Beeswax Crayon Birds

2nd Grade Waldorfiness

School life goes on in the midst of it all...

I have started to introduce cursive writing to my 2nd graders, the Vimala alphabet to be specific. Usually a teacher should only introduce things he or she has mastered, but I must admit I have not yet mastered this style completely. It is quite a will-activity to change one's handwriting! It was a journey inspired by this book. I highly recommend it.

The students have been learning it for about a week now while listening to stories of Saint Francis. We are making a book about his life so to speak. It will include his famous Canticle of the Sun, which they are learning by heart. Some illustrations are crayon drawings, while others are paintings. Here's some of the work thus far...

Yes, the lower case "t" is crossed all the way at the top. It looks a bit unusual, doesn't it? But the author says that each letter as an inner meaning. The "T/t" is about destiny - how far are we willing to reach to find our destiny in life? All the way! Thus the "t" is crossed at the very top. I've given my students the image of reaching for the stars, crossing the "t" way up there...

The students are also working hard on memorizing the class play. I wrote last year's class play, but I just couldn't wrap my mind around it this year. This year's play will be Saint Athracta's Stags.

We're playing "Amazing Grace" on the pentatonic flutes. Yup. It works!

I'm having the class take a break from their regular handwork project, the gnomes, and they will be making the Spring Chicken Egg Covers from Peace Fleece. What wonderful yarn! Such a great kit. The children who have completed their knitting projects will then move on to crocheting a shopping bag. Crocheting goes nicely with learning cursive writing.

Yes, I'm busy!

Spicin' Up Math

Yesterday was a wonderful day & today I'm still riding a bit on that "high," so here's a Waldorf math ride for you. What you see here is work that was done by 2nd graders after they had been introduced to these forms in the spirit of "beautiful numbers make beautiful forms." Have you ever experienced math like this? Buckle up and get ready for the ride!

Take a paper, make a circle & divide the circle into 10 equal parts. (You may cheat with a compass if you are older than a 6th grader, but free-handing a circle is a nice exercise in itself.)

Going clockwise, place numbers from zero to nine. (Our number system really goes from zero to nine, not from one to ten.) Then, say a times table in your head and "connect the dots," ignoring the tens in the process. For example: The fours table goes 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40. You will then start with number 4 & draw a line to 8, from 8 to 2, from 2 to 6 and so on.

You will end up with something that looks like this...

Isn't that just awesome?

In this manner all times tables make different forms & some numbers do similar things.

You will see that 1s create a 10-sides polygon & that 9s do the same thing, just in reverse order. 2s make a pentagon, and 8s do the same thing, just in reverse order. 3s make a 10-pointed star & 7s do that, too, but in reverse order. 4s make a pentagram, and 6s do the same thing, just - yeap, you guessed right - in reverse order. 5s are rather boring, but they make a straight line.

It was so exciting for my 2nd graders to learn the - usually dreaded - times tables this way. I don't believe that education needs to be entertaining, but when something like this unfolds in front of you, it's just amazing! Beautiful numbers do make beautiful forms. We did a lot of jump roping, too. Try it! We had some visitors in our class during the math block and even these adults had never seen this before. They were quite amazed. There's enough meat (or tofu) here for an entire 2nd grade math block!

Head, Heart-N-Hands Thursday

I'm trying to find a balance between personal stories, craftiness & Waldorf-education related posts on this blog. I've come to love the idea of "WIP Wednesday," although Wednesday often passes me by. I'm going to start "Head, Heart-N-Hands Thursday," hoping to post impressions of bookwork across the grades as well as samples of practical work, recitations & songs. - It is never intended as something to be copied, but I know many take inspiration from it & I have often found such a peek into the classroom a helpful thing for the growth of my own ideas.

Below are some impressions of 2nd grade bookwork. They are of Saint Gall, or Caillech - his Irish name. They were essentially free drawings, although the children did receive some guidelines as to what should be in the picture. You can see the wide spectrum of the work 2nd graders do. Most importantly they loved the story and they were really into doing the bookwork!