Saturday, December 21, 2019

Class Play Planning - Week Three

All of our hard work, which culminated in Friday's wonderful performance!


Day Nine - Monday, December 16

  • check all costume bags for completeness
  • open and look at black SmartFab for "The Time of Deep Darkness"
  • look at National Geographic map of Indonesia, consider Indonesia in relationship to nearby geography and why komodo dragons (called mo-o) were so feared in legends of Ancient Hawai'i
  • read script, review lines of dialogue and determine where they will go


Day Ten - Tuesday, December 17

  • transport costumes and props to play location
  • "Number Rhyme" game by Joan Marcus (with the numbers 9, 12) from The Waldorf Book of Poetry, p.291
  • review parts of the stage (backstage, wings, upstage, downstage, stage left, stage right) and put up sets
  • do complete walkthrough with sets 1 through 6; set up Monster Cave; finalize all actor entrances, exits, cues, blocking, and dialogue
  • cover sets with black SmartFab for "The Time of Deep Darkness"


Day Eleven - Thursday, December 19

  • transport decorations to play location
  • make final prop decisions
  • do complete walkthrough with sets and all props
  • finalize script, play handbill, and reception menu


Day Twelve - Friday, December 20

Morning

  • do table read of script, practice cues and dialogue
  • wrap parent gifts


Afternoon

  • set up gifts table, food table, palm trees, etc.
  • don costumes
  • dress rehearsal 1:15 pm
  • play performance 2:15 pm


Bedtime Math

Since our focus this month was on learning and retelling these two legends from Hawaiian Mythology, I didn't want to also do a chapter book read aloud. Instead, I chose for our lunchtime reading the Bedtime Math series by Laura Overdeck.

These books have a short narrative with interesting facts, then several leveled (easy, medium, difficult) math word problems which relate to the topic. For example, if the narrative is about gigantic pumpkins, the math word problems will be about pumpkins. I wasn't sure if the group would like them but to my surprise (and Amazon reviews say the same) kids LOVE these! They begged for them. If you're looking for some fun ways to keep practicing math over the Winter Break, I recommend this series!


Bedtime Math: A Fun Excuse to Stay Up Late


Bedtime Math: This Time It's Personal


Bedtime Math: The Truth Comes Out


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ECE Planning for December

The month of December is always a busy and fun one in Early Childhood! We focused our energy on festivals of light, including our own local Carbondale Lights Fantastic Parade, the festival of Santa Lucia, and the Advent Spiral.


We continued with our Songs, Verses & Movement for classroom routines.

We also did a consistent December Circle Time of verses and songs, to help us prepare for the Advent Spiral celebration on Friday, December 20th.


Monday, December 2

  • "Why the Evergreen Trees Keep Their Leaves in Winter"
    by Florence Holbrook
    from Buy Nothing Day 2019 (PDF) activities by Waldorf Publications
  • decorate half wall with black wire sleigh & reindeer, collect evergreen branches from outside to decorate indoors


Tuesday, December 3

  • "Old Gnome's Advent Time"
    by Suzanne Down
    from Old Gnome Through the Year, p.42
  • squeeze orange halves and drink the delicious fresh orange juice
  • make treats for the birds and hang outside (strings of large organic whole fresh cranberries, bamboo skewers of our orange shells)
  • collect evergreen branches from outside and begin to build spiral


Thursday, December 5

  • "The Magical Elf Garden"
    by Suzanne Down
    from Christmas Tales for Young Children, p.6
  • pop popcorn, read excerpt from Farmer Boy by Laura Ingalls Wilder, experiment with popcorn and milk
  • make treats for the birds and hang outside (strings of popcorn, strings of popcorn and fresh cranberries)
  • tear stale homemade bread and sprinkle crumbs outside for the birds
  • finish building the spiral
  • And, of course, we made Stone Soup. Today's soup included
    chicken broth, onion, sweet potato, carrot, pears, yellow squash, and barley. Thank you to everyone who contributed!


