This weeks lessons: the Ojibwe

This weeks lessons focused on the Ojibwe people of the great lakes region. I could have easily taken a month or two on them. I began with the story of Turtle Island, modern day north america. I told this story http://www.gct3.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/01/creation_story.pdf . It was a wonderful transition story to use to create a bridge from old testament legends  into our native american block. The Ojibwe creation story of Turtle Island is similar to the Noah story in that the earth is flooded by the creator because people had become wicked. Instead of a chalkboard illustration I decided to do a watercolor. I wish I could have taken more time on it, but it served it’s purpose. My DD put the story in  her new native stories main lesson  book.

We learned about how the pre-contact Ojibwe lived. We learned about birch trees that grow where they live/d, and how the bark is removed in sheets and used to create shelters called wigwams, canoes to travel through the lakes on, and buckets for harvesting things. My DD put a paragraph about wigwams, and an illustration in her shelters main lesson book. I put an Ojibwe prayer on the board, and we recited it throughout the week.

We talked very briefly about wild rice, a staple of the Ojibwe. We will return to it when we do our small block on the grains.

We had a great time making a dome shaped hut from newspapers. This was the part of our lessons that was enjoyed the most. It reminded me of the dome shape of a wigwam. It was pretty simple to make, not to mention the bonus of it being absolutely free! You can find a great tutorial at pepper paints blog . Throw a lightweight sheet on, and you have a cosy little hide away ready for hours of play.

We worked on the number 8, and it’s times table through rhymes & tossing a beanbag.  Since it’s halloween we made a spider mobile, and put the 8 times table numbers of the spiders bodies.

We also learned the story of the dream catcher, and Ojibwe legend. We made a dream catcher from things we had around the house. We went outside, and cut some vines that were growing around a tree to make the hoop, and used hemp string for the web. I used a combination of this story & this story to make one smooth Dream Catcher story. 

I also checked out a few picture books about Ojibwe legends from the library.

Windigo’s Return- Great story about a monster from Ojibwe legend who eats people. It’s kind of scary, but has a humorous ending.

The Legend of The Lady Slipper-Beautiful tale about a brave girl who ventures into the night to save her people from a sickness that has stricken her entire village. Were were going to make mocassins in conjunction to this story, but ran out of time.

Ladder To The Sky- Another Ojibwe story with similarities to an Old testament legend. In this story the people lived in peace without sickness, or death, until someone disobeys the creator, and consequence ensues.

On friday we went to Brookgreen Gardens, about 30 minutes from our house. The most amazing trees east of the Redwood Forests are here at Brookgreen. If I were to move from here it would be the trees my heart would ache for.

The trees in the pics are magnificent by any standards, but are not the most amazing in the gardens. These were all in the native species zoo. My camera battery went dead before we got into the gardens, which are just completely enchanted. If you are ever near the mid-South Carolina coast, Brookgreen is a must see.

 

This week’s lessons: houses

We moved further into our housebuilding block with shelters from the old testament stories. We learned about Jabal, Jubal, and Tubal-Cain, descendants of Cain who made the first dwelling on Earth. This was a nice story, and a very good one that represented the archetypal first house. We used the story from Jakob  Streit’s “And There Was Light” which I purchased through Bob & Nancy’s bookstore. 

My dd put these stories in her old testament book even though they are lessons that are transitioning us into our houses block. She is making great strides in her writing, and illustrating. She is very careful, and makes very few mistakes. This is a huge improvement from the end of last year. Now, I just help her start the story summary, and she writes the body of it herself, in her words, with only a few suggestions from me.

 

I had planned on making, and painting hamsa hands for our own home, and reciting  Jubal’s song of consecration as we hung them up, but as usual we were running behind, and only got as far as tracing the template onto the wood. Hopefully we can make them soon, and if we do I will post it here.

The next old testament dwelling is the story of Noah and the Ark. I told her the story, and we started making animals from beeswax for a scene about the story. This is my incomplete chalkboard drawing. I plan on adding more animals over the weekend. I am not feeling this drawing much. We will finish up the Noah lesson on Monday.

I used “clouds of Glory” by Miriam Chaikin for the Noah story. I like her retellings better than any I have read. They are written in  an accessible way that makes them perfect for children. They are not dark, or dry like so many others, but full of life & color. Most libraries have her books, all of them are wonderful. I bought a copy on Ebay for $5.  

