Best Set of Graphic Organizers

We have a binder here at school that is really quite amazing -- it includes 30 well designed, beautiful graphic organizers. Published by Primary Concepts, the set includes lesson plans, 30 blank reproducible 8 1/2 by 11 sheets containing different graphic organizers, and 6 large wipe-off charts of their most popular graphic organizers.

Online you can view a sample from the lesson plans, including how the Story Map (which is literally a map page with a compass rose in the corner) can be used with The Gingerbread Boy. We will be doing The Gingerbread Boy in a few weeks as our class play/puppetry focus, so I was glad to find this! We are doing a story map sheet for each play as we produce it, but I like that this is actually a literal Map on which you can sketch the action as it takes place.

"The Magpie's Nest"

Our Handwork focus for November is Needle Felting and our Heart focus is Puppetry so those come together neatly!

I specifically planned it that way because our Great Artist for November is Degas but this week we actually took some time to finish up Audubon. For our first class play, therefore, I was inspired by him and chose "The Magpie's Nest."

This short play for 2nd grade can be found in 25 Plays Inspired by Waldorf Teachers, edited by David Mitchell. This book is available for FREE as a PDF download from the Online Waldorf Library!

We have a class of 14 which means Narrator, Madge, and 2 each of the remaining birds. After casting, the students used our Audubon resources (including The Living World of Audubon-- this resource is wonderful because it pairs full page reproductions of Audubon's full color engravings with subsequent pages of color photography of the same birds, allowing you to see them more closely) and the nonfiction section of the library to research the coloration of their birds. The play ends with only two lines at the top of page 4 so we used that blank space for the sketches. I met with them the next day so they could request the necessary colors of wool roving. The birds turned out beautifully!

The Living World of Audubon
by Ronald Clement

I had the students form the needle felted birds without beaks or feet, to keep it simple. After making the bodies, we used dark brown yarn to make hanging loops large enough for the students to hang the birds around their wrists and perch them on the backs of their hands. The loop was strung through the center point of the bird, through the tummy and out the back and then back through the tummy, so it would hang well and be balanced. Then we tied a little knot under the tummy to stabilize the yarn and the ends of the knot became the bird's feet!!!

The Narrator decided to be a little grey haired forest gnome with a red cap. He was living in the tree where all this action took place, in a little nook down in the bottom. He felted his little character quite happily. To stage the play, the little gnome and child sat down in the center and all the bird children stood in a circle around him. Then each child and bird turned to face outward, concealing the gnome in the center. The children put their birds on their wrists and posed so that their feet stuck out as the tree roots and their arms were jutted out to be the various limbs. As the play progressed, more and more birds left until it was only Madge and the two silly Turtledoves. We presented it to the neighboring class and the play was a great success. I can't wait to do another one!

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Puppets, Pine Cones, and Acorn Caps

So many tiny little things to make notes on...

First, I found a NEW AMAZING book called Puppets, Jumping Jacks and Other Paper Peopleby Michael Grater. Now out of print, I highly recommend you get a copy if you are at all thinking of doing puppetry with your students. I think we will incorporate it into our next Great Artist study (Degas, with his great interest in movement). So I'm excited about that.




Next, I went looking for a resource for pine cones since Eric Fairman talks about pine cones as a math manipulative for 1st grade Quality of Numbers (we did his "Number Twelve" dance today and the children loved it; we then got out our nuts and went through the poem again with the children making each figure using their pecans). He mentions giving each child 12 pine cones and seeing who can make the most beautiful twelve. Here's a wonderful website called Peggy's Pinecones from which you can get all types. The complete list includes Douglas Fir, Ponderosa, Sugar, Digger, Jeffrey, and more! Douglas Fir Cones are $5.00 for a bag of 50, making it a reasonable choice for a classroom set of 12 per child.

I also, while searching for pine cones, found a great resource for acorn caps. We use acorn caps to glue onto the end of our homemade knitting needles; I've tried polymer clay balls for several years but I never feel that they turn out all that well. I much prefer acorn caps. Medusa Floral's got 'em!

Classsroom Management

Homeschoolers can use this tip too. It was passed on to me by someone who had seen it in action in a Montessori classroom. Montessori is famous for its emphasis on students working independently. There are only five whole group lessons given each year in Lower Elementary -- and those are the Five Great Lessons. Everything else is done individually or in small groups. So classroom management comes into play rather quickly. How do children who need help get it if they are not supposed to interrupt you when you are meeting with someone else?

Enter "The Name Board".

The Name Board is a place for the children to simply write their name to show that they need assistance. The children then move on to another work while waiting for the teacher, aide, or helping friend to come to them. I use my classroom's one chalkboard a lot. I don't want people writing on it. So I use the Nienhuis greenboard.



These boards come in a set of 2. One lined side, one sectioned into a grid. I love these boards! They could easily be used in a Waldorf setting, especially since they are green and not black, for language and math. When I begin a period of Independent Work Time I simply set the Name Board up on the rim of the chalkboard so that the students have access to my white chalk and eraser. I am now able to give lessons without interruption (which is more respectful of the person with whom I am working) and the students who need help can rest assured that they will not be overlooked or forgotten. My aide can see immediately who needs help next. We simply erase a name when that child has been helped. You could do this with a homeschooling family as well, especially if you are teaching younger children to wait their turn. Knitting, reading, math flash cards, or other independent work can be accomplished while the child is waiting. This has worked so well in our classroom!

