Storytelling - Letters and Drawing

Girl With One Hand (V - valley, visitory, vines) - Asia

Each week, Mommy tells a story. Usually it's a fairy tale or folk tale from a different country. Stories come from Grimm's Fairy Tales, Enki, or Earthschooling. She acts it out, uses props, and then we discuss the story.

Each story features a letter that Wilson is learning for the week. There usually is some type of verse or song that is repeated. This verse is typed out, Wilson draws a picture from the story, and then we pastel the background. Can you find the letter hidden in each picture?

Nixie of Mill Pond (W - water, wave) - Western Europe

Princess of Peony Peak (P) - Asia

Rapunzel (R) - Western Europe


Yeh-Shien (Y) - Asia

Language Arts in the Dell

Some glimpses into our Language Arts so far this year....

Writing out our favorite recipes

Playing "I Spy" with the Waldorf Alphabet Book

Making moving picture books

Exploring two letters each week using Earthschooling curriculum and Enki fairy tales.


Writing letters in cornmeal

Raking patterns in the sandbox

Watching mommy act out a fairy tale each week (Persuasive essay follow-up to Briar Rose)

Spanish, French, Tagalog words, phrases and songs


Verses and movement to the book/cards LMNOP

Reading and writing poems, stories, verses


Memorizing tongue twisters and reciting them aloud


Greek and Latin word roots

Form drawing

Writing plays (and acting, too!)

Moving Picture Books

We made our first moving picture book!

In the book Pentatonic Songs by Elisabeth Lebret, we learned the song "The Dwarves". We played it on the lyre and sang the three verses together.

Following instructions in the book Moving Picture Books with Movable Figures by Brunhild Muller, we began making our book.

Materials:

1. Stockmar beeswax crayons

2. White paper

3. Cardstock (construction paper or think cardboard work also work) for the covers, and a thin piece for the handle of the dwarf

4. Yarn

5. Scissors

6. Glue

Since there were three verses to the song, we decided to make three pages. First, Mommy, Joey and Wilson drew three background pages, then three foregrounds, all on white paper. We cut out the the foregrounds, then glued just the right and left edges to the backgrounds.

Next, Mommy drew two pictures of the same dwarf facing opposite directions, cut them out, then glued them together with the thin piece of cardstock in-between.

Wilson and Joey made a "twizzler" out of 4 pieces of yarn (twist two sets of two pieces in one direction, then twist them to each other in the opposite direction, tie a knot).


Mommy wrote the lyrics to the song on white paper and Joey colored them in, using colors that matched the background of the picture pages.


We drew the covers, glued the pages back to back, then punched two holes in everything along the left side.

We used heavy books stacked on top to help keep everything flat while the glue dried.

Once the pages were dry, we tied the twizzler through the holes and knotted them so that the book would open and close easily. We practiced moving the dwarf in each page while we sang and played the lyre. What fun! We definitely will make more moving picture books in the future.

1st Grade - Letters A, E, I, O & Numbers 1, 2

We are thoroughly enjoying experiencing 1st grade homelearning as a family this year! Wilson is our sweet 1st grader.

We get asked frequently, "So, what do you with Wilson when you homeschool?". Here is a breakdown of the basics that we've been doing the first two weeks of school, using the Earthschooling curriculum as a guide. Letters are introduced in a 3-day rhythm. We are reviewing one number per week.

Week 1
Day 1
Circle Time: Sing "Angels Watching Over Me" ("A"), lyre
Letter A: A Story, LMNOP Card Verse/Movement
Number 1: 5 Senses (taste one apple, see one leaf, feel and guess one item in the box, hear one bird, smell one essential oil)

Day 2
Letter A: Singing, "A"corn Watercolor with Verse, Project (mixing and baking Squash Bread)
Number 1: Math Gnomes (each gnome has 1, practice add/subt/mult/div with gems)
Form Drawing (All form drawing comes from the Write Approach book)

Gymnastics Class

Day 3
Letter A: Writing (air, chalkboard, window crayons, colored pencils in MLB), Search for items that have "A" in them
Letter E: E Story, LMNOP Card Verse/Movement

Number 1: Scooping pearls with a shell, one at a time while felted mermaid watches

