Sunday, November 26, 2023

Photos - Shelters & Roman Numerals week 2

Week 10 for us was the week that began on November 6th. Here are some blog posts that may be helpful for background information:


We continued to read Charlotte's Web by E.B. White at lunchtime.


The Bongos had a special Sundial field trip to Anna IL on Monday, Nov 6. Many thanks to Neth for showing us the amazing projects he has built!

This week we finished up our Art History lessons on Louise Bourgeois; her sculpture Maman was wonderful for 8 in the Quality of Numbers block. We also incorporated Art with our cut paper Square Numbers collage for 9, and our Skin Tone Painting lesson for 10. I so enjoy watching Cassie Stephens' video teaching children to paint their skin tone! We used only black, white, red, and yellow paint, just as described in The Colors of Us by Karen Katz.


The Colors of Us by Karen Katz
our ten fingers (10 / X)


Other picture books we read for the Quality of Number block included Seven Blind Mice retold by Ed Young (7 / VII), Spiders Spin Webs by Yvonne Winer (8 / VIII), and Pezzettino by Leo Lionni (9 / IX).


In the Shelters block, we read My Great-Grandmother's Gourd by Cristina Kessler and learned about the amazing and easily hollowed out baobab tree. It is used in Africa to store water during the rainy season and as a shelter. We also read about modern day cave dwellings, and the children created a list of interview questions to ask my mother (who has visited one in Italy).

"Islands of Wonder: The Baobab Tree"
https://www.pbs.org/video/baobab-tree-8rmaic/



We also continued to do Word Study daily using Study Booklet #2 from the The High Frequency Word Project curriculum by Rebecca Loveless and Fiona Hamilton. Each day I would write a word on the board using the International Phonetic Alphabet and the children would try to figure out what it was. Then we would look at the story of that word from Old English to today. This week's words were < be >, < am >, < are >, and < were >.


Here are some photos from week 10:

three families which wound themselves together to create the great tree
"to be"

a special field trip for the Bongos to wrap up their Clocks & Calendars block

with this amazing sundial, you stand on the correct rock in the garden and your shadow points to the time

note that during each month of the year you must stand on a different stone
to account for the sun being lower or higher in the sky as the seasons progress, as this is a change which would affect your shadow

Neth did all the math for this and it's amazing!

Daylight Savings Time just ended yesterday so this is the perfect day for a Clock field trip

he explained that during Daylight Savings, you have to adjust your readings and add an hour to the stone your shadow points to

he also explained the math needed to build the awning the perfect size so that the sunlight DOES NOT come in the wall of windows in the summer (when the sun is higher in the sky) but DOES come in the wall of windows in the winter (when the sun is lower in the sky)

the children try to guess what color the floor of the room is painted so that the sun room is perfectly warm in the winter as the sunlight streams in

we go inside to check... it's painted black!

the children are amazed that this room is often uncomfortably warm in the middle of winter, just from the sunlight coming in and being captured

we get home to wonderful sidewalk chalk Roman numerals from the Bobcats' practice session

in Circle Time this month the Bobcats have lots of fun big movement verses from The Breathing Circle by Nell Smyth

"Looking Through the Garden Gate," p.94
"Rolling Seals," p.92
"Bear Has a Snout," p.93
"Galloping Horses," p.75

we are also learning and singing the skip counts of 2 and 3

Waldorf Skip Counting Songs

once children are 8, they write their main lesson book rough drafts in "best guess spelling" and then meet with me to get an edit

here I explain the word sum for < said >

say + ed (this is the suffix to mark a verb as past tense)
you can't have three vowels in a row in English, so it becomes say + d
the < y > toggles to an < i >, so it becomes said

the beautiful wet-on-wet circular rainbow paintings from earlier in the year

we painted these as part of Piet Mondrian and learning about Primary Colors
(they were painted using only yellow, red, and blue)

now we use them as the illustration for 6 / XI in the Roman Numerals MLBs

adding the Sundial Field Trip to the Clocks & Calendars MLBs and publishing them (all MLBs go home at the end of the year in the Portfolio Boxes)

making wire spider sculptures for Louise Bourgeois (and 8 / VIII)

Race to the Treasure

Elapsed Time Task Cards

looking at our book of spider poetry

adding 8 / VIII to the MLB

adding wigwam & longhouse to the MLB

there's something very special about the number nine!

the beautiful Square Number art made for me by a previous class

adding 9 / IX to the MLB

cut paper collages are a great use for my collection of scrapbook papers!
the children loved choosing colors and patterns

painting your own beautiful skin tone

matching the Rune Stones to unlock the secret door in the mountain (matching the corresponding Hindu-Arabic and Roman Numerals)

the Great White Bear opens the door in the mountain for them because they have solved the challenge of the Rune Stones

Calendula and Plantain follow the shy little mole into the Land of Numeria

they wander down the path, seeing sparkling gems on all sides, and finally come face to face with the Gnome King

their adventures will continue in our second Math Block of the Year:
the Math Gnomes!

in the Waldorf Math Gnomes block, all four operations (+, -, x, ÷) are introduced to the children, each as a character who acts in a certain way

https://waldorfcurriculum.com/Class1/mathgnomes.html

in Science Club this week, the engineering challege is Balloon Powered Cars!

a little lamb sits by

I get out all four of my bins of "Cool Stuff for Building Projects"

they are sorted into Wood, Metal, Cardboard, and Plastic & Foam

team planning meetings

a decoupage project inspired by Corita Kent in Saturday Art & Handwork

a kitten is born!


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