February - Star Child

Here are a few notes from our wonderful wet felting project and exploration of the classic Grimm's fairy tale Star Child (also often called "Star Money").

We continued with our Songs, Verses & Movement for classroom routines.

We had an abbreviated week due to Spring Break -- and so that I could travel to Chicago to attend the fantastic 2019 Orthography Conference: Supporting Reading, Spelling & Word Study in the Classroom with Pete Bowers, Doug Harper, and Gina Cookie -- so things were a little different. One special thing that we did was have a "Favorites" week in Circle Time, where we chose our movement verses by student request.


Circle Time

#1 - "Good Morning, Dear Earth" verse

#2 - "Morning Verse"
from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, page 13

#3 - "We Stretch Right Up to the Star of Our Birth" verse
from The Breathing Circle, page 56

#4 - "Good Morning Feet!" verse
from The Breathing Circle, page 65

#5 - "Hippo Song" verse
from The Breathing Circle, page 71

#6 - "The Elephant" verse
from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, page 17

#7 - "When the Wind Blows" verse
from The Singing Year, track 66, page 75

#8 - "Snowy Hill" finger play
from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, page 75

#9 - "Looking Through the Garden Gate" verse
from The Breathing Circle, page 94

#10 - "I'm a Tall, Tall Tree" song

#11 - "The Squirrel" finger play
from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, page 49

#12 - "Two Little Blackbirds" finger play
from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, page 20

#13 - "The Door's Shut Tight!" verse
from The Breathing Circle, page 73

#14 - "Wintertime" verse
from A Child's Seasonal Treasury, page 70

Monday, February 25

Today we followed up on our cork observations by doing a sink/float bin! The children were interested in taking "notes" on the results.  We also heard the Star Child story adapted by Suzanne Down, and wet felted the pieces for Star Child's cloak of stars. Many years ago, when I was a Sunday School teacher, I completed my first -- and only -- handmade Waldorf doll to be the baby Moses in our class play. Since he was Moses he was only ever wrapped in a blanket and so he had no clothes. I decided that he would be a perfect Star Child for us, and the children really identified with him as a tender-hearted little boy.

To make the pieces of wool for the cloak we used the "flat wet felting with bubble wrap" technique. This works well on an old cafeteria tray or a rimmed baking sheet. I laid out several colors of overlapping deep blue roving and then we designed the golden stars to be on the top layer. The children had a lot of fun carefully scooping and sprinkling the hot soapy water onto the wool, folding over the bubble wrap to protect the star design, and applying pressure (first rubbing gently and then more vigorously). When we opened the bubble wrap and lifted up our pieces of wool, they were strong and held together, so we knew that we had made felt!

That evening I attached the two pieces together to form Star Child's cloak. This can be done with a sewing needle and thread or with a dry felting needle and a sponge.

Tuesday, February 26

Today when I told the story of Star Child, I ended it by wrapping our cold naked doll up in the beautiful starry cloak which the children had hand felted. They were filled with wonder to see it completed and at how lovely it was. As Suzanne Down predicted, my class was completely entranced by this sweet and moving story. Here are some beautiful pictures of their hard work:





our clothed Star Child at the start of the story
he later gives away every single thing he owns



an older friend helps with forming the golden stars



the design before felting



scooping and sprinkling the hot soapy water




folding over the bubble wrap and applying gentle pressure







the wool fibers begin to lock together




the piece holds together!




letting the extra water drain out 




our finished pieces dry on towels



the starry cloak

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