Oh My Stars!!

Today I received word that my kindergarten class' fairy garden was one of the winners in the 2012 Fairy Garden Contest (sponsored by one of my favorite blogs - The Magic Onions).  What a special honor and treat!  I highly recommend going over to The Magic Onions and taking a peek at all those magical fairy gardens!  So inspiring. . .

Click on blog image to go to The Magic Onion's site:

Here are some photos of our fairy garden:

Thank you Donni and The Magic Onion for such a wonderful opportunity to share our kindergarten adventures!  Thank you for the sweet forest playset for the next fairy garden!
 

The "Living" Dollhouse. . .

So dang sweet, it is!  It could be called a large fairy garden but I love calling it the "Living" dollhouse because I put dollhouse dolls and furniture in it. 

Here's how I did it: I used a large box that I cut down to just 6 inches tall.  I lined it with a plastic trash bag and poured in potting soil.   Next we built a pathway with stones, planted flowers, grass seed (not yet sprouted), added wood stumps and a way we went!

Don't you love the mushroom/fairy furniture?  Found it on Amazon on clearance!  Score!

Shhh . . . I put a vacated wasp's nest in as a carpet!  Ohhh - so fun!

I think is so rich and full of live to provide a dollhouse setting that has flowers and grass growing and elements of nature.   We will continue to add to this dollhouse "landscape" until school ends. 

Learning links:  Next week I will begin telling stories with the little dollhouse people to demonstrate how to spin a story with these props.  We will discuss the beginning, middle and end of my stories.  I will offer storytelling for the children to do for the class much like a puppet show.   Finally, Thursday and Friday I will ask the children to write about it.  It is a full vibrant experience to take to paper.

Little Fairy Garden Habitats- Part One

Last week I had each color family create a little fairy garden for their table as a part of our study of plants.   I told the children we will be building the garden weekly.  This week we planted flowers in our gardens.  It was great as the root system in the flowers were so huge that the children could clearly see the parts.

 Each group filled their saucer with potting soil.

 They worked together to fill the saucer to the top.

Scooping out the dirt was the big deal. . . 

 I told the children to create a little walkway for their mini-garden. 

Each group received flowers to plant.  

Stay tuned as this week we will be planting grass seed and . . . . well. . . you will see soon!

Jack and the Bean Sprouts!

I like to start our study of seeds and plants with the story of Jack and the Beanstalk.  We plant pole beans and other seeds to grow over the next few months.  But in the meantime, it is so powerful to demonstrate how a bean "sprouts" by growing sprouts.  We observed them daily as we gave them their daily rinses.  Then, today, we had a sprout salad for snack!

Monday, I brought mung beans, lentil beans and alfalfa seeds.  We soaked them for most the day and then put them in their sprouting containers.

Each had their own container to sprout in!

We put the sprouts on a bed of lettuce and topped it with dressing.   I helped the children with "sprout" eating concerns by taking a large pinch of sprouts and eating them!  Most of the children tried it and many liked the sprouts.  I had a few who could not get enough!

A Little Seed Drama

This is an sweet little poem I love to act out as we explore the world seeds and beans.  It is an adaptation of two poems. 

        The little brown seeds went to sleep in the ground.
        In their little brown nightgowns they slept very sound.
        Old Winter, he roared and he raged overhead.
        But the little brown seeds did not move in their bed.

        But when Spring came tiptoeing over the lea
        with fingers to lips as soft as can be.
        “Wake!” called the Sunshine, “And creep to the light!”
        “Wake!” called the Raindrops bright!

        The little brown seeds just lifted their heads,
        Slipped off their nighties and jumped out of bed!!

Cast of Characters:

four seeds - hidden under a brown cloth
Old Winter - a blue cape or cloth to drape
Spring - a cloth or silk cape
Sun - painted sun on pole
Raindrops - painted drops on pole

The seeds sleeping underground (four children under brown cloth).

 Old Man Winter (Blue "cape") dancing over the covered seeds.

Lady Spring tiptoeing over the sleeping seeds. (Used one of my rainbow silks as her cloak of spring!)

Hand painted sun on a pole danced over the seeds.

The raindrops came on a pole as well. (Painted on poster board)