Eric Fairman & Farmer Joe

I never thought I would say this but I LOVE this math block!!! Yesterday we did Eric Fairman's farmer story (you can find this in Path of Discovery Volume 2: Grade 2 or his general math anthology).



Shapes and Number Patterns is a new block for me so I am grateful to be in his capable hands. For this story, we had Farmer Joe, whose farm had lovely straight edges and was just the same length on each side. He loved having a square farm. Each morning he would get up and walk the perimeter of his farm and think about how much he loved the shape of it. Then Farmer Joe's wife announces that they are having a baby. Naturally he is thrilled at the news. This goes on until finally he has four children, two boys and two girls. I named the children (and Farmer Joe -- E.F. doesn't include names in his write up of the story) Fred and Fern and Jack and Jolene. One day they come to their father and say, Dad, we want to be farmers too. And he is very pleased. Then they tell him that they want a piece of the family farm. So he goes off to think. He wants them each to have a fair and equal share but he also wants to still have a square farm and you can't divide a rectangle into five sections and have them each be squares... Is he stuck or does he find a way? So I draw the diagram of the initial division on the board. The children are copying as I go. We labeled each section with the name of the child who inherits it but E.F. suggests having them color the child sections all one certain color. Don't color in his farm yet, though, because he'll have to divide it again. Grandchildren are on the way. Each grandchild receives a portion of the farm adjacent to their parents' property. Farmer Joe has a still-smaller square farm in the middle of it all. He doesn't mind giving away the property, of course, because he loves his family. He is just happy to still have a square farm. You can color the grandchild portions in a second color. I let the students name the four grandchildren. They loved that! We drew Farmer Joe's tiny little farmhouse smack dab in the center. Then I showed the students how to draw the four roads extending from his house to the four corners of his property. You can then color in his farm a 3rd color. The students are asked how many squares are in the design, then cut and rearrange them per Eric Fairman's instructions to create new squares out of the triangles.

My students really enjoyed this lesson!!!!

Some notes:
I would recommend starting each child with a piece of paper that is already square. This drawing is hard to do if you are imagining a square on your 8 1/2 by 11 paper. Don't use graph paper or there will be waaaaay too many lines and it will become more confusing.

You can get square main lesson books from Paper Scissors Stone, and much of the work in this block would be suitable for a square book -- like Dorothy Harrer's Square Kingdom which we did as our next lesson. I would recommend a blue square MLB for this block.



We lucked out in that I have the Montessori math materials in my classroom. For students who hadn't drawn straight neat sides to their triangles and thus the triangles didn't match, I was able to call the class together to the floor and show them how this same design can be made -- Hooray! -- with the Montessori Metal Squares. Fortune certainly smiled on me that day. The EXACT design! And then with the precision cut metal triangle fractions I was able to demonstrate how they create new squares. Students were allowed to trace this work if they wished as a follow-up.



Unfortunately, online I can't find any templates for these pieces, showing squares broken down into different sizes of triangles. Does anyone know of a pdf somewhere of the Metal Squares material?

Read Maria Montessori's book on Google books: The Advanced Montessori Method: The Montessori Elementary Material

Vintage Felt Ornaments

Now that it's November my thoughts are during to the Calvert Hospice Festival of Trees. We decorate a tree every year for this great cause. This year's theme is "Sparkling Holiday Moments." My idea for sparkle was to have the children sew some felt ornaments decorated with seed beads and sequins. I have a bunch of the ornaments my great-grandmother made... little felt horses with rickrack bridles, little men with seed bead and sequin buttons, and so on. I can't wait to create some of these! They are absolutely precious. I had seed beads already but you can find huge lots of vintage sewing stuff on eBay and if you search for "assorted sequins" you will find sequins to your heart's content.

Eat More Produce!

Yes, we all have goals. Mine is to eat more fruits and vegetables. Do I want to go so far as eating raw? Hmmm....




Who knows what the future may hold but there is no doubt that the produce aisle is holding my interest more than in years past. But I have a problem with Produce Bins in the fridge. Once food goes into them it becomes a serious case of Out of Sight = Out of Mind. So I thought, I will tape the grocery receipt to the side of the fridge. I will remember what I bought that way. Trouble with that (although it works well for budgeting -- if you don't go to the store until you have crossed off nearly everything on your cash register tape as being eaten, you often cut out quick trips to the store for things you didn't really need) is that we also have a CSA so it doesn't reflect all the produce that's on hand. So today I thought I will just hand-write a list of the produce and tape that to the fridge. Not eye catching though. I am on a mission to get rid of the ugly! I'm doing it in my classroom, I'm doing it in my home. Why not take a page out of MaryJo Koch's book and DRAW a picture of each yummy fruit and veg I've got on hand.




Not only will this be fun, and attractive, but it will force me to slow down and really look at my inventory. So tonight I got out the watercolor pencils.




I ended up with a beautiful drawing on my fridge and a pleasant feeling of being on my way to healthy eating! It also was a nice meditative way to spend a bit of time after the kids went to bed.