Calendar of Seasons

The activity was carried out by 3-4 years old children. The teacher read the Latvian folk-tale “Kā kokiem izgāja” (“What happened to trees”) simultaneously showing the pictures of the tale. The tale tells about trees, which in spring received beautiful gowns. The trees were happy about the beautiful dresses, but deciduous trees very soon got bored of them. They went to look for Summer to ask for new dresses. Summer did not have dresses, so she sent the trees to Autumn. Autumn gave to the trees colourful gowns. The trees were happy again. Yet, the new dresses did not endure the strong winds. Pine tree, fir tree and juniper did not have cold, but deciduous trees felt cold. Then came Winter and covered all trees with white blanket. Trees were all right again and they could wait for Spring.

After listening to the fairy-tale, children prepared a season calendar where their birthdays were marked. The calendar depicts an apple tree in the four seasons. Now we have our own trees in different seasons and different gowns!

   

It was such a pleasure to host our dear visitors from Latvia and Lithuania: days were long... full of discovering, learning and sharing. See You soon :)!

 

 

Coniferous trees and deciduous trees

Our nation is rich in fairy tales. A suitable fairy-tale can be found almost to any theme. 

When introducing our 3-4 year old children about changes of trees in autumn we used the Latvian folk-tale “When the leaves fall off the tree” (“Kad kokiem nobirst lapas”).

In short, the tale tells about a peasant who tricks devil and promises to give back devil’s money when the leaves fall off the trees. Yet, when the time has come for the peasant to give back the money, the peasant responds that the fir trees and pine trees are still green. So devil never gets his money back.

After listening to the fairy-tale children went to the forest and tried to find deciduous trees and coniferous trees. Children observed them and compared them.

In handicraft lesson children created one work from maple leaves and in the other – pine needles.

Children painted the maple leaves and pressed them against coloured cardboard. Afterwards they glued dried leaves to the cardboard.

In another activity they made a coat for hedgehog from pine needles.