Christmas Elves Give from the Heart

The school friends at Harmony's House know what Christmas is all about: bringing joy to those around you, and sharing in it too!  These are the ways our "Christmas Elves" gave from the heart this season:

Each school friend made ornaments for their families, from helping to roll out the dough, selecting cookie cutters, and painting them with glitter when dry.

They hung ornaments on the trees with great precision and care.  

Some friends reverently arranged the stable to create a Christmas scene, reflecting on who was there, what happened so long ago on a very special night, and what this means for us today.

Some friends made festive decorations to ready the house for a big Christmas party!

The "bakery" was busy with little elves making Christmas cookies and cinnamon toast, and other yummy treats!

And finally, we celebrated all together with songs of joy, yummy Christmas tree snacks, and fellowship.

 Merry Christmas to you from us at Harmony's House!  We'll see you back in the new year!

Christmas is Coming!

And we've been preparing to celebrate this holiday!  These are some of the ways we are getting ready for Christmas.  We like to use these village blocks and magnetic Christmas tree to create a complete Christmas village.  

We've engaged our senses with a variety of textured ornaments, Christmas ducks, finger puppets, chimney tubes, sparkly trees and gingerbread boys, and even cinnamon pinecones.  One of the most enjoyable results from this provocation is hearing the children invent stories about Santa going down the chimneys, snowball fights, gingerbread boys outrunning reindeer, and more.  Additionally, the children engaged their fine motor skills by threading fuzzy sticks through the ornaments and hung them on the Christmas tree.

We've worked with green and white paint at the art easel, determining what happens when these colors are mixed.  

One of the BEST part of the Christmas season is driving after dark and seeing the lights!  Night time field trips for preschoolers are impractical, so we turned off the lights and turned on our glow sticks to play with lights.

Some of our friends have become more interested in letters.  Ms. Harmony planned a Small Group activity where each child was given a large letter 'C' for Christmas with a pencil, a fuzzy stick, and a ball of play dough.  One friend in particular, loves the letter 'C' because it is the letter the starts her name!

The children were encouraged to trace the letter with their fingers or pencil.  We talked about how the letter 'C' has a curvy shape.  We tried to form this shape with the fuzzy sticks and/or play dough.

Some of our friends were even able to hear the /c/ sound that 'C' makes and thought of their own 'C' words: candy cane, Christmas tree, carols, and cookies!

Christmas is coming, and we are almost ready!  Songs, lights, smells, letters, and stories... so many ways to fully experience the joyous holiday.

Thankful for Books!

Earlier this month, Harmony's House hosted a book fair through Usborne.  Thanks to FIVE FABULOUS FRIENDS of Harmony's House, we got all of the books and games pictured above for FREE!  Wow!  We are so thankful to our friends who ordered books.  Your orders helped us earn over $300 to buy books for the classroom.  And, boy do our friends LOVE to read!

We read inside, we read outside, we read alone and with a buddy, we read on our teacher's lap and on the couch and on the rocking chair.  We read fairy tales, we read non-fiction, we read about animals and space, we read about Pinkalicious and Pete the Cat.  We read A LOT.  If you were one of the friends who ordered books through our book fair, please know how grateful the children are here for the new books.  We have already started putting our new reads to use.  <3

Fun on the Playground

The weather has been wild this month, but we've made the most of it anyways!  Did you know that for young children, 90% of verbs are learned while actively participating in action?  This is only one benefit of outdoor play.

We received a donation of these wonderful log stumps that have been used to make climbing structures, gates barring the "big bad wolf," drum sets, and even a campfire.  It's likely the imaginative plans will continue to grow as the children use their big muscle groups and their creativity together.

The large stumps have been fun, but small tree biscuits and small logs have also been used endlessly this month as well.

The playground is also a fantastic place for artistic expression.  Children love to color on walls, and with chalk outside, they CAN!

Probably the best part of the playground is the muddy puddles that form with heavy rain!

No matter the weather, get outside and have some fun.  The vitamin D from the sun will do the body and the mind some good!

Remember, there's no such thing as wrong weather... just wrong clothes.  :)  

Farms to Feast

Farms feed the world.  They are, quite simply, fundamental to our existence.  For some of the children at Harmony's House, farms are also the place that they live.  We have been exploring farming for several weeks this fall in a variety of ways.  This post will explain how the ideas about farming and food culminate in celebrating the harvest at Thanksgiving.

In September, we visited a small farm of one of our families to meet, care for, and understand where food like milk, meat, and eggs come from.

Some farms have only animals, only food, or both.  In October, we "worked" in a Farmer's Market in our House Area.  

The children would come to the market to buy produce that they could "take home" and make supper with.

When they ran out of food, they would go shopping again.  Eventually the food at the store ran out.  The children solved this problem by "calling the farmer" to make a delivery to the store.  

Whoever was pretending to be the farmer would have to check if the hens were laying, if the pumpkins were ripe, and when they'd be able to make a delivery.  We learned that farmers were important people because the stores would run out of food without them!

Now, in November we are preparing for Thanksgiving.  Most people in the U.S. celebrate Thanksgiving by sharing a feast with family and/or friends, just as pilgrims did centuries ago to express gratitude for a plentiful harvest.

The children are demonstrating their knowledge of farming that they have developed during September and October by working with farm animals and barns.  Farmers must take good care of the animals to have enough milk, butter, and eggs for all of the baking that happens during November and December.

They know that turkeys live on farms, and try to "catch a turkey" with these clever scissors in the Explore Table.  Turkey farmers are very busy this time of year getting ready for Thanksgiving!

They create their own miniature farms, deliver hay and water to the animals, and use the tractors to work in the fields with the plants.  It's time to harvest all the corn, apples, pumpkins, potatoes, and squash.

Finally, they use the grain, eggs, and butter from farms to run the Cookie Bakery.

Some friends work the mixers to make cookie dough.  Some bake the cookie dough on sheets.

Some friends work to frost the cookies, and box them up for sale.

This year, for the children at Harmony's House, Thanksgiving will mean being thankful to farmers who bring the meat, produce, and grains to our table for a feast!