Saturday, December 7 @ 6 pm
Carbondale Lights Fantastic Parade


Sunday, December 8 @ 2 pm
Christmas Stroll at Harrison-Bruce Historical Village, John A. Logan College


Monday, December 9


Tuesday, December 10

  • "The Golden Pine Cones"
    by Betsi McGuigan
    from Tell Me a Story, p.176
  • giftmaking - make "Pine Cone Fire Starters" from Earthways, p.100


Thursday, December 12

  • "December" poem and illustration & "January" illustration
    by Elsa Beskow
    from Around the Year
  • "Sweden"
    by Mary Lankford
    from Christmas Around the World, pp.28-29
  • prepare Santa Lucia crowns and Star Boy hats and wands
  • make Advent Spiral invitations
  • And, of course, we made Stone Soup. Today's soup included
    vegetable broth, onion, butternut squash, celery, carrots, zucchini, and green cabbage. Thank you to everyone who contributed!


Friday, December 13 @ 10 am
Santa Lucia Day

  • look at traditional wheat straw and red thread ornaments and "Kirsten" American Girl Doll straw ornament making kit
  • make Santa Lucia Sweet Rolls recipe
  • "Santa Lucia" story by Tiziana Boccaletti
  • walk in procession with oldest girl wearing the felt Santa Lucia Crown (from MormorsLegacy) and carrying sweet buns
  • Here is the simplest-ever recipe for sweet buns, which I got from Becca's Kindergarten teacher years ago. I had the children help shape them, giving them each a piece of the dough on a piece of parchment paper, and showing them how to make the traditional swirly shape. We placed dried cranberries in each curl of the "S" before baking.


    SANTA LUCIA SWEET ROLLS

    You will need: 5 cups of Bisquick, 2 eggs, 6 T grapeseed oil, 3/4 cup + 5 tsp milk, 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

    Directions: Combine the Bisquick, eggs, grapeseed oil, and 3/4 cup milk in the order given, stirring after each addition. Divide the dough so that each child has a piece. Ask the children to shape the dough into 8 inch long rolls and curls the ends to form an "S" shape, as shown. Add raisins or dried cranberries for decoration if you wish.

    Bake on a greased cookie sheet at 375 degrees for about 15 minutes.

    While they are baking, prepare a frosting by combining the powdered sugar with 5 teaspoons milk. While the rolls are still warm from the oven, brush with the frosting.


Monday, December 16


Tuesday, December 17


Thursday, December 19

  • Winter's Gift
    by Jane Monroe Donovan
  • exchange gifts
  • sensory play with Frozen Pom Poms
  • carry apples and practice walking the spiral
  • And, of course, we made Stone Soup. Today's soup included
    mushroom stock, carrots, celery, parsnip, fresh sweet corn, rice, and Parmesan cheese. Thank you to everyone who contributed.

    We also had a delicious chocolate babka baked by Ms. Shelby!


Thursday, December 19 @ 12 pm
Little Egypt Chorus Holiday Favorites at Sandwiches & Strings, Artspace 304


Friday, December 20 @ 4:30 pm
Advent Spiral

  • Winter Circle Time with families
  • The Tomten
    by Astrid Lindgren
  • walk the beautiful Advent Spiral outdoors in the now-dark, with each child taking a turn one at a time to silently walk the spiral, carrying an apple with a candle, walking into the very center of the spiral, lighting the candle from the Earth Candle, carrying the apple and lit candle out, and choosing a star in the spiral upon which to place it
  • decorate gingerbread houses


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Sunday, December 15, 2019

IPA Shaving Cream Sensory Bin

IPA stands for the International Phonetic Alphabet.

The children I teach know that I have always been interested in alphabets. I very happily learned the International Radio Alphabet a few years ago (a bucket list item) and insist that we all use it when we are playing Battleship. When Montessori teaches the Story of Written Language (Fourth Great Lesson) we get to do a long look at hieroglyphs (something I also taught myself years ago as a kid) and cuneiform and the Phoenician alphabet, etc.


Ox, House, Stick:
The History of Our Alphabet

by Don Robb


So the next one on my list to master is the IPA and I'm not only going to learn it... we are all going to learn it. It is the next step in deepening my understanding of the fourth step of SWI, which is pronunciation.

I love the Truer Words cards by Emily O'Conner. As the fourth step on the back of each card, she breaks the analyzed word down into graphemes and refers us to the Grapheme Deck by Gina Cooke for more information on grapheme - phoneme correspondences. At the back of Gina's 3rd edition of the Grapheme Deck, there are also "key cards" which give you the IPA symbols needed for English. Ta da! (Gina also has an IPA Lexinar as well.)

