As students advance into the fourth grade they are at the end of their 9th and beginning of their 10th year. The familiar bonds of authority are loosening and children may begin to feel fearful or uncertain in areas where before they were fearless or confident. Increasing self-awareness results in a distancing from the world […]
Waldorf 4th Grade Supplies -- Here's my essential list of supplies that you and your students will need to make the most of your 4th grade year.
Check out my set "Most Interesting 100" here! Visit my Waldorfschool/Steinerschool related pinboards here!
Busy week! This week I presented the earthworm, straight out of Klocek's book, Drawing from the Book of Nature. It's still much too cold t...
Grade four at the Valley Waldorf City School. Waldorf school in Los Angeles features alternative education inspired by Rudolph Steiner.
An introduction to Waldorf Form Drawing. Movement is the way in which we explore the cosmos and ourselves within it. The very act of breathing is movement. Movement is one of the most primary activities of nature and of the human being. As such, movement is at the very foundation of all learning a
Waldorf homeschooling
I have been using the wonderful book Grammar-Land by M. L. Nesbitt. I bought the book, but it is available for free at Google books as well. It is a story set in the fairy land called ‘Gramma…
1st grade Rainbow Pentatonic Flute case. Cast on 18 stitches of bulky brown sheep yarn. dark on the bottom light to the top. This pattern does not show the light dark as well as it should Talk to the kids about the rainbow before hand. Make sure they understand what that means. If you choose red on the bottom the next color is either Orange or Purple If you choose Blue on the bottom the next color would either be Purple or Green. After that they need to finish with the rainbow pattern. so red on bottom and they choose Orange next, after that comes yellow and they might want to end with white because green would be darker than yellow. etc. 10 rib rows 20 knit rows per color Below is a seed stitch needle book for after their handwork bag and cross stitch is done. This needle book will hold pins and needles given to them in 4th grade and used again in 6th grade. the bag at the bottom is a bag that my own 4th grader made this week This bag wad done at home by my 4th grader
Moonshine has been thoroughly enjoying the Norse myths, and it really shows in her work. She has become such a wonderful artist-- quite...
We have been continuing on our Grammar Land studies! We read about Dr. Verb’s Nominative (subjective) Case. I did not bother doing any writing about the Nominative Case, but we did find the s…
I have never written a post about geography. Why? I have always struggled with putting together a geography block that is satisfying to me. I have trouble making these blocks feel cohesive, organiz…
I'm just gonna tell you right now, this is one photo-heavy blog post. Which is totally not my fault. I blame my amazingly talented 4th grade artists who just so happened to kick some serious Viking butt with this project. They absolutely loved the Viking unit that student teacher Rebecca introduced (before heading off to high school-land) and I really think their amazing work shows it. Call me a brag-a-saurus (been called worse, trust me) but I'm in love with these works of art. If you've seen some of the our Viking projects this year (like the 1st grade Viking self-portraits or the 3rd grade Viking ships), then you know a coupla things about how the lessons were designed: 1. They're collage-heavy. Seriously, I think I have a teaching problem(s); 2. They incorporate several different techniques and media; 3. And just about all of the projects take approximately a million years to complete. I know. I told you, I've got teaching problem(sssss). And yet I keep coming back to projects like these. Le sigh. What I really enjoyed about teaching this unit was all of the media the children were able to explore (watercolor, colored pencil, permanent pens) as well as the techniques (painting, sketching, shading, collage). So I thought I'd walk you through our big fat Viking Unit. So put on your horned helmet (horny helmet...?) and hang onto your long ship (dare you to say THAT ten times fast), cuz we're about to get our Viking on (er, what? Never mind. Just keep reading, please). As you know, my classes are 30 minutes long. So on the first day, using a folded 12" X 18" sheet of paper, the students had to decide how they would like their sky to appear. We brainstormed ideas of what could be seen in a day or night time sky. Using oil pastels, students drew stars, clouds, a sun or a moon. They were given both yellow and white oil pastels. From there, they could begin painting but they had to use analogous colors only. Students were encouraged to paint with horizontal brush strokes (and by "encouraged" I mean and the stink eye if scrub-painting commenced). Several