Waldorf Preschool Suggestions - September

September - early autumn
October - mid-autumn
November - late autumn

December - early winter
January - mid-winter
February - late winter

March - early spring
April - mid-spring
May - late spring

June - early summer
July - mid-summer
August - late summer

(Of course, this is in the Northern Hemisphere!)

Here are some Early Autumn preschool suggestions. Enjoy!

The Breathing Circle:
Learning through the Movement of the Natural Breath
Nell Smyth

Earthways:
Simple Environmental Activities for Young Children
Carol Petrash

Tell Me a Story:
Stories from the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America
ed. Louise deForest

Around the World with Finger Puppet Animals
Suzanne Down
(available from her website, Juniper Tree School of Puppetry Arts)

Story Suggestion #1:

"The Little Wooden Mixing Bowl" from The Breathing Circle by Nell Smyth, page 124

Some nice follow-ups would be

gathering a collection of all types of bowls from your kitchen and feeling the texture of each one

making bread in a large wooden bowl

making playdough and pretending it is bread (my favorite homemade playdough recipe, dyed with Kool-Aid)

hand washing your dishes together after a meal and drying them carefully and putting them away lovingly and with real gratitude to them for all their hard work each day

filling a bowl with playsilks and pretending it is dough and mixing up a pretend meal for your dolls

bake anything together! oven pancakes, bread, cake...
"The Joy of Baking" - an old issue of my preschool newsletter from 2005

some fun story suggestions:

The Unbeatable Bread
Lyn Littlefield Hoopes


Sun Bead (with recipe)
Elisa Kleven


The Duchess Bakes a Cake
Virginia Kahl


The Apple Cake (with recipe)
Nienke van Hichtum

care for a wooden salad bowl by sanding it smooth and finishing it with beeswax salad bowl finish

Story Suggestion #2

"Mother Earth and the Leaves" from Tell Me a Story ed. Louise deForest, page 56

Some nice follow-ups would be

a nature walk to collect nuts which have fallen (here, the acorns are on the ground and the squirrels are busy collecting them) and any leaves which have begun to change color (here, the sassafras leaves are turning red and falling)

leaf crafts from Earthways: Leaf Banners p.26, Leaf Crowns p.30, Nature's People p.31

bird finger puppets from Around the World with Finger Puppet Animals, page 101

a bird nest for the nature table

a collection of needle felted leaves, green on one side and different autumn colors on the reverse

puppetry with brown wool glove (as the tree) and the felted leaves lightly attached, pull off and let fall as the story is told

make a simple wooden block puzzle by arranging four square wooden blocks together in the shape of a larger square, then taking an autumn leaf cookie cutter and holding it over the place where all of the blocks touch, painting inside the cookie cutter to make the shape of the leaf on the blocks, and then letting the paint dry

let the children take golden and orange and red and bronze silks and dance around as the falling leaves... when the music stops they flutter gently down and curl up on the ground

Age-Appropriate Academics:

This is excellent reading and/or would make a great handout for parents: "Math and Science in the Kindergarten" article by Lisa Gromicko (PDF)