Dear Parents,
This week we worked on our family tree again. We twisted and scrunched long pieces of brown paper to make branches. Everyone cut up a storm, making small, long leaves for our willow tree. We glued the leaves to the branches.
We looked at pictures of what the fruit of a willow tree looks like, and then everyone got similar shapes to paint green. We mixed two colors to get our green. We all used our fine motor skills to snip the edges of the fruits. Finally we glued our family photos to the fruits, also known as catkins.
During circle we read Me and My Tree. We looked at the picture of us under our summer tree, and compared it with the new picture of us under our fall tree. The class noticed that the leaves that had been green were almost entirely yellow. We hung them beside each other in our classroom.
We read several books about fall leaves. We continue to compare the leaves in our yard and try to figure out which tree they fell from, and whether two leaves came from the same tree, or not.
We looked at all of our family photos and guessed which season each picture was taken in. The children noticed fall trees in many pictures, and summer shirts in others. We went around the circle and everyone told us who was in their photograph.
Yoga with Tasha was calm. Children were seen doing poses and lying quietly on their backs.
On Friday we made butter for our upcoming family feast. We poured heavy cream into clear jars and shook them high and low. We played music to help with the shake, shake, shaking. One person asked to turn out the lights while we danced and another said we need a disco ball.
Our feast will take place on Wednesday November 22nd at 11:00am. We will begin by singing Way Down Yonder By The Willow Tree while everyone hangs their fruit on our willow tree. Afterwards there will be eating and drinking and merrymaking.
There is a magnificent willow tree in the community garden on 6th Avenue and 15th street, if anyone wants to take a walk to see it.
It was lovely speaking to everyone about your offspring!
Have a willowy weekend,
Therese