Day 4
Letter E: Singing/lyre "Farmer in the Dell" ("E"), Tr"ee" Watercolor with Verse, Dream Tea Project (lemon balm leaves and strawberries)
Number 1: Writing (chalkboard, MLB), Singing "The Ants Go Marching 1 by 1"
Form Drawing

Day 5
Circle Time: Sing/lyre "Good Morning Dear Earth" ("A, E, I, O")
Letter E: Writing, Search for items that have "E" in them, Draw faces on hard-boiled "E"ggs and do egg hunts.
Number: Nature Counting wood blocks, one at a time
Foreign Language: Numbers in Spanish


Week 2
Fairy Tale of the Week: Briar Rose (Mommy tells story and acts it out. Throughout the week, Wilson retells story. Older children write a "persuasive essay" in their MLB's regarding the tale.)

Day 1
Circle Time: Sing/Lyre "Good Morning Dear Earth", Bean bag counting, Circle Time Song, Meditation
Letter I: I Story, LMNOP Card Verse/Movement
Number 2: 5 Senses
Piano

Day 2
Letter I: Singing/lyre "Michael Row Your Boat" ("I"), "I"cicle Watercolor with Verse, Project (mixing and baking Indian corn bread)
Number 2: Math Gnomes (2 jewels each, practice add/subt/mult/div)
Form Drawing
Handwork: Spinning Yarn

Gymnastics Class

Day 3
Letter I: Writing, Search for items that have "I" in them
Letter O: O Story, LMNOP Card Verse/Movement

Number 2: Play kitchen (cutting wood food into "2" pieces and serving "2" plates of food)
Music: Piano

Day 4
Letter O: Singing, "O"range Watercolor with Verse, Project (cut and sew a Frog bean bag)
Number 2: Writing (chalk, window crayons, colored pencils), Singing "The Ants Go Marching 2 by 2"
Form Drawing
Handwork: Spinning Yarn

Day 5
Circle Time: Sing/lyre "Michael Row Your Boat" ("I, O"), count by 2's throwing bean bags
Letter O: Writing, Search for items that have "O" in them in the garden
Foreign Language: Counting in Spanish

Telling and Remembering Stories

The Turnip (Russia)

The Persimmon Monster (Korea)

Three Billy Goats Gruff (Western Europe)

Fairytales and folktales are wonderful stories to share. Every 1-2 weeks, we dive into a new tale as a family. The story will come from a part of the world that relates to our social studies and sometimes, our science blocks.

We tell the story, read the story, re-tell the story (in our own words), and then do a project that will help us remember and enjoy the tale. Our Enki K and 1st grade fairy tales and folk tales books are terrific resources. Here are some of the projects that we do:

1. Felt Boards

We draw patterns on paper, cut out felt pieces, and place them on our homemade felt board. Our felt board is a long piece of cardboard from a box, covered with a piece of light blue flannel on one side (day time) and black flannel on the other side (night). We move the characters on the board as we tell the story.

Tiddlelick the Frog (Australia)

The Old Woman and the Red Pumpkin (India)

2. Puppet Plays

Sometimes we use our puppet theater that hangs in the doorway, and sometimes we sit behind the couch! We have all sorts of puppets by Folkmanis.

3. Finger Puppets

Using material from old clothes, we cut and sew material to fit our index fingers for each character. Finger puppet plays are done on the side of the table or in the twig house. Daddy said that he wants to build us a finger puppet play stage, soon!

The Elves and the Shoemaker (Western Europe)

4. Wood, Crocheted, Felted Characters and Props

Daddy's wood creatures, Mommy's crocheted animals, and the kids' wood/felted characters act out stories on the twig house stage.

The Turnip (Russia)


Cluck Cluck and Little Tuppen (Western Europe)

5. Plays

Sometimes, we act out the stories ourselves! We make props and costumes from our dyed silks, wood blocks, rocks, and other items that we can find around the house.

Stone Soup (Eastern Europe)

6. Songs

If a story has poems or songs in it, we sing them together (sometimes we make up the tune). We especially like Shake it Up Tales which has stories from around the world, many of them with songs included.

7. Main Lesson Book (Writing and Drawing)

Wilson draws the story at the end of the 1-2 weeks in his MLB.