Martinmas

This week we celebrated the festival of Martinmas. St. Martin is a patron saint of the poor and outcast. As legend tells, the soldier Martin discovered a poor beggar one night, shivering, and cold. Martin gave the man half his cape for warmth. The next night, he dreamt that he saw Christ wearing the same piece of his cape. After that, he spent the rest of his life serving those in need, bringing light and warmth to those in darkness. November 11th is his feast day, originally celebrated in many French households with a festival of lanterns. Now it’s often celebrated with a lantern walk. You can read more about Martin here.

Held during the darkest part of the year in the northern hemisphere, the lanterns also symbolize the return of the sun, with its warmth and light.

On Monday, we added some Martinmas and lantern songs to our circle time/morning walk. 

When we got into the school room, we wrote our first set of thankful leaves for our tree.  Grant was thankful for his purple an yellow blankies, Johanna for her dolls, Julia was thankful for Mom (I helped her a little with that one), and was thankful for my three healthy, beautiful children.  We will continue to add leaves everyday up until Thanksgiving.

I read a story about Martin of Tours, and then we modeled him with clay instead of drawing a picture.  We had a good laugh at this guy!  It was fun, and a change from picture drawing.

Afterward, Grant practiced this week form drawing on the chalkboard and then did some reading.

On Tuesday, I read some more stories about Saint Martin and then I had Grant copy a part of a song about him.  After he copied it, he read it and we did some LA exercises.  I had him circle all the words that had double letters and underline all the words that started with an H. 

We also talked about the question mark.

On Wednesday, we took our morning walk through the woods "looking for treasure"  Grant brought his treasure map and guided us on our way.

In the school room, I read some more stories from the life of Saint Martin, and then we started making our lanterns for our lantern walk tomorrow night.

The girl's favorite part was playing with the ice.

On Thursday, I finished up with one more story about Saint Martin.  After that, we talked about the comma and Grant did some reading. 

Once we were done with that, we moved outside to finish the lanterns.

We had a beautiful night on Thursday for our lantern walk.  We took a stroll around the lake, and then came in for some hot chocolate.

The following is a video of the kids singing one of the songs we sang on our lantern walk:

I couldn't figure out how to rotate the video, so you will have to look at it sideways this time.  Sorry!  Just consider it a good neck stretch. :)

We kept things pretty simple on Friday with lots of play time, a walk, a book, and an activity.  I read the kids this book:

Martinmas

This week we are celebrating the festival of Martinmas. This festival celebrates St. Martin.

"St. Martin of Tours was born in 316 and died on November 11, 397. He is known as a deeply religious man who shared his cloak with a beggar and represents the attitude of brotherliness. According to old customs at this time, as the days become shorter and the stars appear earlier, children would walk with lanterns through the streets singing. As the world grows darker, the inner light of man wants to shine forth." – from Shepherd Valley Waldorf School

We began the celebration on Monday as I told the kids a story of St. Martin. This verse sums up beautifully the story I shared on this day:

St. Martin, St. Martin,

St. Martin road through wind and snow

On his strong horse his heart aglow

He rode so boldly through the storm,

His large cloak kept him well and warm.

By the roadside, by the roadside,

By the roadside a poor man arose

Out of the snow in tattered clothes

“I beg you help me in my plight

or else I’ll die of cold tonight.”

St. Martin, St. Martin,

St. Martin stopped his horse and drew

His sword and cut his cloak in two

One half to the beggar man he gave

And by this deed his life did save.

After I told the story, Grant and I drew a picture of St. Martin. Grant and Johanna also started learning a song for the lantern walk we will be taking on Wednesday night.

On Tuesday, I told a story about a boy who made a lantern to guard the last rays of Autumn Sunlight to help guide him through the dark season ahead. As it grows cold and dark, the warmth and light is deep inside us, hidden from sight. We also began making our lanterns. This year we used balloons and tissue paper to make the lanterns. The fun part was popping the balloons!

On Wednesday, the kids heard a fun Martinmas story from the book, "Festival of Stones. The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly" by Reg Down. Next, we finished our lanterns. After dinner we went on our Lantern Walk. Our lanterns glowed a rich orange, and we had a beautiful, clear evening for the walk.