Welcome to Fairy Lane

          
What a beautiful day to walk in the woods searching for fairy homes.

But let me take you back in time a bit.
I first posted about discovering fairy doors in a neighbouring community.
Then we created a fairy world in our classroom.
Leading us to create our own doors to place in a wooded area nearby.
                   
         

Then yesterday my husband and I took a walk in the woods.
Looking for the best places for fairy homes to reside.
 
We left arrows, made from sticks, and piles of pinecones marking
the spots
to look for the fairy doors.
                

Back to present time, this morning, the StrongStart families went
for a walk in the woods searching for their fairy doors. 
 
Searching for piles of pinecones to show us the way.
  
Crossing a bridge to find the first fairy home tucked behind a tree.
                   
The children continued searching for the doors along Fairy Lane.
When they found one they left housewarming presents.
Pinecones, leaves, glass jewels.
 
 
We had a few obstacles to tackle along the way.
 
But it didn’t slow us down.
 
 
We rang many door bells and knocked on many doors but no fairies were home.
     
When we found this door we met a slug that was just leaving the fairy home.
He told us no one was home and
pointed us on to the next door.
 
There are twelve fairy homes in Lerwick Woods and we decided to make
it easier to find by tying ribbon on branches close by.
  
Before saying goodbye to Fairy Lane the children drew pictures
and wrote stories about their favourite door.
 


 
 
 
 
 
Goodbye Fairy Lane, we’ll tell our friends to come and visit.

Fairy World

                     
Fairy World was created in our classroom a little while ago. 
It started when we found the fairy doors in a neighbouring community.
The above picture was the beginning of the provocation.
              
It would change and grow with each child and grown up that played with it.
 
I introduced dragon fly lights from the dollar store. 
They would fly around the Fairy World, land and light up as the children’s
imaginations soared.
 
Because it is autumn, and our colourful silk leaves are out,
fall came to Fairy World.
 
The space is large enough to allow many bodies to be involved in the play,
child and adult alike.
The shelves beside the space holds many more props to add to play.
            
Books were set around the play space so the children could hear stories
while being involved with Fairy World.
        
Thanks for reading along with our fairy adventure.
         
Stay tuned for more stories of a real Fairy Lane that has been
created out of doors.

Icky Sticky Spider Webs

Our last spider web creation was made with yarn and diluted white glue.

I printed off several types of web prints and taped them under
clear acrylic plates. 
Covered the plate with wax paper and let them create.
 
The most difficult part for some was to put their fingers in the sticky glue. 
It was usually the one finger dip that I saw.
 
But others didn’t mind and dove in to create their web.
 
Either following the design below or creating their own.

A big thank you to the grown ups that model how to
enjoy the art table.

Spider Webs Two ways

 
At the easel this week the children found paper, chalk and a spider web with
a note “draw a spider web”,

It’s interesting to watch how some children approach the easel that is set up
with something other than paint.
 
This girl's first statement about drawing the web was, “don’t know how”.
As we pointed out the lines on the web,
 she picked up the chalk and started to draw.
She continued without any other conversation or help needed.
Sometimes just pointing at parts of the item to be drawn will give them a place to begin.

          
At the art table the families found lazy susans, eye droppers, paint and paper.
With a note encouraging them to 'spin a web'.
 
Tape the paper to the lazy susan, fill the eye dropper with paint then while you
squeeze the eye dropper over the paper, spin the lazy susan.
 
After spinning, they could glue little spider sequins on their webs.
Some children could manage doing the two actions (squeezing and spinning)
at the same time, while others needed their grown ups help.

Or they were content just to squeeze.

Pumpkin Dip and Chips

For special snack today we made a pumpkin dip. 
You can find many different pumpkin dips on Pinterest
and the one I chose came from Carolina Charm.

This recipe is super simple and delicious.
 
Mix cool whip and pumpkin in a bowl.
Sprinkle on vanilla pudding mix and cinnamon (I forgot to bring pumpkin spice).
 
Stir it altogether and it’s ready to eat.
(Note: we only made half the recipe and that was more than enough
for the 25 children that attended this morning).

But before you run out to grab those ingredients,
check out these pumpkin shaped tortilla chips that I made to go with the dip.
 
Stack about 6 tortillas and press the cookie cutter through.
Spray pan and place the tortilla shapes on it.
At this point you can spray the shapes again and then sprinkle with a
cinnamon sugar mix.
But because it is a sweet dip I decided to skip that step.
Bake at 350F for about 6 minutes.

One bag of small tortillas will make a whole pile of chips.

Now back to the snack table.

I provide sliced apple, carrot and green peppers with the chips to dip.

Today's snack got a big thumbs up of approval.