Teaching Handwork: September 2009

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

MC Escher

Monday, September 28, 2009

speech work for 8th-10th grade

After verse it is good to do speech work , song and movement

Curtsey (cressets) Betsy jets cleric
lastly (plotless) slight sceptic.

Tu-whit twinkle ‘twas
twice twigged tweaker
to twenty twangy twirlings
the zinnia crisper
zither zooming shambles
this smartened smacking
smuggler sneezing
snoring snatching.

Narrow wren
Mirror royal
Gearing grizzled
Noting nippers
Fender coughing.

Proxy Prized
Bather Broomstick
Polka Pushing
Beady Basket
Prudent Pertness
Bearskin Bristled

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers;
A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked;
If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,
Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck
if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
He would chuck, he would, as much as he could,
and chuck as much wood as a woodchuck would
if a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better.

She sells sea shells by the sea shore.
The shells she sells are surely seashells.
So if she sells shells on the seashore,
I'm sure she sells seashore shells.

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Michaelmas time....Michaelmas time...time is turning under the plow

Michaelmas time....Michaelmas time...time is turning under the plow

I would love to hear what you are doing at your school too....and what you are doing for Martinmas

Michaelmas is a season not just a day. It extends from Sep 29th (the feast of St. Michael) to Oct 31st (all hallows eve)
since it's 109 degrees outside, we will celebrate Michaelmas later.

Michaelmas Festival

Thursday, October 8th 2009

8:00 parent volunteers arrive to set up field
8:45- Kindergarten comes onto the field
9:00 1st and 2nd grade come out to the field
9:15 3rd and 4th grade come out to the field ---Kindergarten leaves the field
9:30 5th and 6th grade (they should have snack before coming on the field) come to the field
9:45 7th and 8th grade (they should have snack before coming on the field) come to the field
10:00 1st and 2nd go back to class and have snack
10:15 3rd and 4th go back to class and have snack
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
10:30- Families arrive and Students assemble on grassy knoll
10:40 welcomes everyone and faculty sings
10:45 2nd grade performs the Michaelmas play
10:55- 9th grade sward dance
11:00 – dragon appears and St Michael tames the dragon in front of the black smith
11:15- 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th , 9th line up for food at tent station ONE
2nd, 4th, 6th, 8th line up for food at tent station TWO
Parents line up with their children
Everyone must have their order form in hand

12:30 1st-9th go back to classroom for Michaelmas treat, clean up and verse
12:30 parents help to clean up the activities/ break down festival

12:45 dismissal (half day for ALL students)

Michaelmas field activities
Each class must stay together. Most of the activities are for a group. Cheer each other on and encourage group camaraderie Your class must wait till everyone is done with one station before moving to the next.

Station 1 Hay bale maze
Station 2 /3 Obstacle course
Jump Rope run through ropes always going

Station 4 Potato sack race (
Station 5 Tug of war
Station 6 Hula Hoop Marathon.

Station 7 Marble Toes.

Mark with lime or paint an area on the grass a foot or two in diameter. Cover the area with marbles. (You could set up several areas so groups of students can do the activity at the same time.) Students take off their shoes and socks and attempt to pick up marbles using only their toes. How many marbles can each student pick up in 60 seconds?

Station 8 Shoe Kick.

Have students loosen one shoe so their toes still are in it. From a marked starting line, students kick that shoe into the air. Record the distance the shoe travels. Students might take a running start, or not; they are disqualified if they take a running start and kick from the wrong side of the starting line.

Station 9 Froggy Finds a Pad.

Give each student five beanbags; each beanbag represents a frog. Spread over the game area a dozen lily pads. (Upside down Frisbees might represent the lily pads.) How many frogs can each student toss onto a lily pad?

Station 10 Balance Beam/BeanBag Walk.

Students get into a close caterpillar line, all students have bean bags on their head. They start to walk on the balance beam (several children are on the balance bean at the same time…no gaps in the line) if your bean bag falls off your head, you have to stand out. If you walk across successfully you go back to the end of the line and do it again.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

I need penpals

OKay Handwork teachers.....we are looking for pen pals for my 5th and 6th graders

Anyone want to be our penpals?

we have 20 6th graders and 20 5th graders

come on.......I know you want to write us!

