Halloween Signs

HALLOWEEN SIGNS

Have you ever seen,
Upon Happy Halloween,
How brightly the stars do shine?
Have you ever seen,
Upon Happy Halloween,
How stately is each forest pine?

The full moon above
Looks down on its love,
The beautiful world far below;
As it sails on high
In the blue-gray sky,
It sends down its brightest glow.
 

While the witches ride
And the goblins hide
All over the land and the sea,
The black cats prowl
And the night winds howl,
As the children laugh in their glee.

Did you ever know
A time could go
As quickly as Happy Halloween,
When witches and cats
And goblins and bats
Are everywhere sure to be seen?

Then hip, hip hurrah!
For Halloween
The delight of each girl and boy;
May ever it be
For both you and me
A time that all folks can enjoy!

The Unbeliever...

THE UNBELIEVER
[Recitation for a small child ]

I don't believe in ghosts, you know,
But still, the other night.
When everything was awfully quiet,
I had an awful fright.

Snug beneath the covers warm,
I'd been tucked an hour or more,
When I heard a rumbling racket,
Something like a muffled snore.

I wasn't scared, but, oh, my heart
Simply wouldn't stop a-jumping!
It bobbed about so in my bosom
That my very head was thumping.

Once again the grumbling, rumbling,
Sounded and it nearer seemed;
A light so white and scary-like
Upon my chamber wall gleamed.

Shadows seemed a-moving 'bout
And I felt a smothering fear
That I couldn't shake till safe
I was with Mother dear.

Now I don't believe in ghosts, you know,
And I'm not scared of any sound;
But I just don't take chances
When old Halloween's around.

My Choice

MY CHOICE

[Recitation for a lower-grade boy ]

Now, Christmas is a lot of fun,
When old Santa comes around,
And Christmas trees and holly
Deck 'most every store in town.
I like'to hear the lovely carols
And the tinkling of each bell;
But there's something coming now
I like more than I can tell.

Thanksgiving is a glorious day
On which to thank our Lord
For the blessings he has given,
From out his lavish hoard.
I like Grandma's good dinner, too,
On that bounteous fall day;
But there's another day, I'd pick.
If I were to have my say.

Old Halloween's the day I like,
With witches, owls and cats!
I like the shaky scarecrows,
With their queer old coats and hats!
I like the jack-o-lanterns,
With faces funny as can be.
In fact, I like, on Halloween,
Every single thing I see.

Is It?

IS IT?

Is that the wind a-howling
Round about my window pane?
Is that tapping, tapping made
By the steady drop of rain?

Is that rustling of leaves
I hear outside of the door?
Was that some one walking
On the upstairs bedroom floor?

Is that some one a-crying,
Or was it just the hoot of owl?
Was that some one moaning there,
Or was it just the wind's howl?

These and other questions
About things heard and seen
Keep a-crowding in my mind
Each year at Halloween.

The Merry Breeze

The Merry Breeze

by Enid Blyton

Round about the orchard went the merry

little breeze,

Playing with the butterflies and teasing all

the bees,

Sending showers of apple-blossom down upon

the ground,
And spilling half the dew-drops from the
grasses all around.

He ruffled up the feathers of the ducks a-sailing
by,
And hustled all the lazy clouds that floated in
the sky,
He swung the beeches to and fro, then darted
off again
To dry the shiny puddles scattered down along
the lane.

The chimney smoke he twisted in the queerest
kind of way,
Until at last the little breeze was weary of his
play;
He crept back to the orchard, where the
daffodillies peep,
And there it was I found him lying, curled up
fast asleep!

The Hiawatha Paper Cuts Restored

       Below are the Hiawatha paper cuts restored for those of you who are teaching Native American studies to your little ones, enjoy.

       The Song of Hiawatha is an 1855 epic poem in trochaic tetrameter by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow which features American Indian characters. Read more...

       Read the original poem by Longfellow here.

The wigwam of Nokomis.

Nokomis nursed Hiawatha.

Nokomis bound Hiawatha's cradle with the sinews of the reindeer.

Hush! the Naked Bear will hear thee!

The owls spoke their native language.

The birds hid their nests.

The birds sang to Hiawatha.

The reindeer, Hiawatha talked too.

I am Adjidaumo, the squirrel.

The warriors and the women all praised the hunter.
They called him Strong-Heart, Soan-ge-taha.
They called him Loon-Heart, Mahn-go-tay-see.

Hiawatha is running by the Big-Sea-Water.

Free Paper Cuts of Sheep

Perfect for arts and crafts projects in the Sunday School or classroom. Use them in personal craft too.

Vintage Paper Cuts for Fall

Here are a few old-fashioned paper cuts for Fall. A turkey,
haystack and pumpkins for personal craft projects or the classroom.

Paper Cuts for Halloween of Black Cats

       These little black cats may be used in the classroom and in personal crafts.

Paper Cuts of Thanksgiving Turkeys

       Thanksgiving silhouettes/paper cuts of turkeys for the classroom and personal crafts.

Our Nature Table and Center

"Live in the sunshine. Swim in the sea. Drink the wild air." ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

        The two things I love most about this area of our room is that it's mostly been built by the students. It houses their treasures (as they deem them) which they constantly show off to one another. And second, behind each of their nature finds is usually a story or memory of some special outing they had with a friend or their family---which they're always eager to share! Many of them even chose to write their personal narratives about their nature related adventures at the beginning of the year.

       Many of our treasures don't stay for long though as the children are constantly bringing in new finds and there's only so much space! Here have been some of the favorites though so far this year...

       One student brought in a birds nest, so I found some quail eggs online to order to go along with it. We've had sea shells from various summer vacations, parts of bee and wasp hives, butterfly wings... and the list truly could go on.

       Probably by far the most favored part of our nature center is our class pet toad, Frodo (because The Lord of the Rings was a tad to long of a name). Frodo also has a book (class community journal) about all of his many adventures authored by the students. 

 

       We also keep a small--yet most used--part of our class library dedicated to nature related books. Here have been some recent favored books from it:

The center also houses the students' phenology journals and nature study sketchbooks:

"We need the tonic of wildness... At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature. "~Henry David Thoreau

Provocation: Abraham Lincoln and Cabin Building

       In addition to our social studies curriculum, where we learned about George Washington, we took some of our morning work time to also explore more about Abraham Lincoln's life to celebrate President's day. I set up a provocation for the students where they were asked how they would design and build a log cabin. To aid them, I set out the following materials: books on Abraham Lincoln and a Eric Sloan's book American Yesterday--which has tons of illustrations on early American houses, a few drawings of log cabin plans and blueprints, the My Plan paper, Lincoln Logs, and a Presidents Field Guide. 

       Here were a few of their creations they built based off of the plans they drew...

       The students then brought their plans to our morning to meeting to share with one another and discussed what worked and what didn't work when they were building their cabins, as well as what sorts of items they would house their cabins with and why. 

       Later on, we extended our learning by taking the book Abe Lincoln: The Boy Who Loved Books to further practice our ability to infer the meaning of unknown words when reading: