Sunday, September 13, 2026

Science Club Prep: The Colossus of Rhodes


The Book of Massively Epic Engineering Disasters:
33 Thrilling Experiments Based on History's Greatest Blunders
by Sean Connolly


The Colossus of Rhodes
226 BCE


2021 notes:
The Book of Massively Epic Engineering Disasters

2022 notes & photos:
The Colossus of Rhodes


Preparation:

experiment 1: All Shook Up

    unflavored gelatin
    (4 envelopes = 1 cup cold water + 3 cups boiling water)
    must make up gelatin at least six hours in advance

    two 9 x 13 casserole dishes or disposable roasting pans
    (make the 4 envelope recipe twice in each, ie. 16 envelopes total)

    two different lengths of toothpicks (get LOTS of toothpicks)

    two different sizes of marshmallows

    a painting board or tray for each person

    masking tape and Sharpie to label boards/trays


experiment 2: Hold That Pose

    large cardboard box, opened and laid flat on the grass

    bath towel

    kitchen chair


Statue of Liberty Book Display


also


Activities:


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Friday, September 11, 2026

Whittling

Zac got his first Swiss Army knife yesterday, which is a key milestone for a child. I spent several months thinking about it before deciding that he was old enough. Coincidentally, the age of 11 is actually perfect for learning to whittle because in Waldorf we study Botany in fifth grade. Tree identification!

Once you start working wood with your hands, you realize how absolutely essential tree identification is. This year in Botany we were going to focus on foraging for food and herbal medicines, but I think I will add in tree identification in the context of woodworking as well. See my past blog post Tree Identification and A Reverence for Wood.


I put together a whole pile of books for Zac with woodworking information and projects he might want to tackle. They are

Forest Craft: A Child's Guide to Whittling in the Woodland
by Richard Irvine

The Colonial Woodworker
by Laura Sullivan

Diary of an Early American Boy, Noah Blake
by Eric Sloane (1805)

A Museum of Early American Tools
by Eric Sloane

The Forgotten Arts & Crafts: Skills from Bygone Days
by John Seymour

The American Boy's Handy Book: What to Do and How to Do It
by Daniel Carter Beard (1890)


He didn't want to put down The American Boy's Handy Book long enough for me to photograph it. 😊 Let me know if you have others to recommend!


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Thursday, September 10, 2026

Poetry Picture Books for Children

While searching for information on a book about something else (death, not poetry), I ran across a lovely blog post called "Poetry Picture Books" by Children's Library Lady.

I absolutely adore her list of books (and, happily, I have a lot of them already) but her post is so full of ads that it's really hard to read. I get motion sickness when video ads are playing in the margin of things, so I really hate websites like that! Here is her list, written in a format I can tolerate; however, I want to give Kirsten all the credit for collecting them!

This list contains books of / about poetry as well as books poetically written.



You can read all of her notes about each specific book at the original post. The book I was originally searching for was This Is a Poem That Heals Fish.


Our first Philosophy topic of the year will be Death --- we talked about death in Science Club last year strictly from a physiological point of view; this year we will look at it from a philosophical point of view -- and so I am working on pulling my resources together. I'm very interested to hear the children's thoughts on this topic! We will be using Marietta McCarty's wonderful book as our primary source of inspiration and guidance for our discussions.


Little Big Minds: Sharing Philosophy with Kids


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Tuesday, September 8, 2026

Literature Circle: Mr. George Baker


Mr. George Baker
by Amy Hest


Because literature circles and literary analysis are new to my group, we began together with a picture book. The students here are 9-13 years old.

Tue Sep 8

    read the story

    discuss author's craft, making predictions, using the text to support your arguments, topic vs. theme

    independent activity to practice finding text support
    Finding Theme with Concentric Circles - FREE at TpT


Wed Sep 9


Mon Sep 14

    continue with Gretchen Bernabei book

    Lesson 1: Truisms

    Spin-offs #4

    After having read a piece of literature, let students write a truism and find a graphic to go with it and with the literature. Then ask them to write what that truism and graphic have to do with the piece of literature, or why they chose it. This is a wonderful kid-friendly way to teach literary analysis.