As a Handwork teacher is really interesting reading the penpal letters...you find out who are the kids who struggle with reading and writing and are these the same kids who do really well in your class....meaning are they more left or right brained.

Kids just love mail!

Email me if you are interested full moon tea at hot mail dot com all one word

4th grade waldorf steiner water coloring painting

the fork tail and the rams....story from Hay for my ox

Here are some paintings seen in the 4th grade class.
Hay for my ox is a great book for getting pictures of animals from and good stories for before painting. If you have a beginning reader...it is a good book for them to read too

Sunday, September 20, 2009

more black board drawings from other schools

http://www.flickr.com/photos/13302414@N04/page2/

check out this site!

Handwork teacher training summer 2009

we did a lot of laughing!

Breathing into week 5

yep we have already been in school for a month!

The children can feel the rhythm of their day, the teachers aren't forgetting the new children's names as much.

My 5th grade advance group are on their first cuff....
we plant dyed yarn, chose colors and made a soap bag to help them remember how to knit/purl
They need to finish one cuff by next week.

Basically I am giving them 2 weeks per cuff(4). 1 week per heel(2)
3 weeks per foot(6) and 1 week per toe(2)

that is 14 weeks.

after that they are on winter break and they need to be finished!

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Dowels on demand

I received my dowels on Friday......only a month and a half after ordering them!
So in the future I need to order them in May!

Here is the issue!!!!!!!! I adore these dowels.....I just get no communication from the people making them....like I never got a final price on how much they would be until I had the bill in hand. I now have a price list.....so I just know that is the way it is......but you see I would never go any place else....the price rocks and the wood is amazing! the kids love these dowels, they don't break or splinter.

Looking at them now I think next year I will order only the Cocobolo wood, that is the brown one. its is much heavier and stronger than the other two. the yellow one is called zebra wood and is light weight, looks cool but is also 75 cents a dowel instead of about 47 or 50 cents a dowel.....not a reorder for me
actually Purple heart will also do for next year, I ordered that last year and really liked it.

Thursday, September 10, 2009

needing suggestions for 5th and 6th grade books

I like to read to the children for half of their lesson with me. In the older grades their parents don't read to them anymore and I think they truly miss it....plus I can read them things they wouldn't necessarily read on their own....but like hearing.

SO!!!! any suggestions?

we were reading Harry potter the other day....but they all know it by heart!

I'm trying to think of what we have read already......
I brought the "choose your own Adventure" books last year....they LOVED those....but they are hard to find.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

detroit teacher training painting and a classroom

8th grade industrial revolution artist

Water color painting by LS Lowry 1887-1976

8th grade industrial revolution artist

I just came across this artist and am completely taken by his work.

Friday, September 4, 2009

The last 2 days were challenging

Challenging as the heat is 110 in our city....HOT HOT HOT and that means HOT headed kids

I had a child today tell me "send me home or I will kill you" and from that point layed on the floor and a full on temper tantrum......movie style

yep! wow ! we had to stop handwork and I took all the kids back to their class and I had another teacher be with that child ( I didn't send that child home)

While in their classroom I told them a pedagogical story about a mouse who's heart was very big and who wanted to go see the great owl. All the animals of the forest warned the mouse not to go because owls EAT mice, but the mouse told the animals that his heart was big enough and he cared for all animals in the forest. The story went on to talk about how he had to find the owl....and finally finding out that the owl lived in the deepest...darkest part of the forest where all the love had been squeezed out of it AND this is where the mouse wanted to go....to call out owl and make him love again. Etc.....the story went on, I made up this story on the spot for the kids.......to help them see that some times we need to love those who are reealllllllly angry.....and help them grow.

Once the child calmed down, the child came back to class and interesting enough, the whole class told this student that it hurt their hearts to hear such words coming from him, the student who was upset apologized to the class .

WOW! and the funny thing is....this child was upset because other students were finishing their project and this student wasn't done yet.

Teaching Handwork

The Handwork teacher