We just wrapped up week 3 of the school year. Thank you to all of the parents for your support! A special thank you goes out to Destinee for donating our water delivery service this school year (the children have loved the delicious water and the glass bottles!) and to Guy for contributing yucca leaves for Cordage and for mowing the yard this week. It looks beautiful!
I typed up an overview of the Cordage main lesson block (a big thank you also to Kamea for helping set up the upcoming field trip to Cache River!).
And this week in Form Drawing we worked on freehand spirals and circles.
Other blog posts that go with this week:
We continued to read The Burgess Book of Nature Lore by Thornton W. Burgess at lunchtime. Our snacktime picture books this week were The Zieglers and Their Apple Orchard by Alice Flanagan (introducing Circle Time), Grandfather Twilight by Barbara Helen Berger (FD: circle), How a Shirt Grew in the Field by Marguerita Rudolph (fibers: flax/linen), and The Dragons Are Singing Tonight by Jack Prelutsky (introducing the Dragon Festival). We also read Pink Is for Boys by Robb Pearlman as part of the Rainbow Rice activity.
Here are some photos from our week:
the Extra Yarn chest... freshly painted and ready to be decorated with spirals
practicing with chalk in the driveway...
and with a paintbrush & water on a chalkboard
when they feel ready, they each draw a spiral on the chest
it's beautiful!
ready to be filled with yarn and stand in a proud place in our classroom
this HUGE lobster pot is perfect as a dye pot! it has an enormous capacity, and the steamer insert makes it perfect for bundle dyeing fabric too
we add our acorns and plenty of water and simmer it for 20 minutes, then let it sit overnight to cool
step 1: complete
Orchard
Socken Zocken
Labyrinth
Stamp Game
Racks & Tubes
mulching the Pollinator Garden and building Fairy Houses
our first foray into Cordage is with raffia
Cody is the guest teacher
SSR
finger knitting
Morning Math - a BIG multiplication problem!
Golden Bead Material
Golden Bead Material Activity Set
Stamp Game
an explanation of the spelling of < dyeing > and < dying >
both of these have two-step word sums!
die + ing ---> diing (replaceable e) ---> dying (toggle y to i)
dye + ing ---> dying ---> dyeing (the homophone principle)
goal setting
Pony Reins
Bugs in the Kitchen
Jacks
adding dyeing with acorns to the MLB
adding raffia cordage to the MLB
we check out the color of our finished acorn dye
everyone helps to strain the acorns & caps out of the dye bath
the squirrels are delighted to find 900 g of acorns already collected for them!
we pour the material into some old fabric masks from early on in COVID
(two layers with one end open and one end sewed up, like a pocket)
they work perfectly to let the dyed water through and leave the solid materials behind
the children squeeze them to get every bit of colored water out
step 2: complete
a few children have the original handwork bags (this one was made years ago by a grandparent), but most of them use our
new handwork baskets
we look at milkweed fibers with magnifying glasses & jeweler's loupes
as always, a rough draft and edit before adding to the MLB
setting up the birthday ring for a birthday celebration!
a lesson on using the Stamp Game for long division
in Art History, I show them some additional painting by Piet Mondrian
they try to figure out when they were painted by comparing them to other work throughout his career
I bring the dye pot back up to a simmer and put in four different materials
we tie the yarns into hanks for dyeing, and I put the loose wool fiber into a drawstring mesh produce bag (used only for dyeing)
simmer for 20 minutes, then let it sit overnight to cool
step 3: complete
lots to do on Thursday!
Waldorf in third grade emphasizes "the maths of practical life," taking math from pure computation into application
this also involves some real-life practice in knot tying!
the peg dolls are simply adorable
we also read a book of dragon poetry, all in preparation for next week's Dragon Festival
the Bobcats make homemade bubble wands using 10 gauge wire wrapped in wool yarn
in our final step in the acorn dyeing process, we take the materials out of the dye pot
step 4: complete
the Bongos have a wet-on-wet watercolor painting experience with cool blue (Prussian) and warm blue (ultramarine)
Prussian blue make the best green; ultramarine makes the best purple
they enjoy watching the colors flow and blend
watercolor painting is emphasized in Waldorf education, so we have a lot of special watercolor painting supplies
Science Club on Thursday afternoons is also a lively time
the Nature Table is still set up for late summer, but soon I will need to change it over completely in preparation for next month's main lesson
Zac and I visit a wonderful garden on Friday... a possible field trip destination for October
and the Cordage workshop on Sunday was also fantastic!
Steve recommended several books on Ancestral Skills
many families from our homeschool collective were able to be there
everyone started by making cordage from raffia
and then it was on to part II of the workshop: getting usable fibers from yucca leaves
Steve brought some red ochre as well, in case people wanted to fashion paintbrushes
all you need to get the fibers out of yucca leaves are large smooth stones...
pounding sticks...
and scrapers!
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Immersive Experience
Immersive Experience
Immersive Experience