When we studied < papier-mâché > and < machine > we discussed the IPA symbol for / sh / which is [ ʃ ]. You can find all these symbols at https://ipa.typeit.org. There have been changes in the IPA over time (Wikipedia has an interesting article about this) and even the sound categories are open for debate, so I just take Gina as the ultimate resource and I use her work. The Waldorf first/second grade book Phonic Rhyme Time by Mary Nash-Wortham doesn't use IPA (she explains, "since Phonic Rhyme Time has been designed for wide usage by parents as well as teachers and therapists") but she does have nice diagrams and charts at the beginning of her book. So if you have it on hand, it would be a helpful starting point.


Phonic Rhyme Time:
A Unique Collection of Phonic Rhymes for
Precise Practice in Speaking and Reading

by Mary Nash-Wortham


Mary Nash-Wortham has technical aspects of speech listed on page 6

    Breath Control - its quantity and force

    Voice - rapid vibrations of the vocal cords to create sound waves

    Resonance and Projection - the quality of sound produced and carried

    Tongue and Lips - synchronous, rapid, active movements

    Soft Palate and Jaw Movements - physical control

    Pronunciation - actual formation of consonants and vowels

    Phrasing - linking of words together to make sense

    Pitch, Tone and Stress - to create a flow of words with meaning and interest

    Rhythm and Pace - to provide continuity and feeling


Mary Nash-Wortham has a diagram of speech sounds and their creation on page 8, including the nose, top lip, lower lip, teeth, jaw, tongue (tip blade, middle, back), alveolar ridge, hard palate, soft palate, uvula, pharynx, larynx, epiglottis, and position of vocal cords and air flow.

She also has categories of phonic sounds, both voiceless and voiced, and briefly describes the sound creation. She has the categories plosives, fricatives, affricates, lateral non-fricative, semi-vowels, frictionless continuant, nasal, and vowels. As I have said, I consider Gina to be the expert in this field, so I will be using her categories when I introduce IPA. Gina has

    Sibilant Consonants

    Plosive Consonants

    Fricative Consonants

    Nasal Consonants

    Approximate Consonants

    Tense Vowels & Dipthongs

    Lax Vowels

    Rhotic Vowels


I am NOT a SLP and of my four children only the fourth child ever had speech therapy, so I've only sat in on two years worth of weekly sessions and am by no means an expert. I have the passion to get this right and I have good resources, and that's where I'm at. I did focus on Linguistics in college and got my B.A. in Philosophy (which is where they put Linguistics) from Smith College.

I am now returning to linquistics as a classroom teacher and using the tools of this well-researched field to inform my spelling instruction. SWI does this so elegantly! It is nice to see someone put academic fields together that make sense together. I'm so grateful that Shawna introduced me to SWI, and grateful to all of the experts who have worked together to make this field of inquiry happen in such a robust way.

Now that we want our SWI sessions to include writing each word we study in IPA, so we can more clearly see the phonemes as opposed to the graphemes, it is time for me to teach this to children (ages 7-10). How?

This age group loves sensory play as much as -- if not more than -- the early childhood group. Why? They don't get enough of it. THEY DON'T GET ENOUGH OF IT! I was reading through 20 Sensory Activities for Kids to look for Winter sensory bin ideas for ECE and happened upon Alphabet Car Wash from the Parenting Chaos blog. The idea here is that you fill a bin with shaving cream, put in items that start with different letters of the alphabet, and when you call out a letter the child has to find an item that starts with that letter as quickly as possible. Then you wash it off with a spray bottle of water and it is time for the next letter. You could also have two children race.


Barbasol Beard Buster Shaving Cream Original 10 oz (Pack of 5)

$16.70


I think this idea is perfect for teaching the IPA symbols! We could go through a set of symbols, then I could fill a bin with shaving cream and put in small objects (the sound could be initial, medial, or final position) and then write a symbol on the board and two children could race to find an item which is a match for that sound. They would have to prove that sound goes with the item, of course, and may even come up with an item that I had not thought of (like I was expecting a shell for [ ʃ ] but they grabbed a toothbrush)!

I cannot wait to try this in the classroom in January and I'm so excited about it that I am sitting here with Gina's Grapheme Deck and my four year old's bins of sensory play animals and objects and I'm ready to make some lists!


