The rainbow snail-a game for math

 We went outside today for our circle time. I always do some kind of math movement in the morning. When we finished up with all of our songs & multiplication rhythms we went over to the driveway and drew a huge rainbow snail on the cement. It has 13 sections. One for the start, and the rest for numbers up to 12. The very center was blank, and was used to turn around in.

  I started this game with a fairly short story about the rainbow snail. I used the enchanted kingdom, gardener and witch from our 2nd grade epic math story of Alister & Amelia, mighty young twins born to a benevolent king & queen.  This snail lived in the garden, and was an enchanted snail, who was at the very least 600 years old. This snail was special. He could communicate with the gardener. He told him what crops were hungry for what nourishment, what plants needed more water, or were being eaten by pests. In this way he helped keep the kingdoms food supply healthy and abundant. He also knew which plants could make a person well if they fell ill, so this was another way he kept the kingdom healthy and at peace. There is a horrible witch, who for various reasons, wants to destroy the good kingdom. She knew this magic snail was needed dearly by the people, so she placed a spell on him so that he would forever be locked in his home.

  The gardener & the twins had to find a way to fix this, so they went to their kingdoms wise woman. She knew instantly what had happened to the rainbow snail, and told the children the only way to unlock the curse was to draw a huge rainbow snail on the ground.  Someone with a pure heart must then hop to the center of the spiral and back, gathering te secret number code as they travelled the spiral. When all of the numbers secret codes were gathered the snail would be set free.

You number the spaces from 1 to 12. We used large cork cubes to make huge dice. My daughter then rolled a dice to see what number she would skip count to. For example if she threw a 5 she would start at one, and skip count to the center, 5-10-15-20-25, ect, and back again 60-55-50-45-40, this would give her the “secret code”    This was a fun way to reinforce the times tables. Expect this to take at the very least an hour. It takes a while just to color the snail. This is what ours looked like. It was impossible to get a picture because of the size, and our driveway is so shady.

Baking bread: cheesy snails, and some books

cheesy snails

I recently bought “Baking Bread With Children” by Warren Lee Cohen. I can’t say enough good things about it. It’s full of songs, stories, verses, recipes, and ideas. It has sections on why bread baking is important, how to integrate bread baking into a curriculum, and even how to make an earth oven.  This is a must have book for ny one who is integrating Waldorf ideas into their homeschool. This is not just for early childhood. We will be using it a lot, and my daughter will be starting 3rd grade in the fall.

The first thing we made were the cheesy snails. They are made pretty much like sticky buns, so that they have a spiral shape. I can’t give the recipe since it is in the book, but It is basically a basic dough with tomato sauce used in place of the water. The tomato sauce gives the dough a bright orange color. The dough is rolled into a rectangle, sprinkled with cheddar,rolled into a tube, then cut into 1 inch slices, and then baked. These were delicious, and we had so much fun kneading the orange dough.  

                                                                                                                               

 

 I have also been reading “Encountering Self: Transformation & destiny in the ninth year“. It deals with the nine year change. In the book the author relates the act of baking bread to process which the grain goes through in the earth. In both all 4 elements come together to create the whole. It was in idea I had not ever read before, and I was struck by the truth of it. In the grain we have the sun-fire, soil-earth, wind-air, & rain-water. In the bread we have the same. The oven-fire, the grain comes from the earth, the yeast makes gas (air) which make the loaf rise, and have those delicious bubbles, and nooks inside, and of course water. I had always baked bread with my daughter. It was always fun, and something we looked forward to. I had not really had a full understanding of how truly sacred it is. I do recommend both of the books I mentioned in this post. You won’t be sorry you bought them.  I have a couple of snail stories, and verses posted on this blog. You can find them in the snail category on the right.

It hasn’t any windows
It hasn’t any doors
Although it has a ceiling
It hasn’t any floors
‘Twas built without a builder
A hammer or a nail
Because you see this funny house
Belongs to ___________.

