Thursday, May 21, 2026

Zoology: Bison and Moose

Wrapping up Zoology II with two amazing animals native to North America: bison and moose.

Here is my booklist, with notes for these two ungulates (hooved mammals) in particular and ruminants (4 stomachs!) in general.


Ruminants


Bison


Moose


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Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Stream Table!

Many thanks to Emriver (formerly Little River Research & Design) for the loan of their traveling stream table! The last time we had this at the school was in October 2019 (see my blog post for lots of pictures of the setup and how the added sediment is constantly changing as the water runs through).


Zac was 4!


This year we have the stream table for the last two weeks of the school year, as a fun way to review our first block -- Landforms & Water Features -- from September.

We set it up on Monday May 18th. Each child helped pour in a bucket of sediment (30 lb each).


Now everyone is really excited to dive in!!!

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Tuesday, May 19, 2026

Resources for Animal Reports

It is Animal Report time again! Everyone is required to do a report on an African animal (including a map using the beautiful Africa Stencil) and then, if they wish, they can do a second report on any animal of their choice.



As children choose their animals, I will keep track of their resources here:

AR - African Bush Viper


EO - Leopard


EF - Ostrich


AAR - Impala


AAR - Klipspringer


Z - Fennec Fox


FR - Caracal

    International Wildlife Encyclopedia, vol. 3

    Caracals by Victoria Blakemore


CB - Flamingo


Useful blog posts that I've written specifically to help with this project!


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Monday, May 18, 2026

Zoology: The Orca

I first became interested in adding the Orca to the Waldorf Man & Animal block when I was doing a consulting project for a client who lives in Australia. She wanted her Zoology blocks to feature only Australian animals.

In case you're curious, here is what we came up with:

    Block I: Form

    Giant Cuttlefish (Sepia apama)
    tadpoles
    Giant Clam (Tridacna gigas)
    Giant Gippsland Earthworm (Megascolides australis)
    Leopard Seal (Hydrurga leptonyx)
    Red Kangaroo (Osphranter rufus)
    Wedge-tailed Eagle (Aquila audax)


    Block II: Function

    Platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus)
    Orca (Orcinus orca)
    Saltwater Crocodile (Crocodylus porosus)
    Cow (Bos taurus, Bos indicus)



I wrote to her:

    Marsha Johnson said that the three animals we pick to do in the second block of Man and Animal should represent thinking / feeling / willing as well as nervous system / cardiovascular / metabolic.

    I didn't include a social insect -- which Kovacs covers in his Drawing from the Book of Nature -- but it just occurred to me that the Orca is a nice blend of cardiovascular health (apex predator) and social consciousness. So I will focus on the Orca as an intelligent and social creature. It seems to have a lot of Feeling but also Intellect.

    Then the Saltwater Crocodile is a blend of the cardiovascular health (still an apex predator, and with a very interesting heart) and the digestive forces of the Cow. It seems like a very willful beast with strong digestive forces!

    Platypus - all nervous system
    Orca - intelligent, social, lots of caring (thinking + feeling)
    Crocodile - strong heart, independent, determined (feeling + willing)
    Cow - a placid beast that is nothing but digestion :-)


I also found in my notes this interesting tidbit:

    Fun Fact I just learned about the platypus.
    It has no stomach!

    That's very funny because I chose it as a Nerve/Sense animal but it will tie in at the end with the Cow and the Digestive System. So I would wait to talk about the stomach of the platypus (and the orca and the crocodile... our big carnivores) until we get to the cow. Then we can go back and look at everyone's stomachs. Or lack thereof.



Fast forward to the present, where I am doing the Orca myself in Zoology, as an example of a cardiovascular system animal that is also very intelligent and social. I do so appreciate having my own notes to look back on!

Because there are so many interesting animals (like the Platypus), children get to choose an animal and research and write an Animal Report. That is one of our main projects these last two weeks of the school year, as we wrap up Art History, Philosophy, Fractions, Personal Narratives, and odds & ends.


Here is the Orca booklist that I recommended to her (and will use myself) as well as any references to the Orca that I found in previous blog posts:


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Thursday, May 14, 2026

Picture Books: Peaceful Protests

We are currently studying Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as our Philosopher for Love, so I have been looking through my library for books on nonviolent protests. Here is what I've found. Please let me know if you think of others!

On Thursday we read Mother Jones and Her Army of Mill Children and I referenced this document. You and your child may want to look it up:



Sit-Ins


Strikes


Boycotts


Marches


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Tuesday, May 12, 2026

Using L***s in the Classroom

I rarely use this copyright-protected small plastic interlocking toy, but there are two lessons that I love! They both have to do with Biology.


The first one is Cell / Tissue / Organ / Organ System / Organism:

Cells make up Tissues

Tissues make up Organs

Organs make up Organ Systems


this year, I had the children build their own Organisms and preset them to the class (complete with "scientific name")


but you can also combine everyone's Organ System to make one amazing Organism



and, what's smaller than a Cell? an Organelle!


If you have ever wondered if the word < organization > is related to the word < organ >, it is!


The second lesson I love to do this way is Punnet Squares. Inspired by this image, I came up with a lesson on dragon eyes. You will need the following bricks (using two colors helps children understand dominant vs. recessive). 3-D printed dragon is optional!


As you can see, when it comes to dragons, yellow eyes are dominant over blue. Here we have a mother dragon with one gene for yellow and one gene for blue, and a father dragon with one gene for yellow and one gene for blue. Both parents have yellow eyes. No one knows the blue gene is there.

When they have children, a Punnet Square shows all the possible combinations of eye color genes that the baby could have. Three of those combinations would result in a yellow-eyed baby dragon.

But there's a 25% chance that those two recessive blue genes will come together, and you'll have an adorable blue-eyed little one!


We did the Punnet Square lesson as part of the Reproductive System after reading Gregor Mendel: The Friar Who Grew Peas by Cheryl Bardoe.


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