Week 1 - January 10th

    Sibilant Consonant Key Card
    snake, cent, zebra, shell, fish, engine, chicken, giraffe, gem

    Plosive Consonant Key Card
    puppy, plane, boat, tapir, parrot, dice, donkey, cap, car, alligator


Week 2 - January 17th

    Fricative Consonant Key Card
    elephant, furry, venom, toothbrush, slither, human, hop, loch

    Nasal Consonant Key Card
    millipede, marble, gnaw, nibble, pink, ring

    Approximate Consonant Key Card
    yellow, whisk, white, lizard, lion, rabbit, dinosaur


Week 3 - January 24th

    Tense Vowel Key Card
    snake, tee, dragonfly, spider, narrow, mule, spoon, loud, cow, ahoy


Week 4 - January 31st

    Lax Vowel Key Card
    ant, cat, insect, pig, wasp, pterandon, crawl, button, cook, banana

    Rhotic Vowel Key Card
    car, bird, fork, orange, poker, digger


Helpful Hint: If you're not entirely sure of the IPA symbols in your word, the Macmillan Dictionary Online has a pronunciation feature which will show you the word written in IPA as it is pronounced in American English.

If you create sensory bins like these for your children / students, I'd love to hear what you put in them!


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Why You Need to Look Things Up in SWI

I am always honest and open with students when I realize I've given them incorrect information. I share about discovering my mistake. I show them the resource I used to look things up and explain why it is a credible source, and I always end by giving them better information than I had before.

Pete Bowers, originator of the term SWI, says that this process can be simple. "This is my current understanding" is a fine thing to say to children. So is, "That was my understanding then and now I have a better understanding."

How else can we model authentic scholarship? Or show life-long learning?

We have to truly be grappling ourselves. It is like leading a science experiment when you already know what will happen versus entering into the thing with a true spirit of inquiry. We need to be real. Learning is messy and that's okay.

You can be a teacher and be a learner too.

So I am going to share a recent situation when I needed to look things up in SWI. And then I'll share additional parts to that deepening understanding.


Part I
Friday, December 7

Today I wanted to look at the origins of two words which tied in nicely with our Class Play hands-on projects, one being batik and the other being papier-mâché. I thought it would be fun to look at the history of these words, as well as to spend some more time on step 4 of SWI, which is pronunciation. It was time to go more deeply into grapheme - phoneme correspondences! That meant we didn't spend as much energy on step 2, which is structure, and so we didn't go into word sums today.

We began with < batik >, which we learned came into our language from Dutch and was orginally Malay mbatik. We have never had a Malay word before, so that was very interesting! We discussed what it meant in Malay and where Malaysia was in relationship to Hawai'i, and how the Dutch got involved in the whole thing. We also noted that the grapheme < k > is representing the phoneme / k / here.

We moved on to < papier-mâché >. The children were pretty sure that the language of origin of this word was French. We talked about < paper > coming from papyrus and mâché meaning "compressed, mashed." This word comes from from Late Latin masticare which meant "masticate." < Mash >, by the way, is Old English and is not related to it. < Mandible >, however, is.

We also noted that the digraph < ch > is representing the / sh / phoneme here.

The children then broke into two small groups to work more on grapheme - phoneme correspondences. I gave one group the / k / phoneme and asked them to list all the letter combinations they could think of that spelled that sound. Under each letter combo they were to list evidence, in the form of words that have that spelling pattern for that sound. The other group tackled the / sh / phoneme and had the same task.

After a lively 20 minutes, the two groups came back to report to one another. The first group had the following:

/ k /

< ck >
black
check

< c >
calendar
cat

< k >
kite
book

We noticed that < ck > seems to only represent the / k / phoneme at the end of an English word. At least, none of us could find any evidence to the contrary. But we will keep trying... trying to disprove your hypothesis is a big part of scientific inquiry... and if you find one, let me know!

Then the second group shared what they had come up with:

/ sh /

< sh >
sheep
rush
mushroom

< ch >
papier-mâché
bechamel

< ti >
lotion
eruption

< c >
ocean

< ss >
expression

We discovered that < sh > can be found in the intial, medial, and final position of a word. This was a nice chance for me to introduce this terminology.

And I remembered "ghoti" as being a mock spelling of "fish" from my college Linquistics class but, as I explained to the students, < ti > seems to only occur in the middle of a word, so you can't really use it as / sh / in that way. You can't walk up to me and say, I'm spelling "fish" as "fiti" from now on. They thought that was hliarious.

(In actual fact, g and h can't be stripped off of < ugh > and < igh > to make the / f / sound because I now know those are trigraphs. So the whole thing doesn't make sense anyway. But it really stuck with me in 1997.)

