The World on Turtle's Back...

... or The Woman Who Fell From the Sky.

There are many versions of this wonderful creation myth that can easily be located online. I told my students the Onondaga version. It seemed a nice way to start the year, which we are beginning in our combined 4/5 grade with a nature studies block essentially, focusing both on plants and animals that can be found on our beautiful rural campus.

Our first painting of the year was a color circle, out of which emerged a tree. Maybe the tree uprooted in Skyland. Maybe Yggdrasil. The life force. That which sustains us. 

This week we painted Tolba, on whose back the world sprang forth. I asked the students to start with a page of lively blue, darker toward the bottom. We then placed the turtle in the water using yellow. From her back brown (mixed on the paint board) tree trunks sprang up crowned by yellow and green foliage. One student preferred a brown turtle with "rainbow trees."

Artsy...

Looking through the books my children created in class is always *the* end-of-the-year highlight for me. Here are my two favorite entries from Nathan's book. His drawings are just amazing. He's only twelve!

Zeus & Athena

[copyright Nathan Thomas]

Prometheus

[copyright Nathan Thomas]

Nuts!

Peanuts that is.

Nathan's drawing of a peanut plant.

First Day Of School

Voila! Noah and Nathan on their first day of 8th & 5th grade. My boys. They are amazing people. I just love them so much. They actually both got up at 6 a.m. joyfully; cheerfully. Let's hope each & every day this school year will be like that...

The school-cone is a German tradition for the first day of first grade. When Noah started first grade, he had a big one. Nathan, in Kindergarten at the time, had a small one. Nathan never had one for first grade (long story), so this year I decided to make the first day of school special. I surprised them with a school-cone. Nathan got the big one... a couple of years late & Noah has the lil' one as an 8th grader.

The i-tunes gift card is not part of that German tradition. Ha. As my children are getting older, I'm realizing that I need to loosen the chains a bit. He's almost 14... For some reason this is the first year ever that we are jumping on the new clothing, backpack, lunchbox... first day of school wagon (out of necessity, really). It's a very American thing we've never done.

Well, I better go & get ready before we're late on the first day because I'm blogging.

Edited to add: Just before we were leaving, Nathan said to Noah, "Why did you put your i-tunes gift card into the trash?" Noah says, "What? It's a real gift card? I thought Mom was tricking me with a fake advertisement." Oh my! :-)

By The Rivers Gently Flowing, Illinois, Illinois...

Nathan is working on his 5th grade state report. He's been assigned Illinois. This is the grid map he created. Draft done. State seal to go. Popcorn to pop. One week left. Yay for timeliness in the procrastinator-family.

Maps

Nathan has been enjoying the 5th grade Geography block. He loves to create maps.

Circle & Triangles

A 'freehand geometry' drawing by Nathan.

Nate's Stripey Hat

Nathan finished his hat a few handwork classes ago. He was in a knitting frenzy! One night I caught him secretly knitting under the covers after 10 p.m. Since this put him way ahead of the class, the handwork teacher now has him work on bike helmet earmuffs before going on to the "traditional" 5th grade socks. The boys do like to ride their bikes to school. I'm sure the earmuffs will come in toasty this autumn & winter.

Botany

Just some impression from 5th grade morning lesson books my students created...

Behold the plant! It is the butterfly bound fast to the earth.
Behold the butterfly! It is the plant set free by the universe.

(Rudolf Steiner)

