Photos from Many Years of Teaching the Fables

I have taught this Waldorf main lesson block more often than any other: 2006, 2010, 2015, 2016, 2017, and now 2020.

Here is a compilation of photos that pertain to the 9 fables I'm suggesting for 2020. Since we are trying to achieve distance learning without putting kids in front of screens, it's not that easy to share my teaching ideas with the homeschool families in our co-op who are trying to implement the hands-on lessons I create. Hopefully these photos will come in handy!!!!

They are all really simple to execute (like walking around with a basket on your head while you talk to yourself, and then tossing your head with pride and seeing the basket go flying) but kids absolutely love them!

This is the companion post to Care Package for the Fables Block.

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The North Wind and the Sun

one year we dyed our own playsilks for this!

100% silk scarves from Dharma Trading Company 
+ iDye for Natural Fibers + white vinegar

of course, if you have a cloak handy this is a great use for it

brrrrrr.... so cold!

The Milkmaid and Her Pail

The Fox and the Grapes

you can also do this story with a fox finger puppet

here are some of our animals using Suzanne Down's patterns

in Around the World with Finger Puppet Animals

The Fox and the Stork

hmmmm... this soup is hard to drink without a beak

The Crow and the Pitcher

a chalkboard... useful for so many things

this story is a favorite and, like all of the others, every single child
wants to have a turn to act it out

it is surprisingly satisfying to drop the pebbles in one at a time
and watch the water level rise up

drying the marbles out afterwards

City Mouse - Country Mouse 

the puppet-making aspect of this one makes it another
recurring favorite!

wooden spoons make the very best mice

writing on the spoons helps the puppeteer know which is which

Becca cleverly wrapped the handles with two colors of yarn,

which is also really helpful

seriously, they are always just the cutest

the dining room at the City Mouse's mansion

the miserable hole of the Country Mouse

 The Hare and the Tortoise

here is an image from Brunhild Müller's beautiful book,

which inspired our illustration / puppetry

the order I suggest for making the various pieces:

1.  background

2.  middle ground

3.  foreground (attach with glue)

4.  animals

5.  handles (attach with tape)

it is three pieces of paper attached on the sides only with glue

the bottom has to be left unglued so the pieces can move freely

The Lion and the Mouse

paper weaving for the "net"

I use a paper trimmer to measure everything but you can also cut the slits and strips freehand

beeswax modeling

a wet-on-wet watercolor painting

can get a little hard to control

a drier painting of just the mouse is a bit easier

and still completely fine for this story

The Salt Peddler and the Donkey

First, we tried experimenting with four different types of salt to see which dissolved the most quickly (table salt, kosher salt, French sea salt, pink Himalayan sea salt). Then the children used a kitchen scale to measure the weight of a few small dry sponges. I had them estimate how much they would weigh when filled with water. Then we filled them with water and weighed them again. Our five small sea sponges weighed 3 grams when dry. The guess was that they'd weigh 8 or 9 grams when wet. The actual weight was 74 grams!!!!

UPDATE:
I ended up finding one more fable to add to our list. It is The Boys and the Frogs. If the weather is warm out, go to a pond or river and skip some stones. Another fun option for this fable is to make origami frogs. I found the most useful instructions to be at How to make a jumping frog. You can use origami paper but you can also use newspaper, pages from old phone books, or wrapping paper. I made my little practice guy out of graph paper.

I used a 4 x 4 inch piece of graph paper and my little froggie is so tiny!

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