October reflections: Happy Halloween

Halloween is approaching… As the days have turned colder and the nights drawn in, we’ve been dressing up warm in hats, scarves and gloves and spending hours outside collecting nature’s treasure. Our nature tables are heavy laden and our classroom walls awash with autumnal pictures and the results of our craft activities. Being outside and connecting with nature is an important part of our Waldorf school curriculum no matter the season or weather. There’s no wrong weather for being outside, only wrong clothes. Match the clothes with the weather and everyone wins!

At the end of October comes ALL SOULS and HALLOWEEN. The spirits of the Dead are said to draw closer to the Earth at this time; the Spirit Beings are freed and human beings are exposed to the ‘darker’ side of the Earth. The nights are drawing in now and physically we experience a drawing-in to our homes. Bonfire Night is an appropriate Halloween experience, when the darkness outside is encountered and lit up by human beings. At this time, we also light the pumpkin lantern, an afterglow of summer’s light. Halloween usually falls in half term, so it is celebrated at home. Pumpkin lanterns will be lit at story time and pumpkin soup or cake may be made with the children when they return from the break.

The month will culminate in the Halloween festival where we can’t wait to scare ourselves with darkened rooms and stories of witches, wizards, black cats and bats, with ghosts and ghouls and rattling bones.

Reflections

Why not reflect on the past month, by listening to the Wilded Family’s monthly themed songs – Twelve affirmations for the soul. Use this song to meditate, reflect or in circle time to bring the feeling of the season home.

Go within everyday and find the inner strength so that the world will not blow your candle out.

Halloween craft

Do you want to help your child get crafty this Halloween? Why not decorate the home or classroom with a ghost mobile.

All you need to do is save all white eggshells from cake baking, pancakes, or omelettes, even breakfast boiled eggs and just give them a wash and dry, then…

• Grab a black permanent marker pen and draw little eyes onto the eggshells.
• Using anything with a sharp point, carefully make a hole in the top of the eggshells. (make sure you have adults supervision when using sharp objects)
• Next, get a piece of string and tie a knot at the bottom of it.
• Thread the string through the hole in the eggshell and slide the eggshell down along the string until it stops above the knot. This knot will hold your first eggshell ghost in place.
• Make another knot a little space above your first ghost and thread the second ghost along until it is held in place by the second knot. Continue until each ghost has a spot on the string and…

… there you have it! The cutest little ghost mobile ready for Halloween!