It was a busy morning in Wee Friends Toyland! After another reading of The Nutcracker, we invited friends to choose a favorite character or a favorite toy to act out, and a costume. After everyone had decided and dressed, we acted out one of the favorite scenes where Mary and the Nutcracker walk through the parlor closet into a Toyland. Jane was “Clara” and, with a fistful of WF Toyland dollars, she stepped into the Toyland and chose a toy to buy.

The toy came to life upon purchase and joined the growing gang of Clara’s toys passing through the parlor doors. We played the song “Toyland” and when the music stopped the unclaimed toys would freeze.

After all the toys had a chance to come to life, WF decided it was time to change scenes. Jane led the class in deciding the sword fight between the Mouse King and Nutcracker would be fun. After a short reminder that we don’t usually play ‘swords’ at WF and a discussion on how to ‘fight’ safely with imagined swords, each character chose a partner and the game began as “Toyland” continued to play.

The game morphed into a Toyland music and movement exploration as we tapped, stacked, pointed, tiptoed, and exercised our feet and legs (as our characters!) to Tommy Dorsey’s “Happy Feet”.

After our creative drama experience came to its natural end, friends grabbed markers and crayons and decorated the magical doorway.

Elliott was thrilled when the box was free so he could explore the many different ways to play with it!

Wanting to make sure each friend could pass through the doorway comfortably, we recorded, on the side of the box, “how many squares tall are you?”. Friends stood against the box and we measured their height. They counted how many squares tall they were and we charted it.

Marta has officially joined the WF classroom! She has been eagerly engaged in all the morning activities. Here, she set out a chair for herself to further read The Nutcracker. She read out loud, talking mostly about the Mouse King.

For breakfast, we served corn chex and bananas. Lunch was melted cheese on whole wheat bread, three bean salad with avocado, and raisins. For snack we will serve cottage cheese and mandarin oranges.

Have a terrific day!