With our field trip to Cache River on Mon Oct 2, we officially wrapped up our first month of the school year. Form Drawing / Form Modeling will continue for the younger children as a weekly special subject, and the older children will publish their purple Cordage MLBs and get new blue books for October.
Some background information that may be useful:
Form Drawing webpage
Cordage blog post
Science Club: Pumpkin Racers blog post
Art History: Piet Mondrian blog post
We continued to read The Burgess Book of Nature Lore by Thornton W. Burgess at lunchtime. Our snacktime picture books this week were The Quiltmaker's Gift by Jeff Brumbeau (marbles), The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson (clay), and Beautiful Blackbird by Ashley Bryan (black glue).
On Thursday we had Michaelmas -- a Festival of Courage -- and celebrated bravely fighting our own dragons. We read three picture books and looked for instances of Courage in each one. These were Wangari's Trees of Peace: A True Story from Africa by Jeanette Winter, The Magic Hat Shop by Sonja Wimmer, and Saint George and the Dragon as retold by Margaret Hodges.
Here are some photos from week 4:
we make some designs with the colors and then we mix them all together
Small Bead Frame
Stamp Game
they are each different, and so adorable! the kit is from A Child's Dream
exploring color mixing with wet-on-wet watercolor painting
the Circle Rainbow is a favorite first watercolor experience
the children are given only the three primary colors
Medium Yellow, Scarlet Red, Cobalt Blue
the children work in pairs, sharing colors, rinse water, and the painting board
Morning Math - playing BINGO to practice reading two digit numbers
Form Drawing - circles in different sizes
inspired by our Bubble Stuff Explorations last week
taping the paper up on the wall gives the children more freedom of movement in their shoulders, elbows, wrists, and finger joints
they loved adding colorful details to their bubbles!
making knitting needles using wooden dowels, a pencil sharpener, sandpaper, and beeswax polish
the knitting needles rest all night so that the glue for the acorn caps can dry
the doll buggy has been a big hit at recess
we have beautiful handmade Waldorf dolls
we continue to play with things that are round by building a Gruffalo nest
the children spot a wood frog and run to get me (note his black mask)
this frog freezes solid during the winter and then thaws out in the spring!
an advanced finger knitting project, the 2- and 4-finger knitted snake
note his wonderful red tongue!
in Waldorf, children also learn counted cross stitch, typically in grade 4
a pincushion of the child's own design is a classic project
some notes for her handwork basket
more fun with circles! I teach the children how to play marbles
Turn Over
the children start each day with SSR (Sustained Silent Reading)
this gives me time to meet with them one-on-one to read
The Magic Belt series is my favorite set of phonics-based books for new readers; the children are so very excited when they turn 7 and can begin!
Morning Math: playing Mancala
helping to card wool for a friend's project
it is time for the Lamb to be born!
an introductory exercise in working with clay
I just wanted them to feel comfortable with clay and have fun with it...
so we made Gruffalo scat!
and placed some by the nest so it would look like he had really been there
I also tucked some of our acorn-dyed wool around to would look like fur
digging in the yarn to see if they can find their own clay
digging is allowed in only TWO places in the yard (the Mulch Mountain and Gnome River) and the children check out the Digging Kits by writing their initials on the whiteboard (and erasing them when they return the supplies)
thank you to Megan for lending the whiteboard to us! it has been so helpful!
Lion in My Way
Art History: Piet Mondrian
today the children got to create their own Mondrian-inspired geometric designs
the younger children got the support of a pre-made template
they could also choose between cutting and pasting construction paper in primary colors, or filling in the sections with colored pencils or crayons
Zac has very carefully made a plan for his and marked each color
children who wanted to could also use black glue (regular school glue with India ink mixed in) to strengthen the lines between the shapes
the artwork came out beautifully!
on Thursday, the long-awaited Dragon Festival
with the wet grass outside from all the overnight rainy weather we weren't able to get out our huge collection of foam bricks to build actual castle walls, but we were able to have a great time regardless
the last few peg dolls are completed
thank you to Destinee for contributing the dough for the Dragon Bread! we love the Michaelmas bread recipe in
All Year Round and it was a big hit
I gave the children dried currants and sliced almonds for decorating
the finished bread dragons, one made by each child
I kept a careful chart on the board of whose dragon was in which place on the cookie sheet, just to be sure that they would each get their own
many of the children asked that I take a special picture of them with their dragon
we acted the story of Saint George and the Dragon out many times
there are four parts to play:
the king/queen in the bronze tower awaiting our hero
the princess Una bringing the brave knight George to meet the dragon
and the dragon!
we staged the dragon's lair at the Mulch Mountain
the healing spring that George falls by on the first night was Gnome River
the healing apple tree that George falls under on the second knight was the Black Tupelo
and, in the fifth and final retelling, four Georges fought four Dragons (just so everyone could play all of the parts that they wanted to play before it ended)
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Immersive Experience
Immersive Experience
Immersive Experience
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