Gretchen Bernabei's website, trailofbreadcrumbs.net

visual prompts for teaching truisms


"it doesn't matter what age you are, to have a friend"

"love is worth the wait"


~ ~ ~ ~ ~


This story worked extremely well as our introduction to literary analysis for the older children and a review of place value for the younger children.

see my Books for 100 post for more details!


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Friday, September 4, 2026

Books for 100

In Montessori, we use green for units place, blue for tens place, and red for hundreds place. I like to use this color coding in a Waldorf classroom as well, beginning with grade 2 when we study Column Algorithms / Place Value.

An excerpt from the Column Algorithms / Place Value page on my website:


Activity One - Gems / Pouches / Basket

    Many years ago I was at a homeschool training at Barbara Dewey's and a woman named Misty shared with me what she had done to introduce place value. A group of families worked together to set this up for the children in their homeschool group. They laid out 100 individual gems in a long line on the ground. The children counted as they picked them up: 1, 2, 3, etc. When they got to gem 9 their hands were beginning to get full. Right beside the tenth gem was a small pouch. They made a group of ten gems in a pouch, then picked up the eleventh gem, etc. After nine pouches (each of ten) and nine individual gems, they finally reached gem 100! For this they were provided the tenth pouch and a basket to put all ten pouches in.

    It was a lovely idea and she said they always understood it thereafter.

    To do this in a way that is compatible with the Montessori color coding for the digits, use green glass gems, small blue pouches for the 10, and a large red basket for the 100.


    for small blue pouches of 10:

    Etsy white linen favor gift bag
    beautifully made 100% white linen and so easy to dye blue

    LinenForest sells these as a set of 10 (and it would be fun to dye these with your child first and keep a mystery what you were going to use them for...)

    If you prefer to purchase blue pouches, I suggest these



    small sheer organza pouches



    red willow basket with folding handles


    A red box, bin, pie plate, platter, Christmas cookie tin, etc. would work just as well. The color is what's most important. To introduce this place value activity with a Waldorf story you could use The White Snake from Grimm's (organizing the grains of millet into sacks)


    The Hundred-Year Barn

    You could also use The Hundred-Year Barn by Patricia MacLachlan. This story does a wonderful job of showing the passing of time. It is a really lovely way to talk about the number 100 and, as a bonus, the barn is red which is the color we use for the 100s place.


    The Firehouse Light

    Just found another possibility for the number 100, particularly for the idea of skip counting by tens. It also highlights the color red AND is a true story! The Firehouse Light by Janet Nolan.


    Mr. George Baker

    *NEW* A new idea for introducing 100! Mr. George Baker by Amy Hest. This book highlights the importance of school and of learning to read, and the two of them each have a red backpack. So you could use a red backback or satchel to hold your ten baggies of ten gems!


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Tuesday, September 1, 2026

Literature Circle Brainstorm

This year we are going to be doing Literature Circles on Mondays & Wednesdays.

There are lots of different ways to do a book study! Ms. Megan and I have decided to give the children traditional independent pencil & paper activities on Mondays (vocabulary words, comprehension questions, graphic organizers, book reports, etc.) and a relaxed book group-style "sit and chat about the book while we eat lunch together" social time on Wednesdays.

We are going to have two book groups. The children will be of mixed ages, grouped more by their reading speed than their birthdate. I think this will make for rich discussions as well as reduced frustration. If anyone does need a bit more time to catch up to the group, they can take their book home on the weekends so as to be ready for the Monday assignments.

Now I'm going through and looking for books that I have three copies of. Here are 9 options for each group:


Group One


Group Two


I did eliminate books that two out of the three children in each group had already read. As we go through the year, I'll write up a post with the activities and resources I used for each book. I'm really excited about this!

I am comfortable with my students marking up the text as they read -- underlining, circling, writing in the margins, dogearing pages, etc. -- so the books will probably be recycled afterwards or given to the children to keep.


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Monday, August 24, 2026

Art History Picture Books

This year we are focusing on contemporary local artists, but I loved teaching four years of Art History. Hopefully those studies laid a good foundation for our upcoming in-person artist discussions. I have to give a shout out to Lotus Stewart at Art History Kids because her course Magnificent Modern Art was really life changing for me and inspired me to give teaching Art a try!

Lotus just made a YouTube video of her 25 favorite art books for kids and I cannot resist making a list with links (Amazon) to each title. Here you go!


I have a lot of these books but it's always fun to learn about new titles!


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