PLANT IN ELEMENTS

THE PARTS OF A FLOWER

MUSHROOMS IN MOONLIGHT WATERCOLOR

Mushrooms open downward towards the dark earth. They are the children not of the sun, but rather of the moon.
~
Flower blossoms open up towards the heavens. They take the sunlight into themselves.
~~~

Noah's Centaur Socks II

They are "done." Noah finished his 5th grade socks today. I named them Centaur Socks in an earlier blog post. I think they look great. They are warm and cozy, too.

Noah modeling his socks on the balcony.

I could try to talk him into giving them to me for a gift. Hmmmm. I wear size 11 shoes, but he has big feet, too, so we have the same shoe size. :-)

He really liked the yarn at the local yarn shop. It's a Dream In Color yarn. Chunky. He used size US 8 needles. There were only two skeins left, though, and they were different dye lots. You can kind of tell, but I just love these warm & cozy socks & the vibrant colors!

I think Nate finished his crochet oven mitt today (3rd grade project), too. He's on a sleep-over, so I won't get to see 'til tomorrow. It's a sure sign of a school-year ending - handwork projects completed. :-)

Demeter & Persephone

All in the golden sunlight I spent my carefree youth.
Now I have grown older and learned a deeper truth.
When I descend in darkness, I take with me the light,
For I am both, they live in me, in me the two unite.
I weave in light and darkness; The shuttle is my soul.
I rise, I fall, I rise again; The world is woven whole.

William Ward
From a play for 5th Grade

Egypt Play

My class performed the play "Isis and Osiris" yesterday. I thought it was nice. The students had fun. They clearly enjoyed performing this. Not a single student needed helpswith lines. Teensy glitches included some giggles from behind the stage at a no-giggles kinda moment & a light being switched off when it should have been on, but I think they all did a splendid job. The stage was "simple," but notice the great coffin!

Afterwards I realized that I seem to have an affinity for plays that involve the death of the quintessential god of light. Our play last year was "Baldur's Death." I think I better shoot for some comedy for next year!

Noah was Horus. We didn't use "Egyptian costumes," but I had each student put the hieroglyphs for their character on a t-shirt with fabric paint. The "good guys" had white shirts, the "bad guys" had black shirts, and the fire spirits wore reds, oranges & yellows. I am not going to post other pictures. I know I occasionally post student work other than Noah's or Nathan's, but generally I want to honor people's right to privacy and not put pictures on a blog without consent. I wouldn't want anyone to do that to me or my children either.

Bloomsy Trees

Isis & Osiris by Noah

Here are some pictures Noah drew to illustrate the writing of the story of Isis & Osiris. Some of them are cropped, but Noah always draws a beautiful sun in the sky on all pictures, which is nice to see & a habit his 1st grade Waldorf teacher brought to him. Noah doesn't like to draw at all by the way. He thinks he "stinks" at it. I think the pictures are lovely.

Osiris' coffin thrown into a tree on Byblos. King Malkandros is by the tree. His palace is in the background.

Isis is attempting to give her forces to the child of King Malkandros & Queen Astarte.

When Isis receives the coffin from King Malkandros & journeys back to Egypt, she hides it in the reeds away from Osiris' evil brother Set(h).

The Egypt block is over, although the class is still working on presenting the play of Isis & Osiris at the end of the month. Now Greece & Pentathlon, then Botany II (lots of practical things), then Alexander the Great, then summer break! Yay!

Eight Stars Of Gold...

...on a field of blue -
Alaska's flag. May it mean to you
The blue of the sea, the evening sky,
The mountain lakes, and the flow'rs nearby;
The gold of the early sourdough's dreams,
The precious gold of the hills and streams;
The brilliant stars in the northern sky,
The "Bear" - the "Dipper" - and, shining high,
The great North Star with its steady light,
Over land and sea a beacon bright.
Alaska's flag - to Alaskans dear,
The simple flag of a last frontier.
(Alaska's State Song ~ Written by Marie Drake ~ Composed by Elinor Dusenbury)

This is the state seal from Noah's state report on Alaska.

The state flower, the Alpine Forget-Me-Not.

The recipe Noah will use to prepare wild-caught salmon for his class.

He will also play Sitka City on his Cello.

Just a few of the many beautiful pages.

We miss Alaska. The state song sums it up! :-)

Spring Nature Nook

Ms. Thaw (She's always been a Ms. in our house) is still busy sweeping the snow away. Most of it is gone, but underneath it all the grass is still brown, some buds here and there, new life waiting to spring forth...

Our gnomes are always here, and there's a lil' snail crawling out, maybe enjoying some spring sunshine. The snail was an Easter gift to myself. I couldn't pass it by in the school store.

Yesterday, as we were out and about, we saw a rabbit. We don't see them too often here in suburbia, but yeah, the Easter hare's helpers are roaming the meadow...

Noah's Centaur Socks

Noah has been knitting his 5th grade socks over the midwinter break. I thought I'd snap a picture and share. He'd rather be reading Calvin&Hobbes, thus the background. They are using size 8 needles, and he chose a chunky red/deep-orangey variegated yarn at the local yarn shop. As I have a compulsive need to name socks, I have given these socks the name "Noah's Centaur Socks." Astrologically he's a Capricorn, but according to Astrosophy, he is a Sagittarius. Having to knit these socks surely brings out his fiery side at times. Grrrrrrrrrr. I think he's been doing a great job, though. Wearing a men's size 10 shoes, he has *a lot* of knitting to do. :-) -We're taking a long weekend kinda trip to see friends. Yay! We're all excited. Have a good weekend!