This will be the last week you'll see of first grade curriculum till likely next fall. This week we are enjoying a return to the kindy rhythm that Short Pants is ready for!
Last week was the introduction of writing numbers. After our circle time I showed Short Pants my chalkboard for 1 and 2. In the Waldorf educational model you show children how the numbers are found in nature, that way the can make a concrete connection to them. So for us Earth is 1, and day and night are 2:
Before we wrote/drew in our main lesson books, we practiced using our block crayons, which are used for drawing. They are quite different from using stick crayons as you don't outline things but instead shade from the inside out (or try to!!). I've found this wonderful little book, Coloring with Block Crayons, to be a big help. Short Pants and I worked at using our block crayons to make clouds, bands, and ribbons of color. He really enjoyed this and filled a couple of pages:
After tracing our Montessori sandpaper numbers Short Pants used our do-a-dot markers to stamp 1s and 2s I had written while I read the Grimm's story, "The Two Brothers." Pita Pocket stamped with markers on his own paper too:
The boys enjoyed hearing my story of Yellow Fish, a friendly little fish who loved to do loop-the-loops in the water and make all of his friends laugh. We talked about what a happy, friendly color yellow is:
We skipped a day of homeschooling (at our house!) last week because we went to a friend's home to learn about volcanoes. Short Pants had a wonderful time learning about different types of rock and how volcanoes are formed. His favorite part was helping to make a volcano explosion using vinegar and baking soda.
Our chalkboard for the number 3 showed a father, mother, and child:
I told the story of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" with our feltboard and then each of the boys had a turn:
Afterwards Short Pants traced our sandpaper number and wrote some 3s in the sand tray:
Then we used playdough to form 1s, 2s, and 3s. Short Pants really enjoyed this:
We also flattened out the playdough and used a toothpick to write the numbers:
Short Pants also came up with the idea of using the toothpick to cut some of our forms from form drawing out of the playdough:
For baking day last week we made 3 Ingredient Lemonade Scones. They were terrible did not turn out. I must have converted one of the ingredients wrong! Despite the fact that we didn't eat them, the boys had a lot of fun mixing them up and cutting them out:
If you have some Waldorf homeschooling to share, please link up below. Please also make sure to either place the Waldorf Wednesday button from the sidebar in your post or put a link back to this blog in your post. Thanks for reading and participating!