Dear Sunflower Garden Parents,
"Oh, I wish me a galloping horse for to ride,
With a helmet of gold, and a sword at my side.
To the mountain I ride with a hey and a ho;
Against the old giant to battle I go;
Then I draw out my sword for a blow,
And I drive the old giant below!
Now, my pony, my pony, a-galloping go
Back to my home with a hey and a ho,
Where my Mother awaits me and smiles with delight,
For I bring her a basket of red apples bright."
Themes of courage and heroism mingle with themes of homely comfort and nourishment in our circle plays, stories, and in playtime too. As the exciting Autumn winds stir us to new adventures, Mother Earth is calling her seed-children home to rest...
It was lovely to see so many of you enjoying our Harvest Festival last weekend. What glorious weather it was! We also had perfect weather for our apple-processing day on Tuesday-- plenty of breeze to shoo the bees, lovely sunshine, and seasonable temperature... We peeled, cored, and chopped SO MANY apples! We will continue to enjoy our delicious applesauce with our porridge and with our granola for at least a couple more weeks.
This week in playtime the children have made so many "puppet plays" with our beautiful toys. It is delightful to see the children working together in groups to create these completely child-initiated story experiences. Yesterday, we actually had three different theater companies creating three different scenarios on three different "stages"—quite naturally it came about that the audience sat in the middle and turned around to view each play at the right time; and the players shifted into and out of audience mode so smoothly and attended so politely to each others' stories-- and the final curtain was just in time for clean-up time with perfect agreement. (Clean-ups are going pretty smoothly, too, as we are all becoming accustomed to how our room has a place for everything.) Your children are so full of imagination!
Very Warmly,
Elizabeth Kelly
