Early Childhood Programs Blog

Every Leaf Speaks Bliss To Me, Fluttering From the Autumn Tree…

November 4, 2016 - Forest Dreamers

 

Forest Dreamers are poets of the forest! We explored the trails of our beloved Irvine with a song in our hearts! We heard  and created beautiful stories inspired by the fall and the month of November.

On Tuesday, at the gazebo, we listened to two poems that described the same topic, but had very different opinions. See if you can point out the different perceptions between the poets:

1.)  “No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,

No comfortable feeling in any member–

No shade, no shine, no butterflies no bees,

No flowers, no birds–

November!”

-Thomas Hood

2.)  “When the trees in their summer splendor,

Change to a radiant red and gold,

When the summer moon turns yellow,

And the nights are getting cold;

When the squirrels hide their acorns,

And all life’s noises disappear,

Then we know that it is November,

Loveliest month of the year! “

-Unknown

We concluded that there is more than one way to look at this particular month (or anything for that matter!)  We started sharing our thoughts on the month of November and came up with our own poem! Each Forest Dreamer added their own line and we combined it together to create our very own poetry! Take a look and try to guess who wrote which line!

“The leaves are red

The sky is white

 And every night is cold

The leaves are rainbows

The gnomes are scuffling all around

To find winter food

So  November 2nd is Max’s birthday

And I will be 6 years old then

Thorns are sharp

And the trees are bare

In November I love my sister;

Violet her birthday on November 11th

The dark clouds are scattered across the sky

And there is nothing we can do about it.

The clouds are wispy blue

And the moon is round as a bean bag

And I see a rainbow out there.”

-The Forest Dreamers Class

   We also took a walk on one of our favorite trails and found that the stream runs through a part of it! We spent some time at the stream stomping and splashing around. At the meadow, we added letters to our homemade alphabet board and talked about people that we knew whose name starts with each of the letters! We will keep adding to the alphabet board in the coming weeks and make it something that is uniquely our own!

   On Thursday, we had a class visitor- Ms. Stephanie! She told us a fantastic felt board story about a little anxious leaf that gained its confidence to fly away when it was his time! All Forest Dreamers acted out the story as Ms. Stephanie told it!

    Our travels took us to a new favorite spot- the hidden ‘fairy circle’. The class stumbled upon it sometime in the past weeks, and now ask to go there every time we walk by it! It provides a little nook that is off trail for the kids to explore, build, balance and dig! This time, we found these beautiful bright red and yellow maple leaves. We enjoyed collecting these leaves and observing their fiery colors.

  When we reached the gazebo, we took a load off and relaxed. Ms. Sophie read us a story called A Quiet Place by Douglas Wood.  Everyone needs a special  quiet place and time, even the best poets, teachers and parents! We spent our own quiet time at the base of the forest looking, reflecting, relaxing and drawing in our journals. The class did an excellent job using this as their special quiet place!

Never stop dreaming, Forest Dreamers!