Bunny on the carrot patch or again about handmade toys

Why Bunny again and again is coming to carrot and cabbage patch???

We are talking with my children how wild animals will survive in Winter... We discussed why the hedgehog collect mushrooms and apples, mice collect grain and squirrels jump from branch to branch and collect pine cones and nuts. Yes, they prepare for long long Winter. They are working hard now so, they will feel safe later!!! And we decided to make it loud!

So, read careful and choose correct musical instruments!

Fall is always coming after summer; and  winter time is always after fall. So, wild animals start to prepare for long and cold winter with no food and no warm sunshine.

Mice run through the forest from the early morning till evening, collecting food for the winter (1)

Squirrels jump from branch to branch, collecting nuts (2)

Suddenly  the sky turn darker and darker  and  then snowflakes  start to fall down(3)

Snow covers the ground like a fluffy white blanket.(Children wave arms)

And prints of small feet  appear on the snow  (4)

Squirrels are building houses  in the trees.(4a)

Mice  are hiding in their holes and making  nests out of grass (5)

Everyone has a lot of food.

Squirrels crack nuts (6)

Mice  chomp grains  (7)

Cold  wind blow  In the forest (8)

But squirrels are warm in the nests (9)

And mice are good in their little holes (10). -

You will need: castanets, cymbals, bell, bells, package, guiro.

1 - quickly shaken castanets

2 - knock castanets palm

3 - Play on the bell

4 - Play on a bells(Triangle)
4a-sticks

5 - package

6 - carry a stick on guiro slowly

7 - castanets

8 - blow and say "Woooooooo!"

9 - clicks her tongue

10 - Pi-pi-pi 

Start with music and let your children tell the story and accompany it with

Percussion musical instruments.
For this class you also can prepare several ziplock bags with different types of grain such as buckwheat, rice, flour, peas; so children can touch it and explore difference visually. 

Do you think we stop? No, we continue to make a Bunny! Look what we made today -

Finger Puppet "Bunny on the finger"!

How to make a bunny:

Detailed workshop from Zoya Pinigina is here. Enjoy the dolls made by golden hands!

For planning this lesson I have used story-noisemaker and songs of Catherine and Sergey Zheleznov. 

Home amulet made by yourself. Doll Zernovushka.

We continue to explore harvest and today we were talking about folk doll "Croupenichka" or "Zernovushka" - the doll which made by yourself with any kind of croups.
At the end of harvest time people collect different time of croups and created small doll with them inside. This doll symbolized richness of harvest pray for next harvest time.

This doll has several names: Zernushka, Zernovushka, Krupenichka, Sweetpea. And it may look a little different, depending on the area where it does. But the foundation of her total - inside dolls grain.
Values ​​of cereals in Zernovushke:
Buckwheat - satiety and wealth, traditionally filled doll is this grain.
Rice - the most expensive grain, on a holiday;
Barley - satiety;
Oats - by force.
You can put all cereals. Also at the bottom of the doll would sometimes put a coin.

We were talking with my little children about the Bunny who stills a carrot and cabbage from our garden. We played the game "BUNNY" on the tune "Ringa, ringa roses"

Bunny jumping slowly,

Bunny jumping faster,

Ash a, ash a

Jump in hole!

Bunny's sitting quiet,

Bunny looks around -

If there hunter looks for 

them!

At this moment "Hunter" walks around and looks who is not hiding eyes with hands! Everyone wants to be hunter!!!!

We decided to make a bunny doll and stuff it with croups. This doll has a great value for children as made by them self, safe and nice to touch in in little hands,
To make the process easier I used socks and plastic needle. For very young children I put string inside before but older children were able to do it by themselves with my help.
       Look what we made!

The full workshop how to make a Zernovushka you can find here and here

My children were so exited to play with their bunny!

Vegetable soup for dolls

Today we continue to learn about the Harvest. Guess what we cooking today?

 We used the song

Put the veggie in the pot,
Stir it well, nice and hot!
We are cooking, veggie's soup
For the dinner
Every child chooses one vegetable and drop it in the pot, mixing with the big spoon!
We had a small group of children so we choose only six vegetables.

We also were plying with our new toy - peas.

The pod made with felt fabric and actually for peas I used green pompoms of different size.

There is 5 pompoms, we can count small and big pompoms, describe size and colours

Now we can serve the table with dishes and spoons and feed our dolls!

Bon appetite!

More activities here
Russian version under

Vegetable colours and shapes

Usually, we try to explain children that pear might be yellow or green, apple might be small and big.
Give them an opportunity to guess what it might be in real?

Yes, may be cabbage does not look exactly, but children will find out that is cabbage!

Math in Fall

Harvest theme is good to learn shapes, colours and names of fruit and vegetables.
Once upon a time....
there was a little moose Mussi. He was born last spring and just discover the forest confidentially. He was travelling around and explore plants in the forest. He loved berries, but there wasn't berries in the forest any more. And Mammy still did not come.... UUhu!!! cried Mussi. Suddenly he heard quiet noise in the bush.
Hey! Who is there? asked Mussi.
That was me! - two little grey ears appear above the bush.and two bright black eyes looked through the branches. - Why are you crying?- that was little Bunny.
I am hungry!!!!!!!! cried Mussi what I should eat for dinner?
Ok, Let's think... you are moose, you have for legs, you have two ears, you have two horns, you have two eyes and one tail.... Tail is short, but in fact I can tell you that you are a cow...So, you should eat as a cow!- was wondering Bunny
What are you talking about??? Who is a cow? I am not cow!!!- Mussi stopped crying and looked on Bunny.
I think, I know where we can get food for you! But...there is somebody Tall who is waving his arms... so scary...-whispered Bunny
Let's go, I am not scary, let's go get food!!! said Mussi and they moved forward.
Where do you think they came?
Guess who was waving arms there?
Can Mussi find food there?
Where growing vegetables and fruit?
Understanding concept "on"and "in",

Sing and dance together!

Children create circle and walking in one direction. When its starts about veggies, child, who present that vegetable comes inside the circle and dancing. now he or she choose another child who present next vegetable and coming back to the circle. children change direction.

September at the door!

September at the door! Children prepare to go to the school, farmers prepare to work hardly!
Let's look on the field! Time for harvest, Crops are ready!
To teach very young preschoolers we create a garden and listen song

We are dancing we are singing and choosing vegetables!

For the class I am using karaoke version, so children can sing about vegetable which they choose.

Russian version of "Walking to the garden"

Hello my dear friends!

Hello my dear friends!

Almost one year past since my last post. Sorry, I did not share anything with you but I am really need to tell you a lot! So, let's start new year with new post! I would like to introduce to you a wonderful poem of 

Michael Rosen - We're Going On A Bear Hunt

That was real bear hunt for me! Once I heard this poem in Child Care where I had a placement and never could find out who wrote this wonderful game! For my Russian friend - I found that there is a book called "Идем ловить медведя" but in fact it does not sound so good. In couple days through our play we created with my little friend a new poem - in Russian (if you want that just call me)! That was wonderful time for dramatic play and amazing literacy activity!

We learn a lot of new Russian words and....

Don't forget fine motor!We created amazing bears with coffee play-dough!

OMG!!!!!

Mammy and Daddy gonna love them! They smell so good!