Spring Break - Thanking the mother

Yesterday we had a discussion about our mother earth and talked about all the things she gives to us.  The girls brought this discussion back to the book we read the night before "Giving Thanks" by Leah Dorion.  They really liked this book which focused on the things Elders give thanks for.  The text is very simple and the pictures very layered.  R was dissapointed that she could not feel the texture of the original paintings as we read.  They really intreiged her. 

We talked about why the land we live on is call turtle island and R gave a quite good retelling of the creation story.  That made me really happy to see how she is soaking that in.

I had meant to do a craft including turtles, but we did not quite get there.  Here are the examples I was thinking of trying.

Floating turtle  The original link does not work anymore, but the turtle looks easy enought to figure out and could lead to outdoor/bathtub waterplay afterwards.



Turtle Rattle  This one also seemed pretty easy to do and would be a nice addition to our circle time elements.  You could also add a discovery element by going for a walk to gather things for the rattle or even for the outside decorations.  I am going to try to do this one this week.



Felt Turtle This one would take a bit more time but I liked the use of different fabrics to make the shell.



I really appreciate all the creativity people share on the internet.  So many ideas to pull from and learn from.  Hai Hai