Circle Time

We have really been enjoying our circle times, the little ones have even started asking to do it again during the day.  We currently do ours after breakfast.  We keep it pretty short  as to keep two toddlers' attention,  We begin every circle, all year long, with:

 Good Morning Dear Earth, 

Good Morning Dear Sun,

Good Morning to the Trees,

And the Flowers Everyone.

Good Morning Dear Beast,

and the Birds in the Trees,

Good Morning to You,

and Good Morning to Me.

Then we change up our body with one song, one verse and one finger play weekly.  I use Little Acorn Learning's Monthly guides.  Last week's had a sheep theme, so we sang Mary Had a Little Lamb. then recited Ba Ba Black Sheep, then did a little finger play from Little Acorn Learning's January guide about sheep.

We end with this sweet little verse again not switching it out all year:

RUFTY AND TUFTY

Rufty and Tufty were two little elves
Who lived in a hollow oak tree
They did all the cooking and cleaning themselves
And often asked friends in to tea.

Rufty wore blue, and Tufty wore red,
And each had a hat with a feather,
Their best Sunday shoes they kept under the bed -
They were made of magic green leather.

Rufty was clever and kept the accounts,
But Tufty preferred to do cooking.
He could make a fine cake without weighing amounts -
And eat it when no one was looking!

Isabell Hempseed

Then we either go on a little walk or set up a walk in our living room, by draping a green silk over the table to be a bush to climb under, laying a blue silk on the floor as a stream to jump over or something fun like "Jack be Nimble, Jack be Quick" by making a pile of red orange and yellow silks to be the flame of the candle stick.  

Oh and here is a little pocket I made for our weather gnomes to keep by the front door so the children can check the weather and choose the correct gnome for the day to be placed on our nature table.  We are still working on learning the correct symbols.  I think I will needle felt something onto the pocket as soon as I think of a design.  

Gnomes

I had a 50% off coupon for our local craft store, so I decided to try my hand at a word burning tool.  I have never been a great artist and I do not have a steady hand but the tool ended up costing $8.  I figured I would have a go at it.  

I found it a bit hard to work with, and my designs came out um....primitive shall we say?  But I had fun and I think the gnomes came out really cute. 

First, I burned the designs, then water colored their bodies, and then sealed them with beeswax before gluing on their acorn or felt hats.  I think these will make sweet little Valentine's Day gifts for the children in our Playgarden and will provide some good practice for me.  I also listed them in my Etsy shop almost at cost, to reflect that these are practice gnomes, but I think I made them affordable enough that someone could actually hand these out instead of paper Valentines.  If you are interested I am selling the acorn capped gnomes for .75 cents each to my Blog readers and Facebook friends, when you purchase 20 or more.  Just send me a message on Etsy.

I also made a set of weather gnomes, that I had planned on using with our weather verse.  When the little ones wake up we go to the front door to see what the weather is today, We say this little verse from Little Acorn Learning,

Good morning to the glad new day, Whatever the skies let fall, If storm or sunshine, it is sent, A loving gift to all. For Sunshine: Good morning to the sunshine fair, That lights this world of ours, Good morning to the singing birds, Good morning to the flowers! For Clouds or Rain: Good-morning to the friendly clouds That bring refreshing rain, Which patters out "Good-morning, dears!' Against the window pane. For Snow: Good-morning to the lovely snow, That lies so soft and deep Above the little tender seeds In mother earth asleep. And then I showed them the gnomes and told them about their symbols.  They were both able to pick out which one was rain.  Although I'm not sure if they really understood the symbols on the gnomes yet, we will have to see how it shows up in their play over the next few days.  I often don't realize how much they understand until I see them imitate it later. I don't know if they can make the connection with the sun in the sky and the little sunshine symbol on the gnome yet, and they have not seen snow since before they turned one, so I don't think that is a clear concept for them yet either, but rain, we know rain!   Kiera was not interested in putting our little rain gnome on the nature table after we determined today too was raining. We have had our fair share of rain this week!   She cleared off her little table and grabbed the wand we use for story time and went to creating a little story with our new little weather gnomes.

Handmade Holiday Toy Exchange

A few photo's from my Handmade Holiday Toy Exchange on Saturday.  

I wish I had remembered to take photos of all the beautiful toys that were crafted but I got so excited in seeing what everyone made, I forgot all about photos.  I did take a few photos of the gifts I received the next morning as you will see below, but there were so many amazing crafts I really wish I had documented them all!

Our Advent Wreath and Gnomes welcoming friends our table

Some beeswax snowflakes and holiday greenery the littles and I collected on a nature walk

Clementines and Pomegranates

a few sugary treats and gluhwein

Sugarplums (thanks to Sparkle Stories for the recipe).

Goodies waiting to be opened

Homemade sparkle play dough scented with doTERRA oils

Walking blocks

A sweet little ball

This darling little gnome featured in "A Little Farm Story" about protecting the hens.

The gnomes and trees I made for the exchange

It was such a lovely evening filled with great conversations and such creativity, we have decide have one of these every season.  I already cannot wait for our Spring Exchange.

Happy Saint Nicholas Day!

We have been telling the story of Saint Nicholas at bedtime all week, tonight after I finished telling them the story I asked the littles if they would like to but their shoes out and see if Saint Nicholas would leave them a special treasure too.  I have to admit I was actually surprised at how well they understood they both took their shoes to the back door, and attempted to put them outside but I convinced them they could go on the welcome mat.

Saint Nicholas came!  He left a clementine, a fruit leather, some honey sticks and a sweet little gnome peg doll in a stocking.

I used the free pattern at Wee Folk Art to craft these little guys.

We will bake cookies today and go deliver them to friends in celebration of Saint Nicholas.  Wishing everyone a beautiful celebration filled with warmth and love!