Apple Seeds Home Nursery
  • Home
  • FAQs
  • Philosophy
  • About Miss Rebecca
  • Photos
  • Blog

Appleseeds Begins!

Thank you for visiting! This blog is to reflect on our weeks here together at Appleseeds Home Nursery. I am excited to see how the year unfolds with the changing of the seasons. I hope this blog gives the reader a better sense of what our day looks like and why I believe play is so crucial to child development.

Our Autumn harvest celebration

9/19/2013

0 Comments

 
Picture
This week was filled with baking, crafts, and apple everything. To prepare for our Autumn celebration on Thursday, the children helped me to make applesauce by using a food mill to strain out all of the skins and seeds. This was a fun job for all of the children and an excellent workout for their arms. We also prepared our apples for pressing by giving them a scrub with the scrub brushes. We had a little song we sang while polishing the apples that goes "We polish and polish and polish so bright, polish and polish hold up to the light". It is a little rhyme that will make it's way into other fingerplays later this year. 

Picture
For our Autumn craft, the children helped to sand some wooden rings until they were smooth. Next, they painted the rings with some red and yellow watercolor paint. After the paint had dried, they polished their rings up with some beeswax polish. I tied on some long ribbons and they became streamers! 

We added on to our morning circle this week and I can say that I think everyone is catching on and beginning to grasp the whole circle time idea! It helps to add something familiar. All year long we start with our morning verse of "Good morning dear Earth, good morning dear sun"...
We then pretended we were going to an orchard and playing a game of "Ring Around the Rosy". They LOVED being able to play this familiar game, and it is very useful in getting the children to carefully follow directions. They can't tug too hard on one another's hand, they have to walk not too fast or too slow; if you think about it, it's a fairly complex task for 2 year olds and young 3 year olds! But it's a wonderful game that prepares them for more complicated tasks. Then we went into the orchard where "The apples are ripe, the apples are red..." and did the same verse as last week. But now one of the children would fetch a basket and we would sing,

"There came some children and picked them all up, picked them all up, picked them all up.
There came some children and picked them all up
And put them in the basket.

We would put our imaginary apples in the basket, then we sat down to get them ready to make applesauce. Each child grabbed an imaginary apple, some had small red apples, some chose big green ones, and we sang our polishing song. At last, it's time to:

"Chop, chop, chop, and put them in the pot" (2x)
"Then stir, stir, stir and cook them till they're hot" (2x)
"Now scoop, scoop, scoop. Scoop some in a dish" (2x)
"And eat, eat, eat. Mmmmm. Applesauce is sweet" (2x)

Our story remained the same. Children love to hear stories over and over for awhile as it helps them to grasp what's going on, and the familiarity is comforting. I will begin a new story next week, but they have loved hearing the story of the fairy putting a star into each apple.  

Picture
Outside we had a "castle" built, but later it was replaced by a gas station. I have to say that the service at our gas station cannot be beat! You just don't find service like that anymore! And good thing, because these kids drive some gas guzzlers! No sooner had they gone around the "block" then they had to refuel! 

The week was capped off with our Autumn celebration, when all of the wonderful parents came to share the apple cake and apple sauce we had made. Big hands and small helped press all of our polished apples into delicious cider! 

0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    About Me

    I am the owner of a small, play and nature based home nursery located in Durham, NC. My goal is to provide a cozy nursery for children that allows them to play using all of their senses both indoors and out. I also hope to bring families and children together through seasonal activities and celebrations. 

    Archives

    September 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    March 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    November 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.