Urishima Taro and the Turtle

Our story this week was a version of Urishima Taro and the Turtle adapted by Suzanne Down, You may read here.

Urishima Taro and the Turtle

Urishima Taro catches the turtle

The turtle takes Urishima Taro to the Sea Princess

Urishima Taro returns to land.

 We added another verse to our sea themed circle:

July Week 2 Circle

Good morning dear Earth,

Good morning dear Sun,

Good morning to the trees

and the flowers, every one.

Good morning dear beasts,

And the birds in the trees,

Good morning to you

And good morning to me.

Here is the Deep Blue Sea  (make wave motion with hand)

Here is the boat, and here is me  (make boat with other hand and you with your thumb go in opposite direction of the sea hand)

All the fish down below  (wiggle hand to make a fish)

Wiggle their tails, and away they go  ( hide hands behind your back)

1,2,3,4,5,  Once I caught a fish alive  (clap hands together and wiggle like a fish)

6,7,8,9,10 Then I let him go again (separate hands)

Why did I let him go?  (hold hands out, shrug shoulders)

Because he bit my finger so!  ("bite" little finger on the right with your other hands two fingers)

Which one did he bite?  (hold hands out, shrug shoulders)

This little one on the right!  (point to little finger on your right hand)

Sing two round of Row Row your Boat

Two little boats out to sea

all is calm as calm can be.

gently the wind begins to blow

two little boats rock to and fro

LOUDLY the wind begins to SHOUT

two little boats are tossed about!

Gone is the wind, storm and rain,

Two little boats sail on again.

(use your hands to act out the lines of this verse, while varying the volume of your voice, I start out with almost a whisper and work my way up to very loud, ending with a normal voice)

Rufty and Tufty were two little elves

who lived in a hollow oak tree.

They did all the cooking and cleaning themselves

and often asked friends in to tea.

Rufty wore blue, and Tufty wore red

and each had a hat with a feather.

Their best Sunday shoes 

they kept under their beds

they were made of MAGIC green leather!

Rufty was cleaver and kept the accounts,

but Tufty preferred cooking.

He could bake a fine cake,

without weighing amounts

and eat it when no one was looking!

On Monday we watercolored gold like Urishima Taro's Golden Fish.  I told the story of father sun, shining so bright on a hot July Day, he sent out so many rays the sky was filled with gold.

Tuesday we made red play dough and modeled the fish Urishima saw in the sea with the sea princess

and Friday we cut out fish from our watercolor painting and made stick fishing rods.  We did a movement journey outside in our courtyard where we rowed our boats to the island where we too would cast our fishing lines and find Urishima Taro's golden fish. 

Our wet on wet gold watercolor paintings

Fishing for Urishima Taro's Golden Fish

Old Gnome and the Sea Star

This week theme was "The Seastar" by Suzanne Down.  

July Week 1 Circle 

Good morning dear Earth,

Good morning dear Sun,

Good morning to the trees

and the flowers, every one.

Good morning dear beasts,

And the birds in the trees,

Good morning to you

And good morning to me.

Here is the Deep Blue Sea  (make wave motion with hand)

Here is the boat, and here is me  (make boat with other hand and you with your thumb go in opposite direction of the sea hand)

All the fish down below  (wiggle hand to make a fish)

Wiggle their tails, and away they go  ( hide hands behind your back)

Sing two round of Row Row your Boat

1,2,3,4,5,  Once I caught a fish alive  (clap hands together and wiggle like a fish)

6,7,8,9,10 Then I let him go again (separate hands)

Why did I let him go?  (hold hands out, shrug shoulders)

Because he bit my finger so!  ("bite" little finger on the right with your other hands two fingers)

Which one did he bite?  (hold hands out, shrug shoulders)

This little one on the right!  (point to little finger on your right hand)

Rufty and Tufty were two little elves

who lived in a hollow oak tree.

They did all the cooking and cleaning themselves

and often asked friends in to tea.

Rufty wore blue, and Tufty wore red

and each had a hat with a feather.

Their best Sunday shoes 

they kept under their beds

they were made of MAGIC green leather!

Rufty was cleaver and kept the accounts,

but Tufty preferred cooking.

He could bake a fine cake,

without weighing amounts

and eat it when no one was looking!

After circle time we would hear the story, "Old Gnome and the Sea Star", from Suzanne Down's book Old Gnome Through the Year.

On Monday we wet on wet water colored the deep blue sea featured in Old Gnome's Story.  

This is the story I told as we watercolored:

Blue was high up in the sky looking down at the earth, but could not find any blue!  Blue raced across the sky looking far and wide for blue on earth, filling the sky with beautiful shades of blue, but still could not see any down below.  So Blue sent a tiny drop of blue down to the earth to search that little drop searched East and West then North and South growing wider and wider until the Earth was almost completely covered with beautiful blue water. 

On Tuesday we made yellow play dough and then cut out "Little Star" from our story using cookie cutters, then baked Little Star in the sun. 

On Thursday we wet felted over a rock with silk ribbons tied to it, to create a shooting star.  At the end of the week each student had their own Little Star story set to take home.

Our First Week

Wet on Wet Watercoloring

First Day of "School"

We took a walk to the canal walk a few blocks from our space.

And saw the canal boats

And made flubber

Transforming Our Space

Here we go!  I had one week to transform this space before our open house and 10 days before the first day of our summer session.

The blank canvas

Due to the lack of natural lighting I decided to add a bit of sunny yellow to the traditional peach blossom color you find in early childhood classrooms.

The wee folk were really good sports as we basically lived in this space from sun up to sun down for a week.

And Done!

Our New Homeschooling Enrichment Center Space!

Another homeschooling mama, a teacher and mama from our local Waldorf school and myself have been dreaming of creating a hybrid school and homeschool program.  We started really putting some energy around making it happen this spring but ran into a lot of road blocks with zoning, insurance etc, as we were not a school, nor a childcare center, or a retail space, the city really didn't know how to handle us, nor did landlords. We finally found a space in a collective of artists studios that said "Yes!"  its in a former industrial area of the city that has been transformed into a really hip art scene, however it is very very urban and really lacks access to nature.  But they were willing to give us a chance and we saw the potential so we rented two studios one for early childhood and one for the grades children.  I will be leading the early childhood class and those are my wee folk running through my new classroom.  Below are a few photos of our building which on top of maybe 100 art studios also has a large event space, a wonderful cafe, and two art galleries.

My New Classroom

Our Courtyard

Fun gears in the women's restroom

One of the galleries

Our main hallway