Stars for our Fairies

              
This morning several families ventured into Fairy Lane
to decorate it with the stars that we made yesterday.
 
It was raining a bit when we started but it didn’t slow us down.

 
Most of these families haven’t explored Fairy Lane before so it was
exciting for them to find the fairy doors for the first time.

 
As they discovered the doors they decided where to hang their stars. 

 
The stars are not very big, as you can see by the first picture.
But we're sure the fairies will see them.
 
Once the trees were decorated we stopped for a snack and story.
   
     
The Three Wishes was a perfect story to hear in this forest setting.
It is about a poor woodcutter who wishes that he could have better
clothing, home and food but none of his wishes come true till the day
he finds a very big oak tree.  
When he is about to cut it done a Tree Fairy appears and pleads for him
not to cut down her home. 
He agrees and is granted three wishes. 
But he accidentally misuses them.

       
 The children were excited to show me the web of stars they found.
The raindrops on the leaf skeleton do look like little stars.

       
I hope you have a chance to visit our Fairy Lane and feel free
to bring more cherished items to share with the fairies.

All About Christmas Trees

As the children entered the room today they found several different activities
about Christmas trees.

 
The first activity was decorating mini trees with mini ornaments.
This is a fun activity and is great for working on their fine motor. 
It takes patience and skill to loop the ornament over the end of the branches.

 
The next was found at the easel – sticky tree decorating.
I cut a tree from green tissue paper and mounted it on red paper
then covered it all with contact paper, sticky side out. 
In the tray the children found various shaped confetti and ribbons.

 
 At the art table we used the hammers and golf tees to hole punch paper trees
to hang in the window.
 
We’ve done this art before and it’s always popular. 
It’s easy to prep and looks great hanging in the window from both the inside
and outside.
         
This little girl took it a step farther and used the various shaped hole punches,
like snowflakes, gingerbread man and stars to decorate her tree.

We also hole punched tin stars.
 
I used a disposable tin tray to cut out the stars. 
After they punched holes or left marks on the star,
we strung fishing line and will use them to hang in the trees at Fairy Lane.

And finally…
        
A tree made from a garden tomato cage (upside down) wrapped
with green and red garland and twinkle lights. 
Available are candy canes to hang in the tree.

Ginger Kid Spotting Around the World

       
Everyday we receive mail about our Ginger Kids.

Thank you to everyone who has participated in this adventure.
It has been exciting learning about different places.
And reading the stories the Ginger Kids have written.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
And see how far the gingerkids have gone.


Thank you to the Head Start program in Oregon for sending us the fun gingerbread stickers.

Starry Night

Today’s art was fascinating to watch.
 
How children approached it differently but with some common feelings.
 
Here are two brothers working side by side.
 
The older was very controlled with his placement of stars and strokes
of the brush.
        
Whereas the younger brother was interested in the peeling of the stars and
his brush strokes were carefree and wider in motion.
        
But they both felt the same when taking off the stars – neither wanted to.
 
That was a common feeling, “don’t remove the stickers,
I’ll just paint more over top”.

But follow these next pictures. 
This girl takes you through how she made her Starry Night picture.
  
 
       
After being very absorbed in her art work, showing her pleasure at the
end she sang,          ‘Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star’.

 
            
It’s not common for little ones to cover their whole sheet of paper
but this little guy did. 
Look how interested he is as his mom pulls off of the star. 
Then examining the empty spot.  Is it because of the contrast in colour? 
Or just an empty spot needing to be covered?

    
I was thrilled to be able to capture this expression.
What do you imagine he was thinking?

 

                                    Starry Nights
                    by a child                     by a grown up