students were unable to finish in that short amount of time and were given the opportunity to continue work the following class. On the third day, students were given a tri-folded piece of 12" X 18" piece of paper. Rebecca introduced them to three different watercolor techniques. For splatter painting, the students were given the choice to paint wet-on-wet or wet-on-dry. For the wet-on-wet technique, students had a small sponge which they could swipe their paper with water before splattering. This gave the splatters a soft look. For wet-on-dry, they simply began splattering which gave more defined dots. For the mid-section, students were to paint wet-on-wet and add a sprinkle of salt when finished. For the last section, students were to again paint wet-on-wet and when finished, cover with a piece of cling wrap. This was left on the paper over night and when removed, had the cool effect you see on the bottom. The next class, the collaging began. The students cut each of the three sections down the fold. Then they were instructed to tear each section horizontally creating a wavy line. From there, they painted a line of glue (we keep our glue in cups [think butter dish with a lid] and apply with an old paint brush because I HATE glue bottles. But I'll save that tirade for a separate post) on the straight edge of the paper and added it to our sky to create a horizon. Another strip was added directly below that one. This process was continued until the bottom of the collage was covered in a lovely sea. Oh! A tip: Once the kids have used the oil pastels and painted over their drawings, sometimes beads of paint will form and leave unsightly dots. If this bothers the kids, have them go back over the (now dry) paintings with oil pastels again. That will cover up the dried paint dots. We chatted about blending oil pastels to create a three dimensional look for the sun or moon. This genius got it. For the long ship, the students were given the option to trace a boat template. This ONLY gave them the general shape of the boat, not the head or tail shape (calm down, template-haters. Breathe). From there, the kids were given these directions: Draw a sea serpent/dragon head and tail in pencil. The kids were shown about a trillion examples (some printed from images found online, some from books). Add texture somewhere to your sea serpent. Add shields and add designs to them that represent your Viking clan. The kids traced bottle caps for their circles. Add curved lines to your ship to show the texture of wood and the 3-D quality of your ship. Trace in thin Sharpie. All that mess took a couple of days. They got really into their drawings. Reading the book mentioned in this post as they worked really sparked some creativity. After their drawings were complete, they then had to: Add color to the sea serpent and the shields using either Sharpies or colored pencils. Shading was demonstrated. Use watercolor paint on the boat. Cut out VERY carefully. Which involved me saying a lot of this: Do NOT cut off the head. Cut in...sloooooow...moootiooooon. No, I cannot cut it out for you. I'm sorry your hand is cramping. Maybe all those spikes weren't the best idea. Keep cutting. Do you think Vikings whined this much? Me neither. Some of them added Vikings to their ships. Oh, the hilarity. And just when they thought I wasn't mean and cruel enough, I threw creating a 3-D sail into the mix. Go back to that 3rd grade Viking ship post for details on how to make the sail. All this typing is making my hands cramp. Sorry. I'm one of those whiny Vikings, in case you didn't know. Shading is tricky for these guys...but they CAN do it. We talked and talked and talked about it and...guess what? They got it! Some of them had to make a couple of sails before they were successful, but in the end, we had shaded sails. Victory! Some kids decided to add a clan design to their sail. They were to lay out their pieces before gluing down, as you see above. This helped them settle on a good composition. Are you checking out this detailed cutting work? And this was by one of my hand-crampers. I knew she could do it. And this one was by my friend who said he couldn't shade. When he finished that sail, I had him to hold it up so the class could give him a round of applause. And then I put him in charge of encouraging other slacker-sail makers. A job he did very well. So, one million years later, we've got Viking ships! And I really don't know who is the most proud, the kids or me...although I'm guessing it will probably be Rebecca. Okay, the end. You can take off your horny hat now. Thanks for reading.
Thanks for all of your sweet comments about my last post! I made most of my geometry unit on my own. I will definitely be sharing some of the things, but I am thinking of finally taking the plunge …
Moonshine has been thoroughly enjoying the Norse myths, and it really shows in her work. She has become such a wonderful artist-- quite...
