Thursday, September 17, 2026

Pigleta!

In my Handwork series post for grade 5, I suggested starting the year with Pigleta, an absolutely adorable handy-needle-holding fairy pig created by Trixi Symonds. I got this pattern at the Making Zen workshop in May.

The next Making Zen workshop is coming up (from Sep 28 to Oct 2) so if you like free Handwork patterns and video tutorials, I highly recommend it!

For our Pigleta pattern, we sprinkle-dyed white wool felt with Kool-Aid powder. We used cherry for the dark pink and pink lemonade for the light.

The children love that they get to pick a fabric of their choice for her little apron. This way everyone's will look different! Before you sew the apron closed at the top, you slip in a slim magnet. We are using 25mm x 2mm.

It's going to be so much fun to embroider on her little face and give each pig some personality! Here are all of the blog posts in my Handwork Series:


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Wednesday, September 16, 2026

Literature Circle: Surviving the Applewhites


Surviving the Applewhites
by Stephanie S. Tolan


Mon Sep 14

    pass out books

    pre-reading activities from p.4
    #7 - Predicting (juvenile delinquent, home school, acceptance, community theater, butterflies, television documentary)

    reading assignment: chapters 1-3


Wed Sep 16

    lunch group meeting

    reading assignment: chapter 4


Mon Sep 21

    Word Maps - FREE at TpT

    vocabulary activity: part of speech, dictionary definition, sentence
    (Ashram, blearily, choreography, delinquent, documentary, incessant, intention, melliflous, metamorphosis, pathologically, patriarch, personified, probation, unmitigated, variegated)


Main resource:

Surviving the Applewhites
Teacher Guide from Novel Units


More resources / ideas:


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Tuesday, September 15, 2026

Literature Circle: Because of Winn-Dixie


Because of Winn-Dixie
by Kate DiCamillo


Mon Sep 14

    pass out books

    pre-reading activities from p.5
    #1 - Novel Preview (front cover)
    #5 - Plot Predictions (first and last paragraphs)
    #6 - Freewriting (moving to a new town)

    reading assignment: chapters 1-4


Wed Sep 16

    lunch group meeting

    reading assignment: chapter 5


Mon Sep 21


Main resource:

Because of Winn-Dixie
Teacher Guide from Novel Units


More resources / ideas:


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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

    two 6 oz pkgs of "family size" Jell-O
    must make up gelatin at least six hours in advance

    roasting pan

    two different lengths of toothpicks (get LOTS of toothpicks)

    bag of mini 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:


Articles & Links:


Field Trip Ideas:


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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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