Friday, February 26, 2010

Spring Flowers and Geometry














We've been inspired by the beautiful daffodils blooming in our yard!  To celebrate this sign of early Spring, we sketched the daffodils for a while when the sun was out....













Daffodils have 6 petals, so we drew 6-pointed stars and hexagons to help us with the symmetry.













Our wonderful neighbor loaned us an amazing Waldorf book that is no longer in print and is all in German.  It features forms and shapes of plants, animals, minerals. 













Next, we drew triangles, squares, 5-pointed stars and 6-pointed stars.  Based on the drawings in the book, we sketched out flowers that follow these 3, 4, 5, and 6-petal/leaf patterns. 
 


Then, it was time to color the flowers.  If the flowers were blooming outside, we observed them (mostly pansies and daffodils right now!).  
Joey

We discussed the color variations of each flower as we drew. 

Ricky


We wrote the numbers in Arabic and Roman numerals and the names of the flowers in English.  Next week, we will add the names in Spanish and German. 

Wilson

16 comments:

Tammy said...

They are all such beautiful drawings...I love geometry in nature. :)

Jacqui said...

How interesting and beautiful. maybe if we had used flowers, I might have understood maths better.

Ariella said...

Where has this math been all of my life? I always thought math wasn't my subject--but maybe I just needed this??

renee ~ heirloom seasons said...

Dear Jennifer, I think this is exceptionally beautiful artwork and lesson material. Advanced for us at the moment but very inspiring still. I was today thinking about doing some form drawing work with some nice color patterns for Chloe. Your work celebrates spring very well!

Joy said...

Very fascinating! I love daffodils, and I can't wait for ours to bloom. :)

Gabriele Kubo said...

same here! Have to go to draw blossoms with my daughter who is suffering under the Japanes math system. Thank you, Jennifer, for your inspiration! Is your neighbour from Germany? Sounds as you are living in a whole nest of Waldorf! How great, feel like packing up my luggage and join in!
Gabriele

Sarah said...

I'm happy to see this as Lou will be doing botany this spring. It is still MONTHS before we'll have any flowers in our garden!

Vera Lothian said...

I love your drawings!

I'm also very jealous of your beautifull weather. Here in the UK it is cold and wet...

Grandma said...

Daffodils are inspiring in so many ways and areas as you have shown! It brings to mind William Wordswoth's poem "Daffodils", a beautiful poem.

Kimmie said...

How fun! I wish geometry had been presented like this to me. :) Maybe I wouldn't have loathed it quite so much. Ha! Still waiting for our daffodils to bloom, but now we have a great idea to use when that time comes! Thanks!!!!

nocton4 said...

I am loving reading through your beautiful blog and being very inspired by all your adventures.
thanks so much for the lovely comment you left on my blog, much appreciated.
will be visiting you again very soon
love and hugs
xx

Rose said...

The drawings are so beautiful. Your children did a wonderful job. Would you be able to tell me the name of the Waldorf German book you used for this lesson? I speak/write German and am using the some Waldorf books, too. I would love to see if I could get it on E-bay. Blessings, Rose

Tan Family said...

Thank you for the nice comments, everyone! Gabriele, the person who is teaching us German attends Steiner College and she lives about 40 minutes from us. Since we are 2 blocks from the campus, we meet her there for lunch. We are lucky to be surrounded by so many Waldorf-minded people here! Rose, there are two books: Urbild and Wandlung and the same name with "II" after it. Also called Die Dreiheit als Weltgenstaltungsprinzip. I've seen a couple of copies used online for about $100 or so for each. I'm looking into seeing if the publisher is going to print again and if not, if we can sell copies. The pictures are amazing!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for taking the time to share your lessons with us, especially the fabulous photos! Definitely a little bit advanced for my 3 yr old but hey, I'll do the drawings and work on my own geometry!

The Scolari House said...

Truly, truly inspirational.

Rose said...

Gute Arbeit hier! Gute Inhalte.Rose