But we had a lot more questions about this group's findings. I had told them -- and I believed -- that < ti > was a digraph because I found it online. (Yes, I just said that. Yes, I should know better.) I found an Australian website called Spelfabet that had a whole list of < ti > words, so I believed that this was a letter combination for the sound / sh /. We knew < sh > and < ch > already. But then a child brought up the word < ocean >. Was this a < c >? Or was it the < ce > that represented the / sh / sound? And then the same child thought of < expression >. Was that < s > or < ss > or even < si >?


Saturday, December 8

The next day I had a Zoom session for Waldorf teachers who are using SWI in the classroom and I asked my question there. Then belatedly realized that I own Gina Cooke's Grapheme Deck. This deck has all of the graphemes -- single letter graphemes, digraphs, and trigraphs -- in the English language and the back of each card lists all of the possible phonemes (in IPA) which can be represented using that grapheme. Aha! A truly reliable source!

I know Gina Cooke and Doug Harper (who writes etymonline) personally and I know their background, their expertise, and their level of scholarship and I know that they are eminently trustworthy sources. There is a difference between reading something when you don't know the author and reading something when you do.

And on Monday I went back to the class to correct my mistake.


Part II
Monday, December 10

I showed the class the Grapheme Deck, which says that / sh / can be represented in the following ways:

    sh
    ch
    t
    c
    s


So, it's NOT < ti >, folks. It is < t >.

I also explained the International Phonetic Alphabet and that the symbol [ ʃ ] is for / sh /. I was thrilled during Emily O'Conner's Truer Words class, which also happened on Saturday, December 8, to learn that Gina had all of the IPA symbols used in the English language in the back of her Grapheme Deck. Never noticed that before. Super excited to learn IPA now!


Part III

Friday, December 14

Lastly, we examined another < ch > word which Gina had on her card as representing the / sh / phoneme. This was < machine >. Having clarified my mistake with < t > for the / sh / phoneme, the idea of not assuming things was fresh in everyone's mind.

The question here was, just because < papier-mâché > and < machine > share four letters in commmon, do they come from a shared base? The four letters in common could be a coincidence. So we began with step 1 in SWI, which is meaning. What does < machine > mean?

I heard from lots of children and wrote all of their ideas up on the board:

    does work
    makes things
    carries things
    has movement
    is a tool
    flies
    uses electricity / power
    on a big scale
    can be simple (wheel & axle)


We recalled that < papier-mâché > means "chewed paper." Is there a meaning relationship between our ideas for < machine > and chewing?

The children were quick to point out that there are machines which chew, such as a blender. In fact, when we make handmade paper, we use a blender to create our pulp. But I kept bringing them back to the difference between there being a machine which can chew and the word < machine > having a meaning of chew at its very essence.

Finally, we decided that we did not see any meaning connection, although we were quite sure that the origins of the word would be French. As one girl pointed out, "We've only seen < ch > representing / sh / in French words."

Note: I was so proud of her for using the correct terminology! We are all trying hard to get away from the old habit of "says" as in "ch says sh." The correct word is "represents."

Time to look it up. We headed to etymonline and found < machine >.

Sure enough, it came into our language from Middle French machine "device, contrivance," from Latin machina. We noticed right away that this meant that the entire word < machine > was a base, which meant that it didn't have a base in common with < mâché >. In fact, < mâché > comes from *PIE *mendh- and < machine > comes from *PIE *magh- which meant "to be able, have power." Other words related to this root are

    may (as in "am able")
    might (as in "bodily strength, power")
    main
    mechanic
    mechanism
    magi
    magic


We remembered last year's SWI lesson, which we did as part of the Zoology block, on < colony >. Just because < colon > and < colony > have five letters in common, and < y > is a suffix for which we have evidence, doesn't mean that the words are related in a word sum. So don't assume! Look it up!


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Saturday, December 14, 2019

Class Play Planning - Week Two

Onward and upward... performance is December 20th!


