Slipping Away...

It's slipping away. I can feel it.

It reminds me a bit of the tug-o-war at Michaelmas.

Rope-burn already...

You grab the rope & you pull. Then you realize that clogs weren't the best shoes to wear for tug-o-war. You're already being dragged on the sandy ground. The rope slips in your hand. All seems lost. You readjust as possible. You can feel the rope-burn on your hands. You're determined to hold on. For a moment it looks like your team will win. Then the other team musters its last strength and at the same moment everything seemingly leaves you. You let go.

Defeated.

Saint Odilia

So begins the story of Saint Odilia... The students are slowly getting used to writing without "the golden living room."

Michaelmas Time!

Michaelmas is by far my favorite celebration in the cycle of the year. The all-school Michaelmas play is on Thursday. For now I hope everyone out there is slaying 'em dragons! The picture above was created by one of my 2nd graders today.

The First Gnome

Can you believe it? I thought this project would take at least until Christmas to complete, but one student in my class has finished knitting her gnome already & others are going to follow quickly. The planets must be aligned to "knitting frenzy," because Nathan, too is starting to decrease the hat he is knitting (in the round on 4 double points) in 5th grade.

Yes, knit by a child who is seven years old. Isn't it amazing? We used yarn plant-dyed by Mama Jude & pretty knitting needles from Peace Fleece for the gnome. I sewed the gnome up for the child. It will be on her desk in the morning, just as I promised today - along with a little gemstone gift. He's about 12" tall. There were lots of seams since 2nd graders don't knit in the round yet. I stuffed him with wool batting.

My students are so creative. They actually suggested we should start knitting booties & hats for charity & I think we will do just that. They are hearing so many wonderful stories of human beings with saintly qualities this year, I think it's very fitting to take these images into the will-life.

Weekend Kitchen

Homemade bread. So yummy warm with butter melting on the top. I'm often not all that pleased with my breads, but this one tastes good & we were actually able to cut it into slices rather than just eat it "by lumps." I added a bit of cornmeal which gave it a nice "crunch."

On Friday I received a pumpkin as a gift from a student. I was thus inspired to make a pumpkin soup. I added carrots, sweet potatoes & potatoes as well. Salt. Pepper. A bit of cream. A sprinkle of nutmeg & a bit of parsley. Autumn goodness.

These were peanut butter cookies the boys made (pretty much all by themselves) for a fundraiser for Nathan's class. Of course we had to eat a few, too.

Gregory The Great

The 2nd grade language arts curriculum includes native legends, fables & stories of the saints. I'm using "Stories of the Saints" by Siegwart Knijpenga & "The Giant at the Ford" by Ursula Synge as my main resources. (For no particular reason) I told them of Gregory the Great first. The pictures were essentially free drawings by the students. I mostly have them do guided drawings, but every now and then I just like to see what they draw from their imagination. There's a wonderful story of Gregory hiding in a cave in the woods & a pillar of light streaming down from heaven leads the people to him. The students did writing with it, too - of course. I'm trying to make sure they have a solid foundation of sight words, so that is our language arts focus during this block. I'm telling them the story of Saint Odilia this week. I'll try to share some impressions at the end of the week.

Rona & The Moon

In the version of the story I told my class Rona is a man. I used the book "Maori Myths & Legendary Tales" by A.W. Reed as a source. The only version I could find online speaks of Rona as a woman & of course there are other differences in the story. You can find it here. My students loved it!

Greenfish

I read a sort of summary of a story that talked of the myths surrounding the creation of greenstone. I made it into a bit of a Michaelmas-type story. Super-abbreviated the story is basically about a fish. He finds a magic key to free a castle from the enchantment of a ferocious dragon. He swims against the current to bring the key to a courageous boy. Then he dies & turns into a greenstone, thus still giving us beauty today in the form of jade. I had the students draw the sea first & then draw the fish in yellow. Magic! - Green. It was nice for them to experience mixing colors in this way.

What A Trip!

Here are some pictures Noah snapped with his fancy single-use camera on his (about) 50 miles of canoeing down the James River. On the last day (of 5) the kids said, "We're ready to come home. It feels like we've been gone for six months." No showers. No toilets. - They sure smelled like six months on the sea! :-)

Getting ready to launch.

Having a break along the way.

Noah.

A lake somewhere along the way.

The Godspeed made its way up the James River on the 4th day of their trip. Perfect timing! Everyone is back home now & Noah is bugging me to publish this post, so he can check out the NFL. :-) Off I go.

Running Forms

The 2nd grade form drawing curriculum explores mirror images & running forms. The latter are a great preparation for cursive writing. Above my chalkboard drawing. It was a quick sketch on the board one morning, so it's not perfect & the picture was taken at an angle, too. I always tell the students a story. This one was about a lake (blue line) with mountains in the back (yellow zig-zags) & a silly fish leaping in & out of the water (red loops).

After drawing the forms into the air, this is how one student's book entry looked.