" Blowing in the Wind", a year of crafts in review.

This is the time of year when teachers begin to look back, reflect and gather their experiences together through out this past year.   

Just as a dandelion germinates from a tiny seed, the dandelion forms a long hollow stalk with its flower on top. The dandelion flowers change and develop into tiny seeds. The seeds are attached to structures that are shaped like parachutes called pappuses. When the wind blows the pappuses carry the seeds for miles. Then the seeds land and the cycle begins all over again under the right conditions.  

Thus too, are the children in our classrooms. As tiny seeds they begin to form beautiful flowers and then as the winds of the spring approach, the children like seeds float into the their new schools and classrooms. 

As I have grown accustomed to saying good bye each year, I know these little seeds will be nourished in their new garden classrooms by the deep foundations that were planted at the Living Wisdom School.

This entry today is about remembering all the many great projects, and crafts over this past year.

I am not sure who all my readers are on this blog, but I can only guess that you are early childhood educators, parents, and grandparents. 

There are so many great activities it was hard to edit, but I will do my best to share the most meaningful.

We start every year with the "All the World is my Friend Unit."

These are our very first self portraits that hang above their cubbies in the hallway. 

These are globes that are made with form, tape and then art plaster added to each round ball. These are  then dried and painted. The process above is the first stage before plastering.  The children take them home for their home altars or nature tables. 

I wish I could take the credit, but this came from our Kindergarten/1st grade class. I love it.  So great for birthday displays in the classroom setting.

This was the world and our hands. I love murals and how they immediately invite all to work cooperatively. These are their hands that were traced and displayed for our first curriculum night. The children loved this. 

This was our community map. The children worked  together mapping the direction of their homes to the school.  I have found  it is a very usual tool for the parents . This allows the parents to see where their classmates live. Small houses were attached to their 3-D structure. It was displayed flat on a table in the main hallway

We began our fall tree unit.This is our 3-D forest in the hallway.

 Each child painted their version of a fall tree from looking outside our classroom window.
What beautiful memories in Nature.


From the apples we picked we made fun fruit pies for a birthday party. I love to cook in my classroom. Each child selects a card and that is their contribution to the day's cooking project.

These were our alphabet  pretzels. We made these several times. Yum.



This was one of the simplest projects but to a young child so fascinating. This was a very simple paper plate folded into four parts. Small dots of paint were added to one side/ or around the plate. The children then folded them and what a surprise it was when they re- opened their plate. These simple mandalas were decorations for our all school fundraiser.

These were our Thanksgiving gratitude pots.

The holidays were upon us.

 We started the journey of the"Tomten" to all the far away counties and farms.

Each day we traveled to a new country which was our theme for the day. We enjoyed many celebrations.

The children reflected on the deeper meaning of the holidays. 

Craft from Italy 

Celebration of Saint Lucia day 

 Our  New Years boats and setting off our wishes for the New Year. 

Making our boats

Wishing stones from our blessing New Year's cake. Each rock is wrapped individually and baked in a cake. 

I paint rocks in the classroom frequently for teaching all types of  inner qualities. 

Queen of Tarts day on Valentines Day. What a fun game this is. Giving tarts to all the students at Living Wisdom School. The queen never knew what happened. 

100 day activities were a highlight in our classroom. 

Getting ready for our art show. Georgia O'Keeffe. These were made by making a petals from cardboard. The children then added their petals around the paper by tracing. Then black sharpie was used. The next stage was water-coloring in the background, then the foreground. These will be memorable for our families.  

Our watercolor portraits added to jewels with ModPodge. 

Our Monet garden bridge for our art show. One of our fathers gave us a hand with making this beautiful structure for our art show. 

 Here it is at the Art Show, with the pond, willow tree, fish and lily pads. This was the all school project. Each class added to the exhibit at Monet's Garden. 

More flowers for the art show garden. I wrote about this on a previous blog post. 

What would our class be without celebrating the full moon each month. This is from our Equinox celebration. Sun and Moon are equal, happy spring. 

 Equinox Cards made for their bedrooms.

We make crowns for all our celebrations or something for our heads. 

All the children made their own birthday crowns to wear on their special day. 

This was a wonderful week on healing. 

This year our children made Mother's Day statues of their favorite thing they like to do with their mom. 

 I know I got this from Pinterst so I cant take credit for it. Each paper was water-colored with the moon shaded with another piece of cardboard. When the picture was dry the cardboard was removed.  In order for children to get the stars very small I had an idea to take a small piece of cardboard and hole punch a small hole in it. Several holes were actually cut in the cardboard. Then the children could draw through the hole a small star onto their picture. The ladders were made from small sticks from Starbucks. I took a picture of each child climbing a small ladder. I  printed the picture and cut them small to fit the ladder. 

They love their "Moms" to the moon and back. 

This has been a very meaningful year and I am filled with the seeds of gratitude as these little ones float to their new homes. 

O Moon, Full Moon

O moon, full moon
You are very white,
Everything looks beautiful
Under your light.... 

 I wish I could say, the moon was visable this evening but it was overcast in Seattle.  This doesn't damper our spirits though at the Living Wisdom School. We love celebrating the full moon each month in our classroom. Today was no exception.

We began the day, with a story about the "Milky Way . This is such a wonderful story and stirs their little imaginations. 