Day Five - Monday, December 9

  • read When the Sky is Like Lace by Elinor Lander Horwitz, review terms for phases of the moon

      new moon
      waxing crescent
      first quarter
      waxing gibbous
      full moon
      waning gibbous
      third quarter
      waning crescent

  • look at moon phase models and our moon phase prop for the play
  • make phases of the moon with Oreo cookies (four cookies per child)
  • small group breakout sessions - paint background color on masks


Day Six - Tuesday, December 10

Morning

  • work with Ms. Anna to build papier-mâché volcano model


Afternoon

  • "Number Rhyme" game by Joan Marcus (with the numbers 11, 10) from The Waldorf Book of Poetry, p.291
  • play improv game "Group Stop"
  • walkthrough of "The Time of Deep Darkness" and "Spears of Lightning" and begin to make decisions on blocking
  • make final prop and set decisions
  • small group breakout sessions - embellish masks with additional details as needed, organize animal batiks, plan plant art pieces

      for Ku, god of forests
      koa tree
      candlenut tree
      hau tree
      wiliwili tree

      for Lono, god of growing things
      mango
      taro leaves
      guava
      coconut
      breadfruit
      sugar cane


Day Seven - Thursday, December 12

Morning

  • work with Ms. Anna to finish volcano, paint plant art pieces


Afternoon

  • small group breakout sessions - final planning and painting of small projects; measuring and testing quantities of baking soda, vinegar, food coloring, and clear dish detergent for the best possible eruption
  • play improv game "Columns"
  • We took two identical vessels and placed one inside the papier-mâché volcano model. The other we kept out so that we could try different combinations of baking soda / vinegar and figure out the very best recipe, without destroying our volcano model from overuse. Perfect!


Day Eight - Friday, December 13

  • assemble rolling clothing racks, hang fabric, paint sets

      Set 1 - Volcano
      Set 2 - Forest
      Set 3 - Rushing River
      Set 4 - Seacoast Cliff
      Set 5 - Mountains / Cave
      Set 6 - Chief Hut


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Friday, December 13, 2019

Science Club Updates for the Timeline of Life

The Montessori Second Great Lesson, the Coming of Life, is one of my absolute favorite topics to teach!

Here are some notes from our continuing Microbiology studies (with recurring forays into Chemistry) and a good long look at the entire Timeline of Life... to scale. Parents, I know you'll enjoy your beautiful Parent Gifts!


Create Your Own Calendar, 8 inch


Friday, November 1


Friday, November 8


Friday, November 15

  • finish December 2020 artwork as needed
  • add dates and make artwork for November 2020 (fish printing)
  • look at trilobite picture and fossil from our collection, look at trilobite picture in The Drop in My Drink, begin artwork for the calendar front cover (black glue line resist trilobites)
  • work on writing in dates for remaining months
  • make December 2019 artwork (paint spatter stars in outer space)
  • make January 2020 artwork (water-soluble oil pastel molten earth)
  • feed "Newt," our sourdough starter
  • taste our completed jasmine ginger kombucha and compare with store bought (ours was the winner, naturally)
  • look through our Starter Sourdough cookbook and choose a recipe for next week


Friday, November 22

  • make "Sourdough Pretzels" recipe, page 126
  • finish black glue line trilobites for front cover of calendar by adding our chalk pastel colors
  • make February 2020 artwork (cut paper collage "building blocks" which are a prerequisite for life)
  • work on writing in dates for remaining months
  • read all of Prehistoric Actual Size by Steve Jenkins
  • discuss whether all of this time has really been the Age of Bacteria... as some people suggest...
  • taste our yummy fresh hot pretzels!


Friday, December 6

  • make April 2020 artwork (cloud stencil on red sky, the endless rains)
  • make May 2020 artwork (hot glue squiggle on green ocean)
  • make June 2020 artwork (symmetrical print bacteria reproduction)

  • make July / August / September / October 2020 artwork (monoprinting microbes using a gelatin plate)
  • glue dot in completed and dry art from previous sessions
  • work on writing in dates and key events for remaining months


Friday, December 13

  • glue dot in completed and dry art from previous sessions
  • sign the back of the calendar by tracing handprint (representing humans at the end of the calendar) and writing name and age
  • look back at the whole entire thing, month by month, and consider the only remaining month... and March 2nd... when life began
  • discuss the article "Which came first -- cells or viruses?"
  • look at pictures of pipe cleaner viruses, make pipe cleaner viruses
  • make March 2020 artwork (colored pencil drawing of An Ancient War: Bacteria vs. Virus)
  • wrap calendars, attach pipe cleaner virus as a package decoration


I strongly recommend watching this TED talk by the amazing nature photographer Franz Lanting as a family, as a follow up to this topic in general and the Timeline of Life Calendar project in particular. It is wonderful!


This post contains affiliate links to materials I truly use for homeschooling. Qualifying purchases provide me with revenue. Thank you for your support!