The Happy house: A snail tale for valentines day (week)

 

 

 

Here is a snail story that is perfect for valentines. I adapted it from the Hans Christian Andersen  story so that it would flow better.  This story can open the door to a science lesson about snails, and plants. Burdock is considered a weed, but has tremendous healing properties. It grows just about everywhere. I know it is abundant in my yard. The snail valentine in the picture can be downloaded for free at Zakka Life here. I like the idea of the pop being the shell. It would be nice also to use the idea to draw your own. Enjoy the story.

The Happy House

Out in the garden, and in wild places untouched by human hands grows a lovely plant that some call a weed. This plant has gigantic leaves. They are so big that if one holds it in front of them, it is like a whole apron, and if one holds it over one’s head in rainy weather, it is almost as good as an umbrella, because is so immensely large. This plant is the burdock. The burdock never grows alone, but where there grows one there always grow several, like a great burdock forest. These forests of burdock are of  great delight to the snail, because they love to eat burdock more than anything else. And in former times many people would love to cook those snails in a bit of butter, gobble them up, and say “yum, yum, how delicious”. Because of this they planted many burdock patches to entice the big white snails they loved to eat into coming so that they could catch them & cook them.

Now, there was an old manor-house, where they no longer ate snails, they thought they were quite extinct; but the burdocks were not extinct, they grew and grew all over the walks and all the beds; they could not get control over them – it was a whole forest of burdocks. Here and there stood an apple and a plum-tree, or else one never would have thought that it was a garden; all was burdocks, and there lived the two last old, giant, white snails.

They themselves knew not how old they were, but they could remember very well that there had been many more of them; and that for them and theirs the whole burdock forest was planted. They had never been outside of it, but they knew that there was still something more in the world, which was called the manor-house, and that there they were boiled, and then they became black, and were then placed on a silver dish; but what happened further they knew not; nor, did they what it was to be boiled, and to lie on a silver dish, they could not possibly imagine; but it was said to be delightful.Neither the toads, nor the earth-worms, whom they asked about it could give them any information – none of them had been boiled or laid on a silver dish.

Now they lived a very lonely, but happy life; and as they had no children themselves, they had adopted a little common snail, which they brought up as their own.

One day there was a heavy storm of rain.

“Hear how it beats like a drum on the dock-leaves!” said Father Snail. Then mother said “And now the rain pours right down the stalk! You will see that it will be wet here! I am very happy to think that we have our good house, and the little one has his also! There is more done for us than for all other creatures, sure enough; See how fortunate we are? We are provided with a house from our birth, and the burdock forest is planted for our sakes! I should like to know how far it extends, and what there is outside!”

“There is nothing at all,” said Father Snail. “No place can be better than ours, and I have nothing to wish for.

Mother snail said “I would willingly go to the manorhouse, be boiled, and laid on a silver dish; all our forefathers have been treated so; there is something extraordinary in it, you may be sure!”

The manor-house has most likely fallen to ruin!” said Father Snail. “Or the burdocks have grown up over it, so that they cannot come out. There need not be any hurry to be boiled; but you are always in such a tremendous hurry, and the little one is beginning to be the same.”

You must not scold him,” said Mother Snail. “He creeps so carefully; he brings us much pleasure – and we have nothing but him to live for! But have you not thought of it? Where shall we get a wife for him? Do you not think that there are some of our species far away in the  burdock forest?”

“Black snails, I dare say, there are enough of,” said the old one. “Black snails without a house – but they are so common, and so conceited. But we might ask ants to look out for us; they run to and fro as if they had something to do, and they certainly know of a wife for our little snail!” So they asked the ants.
“I know one, sure enough!” said one of the ants. “She is a queen.”
“That may be perfect for our son,” said the mother, “does she have a house?”
“She has a palace!” said the ant. “The finest ant’s palace, with seven hundred passages!”

“I thank you!” said Mother Snail. “but our son shall not go into an ant-hill; if you know nothing better than that, we shall just ask the gnats. They fly far and wide, in rain and sunshine; they know the whole forest here.

“We have a wife for him,” said the gnats. “At a hundred human paces from here there sits a little snail in her house, on a gooseberry bush; she is quite lonely, and old enough to be married. It is only a hundred human paces!”

