Another really fun week for all of us! The fairy tale I picked to share last week was "The Star Frog," a story from Peru. I found it in the Enki Kindergarten Folk and Fairy Tales book (I ordered that and their Nature Tales and like them both very much!). I keep the new chalkboard drawing covered until it is time for our story on the first day, so the boys are always excited to see what's beneath the sheet! Last week when I pulled the sheet off Short Pants said, "Ooooohhhh!!"
Since our story had a "Condor King" in it we made birds nest cookies. Though we had a lot of fun stirring them up, they were *way* too chocolately for all of us - and with Pita Pocket that's saying something!
Here's Short Pants putting the peanut "eggs" into the nests:
For our handwork day last week we did some beeswax polishing. The Mister gave us some beeswax polish that he'd made himself:
Then we set to work polishing and buffing some of the boys' favorite toys. They both really enjoyed the polishing and worked very hard. As we polished I sang (and they sometimes joined in) "This is the way we polish our toys, polish our toys, polish our toys, this is the way we polish our toys so early in the morning. This is the way we buff our toys, etc."
I pointed out how healthy the wood looked after a good polish and could tell the boys were very proud. We also talked about how important it is to take care of our things. They couldn't wait to show The Mister when he got home, especially since he built their barn and stable:
For our painting day I tried to introduce a dark and light exercise to the boys. As I painted I told them a story of Little Red (in our house he is a busy little squirrel) being full of energy and running around and around, hopping from tree to tree after a big breakfast of walnuts. During this I painted a dark red circle on my paper. Soon Little Red grew tired and he began hopping more and more slowly, till he finally settled into his nest for a nice afternoon nap. During that part of the story I stopped dipping into the red paint so that my circle grew lighter and lighter until the paper was full and my paintbrush came to a stop at the center of the page:
I'm not sure if Short Pants wasn't ready for this or if he just got too excited. He started with a circle, but soon said that *his* Little Red was not getting sleepy and was not taking a nap...haha! Either way both boys still had fun, which was the point of painting in the first place:
On our beeswax modeling day we enjoyed a story from James Herriot's Treasury for Children. As I read the story Short Pants and I held our beeswax in our hands so that it could soften (Pita was busy playing and didn't want to model that day). Afterwards we made little bowls from our beeswax like the cat in the story ate from:
For our re-telling of "The Star Frog" later that afternoon (I tell the fairy tale for the week 4-5 times per week) I decided to do something a bit different. I had thought about acting out the story with props for the boys, which I knew they'd enjoy. Normally when I do this I set everything up and then cover it with a silk, which is then lifted to "reveal" the story when we begin. Instead of doing that I asked the boys to show me how we could use props to tell our story. They had so much fun gathering suitable items up! I didn't remind them of what we might need (i.e. girl, condor, etc) but instead let them think of everything:
While Short Pants set up the Condor King's home, Pita went in search of what he kept calling "a kind little frog" - so cute as this is *exactly* how the frog is described in the story. He also found some parents for Callyur, the little girl who is the Condor King's slave:
Here is Callyur making the Condor King's dinner:
The Condor King was actually an eagle from one of our Montessori continent boxes!
While I told the story and Pita Pocket watched, Short Pants showed how the Condor King had stolen Callyur from her parents:
Luckily for Callyur the kind little frog offered help as she was beating her clothes against the rocks of the stream:
You can see the whole set-up here. Short Pants said we had to have the Andes Mountains, so we pulled over our rocking chair and covered it with a sheet. What fun!
Since last week also brought the start of a new month, we have a new poem to read every morning after we fill out our calendar and look at our rhythm chart. A friend reminded me of this lovely poem she found over at My Montessori Journey:
I also put together a new September circle time that focuses on harvest time and apples. Lots of fun songs and musical instruments! I was worried last month when we first started circle time that it wouldn't go over so well with just three of us, but I have to say that the boys both really seem to love it. By the end of the month Short Pants was happily joining in on the songs and just the other day I overheard him in his bedroom by himself singing one of our new circle time songs.
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