Wear your raincoat, don’t forget

And your gumboots or you’ll get wet

Walking in the cool fresh air

Rain is dancing everywhere 

It is great to go out into our playground on wet days to work and play.  We have dug up our potatoes for cooking and we also use lots of greens from our vegie patch.

We had a lot of fun with our little wooden wheelbarrows, taking turns to bring loads of mulch in to our playground to top up our path so we have a good track to walk on, out of the mud and puddles.

After our busy time in the wet and rain it is good to get our dry clothes and slippers on and come into our warm classroom.

On Tuesdays we have been enjoying nourishing baked beans for morning tea (with everyone hoping for seconds!)

Several parents have asked for the recipe…

Homemade Baked Beans

2 tins borlotti beans, 2 tins diced tomatoes, 3 tsp olive oil, 1 chopped onion, 2 cloves crushed garlic, 3 tsp Dijon mustard, 2 tsp tamari, 2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp molasses, salt and pepper, cheese on top.

Cook oil, onion and garlic for 3 mins, add tomatoes, tamari and mustard.

Cook until simmering, add beans, oregano, salt and pepper, molasses.  Simmer for 10-15 mins until beans thicken.

Serve with grated cheese on the top. 

At the end of morning tea when the table is cleared we finish with this verse -

“Hands together, hands apart, hands together next to my heart,

Thank you for our morning tea and thank you to our cooks"

Rudolf Steiner had this to say about gratitude in 1922;

“Nowadays, the feeling of gratitude is underestimated.  Gratitude connects people with the world, makes them feel part of the world.  If one guides the child in such a way that it can develop gratitude for even the most unimportant or trivial things it meets in life, then that child does not close itself off from the world in egotism, then it becomes altruistic, it feels itself to be a part of the environment.

And when one has imparted to the child the feeling of gratitude, then one will realise that the basis for moral education has been planted.  Because if one has taken care of this feeling of gratitude and gratitude is experienced as compatible with all knowledge, then the feelings of the child will easily be penetrated by the love that the human being must have for all the rest of humanity and ultimately for all the creatures of the world.  One can develop love in the best possible way through gratitude."