Vowels (Wind Sounds), consonants (stick sounds) and the World Tree

For the final week of our first writing block, I told a story given to me by Miss April, and changed greatly by myself.  It was a very windy Autumn week, and the children's imaginations met nature quite harmoniously as they discovered the secrets of the "wind sounds", or vowels.  Though the pictures I painted with words for the children were more colorful and detailed, the essence of the story is this:

Long ago, the first people told each other their stories under the World Tree.  They never had to remember them, because they never forgot.  Then, one day, one of them dropped a story into the sea, and it sunk to the bottom.  It was not lost, it just sat there on the bottom of the sea, waiting to be recovered.  The first people asked the Sun, Moon, and Stars for help, and they spoke with Mother Earth who decided to send Brother Wind to help.  The Wind began to howl around the World Tree, and it dropped its branches to the ground.  They began to fall like this: (I'd like to post a photo here of a few branch letters we made during the storytelling-they were shaped like B, M, T and other consonants and we made the sound as they fell.)  The sticks reminded the First People of the stick sounds, so they began to tell their stories with the stick sounds.  (We practiced saying each others' names using only consonants-mine was T-CH-R Fr-nk.)  Then they paused, listened and looked at the great wind howling and raised their arms in awe, and said "aaawwwsome!"  As a stick flew at one person, she crossed her arms in protection and said "stay!" Then one person stood, raised her arm to the sun and said "me!"  Another did the same but put both arms to the side and said "I am me."  They all joined hands in a big O and said "O, we are whole." (we then sang and danced our "Make New Friends" song we've been practicing all year.)  And, after the wind let up a bit, a little boy noticed a small bird flying from a branch, raised his little arms straight up together and said "oo, that's cuuute."

One of the vowels was revealed to the children each day of the week, and we would practice toning the vowel sounds together with our voices, making the vowels with our bodies, feeling how the sounds made us feel, discovering their shapes in the outdoor environment, and finding words that have those sounds in them.  On the next day, we would color a picture of the world tree with the vowel shapes floating in the wind.  Some of each day is spent practicing writing letters we've already been aquainted with.  There are no lines on the paper, this is basically form drawing, so the children can really experience trying to make the letters evenly spaced, sized, and on the same plane.  They are learning to hold their crayons properly, sit up straight for this short period, and take care of their supplies.