Photos - Form Drawing & Cordage week 1

Photos from our first week of school!

The younger group (Bobcats) is doing Form Drawing and Learning to Knit. The older group (Bongos) is also learning about working with wool in preparation for their topic of Cordage (making rope with foraged fibers).

Our current read aloud at lunchtime is The Burgess Book of Nature Lore by Thornton W. Burgess. A complete list of animals included in this book is here.

Our snacktime picture books this week were The Oldest Student: How Mary Walker Learned to Read by Rita Lorraine Hubbard (your work has nothing to do with your age and may not look like your friend's work; your work has to be the work that's right for you), Lucky Beans by Becky Birtha (estimation), Bear Snores On by Karma Wilson (FD: the horizontal or "resting" line), and Red Berry Wool by Robyn Eversole (FD: the diagonal or "leaping" line).

new families get to know each other at Picnic & Play

a selection of ornaments for the birthday ring

there were four summer birthdays so we celebrated one each day

knitting

Ocean Labyrinth

Bugs in the Kitchen

Zac's wool picture of a bonfire

let Ms. Renee know if you see this plant in the yard!

the magnolia tree is everyone's favorite place to hang out

the mulch mountain (now greatly diminished)

we wash the sheared fleece of my brother's sheep, Jack

on the first washing the water is quite brown

after eight washes the water runs clear

we spread it out on a special cheesecloth table I sewed last year

and let it dry in the sunshine

at the end of each day children write what they have done in their Plan Books and color code it according to subject area

the example jar I made held 35 grapes

the children love doing the estimation jar activity

their guesses:  14, 20, 20, 22, 25, 35, 36, 58, 60, 100

an introduction to finger knitting

rolled beeswax candles and finger knitting are both ways to explore the ideas of Straight Line and Curve

the Montessori way to teach Long Division is called the Racks & Tubes

Rack-O

the marble maze

why can't insects get out of a pitcher plant?

drawing perfectly straight horizontal lines

we practiced with a salt tray and window crayons on a mirror

an introduction to wool carding

the term "carding" comes from the Latin Carduus meaning teasel 

we walked around the block on an Acorn Expedition!

we'd like to dye our wool with acorns and the recipe calls for 900 grams

on Thursday we have a lot to do, so I write out a list of goals

I write the digits of our numbers in the color coding of Montessori and the older children work in pairs to add up how many acorns we collected

the Golden Bead Material is more concrete

the Stamp Game is a little more abstract

we add up their answers to find the total amount (259 + 228 + 346 = 833)

since we are a little short a few children collect from the tree on the corner; we add those acorns in and come up with 875 grams (close enough!)

strips of beautiful papers for the diagonal line collage

mancala

Timeline

one last day to make a rolled beeswax candle or wool picture

the Bongos work on their Waldorf main lesson books (MLBs)

this is their main work of the afternoon and involves writing a rough draft of the previous day's activity, getting an edit from me, and then carefully writing the final version with an accompanying illustration into their books 

this week they added two two-page spreads to their MLBs:  

Washing Raw Wool and Carding Wool

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