Main Lesson Books and Form Drawing

This was the week that the first graders began their first main lesson block, Form Drawing. Form Drawing is a precursor to writing and gives students the opportunity to practice using their new block crayons (presented in their very own beautiful crayon pouches sewn by parent volunteers), strengthens hand-eye coordination, and supports the integration of the right and left side of the brain. Even if students already know how to write their letters, Form Drawing is a very important subject in the Waldorf curriculum and continues all the way through eighth grade, where students eventually draw intricate Celtic knots. Form Drawing develops spatial orientation, inner visualization and observation. The very first lesson in Form Drawing is focused on the straight line and the curved line. We talk about these two forms and how everything in this world is made up of straight lines and curves. Later on, these straight lines and curves will help the children with their writing and drawing.

Here are some Form Drawing examples from multiple grades:

http://www.waldorftoday.com/gallery/Form+Drawing/

As the first main lesson block begins, each child also begins to create his/her own main lesson book, which showcases the hard work that he/she is doing each day during main lesson. At the end of the year, you will be presented with a handful of these wonderful books that were created by your child. 

This week, we started working with the primary colors and talked about how powerful and special red, yellow and blue really are. When these colors play together, something magical happens; other colors are born. On Tuesday, the children discovered green by combining blue and yellow, and today red and yellow were layered on top of each other to create orange. 

Also....our little golden fish made out of beeswax!

Our First Week!

We have had a busy first week! I definitely noticed the switch from half-days to full-days just because of the energy level in the classroom. These children are tired! We have very active days and I think all of the children are ready for our 20 minute rest time in the afternoon.

We begin our day with Main Lesson, and start by doing some stretching. We stretch to greet the sun and then reach way down to touch our toes. The children love "Acorn, Star, Tree," where they are essentially doing jumping jacks. We also have circle games like, "The Grand Old Duke of York." We even challenged ourselves and tried it walking backwards! On Wednesday, I introduced the children to the amazing world of beanbags and we did some exercises to develop their coordination, balance and sense of rhythm. Next we sing some songs and review the story told the day before. On Tuesday we reviewed the story verbally by sharing characters and events, on Wednesday the children put on a play, and today we reviewed the story by drawing it. After review, we call the story fairies and I tell the children a new story.

This week, the children have had Spanish twice with Maestra Surage and about half of the class were fitted for their Eurythmy shoes (kind of like ballet flats).

The children were introduced to Sir Compost, King Trash and Queen Recycle on Tuesday and we have been practicing since, at the end of snack and lunch. I've heard children say, "King Trash is so full! I think he has a bellyache!"

Yesterday, the children began felting little wool eggs and I told them about my trip to a Scottish sheep farm this summer. Today we all made little beeswax fish from our "Golden Fish" story on Monday. At the end of the day, the children have exploration time, where they can choose to read, play a game, try the marble run, build with blocks, use the slates and chalk, explore the nature table, or draw. They have had a wonderful time building cities together and sharing favorite books. At the very end of the day, we sing and I play guitar. The children learned a song called, "Aiken Drum." Ask your child to sing it for you.

Welcome Parents!

Welcome to our classroom page! This is where I will post photos of the work we are doing at school, Wednesday updates and other important information.

First Grade Rose Ceremony! What a wonderful day that was. I loved walking with my class through the rainbow tunnel!