we always go through all the safety drills on the First Day of School
where are the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors?
where are the fire extinguishers?
what do you do if an alarm goes off?
what are the two ways out of every room?
where is the clean air if the room fills with smoke?
what is the meeting place if we have to evacuate the building?
where are the weather radios?
where is the tornado shelter?
where are the emergency phone numbers posted?
how do you dial your parents (or 9-1-1) on a rotary phone?
I love my red phone because it stands out in the case of emergencies, but a lot of children nowadays don't know how to dial one! so we always do a refresher lesson every year and EACH child practices dialing the rotary phone
in the crawlspace, we have another landline phone, canned food and gallons of water, a first-aid kit, extra batteries, shake flashlights, a crank emergency radio, and even a bin of wood shavings for an emergency toilet!
for our flowers with six petals, we read "The Golden Star Flowers" from Tell Me a Story (which, by the way, has recently been put online for free at the Online Waldorf Library! hooray!)
then we drew a story map
field trip to the Giant City State Park Visitor's Center to see their enormous map (you could also do this field trip for the 4 directions N S E W)
and we find something else for the number six!
a gigantic papery hornet nest on display
thinking about four also reminds me of the four seasons
(there is so much you could do for each of these numbers!)
this also is a vintage Nienhuis Montessori material
once each pair (top and bottom) of wooden tiles is matched up, the four pairs can be placed in any order to create the complete scene
hanging up the laundry on the clothesline is a favorite part of playing house (as is sweeping the back patio)
I actually once read an entire curriculum on using Clothespins in OT to support hand strength! (one idea was to write a letter on each clothespin and have children spell words by clipping the clothespins to a ruler)
of course, we just do it the old-fashioned way
our newest Grammar Game!
this game lets students create hilarous sentences that are actually completely gramatically correct
we read about Paper Wasps and compare their structure to honeycomb
(We Build Our Homes by Laura Knowles)
using a hexagon stencil and gold paint to make our MLB artwork
right when we finished learning the number 6, Nova Natural came out with this cute Autumn Color-by-Number!
they were very excited
all of a sudden at recess,
"Ms. Renee, Ms. Renee, come see what we found!"
he blends in beautifully with the magnolia bark
we make Ugali with Bean Soup for Tanzania
it was delicious!
everyone is doing something different so I have little notes all over the chalkboard for myself
this poem goes with Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young
we draw mice in rainbow colors
of course, there's also the story of Little Snow White!
Dorit Winter's book The Art and Science of Teaching Composition suggests beginning the Creative Writing block with Wonder
so I send a secret Nature treasure home with my 7th grade student, and ask him to do a descriptive writing exercise with it
it is a beautiful old turtle shell, bleached by the sun and time
another fantastic resource for teaching Creative Writing!
(Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly by Gail Carson Levine)
in Waldorf 7th grade this block is called Wish, Wonder & Surprise
wet felted acorns in rainbow colors
older students who join in on lessons get something more challenging to do... here is her beautifully felted soap!
only one child is doing Foods of the World as her main lesson topic, but everyone wants to help! so her classmates take turns coming in pairs and helping
today First Grade is on Cooking Team!
they are very excited to measure the spices for Ras el Hanout
we make Kefta Meatballs from Algeria
on to the number eight
(Spiders Spin Webs by Yvonne Winer)
watercolor resist with a spider web drawn in white crayon first
they begin to create elaborate designs at recess... perhaps inspired by the spider web?
and beautiful drawings with sidewalk chalk
is < shove > related to < shovel > ?
an example of a plan book page for an older child
some children write things down as they do them, but this student likes to set all of his goals for the day out in advance and then only write the colored dots as each activity is completed (our academic subjects are color coded)
our story for 9 was Pezzettino by Leo Lionni
collage artwork inspired by Pezzettino
hmmm... is every number a square number?
it costs $2.00 to go on our field trip, so I give them each 8 quarters
no matter how hard they try, they can't make 8 into a square
lots of photos of the beautiful stonework at Mandala Gardens are at Field Trip for the Number 9
later I give Zac a big box of tiles so he can try all sort of numbers and see if they make a square
some vintage Nienhuis Montessori math materials for the 3-6 classroom
a lot of things in Montessori are fantastic... Waldorf would just use them at different ages
one set of wooden tiles matches with dots
the other set of wooden tiles matches with numerals
they both have the same pictures on them
what else is special about the number 9?
9 is the biggest number that can fit in a space... after 9 the space is full and the number has to spill over into another space
we try this with the gems
FULL! there's no room for another gem
to write ten, we have to write 1 and then a 0
in Waldorf, different number bases are explored in grade 8, so I will use this demonstration again when we get to that lesson
for binary, you could give your child a dish that only held one gem (as soon as you have one gem in the dish it is FULL and the next number up has to spill over into another space)
a collage activity for Creative Writing
everyone wants to join in skip counting by jumping the number line
hmmm... could you skip count backwards too?
choosing thread colors for the embroidered circle mat project
did you know that you have 20 deciduous teeth?
10 on the top and 10 on the bottom
self portraits (showing all 10 fingers) for the number ten
for the number eleven, we use "The Lazy Gnome" from Dorothy Harrer's Verses and Poems and Stories to Tell (available free at OWL)
these self-stick gems are perfect to decorate the underground caves we draw in the MLB
I appreciate all the art supplies that are donated! we can always find a way to use them!
a cave underground with 11 sparkly gems
in Foods of the World, our final recipe for Africa is this candy from Ancient Egypt
they whipped the egg whites to soft peak stage using only a whisk
I got my dried marshmallow root from Mountain Rose Herbs
like the Ghostie Numbers and Haunted House of Speech, this is an activity that has become a school tradition every October
Pumpkin Portraits!!!!
a 6 year old
a 9 year old
a 12 year old
Zac takes all the paint leftover in the egg cartons at the end, and joyfully uses it all to decorate one pumpkin!
it actually turns out to be quite beautiful
we are fortunate to have a really nice collection of (mostly donated) acrylic paint!
we call this area of the Art Room the "paint store"
as in, go choose the colors you need from the paint store
we also have a rainbow of vintage thread called the "thread store"
and, of course, a "yarn store"
we can't let Halloween pass without making a Witch's Brew!
thank you, Hello Fresh, for these delightful little bottles of vinegar
so nice for a witch's potion
add some baking soda and the brew bubbles delightfully
we are up to our final number in the Quality of Numbers block: 12!
lining up all the arches from the Grimm's Large Rainbow Stacker and sorting all the other toys we have by them that match in color
a challenge: organizing a basket of loose piano keys back into numerical order
what else is 12? a dozen eggs!
(Down the Road by Alice Schertle)
the end of the Quality of Numbers block is exciting
the children help Calendula and Plantain match up the rune stones (matching Roman and Arabic numerals)
then the door in the cave wall begins to glow and it slowly swings open
a little mole takes them deep into the heart of the mountain, where they will begin the next part of their adventure
they will meet the Gnome King and his Math Gnomes (+, -, x, ÷) in the next math block
in Waldorf, this magical kingdom is often called the Land of Numeria
we wrap up the block with a field trip to see a friend's backyard chickens
the children even get to feed them! it was a wonderful ending to this block
Immersive Experience
Immersive Experience
Immersive Experience
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