Week 10-The Golden Apple of Discord

It was good to see all of those bright little faces today! I missed them last week.

Today we heard the story of Eris and her Golden Apple of Discord. A few of the children knew the Greek myth already and all seemed to enjoy it.

We talked about Thanksgiving plans and began learning the song, 'Ten Little Indians.' I apologize for not being able to figure out a way to make this song PC. Thanksgiving songs are hard to come by and even more difficult is to find one we can learn to sing in just a few weeks. I was surprised to find that none of them knew the song already.

The younger kids wrote, 'The Golden Apple,' and practiced capital and lower case 'A's. The older kids wrote, "'To the most beautiful,' the golden apple read."

The children all raced through their work today, even coloring the golden apple and cleaning up went more quickly than usual. I think missing a week of class messed with our rhythm and we'll be back in a calmer, more focused frame of mind next week.

Week 8 - The Boy Who Went With The Fairies

Our story for the week was the story of an Irish boy who was kidnapped by the fairies. If you click the link, you will find the text of the story online. As normal, I told the story and did not read it which has the both the effect of holding my audience and of making the story a bit different with each telling. I was trying for something a wee bit spooky for Halloween and think this did the job nicely. None of the kids were frightened but hearing a story about real Irish fairies who are testy and mean was surprising for them. Our American fairies are so lovely and sweet by comparison!

We crayoned a picture with fairies and a golden acorn which I substituted for the apples thrown from the coach in the printed version of the story. I gave the kids each a golden acorn to take home both as a gift from class and as a symbol of a Celtic Halloween tradition that I've read about but did not share with them.

Have a Happy Halloween and remember: Ye don't feck wi' the fairies!

Week 7 - The Bone Woman

Kaya and Jillian? Where are you?

Finally, I remembered to take a few pictures! The kids are so much fun. Here they are getting their crayons and newspaper drawing pads ready for the crayoning portion of class.

For this week I told the story of La Loba from Women Who Run With The Wolves. I was a little worried that the story would be disturbing to them but every one of them loved it and poopooed the idea that it could be scary. I'll have to work harder next week, muhahhahahaaa.

The children all love taking turns handing out materials, especially when it's their turn to be the hand-out person. The class is running smoothly, the children all appear to be having a good time and are engaged and really well behaved, other than being a bit voluble now and then. When I have to tell them to quiet down they are very good at all looking at me with their big eyes and very seriously zippering their mouths closed. I did not teach them this and it always makes me laugh.

Miranda gave me my first-ever teacher gift. The fairy Rosie is sitting in the center of our table keeping watch over all of our meals.

The picture this week was of a fat, old woman standing with arms raised, inside a cave, beside a fire. We worked on a skill that makes flames and tree branches nicer on the page but I don't have a name for it. I think the parents will all be impressed with the progress of the children from beginning to end of class, when you see their compilations.

Looking forward to next week.

Week 6 - The King Who Had Horse's Ears

This week our story was the Irish myth of the King who had horse's ears. The children enjoyed the story and thanks to the opening circle time of singing, a little playing and a little chat, the class time is flowing much more smoothly than the first few weeks.

We practiced using the various surfaces of the block crayons to make ribbons of color and then we made a picture of the the harp, the oak tree and, most importantly, the King with horse's ears. So if you hear your children chanting, "The King has horse's ears! The King has horse's ears!" You know where it comes from.

Circle Time for October

Here are the words to the song, finger play and rhyme for our October circle time. It might make things more fun for the kids if they can practice the words at home.

Song:

Come to the Circle, from Seven Times the Sun by Shea Darian

Come to the circle where dreams are found

Take my hand, we'll dance around:

Ha-la, Ha-la, Ha-la, Ha-lo

Round and round and round we go.

Fingerplay:

Scary, from A Child's Seasonal Treasury by Betty Jones

Scary scarecrows: Ha, ha, ha!

Crows just laugh at them! Caw, caw, caw!

Scary ghosties? Boo, boo, boo!

Not as scary as you, you, you!

Scary witches? Hee, hee, hee!

Not as scary as me, me, me!

Rhyme:

Betweentimes, from Seven Times the Sun by Shea Darian

Betweentimes:

a breathing space

a quiet spell

a peaceful face

Betweentimes:

the unheard sound,

the unvoiced song,

the level ground.

Betweentimes:

is where I go

to cool my heels

idle and slow...

Time ... between ... time.

The rhyme is what we do for our closing circle. The children are SO ready to leap through the door, down the stairs and have lunch that I thought a nice, settling verse would be helpful. It is. They leave calmly.

We will change our finger play after Halloween. It was really exciting to find out that all of the children are allowed to dress up for Halloween. They were all a-dither when we shared costume information.

Enjoy the rhymes.

Week 5 - The Way the Dog Ran

Our story this week was the Cherokee Legend about how the Milky Way was made. Some of the kids thought the Milky Way was a candy bar, others had some idea of what it is but said they never get to see it because of early bedtimes. They are so funny.

We started class off with circle time. We sang a song, which we will sing every week this semester and then did a Hallowe'en inspired finger play. The kids had a great time with that. We then sat down and did some name games, talked about what they will dress up as for Hallowe'en and by that time their energy was well-settled for story. I think all of them enjoyed this one about the great dog who was eating all of the corn meal in a Cherokee village and who took a great leap and left a trail across the night sky.

After circle time the children got up and went to the table for their written work. The Pink Room makes all of this much easier. We have more natural light, as well as more room for me to move around the table. All of the children are working hard and sticking with the task at hand. I really appreciate that the older kids are so considerate of the younger ones, who take a bit longer to finish their work. All of the kids are really so kind to each other.

Our crayon drawing this week was of the great dog jumping through the sky. The skills involved with the Waldorf crayoning are far different from those used in other styles. It is amazing how all of the children have progressed from the first day through now. I am impressed each week with the increasing quality of the crayon drawings.

We closed with another, shorter circle, during which we recited a simple rhyme and then they were off to lunch. Week 5 was our best class yet!

Ten Little Pumpkins

Next Tuesday our class will begin learning this little fingerplay and song during circle time. If you would like to practice at home, the text is below.

We will not be using the poem in class, after all, as the text is far too long to learn in one day per week.

Ten Little Pumpkins Poem and Finger Play
by Megan Sheakoski
Ten little pumpkins growing on a vine,
One was picked and then there were nine.

The rest of the content of this post has been removed at the request of the poem's author, properly credited above.