The story of Noah also gave way to a wonderful language lesson. This lesson was born from the notes in Eric Fairman’s Path of Discovery grade 3 book. In the Garden if Eden Adam named the animals & told what they did. With that we learned naming(nouns) & doing(verbs) words. In this lesson we learned color words (adjectives) & how words (adverbs). I began this lesson with a short little story about Noah & his wife Naamah needing to write down and create a record of the animals that made it off of the ark and onto the new earth . They began with the name, then the name & what the animal does, then what it looked like, how it does what it does, and  finally making a complete sentence about the animal by adding the helping word(article) and a period. We did 5 of these. One animal from each of the 5 groups…mammals, birds, fish, reptiles, and amphibians. We kept the theme of each type of word having a specific color so that our words would form rainbows of words when complete. We thought and acted these out together before she wrote and illustrated them on paper.  This exercise helped her to see that with words we breathe life, moods, and color into our writing.

We also worked on form drawing, and knitting a headband. I usually read to her while she knits. This week I read a beautiful book called “A Prayer for the Earth: The Story of Naamah, Noah’s Wife”.   I highly recommend this book if you enjoy picture books. The pictures are done in a soft, but very vibrant watercolor. In the story Naamah is given the task by god to collect and save the seeds of all the plants on earth.

Next week we will continue the houses block, but will transition in dwellings of native peoples.

Fox fairies, tangrams, and drawing: a summer math lesson

 

It’s been a while since I posted anything on this blog. I promise it’s not an “abandoned blog”. I plan on posting lots of stuff when the new school year picks up in fall.  We have been enjoying a summer of activity. Swim lessons, the library, the state park, picking fruits & vegtables & preserving them, going to the theater, and the beach. We just haven’t done much  that would be worth putting on this blog.

Today we did a fun tangram math lesson. Tangrams are a chinese puzzle game made from a square broken into 7 pieces which can be arranged in endless ways to create pictures.  I thought I would share our lesson which is based on a book by Ann Tompert called “Grandfather Tang’s Story. The book begins with a grandfather & his grandchild taking a walk & resting under a tree. The grandfather pulls a tangram set from his pocket & begins to tell the little girl a story with them. This ties in wonderfully with  waldorf based

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 ___________.

Free Waldorf summer reading list

I found a wonderful & free Waldorf student summer reading list at the Linden Waldorf school website. It has recommended reading for grades 1 to 8.  The list is in their June newsletter & begins at the bottom of page 5.

Wonderful finger knitting story!!

I was looking for things to do with all of the long finger knitted strips that are piling up around here when I stumbled across the most wonderful finger knitting story. It is about a young ball of yarn named Henry. It’s just a beautiful little story to tell your child while showing how to finger knit. The author Julie Jersild Roth created a beautifully illustrated PDF file with the story, and pictoral tutorial showing you how to do it. She also includes ideas for things you can do with your finger knitted pieces. I just love it! She also has a book called “Knitting Nell”. It looks like it may be nice as a reader for an older girl.

Saint Francis & the birds

We are studying the lives of the saints. This week we studied Francis. I chose to do this in winter so that we could tie in many of the winter birds crafts with this lesson. There are many wonderful Francis stories.

I have been using the book “Brother Sun, and Sister Moon”  by Margaret Mayo to learn the Francis stories.  I like it very much, and it is easily found in a local library. 

A Child’s Seasonal Treasury: excellent book

 

Betty Jones was/is? a waldorf kindergarden teacher. She wrote one terrific book. I have used this book for years. IT has seasonal games, verses, handwork ideas & songs. It also covers basic verses to use with numbers, painting, drawing, cleaning up, ect. I just discovered that it can be seen for free in its complete form on google reader. Here is the link. It served me well over the years & still does. I encourage you to have a look at it. It is a really good one to buy & keep on your bookshelf. You will find yourself going back to it again & again.

A favorite book, and a nature walk

One of our favorite books for fall is “Woody, Hazel, and Little Pip” by Elsa Beskow. It’s about 3 mischievous forest children & their day of adventure.

 

Herb The Vegetarian Dragon

Today we read this book, Herb the Vegetarian Dragon, and ate dragon bread that we made. My daughter loves it. I do too. It is about a peaceful, vegetarian dragon who must live in a world full of dragons that love eating knights & princesses. These carnivorous dragons cause the king to send his army to kill all of the dragons in the land, but Herb saves the day for everyone, human & dragon alike. Herb has a website where you can see a couple of pages, and view his cookbook, Cooking with Herb.