Wednesday, 14 November 2012

Beeswax, wet on wet and blacksmithing, oh and barracudas...just another day at the school

Nothing says Waldorf education like beeswax modelling. However it is a pain in this climate as it takes AGES to become soft and the kids tend to get a bit bored trying to warm it up. So as a result they barely take notice of this amazing medium. I decided to take matters in hand (boom boom ) and have a beeswax modelling class. The results were adorable.
A red fox

Snails and leaves were the theme

Then, one of them decided to do squirrel!!!
You could have just died of cuteness factor with this squirrel

Snail and leaf - and cuteness factor



Gift of tumblers and today's beeswax work

This week's wet on wet - gold, yellow and blue

Just goergeous


Class Ten does Blacksmithing - oh i LOVE blacksmithing
I was born to blacksmith, it was so hard not to join in

Charcoal burning - they made their own charcoal!!! Hoover provides the air




Going away like hammer and tongs -
that's where the expression comes from


Pokers and hooks

In another part of the workshop - clay work

Make dragons

Then a ten year old made this barracude in the workshop from wood

Today has got to be the best one honestly. It was so filled with grace. What more could anyone want? Oh yes, we also did "R". Tomorrow pictures from the ML book.

Saturday, 10 November 2012

Prussian blue, gotta love it and Martinmas





Pinkel and the witch
 It was so fun telling this story. The boys in the class kept their eyes and ears shut with excitement as Pinkel went into the witches hut to steal her goat, lamp and cloak. They were, we can't listen to this we can't listen to this. I used to think there is little difference between telling a story from memory and reading one. I cannot tell you how satisfying it is to start the day telling a story for the children and seeing how excited they are. An ancient, ancient human experience which the kids get every single day!

Our November song
Golden light is turning grey
Mists begin to rule the day
Bare the trees their branches lift
Clouds of dead leaves earthwards drift...








Sometimes the magic of the painting is undeniable. Here we did the prussian blue for the first time and when you do the wet and wet you bring it to them in the picture. I got the idea from the Drawings for Class One to Eight book - the bible for drawing in Steiner schools. We say that this blue comes from the deepest part of space, far in the sky and it sees us here and it wants to come down to earth and it does this slowly at first... just a bit - and then to just paint it with water, then it comes closer and you take a tiny bit of blue and do a band, and then it comes even closer... and finally it enters the sea and it is dark and beautiful in the sea... and we got a lakeland lanscape, a rainforest storm, creatures living in the seas, a morning of mist in a forest... it was really, really amazing - one colour, six and seven year olds. When it was done i just wanted to cry...

Ready to go
The kids did their own lanterns... painted and tissue papered and oiled them... how gorgeous are they against the light.



Here they are in action... it was absolutely delightful listening to them sing as they walked
along the dark in the school
I love Martinmas - winter has begun and we now start getting ready for Christmas. Next posting will show the drawings of the kids from their Main Lesson books.

Saturday, 3 November 2012

Work from the last week of midterm

Gold, yellow and blue




Working hard on division

Drawing lessons

Four gnomes: Tabitha Times, Paddy Plus, Deuteronomy Divide and Michaela Minus


Multiplication

The richest number - 12

Deuteronomy helps the jays figure out how many
acrons they have secreted away in each hidy hole



Carding wool

Making autumnal displays



Addition - and multiplcation


The song we learnt in the last two weeks - also
we used it to help us with our counting...
how much do i get if i add the purple leaves with the orange ones? etc...