I must say the Norse Mythology blocks have been a favorite around here. My children are simply crazy about these gods and their antics. Oh, that Loki… This is a viking ship, Bragi, Loki, Odin…
A few fourth grade wet-on-wet watercolor paintings to share (these ideas came from Live Ed’s fourth grade curriculum): Mom’s Viking Longship. This painting was a real challenge for me! …
10 multiplication games and activities for teaching multiplication. Students will love learning their multiplication facts, building fluency and strategies.
Lots of photos of our Waldorf sixth grade mineralogy main lesson book pages. The Ring of Fire, Abraham Werner, The Rock Cycle and the poem Fire and Ice
Fractions are one of the most difficult areas in elementary math. Help your students master them with these 10 fraction ideas!
Download a Free Metals Lapbook and Project Pack.
We divided our study of Norse mythology into three blocks. The first block I have already blogged; it was where we introduced each of the ...
This is going to be a large post because I'm including both of the main lesson books Leah created for Man and Animal. Please note that she did them in sixth grade and so the amount and quality of writing is more than what you would expect from a fourth grader. I hope they are helpful, regardless. We used the fabulous, fantastic, and free East African Teachers Training Manual 6: Human and Animal Studies. I really like the diagram on page 29 of the "Threefold Human Being." I used this to help me choose which animals we'd study for each of the two blocks. "Thus we may see, as illustrated in the diagram, that just as a baby is born head first and slowly develops the trunk and limbs, so in the evolution of creation the ‘head’ creatures in the sea came first, then the ‘trunk’ creatures like the fishes, insects and reptiles and finally the ‘limb’ animals in the mammals. The different creatures are specifically linked to the form of the human being. On the opposite side of the diagram we may see a different division of the animal kingdom whereby the creatures are linked to the human being through the functions of the three areas of the body." So in our first block, we did three groups of animals (head, trunk, limbs), and in our second block we did three different groups of animals (nerve/sense, rhythmic/breathing/blood - carnivores, metabolic - ungulates). To give the briefest possible explanation of the anthroposophical view, the human being is the animals put together and so the animals are the human being taken apart. This view is what separates the Waldorf "Man and Animal" block from the traditional teaching of Zoology in the public school. Here are the pages for Leah's main lesson book. I've tried to include notes as to the source of the story or illustration where I can. Click on any picture to enlarge it and scroll through the photos with ease. her idea: to draw one man and one animal for Man and Animal I and two men and two animals for Man and Animal II Man and Animal I was our fourth block of the year self-portrait as a celestial being inspired by this picture my version (watercolor pencil) from The Waldorf Book of Poetry: Discover the Power of Imagination from my very first Waldorf chalkboard drawing 12 Phyla: Porifera, Echinoderm, Cnidaria, Platyhelminth, Annelid, Mollusk, Arthropod, Fish, Amphibian, Reptile, Bird, Mammal jellyfish poem which we found online life cycle of the jellyfish pull down to reveal... beautiful jellyfish artwork which we made with a guest art teacher too-wet paintings of a snail and an octopus the snail was inspired by this one and the octopus came from instructions in the Dick Bruin and Attie Lichthart painting book I love how she incorporated the octopus and snail into her title page of soil with earthworm facts in the tunnels (her idea) page inspired by this chalkboard drawing "Fishes" poem for two voices from Georgia Heard's Creatures of Earth, Sea, and Sky creating a fish by drawing the watery environment around it, inspired by this illustration from Live Ed! "It Starts with a T and Lives in a Shell" page about turtles and tortoises wet on dry watercolor painting inspired by this one by Rick Tan again, I love her fabulous titles and borders - so creative! on to mammals... painting a seal by painting the watery environment around it, inspired by this one "Seal" concrete poem from the excellent collection of children's poetry edited by Alison Sage "32 Things My Hands Do" metaphors and similes which have to do with animals this idea is from Roy Wilkinson's The Human Being and the Animal World and it's a good one for ending this block Man and Animal II was our ninth block of the year kicking off the block by participating in the annual Great Background Bird Count, done all around the world every February "Sparrow" poem by Kaye Starbird, from Eric Carle's Animals Animals map of all the bird feeders in our yard "The Eagle" poem with young bald eagle talon illustration traced from the Eagle page in Maryjo Koch's Bird Egg Feather Nest chapter 5 from Kovacs' The Human Being and the Animal World: The Harvest Mouse and then the poem "The Harvest" by Alice C. Henderson for many of the remaining animals we used chapters from Thornton Burgess's EXCELLENT Burgess Animal Book for Children, copyright 1920 my edition is leather bound with the original pictures but apparently the modern edition only contains the stories - well worth getting however chapter XXXII Buster Bear chapter XXVII Reddy Fox chapter XXVIII Old Man Coyote "An Almost Dictionary Definition of Lions" - I love her titles! chapter 13 from Kovacs and we must have watched a nature documentary for this as well but I have no idea which one here we switched to Horns and Antlers by the inimitable Wilfrid S. Bronson chapter 1 has a fantastic explanation of the stomachs Ruminants AKA Cloven-Hoofed Cud Chewers describing the step-by-step path through the four stomachs horns vs antlers then we returned to Thornton Burgess XXXV Lightfoot the White-Tailed Deer chapter XXXVI Flathorns the Moose a moose submerged happily in watery vegetation every leaf with a moose fact on it have I mentioned how creative and adorable she is? I LOVED her work for these blocks! I hope this has been fun and inspirational! My other blog posts from teaching Man and Animal: First Block - Form Man and Animal Resources Dancing the Relationship Between Photosynthesis and Respiration List of Resources for the Animals Chalkboard Drawings aka "Am I Waldorf Enough?" Dissecting a Cow Heart - $11.08 David Attenborough and Animal Poetry A Beautiful Way to Do Jellyfish Paintings Second Block - Function I Am a Baby Porcupette Great Backyard Bird Count This post contains affiliate links to the materials I actually use for homeschooling. I hope you find them helpful. Thank you for your support!
Our focus this week has been on the Seasons. Outside, for most of the week, it's been raining but in our tiny home we've seen a whole year of weather - from sunny seaside days, brightly coloured falling leaves and spring lambs! It's been a fantastic way to spend our mornings! I used ideas from the maths main lesson on 'Time' from A Journey through Waldorf Maths by Melisa Nielson and then just incorporated my eclectic approach from there. The chalkboard drawing idea was borrowed from here (she has some good stuff happening at her place!) but I needed to tweak it to suit our seasons and our life. Of course, in usual Steiner style there was a beautiful verse to memorise, but also as usual it was only useful to those in the Northern Hemisphere. So whats a mama in the south to do? Well this mama, who likes to utter words of wisdom in poetic form from time to time, (yes they do roll their eyes!) thought she'd have a go at 'fixing' it to suit her little dears. And I would like to share it with any other mamas out there on the Southern end of the globe. January brings swimming fun, Picnics, flies and lots of sun. Flowers droop and creeks are dry, When February passes by. Yellow turn the fields of grain; With March sun and March rain. Aprils fruit is good to see, On pear and plum and apple tree. Cool Mays leaves come fluttering down, In shades of russet, gold and brown. Cold Junes gift is rich and rare, There's beauty in the branches bare. July makes noses bright and red; Puts scarves and beanies on our head. August winds bring ice and snow; But hark, the roots begin to grow. September brings sweet flowers bright; Daffodils all yellow and white. Octobers blossoms - pink and gold; Posies for small hands to hold. Novembers here, and warmth abounds, Paddocks greening all around. December, season of Christmas cheer: Gifts, good food and ginger beer. The original verse is from The Crowning of the Year by Juliet Compton-Burnett and is very lovely but just didn't work for us down under! I hope this was OK to do..... but it's done now and we are very thankful that she wrote such a nice original! Pictured below are our Main Lesson books complete with drawings that suited the words. Oops, I just noticed that my little man forgot to add the 'beanies'!! Even Miss Elli joined in because after all who doesn't enjoy a spot of colouring in on a rainy day - as opposed to doing regular book work! I'll let you in on a little secret - I'm really loving the excuse chance to do all these colourful drawings. With this Steiner curriculum (I'm mostly using the Christopherus curriculum but with my eclectic bent) I get to do loads of drawing and colouring....bliss!! This verse is designed to suit us here in Tasmania but if you are in Northern Australia or some other southern hemisphere country, maybe you can tweak it again and add what ever happens in your area in any given month. I had a lovely time working it out and then drawing pics to match. Thanks for stopping by!
