Dear parents,
Last week for our creative work we made craft rings. This comforting and rhythmic activity produces a colorful display for your home and can also be a homemade toy that allows for the imagination to explore different possibilities. It’s a simple craft which calls for only a few materials, but can create much joy in your home.
For more creative work, we encourage the children to create a nature table, as this can be an ongoing activity.
As you go for your walks, have your child pick out things from nature that they love and place it on a special tray. This activity also serves as a memory table as they will remember your walks together and where each nature item came from. Children can take care in washing or letting wet objects dry out before carefully placing it for display.
We also provided ingredients for a window washing solution and included a song to sing as you and your child clean the windows of your home.
Our outdoor activity included insect observations, how many can your child find? What business are these insects up to? Put a leaf in their way and see how they respond. You can even place them in a bowl or container to observe them, but have your child carefully return them to the area they were found when they are finished observing.
Another outdoor activity includes gathering and identifying dandelions. We included images to learn more about the dandelion and it’s various benefits. With this new knowledge, we will never look at them as just a weed again!
We also provided a recipe for making dandelions cookies. It only requires half a cup of dandelions so hopefully you will be able to gather it on one of your strolls. We also posted a recipe for dandelion tea and dandelion jelly. Let us know if you’ve tried it!
Another activity includes hammers and dyeing fabric or paper with collected leaves and flowers! The children love hammering and there are plenty of leaves and flowers to be found outside.
For our physical activity, we shared an image of different animals the children could have fun imitating while getting their hearts pumping, for example the “starfish jumps” or “elephant stomps”.
Ki Holly shared a lovely story with us this past week called, “The Magic Lake at the end of the World”. The story is about a prince who brought his father much joy but also sorrow due to his illness. The king prayed for help and received an answer- that his son can be cured if he drank from the magic lake at the end of the world. Many brave men sought out to retrieve the magical water, but were unable. Meanwhile, at the edge of the kingdom, lived a poor farmer and his family. His sons were determined to find the magical lake. The brothers set out on their journey and travelled far, but they could not find the lake. Instead, they gathered water from all the lakes of the land and offered it to the prince. The prince was not cured and the two brothers were discovered and thrown into prison for being deceitful. Once again the king pleaded for help. This time, the poor farmer’s daughter sought out to find the lake. The farmer halfheartedly let her go. She set out and travelled far, even spending nights in unknown lands. The creatures noticed how she was kind to them and knew she was looking for the magic lake, so offered to help her. Listen to the story and see how it ends.
We also attached a story by Suzanne Down about a grandmother, her straw hat, and a little mouse if you want to read your child a sweet story.
Please post or send us pictures and let us know what activities your child has done!
Be well and thank you for your continued support and all that you do.
With new life in me
I can stretch my being to the Four Winds,
Made strong by the Soul of the Sun in me,
Bright rays of thought
Can penetrate the Mystery of Life,
Fulfilling hopes in unexpected ways.
~Rudolf Steiner