Book of the week
Little Grey Rabbit's May Day by Alison Uttley.
Synopsis
Late one night, just before May Day, Hare steals into the village and dances around the Maypole. He tells little Grey Rabbit and Squirrel excitedly all about it the next morning. "Oh, can we have a Maypole too?" begs Squirrel. Soon, all the woodland animals are preparing for the wonderful day, making garlands and crowns of spring flowers. But Wise Owl tells them that they need to have the most special flower of all, the Crown Imperial, for the sceptre. Who will be brave enough to go to the village to find one?
Weekly Activities
Maypole dancing is a tradition on May Day. It is believed to have started in Roman Britain around 2,000 years ago, when soldiers celebrated the arrival of spring by dancing around decorated trees thanking their goddess Flora. These days dancers weave ribbons around a pole rather than a tree. So to celebrate and welcome May, we made some flower/foliage crowns and mini maypoles to dance around with.
Our flower/foliage crowns activity used the same method that we had previously used for making our wreaths at Christmas - you bend some florist wire into a circle and twist the ends together. You can then tie on leaves, ivy and twigs with some more florist wire and keep going around the circle until you are happy with the results. We were using some shop bought flowers to save picking the resources that the bees need. The foliage (ivy, leaves, twigs and what other excess plants we had) were foraged from around both nurseries with the odd flower popped in from the bought bunch. We also made flower crowns using gold and silver card which the children cut into strips, stuck some double sided tape on and pressed some flowers into place.
The children were also keen to make their own hand-held maypoles so we asked them to find a suitable stick, drilled a hole in one end, cut some lengths of red, white and blue ribbon, threaded them through the hole and tied them onto the tops of their sticks. The children then danced around with their very own mini maypoles.
Aims and Objectives
To create a flower crown and participate in the mayday dance
To practice hand to eye coordination
To explore the differences of using natural and made resources to make our crowns
To learn how to use tools safely
Home Activity
Why not visit a park with your child this weekend? Here are 10 ways you can turn your park trip into a fun learning experience...
Comments