Constructing a fairy village

One of today's activities just blossomed, and it was exciting to be in the middle of these children's wonder.  The children had really enjoyed making houses the previous day, so we set out to build a fairy village.  Something about constructing scenes for tiny little creatures just lights up the imagination.  At first the little stumps were simply each a house.  Then they started thinking about rooftops.  Leaves got tucked in, wet sand with flowers stuck in became decorations.  A bark road was built, winding through the village.  A wooden bowl turned into the village pond, and it was discovered that they probably have  fish in that pond, so we should make tiny fishing poles with fish dangling off the end of the line.  A farm was developed on the outskirts of the village with tiny imaginary animals.  Then the tree construction began.  First a "wishing tree," which was reported to have 1001 wishes inside it.  This is because there are 1000 people who want to make a wish, and there has to be one wish left for the tree to stay alive.  Following the wishing tree, a forest grew around the village.  I heard talk of a community rec center, a school, a day care.  Amazing what we learn about children's minds when we offer a beginning, and then just listen and watch!

Last Child in the Woods video

Cooperation

Today our theme was cooperation.  We learned some songs about working together and sharing, and we worked on some projects together.  

We dug in the dirt and broke off clumps of dirt.  We smashed those clumps with bricks, and looked for rocks inside.  When we found rocks, we dropped them in a pan of water, and rinsed them off.  We even scrubbed them clean, and what a pretty collection of clean rocks we ended up with!  

Another project that we worked on together was laundry.  We filled one pail with soapy water, and one with rinse water, so we could wash our cloths, rinse them, and hang them on the line to dry.  It was such a beautiful day to hang laundry: breezy and sunny!

We pretended to be ants, hunting for pieces of food and scraps to make a house together.  We pretended to be bees, searching for pollen and bringing it back to the hive.  

We have some good workers in this group who like to be helpful!