“Well, then, let her come to him!” said the old ones. “He has a whole forest of burdocks, she has only a bush!”

And so they went and fetched little Miss Snail. It was a whole week before she arrived; When she did arrive, they could instantly tell she was the same species.

The two young snails were married, and then the marriage was celebrated. All of the creatures from the great burdock forest came to celebrate. The two old, giant, white snails gave the newlywed couple the whole forest of burdocks as a wedding gift, and said – what they had always said – that it was the best in the world; and if they lived honestly and decently, and increased and multiplied, they and their children would too be special enough to go the manor-house, be boiled black, and laid on silver dishes. After the wedding party the old ones crept into their shells, and never more came out. They slept; the young couple governed in the forest, and had a numerous children, but they were never boiled, and never came on the silver dishes; so from this they concluded that the manor-house had fallen to ruins, and that all the men in the world were extinct; and as no one contradicted them, of course it was so. And the rain beat on the dock-leaves to make drum-music for their sake, and the sun shone in order to give the burdock forest a color for their sakes; and they were very happy, and the whole family was happy; for they, indeed were so.

Snails for Valentines Day? Our lessons this week

Yes, snails for Valentines Day! I just read the neatest thing about snails. Apparently they actually shoot little love arrows at each other prior to mating. Here the link to the article.  I started a new lesson today with snails as the theme. This theme ran through the new verse we are learning, the stories I will tell, the math we do, of course the form drawing, even the snack we will bake.  Today I started a short lesson block with snails as a theme. It will lead me to mid-week next week. I started out today at circle time introducing the snail with a riddle..

It hasn’t any windows
It hasn’t any doors
Although it has a ceiling
It hasn’t any floors
‘Twas built without a builder
A hammer or a nail
Because you see this funny house
Belongs to ___________.

Then we continued circle time introducing the verse “The Curly House of Snail” which I had written on the chalkboard. I know this poem is in a few Waldorf books, but I have to credit the source as Living Crafts Magazine, winter 2007/2008.  I absolutley love this magazine.  I will have my daughter copy this poem into the book she is keeping for songs & verses some time next week. By them she will have memorized it.

 

We arranged the playsilks in a large spiral shape on the floor, and walked the spiral as we said the verse.

I used words from the poem on the board to develop a list of spelling words. Like snail, mail, pail, sail, round, found, sound, compound, astound. I also used the word ”homeward”, and talked about how that implies direction. Then we used other directional words like towards, downward, upward, eastward, & westward which are related to the “homeward” in our snail poem. 

After a play break, we made spiral cinnamon buns, which take on  a perfect spiral shape when you make them. As we waited for them to bake, I told her a story about a rude girl who happens upon an enchanted snail on her way to school. In exchange for not smooshing him he grants her 3 wishes. She uses a couple of wishes,  rather superficially, when a couple of her friends come up and asks if she studied for her math test. She says “oh no!! I forgot. I wish I were dead!!” . That is the end of the story. After a 2 second pause my daughter nearly fell over with laughter. I got the story here, but adapted it to fit my tastes. It is short, well received, and easy to remember. I don’t know If it would be good for really small children, but over 7 should get a kick out of it. While she listened to the story we shaped little beeswax snails and added sea shells for their shells while the wax was still warm. After it cooled the shells were stuck pretty well, and were ready for play or display.

   

 

 

 We used the spiral shape for a form drawing lesson. She had already experienced the form during circle, and when baking the buns, so we went right to drawing it on our sand tray. The sand tray is nothing more than a wood tray with a piece of colored paper cut to fit the bottom, and bit of sand over that. The child can draw forms in the sand exposing the colored paper below.

 

 

  When she has had fun with that she drew it very large on the chalkboard. I could tell she was starting to get frustrated with it so we decided to leave it there for the day. We will pick it up again next week when we do some more snail stuff. The spiral is deceptively difficult. It is harder than it appears to make the lines equidistant apart. That’s all for now. If I have some time I will post about how we continued this into next week for Valentines day.