Late Winter is here, and with it comes our bit of cold weather. We are focusing on holidays this term, and learning about the moon, sun, and stars, and their effects on earth. There are two holidays in the first week of this term, Orthodox New Year and the traditional day to Wassail trees.

Circle Time (every day)

• Song: This Little Light of Mine
• • We are learning new songs now that Kai really enjoys singing and has begun to pick up the words to songs we sing all the time. Each song is scheduled for two weeks, so that she has plenty of time to pick up the lyrics and hand gestures.
• PE: Cosmic Yoga Story
  • Kai asked to do more Yoga, so we decided she could pick a Cosmic Kids Yoga story to do each week. We’re starting with The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
• Calendar: Moon Phases
• • We are charting the phases of the moon.

Monday

Outdoor Nature Study: Sun

• We’ll be paying extra attention to sunlight and shadows on our nature walk. How does the sun feel on your face after walking for a while in shadows? Does the same plant look different in the shadow and the sun? 

Process Art: Shadow Drawing

• We’ll be collecting a few nature finds on our walk and then tracing their shadows and coloring them.

Holiday: Orthodox New Year

• We are going to talk about how different people use different calendars during circle time on Monday, and for people using the Julian calendar, today is the New Year. 

Tuesday

Indoor Nature Study: Sunlight/Light

• This week we’re talking about sunlight. How it helps plants grow, keeps us warm, and lights our way.

Life Skill: Tea Time/Wash the Table

• Tuesday is tea time! We have a treat and some lemonade in a tea cup and I read a book from the book basket. This term, Kai is in charge of washing the table after we’re done.
• We have started looking at quality of numbers, as I realized Kai has figured out adding and subtracting numbers under 9 all by herself. I wasn’t ready for her to be so ready for math, especially since we usually do a single page of her math book once a week. We are using The Gnomes’ Gemstones by FromJennifer, to make sure Kai has a really good feel for numbers before she gets too ahead of me with the calculating. 

Wednesday

Social Studies: North America

• We are going to find North America on a map, and open up our North America continent box for the first time.

Sensory: Plants and Sunshine Light Table

• We are going to play with pattern blocks on the light table. My “suggested” pattern print outs are of the sun and a flower, but mostly we do free play.

Thursday

Seasonal: Wassailing the Trees

• While we don’t have an apple tree (yet), we are going to wassail our trees and thank them for cleaning our air and feeding our furry friends.

Kitchen: Mulled Cider

• We’re making mulled cider, both to wassail our trees with and to enjoy ourselves.

Friday

Ancestor Tale: Ursa Major and Minor

• Instead of reading a story from a book, Fridays are for oral story telling. I learn a new story every other week to tell Kai, and we act out the story with props. Usually the story gets acted out again and again during playtime and bed time, as Kai tends to really enjoy this kind of story telling. During late winter we are focusing on stories about constellations.

Painting and Drawing

• On Fridays, I tell a story and Kai is invited to paint or draw something from it.

If you want to see how it went or follow along, I generally post our school photos to our Instagram either on the same day or soon after.

Specific Materials for Week 1:

• • a bowl for wassail
  • a pot and spoon to bang it with
  • Pattern blocks
  • North American Continent Box

See our School Supplies post for general supplies used throughout the year.