Advent: The Week of Stones

During advent season, we anticipate the return of the sun and celebrate the human being's growing capacity for universal love and freedom.  We express our gratitude to the world for supporting us in this endeavour.  The first week we celebrate the stones.  We placed 4 candles on the nature table and brought crystals, shells, bones and rocks to show our gratitude.  Before snack we spoke the following verse:

"The first light of advent is the light of stones, found in seashells, crystals, minerals and bones."

And sang the following song as we lit only the first candle:

"Advent, advent the candle burns, first one then two then three then four, then stands the light of love at the door."

For morning movement, we spoke this:

"Crack, crack, the rock we hack" (we formed our fists into stones and used our other first to simulate flintknapping in rhythm)
 "Quake, quake, the mountains shake" (stomping always in rhythm)
"Bang, bang, our hammers clang" (fist over fist)
"In caves so old we search for gold" (turn around dipping then rising hand over eyes)

We also revisited the following verse as we stepped:

Little gnomes so short and strong
heavy footed march along
Every step is firm and loud
Every head is tall and proud

Pick and hammer each must hold
Deep in earth to mine the gold
Hanging over each ones back
hangs a little empty sack

When the hard days work is done
Home again they march as one
Full sacks make a heavy load
As they march along the road

 Finally, we practised the first verse of the song "People Look East":

"1. People, look east. The time is near
Of the crowning of the year.
Make your house fair as you are able,
Trim the hearth and set the table.
People, look east and sing today:
Love, the guest, is on the way."

After practising flintknapping motions for a couple days, the children learned how to properly strike obsidian with a stone to release a flake and reveal an edge sharper than a knife.  They heard nature stories about how the obsidian loves to live near water and they observed how a crater is formed under the obsidian after chipping.