We followed up the story with our morning activities. We had our activity stations set up and the children rotated through the each one.

 Today we had a new galaxy play dough, which was shared by my friend and colleague, Sally Haughey@.http://fairydustteaching.blogspot.com/ What a hit this was. A galaxy of stars and moons.

The next activity was counting moons in the galaxy. Our pre-kindergarten class is practicing how to cut, paste and they love to explore all types of art materials. These were silver moons that each child cut. They were self- sticking metalic paper. They used white pencils for writing the amounts of stars and moons they counted today.

The final activity were making our traditional moon biscuits. They love cooking in our classroom.

To finish out the day, our "full moon", guided our parade down the hallway.  

Another joyfilled day in our classroom by exploring the galaxy and the space that expands into the heavens. 

Happy full moon day.

Heart and hands connected.

Handiwork and sewing have been important activities in my kindergarten and
preschool classroom this month.


About a year ago, I read an inspiring blog piece on handiwork for the young
child.  I want to connect you with her post from January 2011. 

 It is from : Fairy Dusting and Sally Haughey.

This was the first stage of our pillows

This pillow is almost completed pillow.

Here is the Kindergarten project we worked on together for our last full
moon day celebration.  These are moon pillows.  Each child individually wet
felted their own moon by using roving wool.  We then attached it very
carefully with felting needles to a piece of prepared felt.  The children
then sewed the two felt pieces together and we filled each one with rice.

When the moon pillows are warmed for 15 seconds in a microwave, the children can use
them in their coat pockets on cold winter day or at night tucked
under their blankets for a gentle night's sleep.

In the preschool classroom we completed our Valentine's hearts. During the process of completing both of these projects, I had the opportunity to
connect individually with each child.  Handiwork for the child can deepen the child's level of concentration and focus; it also challenges their willpower to complete something 
they are truly proud of. 

 Try some sewing projects with your child . These were delightful.

Teaching children with spirit

The Staff at the Living Wisdom School recently had an evening promotional event meeting new  potential parents at our local Parent Map Preschool Event.  If you were unable to attend here is a video that I compiled for our Living Wisdom Booth. It shows some of our activities that we participate in each day. I hope you enjoy it. More information about the Living Wisdom School is located on our website.

" Classroom Environment is Stronger than Will" Part 1.

The new year began in my classroom today but I had many opportunities for rest, service in the Ananda Community and rejuvenation over our holiday vacation.

One of my favorite things to do is create art with others and I was able to spend time with our Living Wisdom School's artist in residence, as we painted a cosmic mural for my classroom. 

In the months ahead, I will write about the nurturing aspects of the classroom environment and how effects the young child. I have been experimenting with this over the past ten years and we are just touching the surface as to the best ways we can serve the young child in their environment. In my classroom at the Living Wisdom School, I use as many natural materials and fabrics as possible. I like to bring nature into the classroom.  I use soft colors, natural lighting, prisms, mirrors, plants, crystals, aromatherapy, natural flowers, pine-cones, rocks, handmade felted materials, tree materials and beautiful music. Several of my materials are  handmade. All my materials on the walls are made from my art designs or the children's art. I do not use materials that have been purchased in stores for teaching aids.

I will save this topic for another time in greater length as a series, but I want to share a magnificent mural that we painted this past week. It was thrilling and fun to do.  

This mural is made from only the best art products and is on a fire proof paper to appeal to our fire code restrictions in our district.

  The photo was taken below after three coats of paint. We first applied gesso, acrylic polymer medium that was used on the very bottom layer to coat the paper. The result was magic. It turned the poster paper into a soft canvas to work on. At this point in the painting three light washes of aquamarine, marine blue and fuchsia were applied in a circular fashion. The paints were all student grade acrylics and applies with sponges. We did not want to have brush strokes visible on the paper. The paint layers were dried in between using hair dryers. This helped to speed up our process. We were watching the colors as they began to build on top of each other.

This was magical when I placed my finder in the gesso a faint moon face showed up. There are never mistakes in any mindful practice.

We used our fingers dipped in the gesso medium once again. Squirt bottles of aquamarine was also used to add texture and dimension.  Again more hair drying.

Small cosmic layers of designs added. These were individually wiped down and colored with an alcohol acrylic paint solution.

More light washes applied to the designs for blending the layers.

At this point of the process, I counted up to thirteen layers and we had only been at this for one day. I couldn't wait to see the final process completed. 

The next day arrived and more paint was applied in faint washes to deepen the colors.

A rich purple was now applied to tone down some of the green gesso

This is where the purple was added on top to check out the enhancement of all the colors. We added  another coat of deep fuchsia. 

We began the process of hand-painting all the small cosmic figures. My art teacher now wanted to surprise me and finish it at home. After an additional 10 hours,she was able to get the quality she was looking for. 

Every new year I like to experiment with my classroom, change the environment around, while keeping things fluid so when the children return the room seem fresh, exciting and new. 

I asked them what they thought of the new mural? Their comments to me were: "It makes me feel, kind ." Another four year old said: " It reminds me of love in my heart" Another boy said: "It is peaceful with bright light. 'The moon is bright."

As a teacher you can use this handmade classroom aid and provide the learning opportunity in several directions.

I believe through the children responses, they realized  by themselves what beauty and nature holds for them. What a great gift we can offer our children. A peaceful environment that touches their very soul from within.