Homeschool: If I were a Tree

Every morning after breakfast we start our homeschooling day with Circle Time.  The boys know that when I start to sing "The More We Get Together" our circle time begins.  Owen especially loves it and comes running every time.  We sing seasonal songs from our Earthschooling curriculum.  I've added simple nursery rhymes and finger plays for Owen as well.  Often I find other little poems or songs I love from other books and resources too.  This week we added a beautiful poem called "If I were a Tree", by Aileen Fisher. 

If i were a tree

i'd want to see

a bird with a song

on a branch of me.

I'd want a quick

little squirrel to run

up and down

and around, for fun.

I'd want the cub

of a bear to call,

and a porcupine, big,

and a tree toad, small.

i'd want a katydid

out of sight

on one of my leaves

to sing at night.

and down by my roots

I'd want a mouse

with six little mouselings

in her house.

We have two other circle time poems about birds that both boys love.  So I thought making some bird nests & a tree were in order.  This idea is apart of our Earthschooling curriculum. That is an acorn cap for the base of the nest. Some wool roving for inside the nest. We changed it a little in using a pine cone for the tree. 

Michael is warming up the beeswax in his palm in this picture.  We took a pine cone and a small cut branch to make our tree.  We used a piece of beeswax to join them together. The Earthschooling video that shows how to make the bird nest, bird & tree is on YouTube, here. 

Michael loved this activity!  We added little bits of green beeswax for leaves as well. And yes, this is seasonal for us, here in the Southwest we're already seeing bits of green outside.

And here it sits.  It fits perfectly with our little gnome play scape.  A very fun activity.


Until next time...