this week using our hammers and some peanuts! It was a nice exercise in self control, with frequent rewards! The children could not pound too hard or else they would smash the peanut inside, but they had to pound hard enough to crack the shell, then use their fingers to break it open completely! 

Also, I noticed children continuing to paint the leaves! Lucky for us, nature is responding in kind!

Our last week of October was a lovely one, and culminated in our Harvest Celebration. The children had spent the week painting their capes and crowns and gathering leaves from the forest to tuck into their crowns. We sing a little song that goes "fairies have painted the leaves that you see. Red, gold, and yellow they hang from the trees, whirling and swirling and dancing around, then quietly, softly they float to the ground". It's a fun song to sing on our walks in the woods while we watch the leaves (finally) coming down. The children made some autumnal gingerbread cookies to share at the end of our "leaf painting" walk. Halloween can be an overwhelming celebration for children, but when we as adults use it as an opportunity to slow down, enjoy the sights and smells of autumn and keep it simple, the children can discover a sense of wonder in it. 

As the days grow shorter and colder, our songs leading up to our Harvest Fest began to have images of little lights shining out. One of the songs we sing goes "Jack-o-lantern, jack-o-lantern, you are such a lovely sight, as you sit there in the window looking out at the night. You were once a golden pumpkin growing on a pumpkin vine. Now you are a jack-o-lantern, and your light it does shine!" We finish with a verse that says "May my heart shine the whole year long! With love, and light, and a happy song!" It's a wonderful lead-in to the early winter celebrations that include images of light.