November Week One: Leaves

The leaves on the farm have really popped this weekend.  In celebration of their beauty this week's theme is leaves!  

Monday,our baking day, we made sugar cookies using our leaf cookie cutter, on Tuesday, our painting day, we water colored paper on both side, then cut out leaf shapes attaching them to a stick, creating whirly, twirly leaf kites. Wednesday, coloring day, we made leaf rubbings, and Thursday, handwork day, we gathered leaves to press between wax paper to make leaf mandalas to hang in the windows. Friday was cleaning day and time to prepare for our Martinmas Celebration with our Home School Tribe.

November Week 1 Circle Time

Good morning, dear earth.

Good morning, dear sun.

Good morning, dear trees

And the flowers, every one.

Good morning, dear beasts

And the birds in the trees.

Good morning to you

And good morning to me!

Autumn winds are sighing,
Stealing through the forest brown,
As they softly pass the tree trunks
Little leaves come falling down.
But a stronger gale is blowing-
Then the leaves themselves
Rise and dance about the forest
Just like the elves.
Faster, faster see them whirling
Till the gale has passed.
One by one the tired leaflets
Sink to rest at last.

Red leaves falling down,
 orange leaves falling down
Yellow leaves falling down
 covering the ground
Brown leaves falling down,
green leaves falling down,
 purple leaves falling down
All over town.


The Squirrel

Whiskey, frisky , hop pity hop,
Up he goes to the tree top!
Whirly, twirly, round and round,
Down he scampers to the ground.
Fully, curly, what a tail!
Tall as a feather, broad as a sail!
Where's his supper?  In the shell.
Snapity, crackity, out it fell.

Like a leaf or a feather
In the windy Autumn weather
We twirl a-round and twirl a-round And all float down to-gether.

“Come little leaves,” said the wind one day.

(hands in the air, fingers are leaves)

“Come o’er the meadow with me and play.

Put on your dresses of red and gold.

(sweep hands down to put on a dress)

Summer is gone and the days grow cold.”

(hug self and shiver)

As soon as the leaves heard the wind’s low call,

(hand to ear)

Down they came fluttering, one and all.

(hands in air again, flutter down like leaves)

Over the brown fields they whirled and flew,

(whirl hands in the air)

Singing the soft little songs they knew.

(twirl hands)

Dancing and whirling the little leaves went,

(twirl whole body and dance around)

Autumn had called them and they were content.

Soon they will sleep in their soft earthly beds

(start to sink to the ground)

Waiting for winter to cover their heads.

(sleep on the ground in a sweet little leaf pile)

(take a few deep breaths)

Rufty and Tufty were two little elves that 

lived in a hollow tree

They did all the cooking and cleaning themselves

And often had friends in for tea.

 Rufty wore red and Tufty wore blue, 

And each had a hat with a feather,

They kept their finest shoes under the bed, 

that were made of Magic green leather.

 Rufty was clever and kept the accounts,

And Tufty did all of the cooking.

He made the finest  cakes without weighing amounts

And eat them when no one was looking.

Story: The Anxious Leaf

We also scooped felt acorns from one bowl to the next with little bamboo spoons, we sorted them by color and counted them.  The acorns are incredibly easy to make and have kept my wee ones entertained all morning.  I just rolled little balls of Autumn colored roving, needle felted it a bit and then used a hot glue gun to attach real acorn caps to their tops.  

As a transition craft from this week's theme of Leaves to next week's theme, Light, and in celebration of Martinmas we made leaf lanterns. We mixed equal parts water and school glue and painted it over a layer of tissue paper onto mason jars, then we collected leaves and painted them onto the jar, and covered them with another layer of paper and glue mixture.  We just attached yarn to the lid ring for handles, but many people use wire to craft handles.