Week Four: September 28 - October 2
This week we introduced the teaching of Love from our relative Eagle. Eagle represents love because he gave up his flying Eagle life to build a human family with the last Woman in the land after the great flood. Eagle shares with us that we must love ourselves completely before we can truly love another. Our Statement for Love is: I love myself and others. Emphasis is placed on "others" being of all living creatures. Our story this week was Little Red and the Very Hungry Wolf. Students were able to identify all 5 of our teachings in the story and provide examples. It was excellent to know they are able to clearly identify the presence and lack of presence of the meanings of humility, respect, love, obedience and honesty.
Our calendar shifted to October this week, as September came to an end. Our calendar time also highlighted a sharp drop in temperature and students are interested in seeing what happens next as we get deeper into fall.
During language this week we dug into the mail that the Postmaster General (Lola) delivered for the students. Focus was high as students are settling into the groove of reading letters, asking for help, sounding words out, and learning how to write down their answers to questions, as well as thinking of new questions to ask to keep their mailbox full.
During math this week our focus was on counting and identifying similar values in different coins that make 20 cents up to $1. We brought out the abacus to support our keeping track of adding up as well to prepare students for the cash register position for Share the Magic day. We also spent time in centers getting more familiar with money by playing Spin the Coins, Skip Counting with Coins, Monday Bingo and Monopoly Junior.
Our outdoor time had students testing boundaries, learning important social and safety skills, building structures, creating all kinds of imaginary scenarios, playing toilet tag and Mario. Teachers got into the action this week too, letting their inner children out to play with students. It was beautiful.
Our afternoons were spent getting familiar about the products we would be selling on Share the Magic Day, creating posters to advertise around the church space, and preparing tea blends from Pamela. Students used their senses to notice their reactions to 6 ingredients, then put together 3 different combinations to taste test. Pamela gathered the feedback from the children, then moved on to packing tea bags with the tea recipes created. Students brainstormed about the names of the blends, then voted on what they wanted, and created labels and signed their beautiful artwork that was added to each package top.
Jessica also led an afternoon lesson supporting students to make marshmallows from our foraged cheeses and chocolate from our foraged Linden seeds. On Thursday afternoon we all had some and mostly loved it. The chocolate has a rich espresso flavour. The marshmallows whipped up so well we could hold the bowl upside down with no movement, and some final steps were incomplete as the whole mix was starting to come out of suspension the next morning. They were placed in the freezer and the students were able to have their gluten free graham crackers with marshmallow and chocolate. S’more in a cup!
After all their hard work making sale items, everyone enjoyed free play and creation time where everyone worked together to put on a buffet feast and enjoy it together. The profits from our sale will go toward our funding our feast, so we believe students are preparing for food options by playing them out. Next week we will begin our focus on the fest and harvesting our garden as well.
Friday we spent the day preparing with kid friendly inventory sheets that will support our counting up on Monday and Tuesday. Students will receive their payment once they have counted all the money and determined how long they worked and how much they receive for payment. We will also be speaking about the 60-20-20 rule of living, saving and giving.
Hope everyone's weekend was glorious!
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