Felted Slippers

7th grade is finishing making their felted slippers.  They are coming out so nice.  I made some little ones for my baby neice-ie.

Semester 1 - Mod 3.04 - Graphic Organizer and Language Acquisition

Module 3.04
Make up a graphic organizer on strategies for teaching English Language Learners and find websites and apps designed to enhance language acquisition
 http://www.memrise.com/courses/english/languages/
http://www.lingq.com/
http://ankisrs.net/
http://www.busuu.com/enc/user/register?b_source=adwords&b_campaign=ob_enc&b_group=busuu&b_subnetwork=SN&b_term=busuu&b_placement=&utm_nooverride=1&gclid=COC27MXj0boCFaQ9QgodokMA1A
http://www.rosettastone.com/lp/qbhol6/?cid=se-ggnb-comp&mkwid=s7xE1PNqv&pcrid=31806916215&pmt=b&pkw=busuu&pdv=c&gclid=CPmZusTj0boCFSjZQgodpVkAfA
http://www.duolingo.com/
http://www.humanjapanese.com/download.html
http://www.dw.de/learn-german/german-courses/s-2547
http://conjuverb.com/
http://lwt.sourceforge.net/

Credential program - Sem.1 Module 3 - 3.03 Migrant Ed.

http://www.calmigranted.org/courses/EL-Gr.K-3/
The best thing I got off of this site was the quote -
"If the child is not learningthe way you are teaching, then you must teach in the way the child learns" - Rita Dunn
Sounds like something Steiner could appreciate.
This is more of the ESL learning module for my teaching credential. Notes on:

 The CMEP site talks of 4 simple strategies for teaching children that are not native English speakers.  First is the choral response.  Children in the lower grades learn from imitation, so there is no surprise that a choral response can be a great teaching technique.  A teacher can give a cue and then students reply in unison.  This can be particularly helpful to a student that is unsure of his/her response, in this way a class can carry such a student as they learn. Choral response is used in three effective ways:

            Pair share - Sharing with a partner.

                Small Group Instruction – Group of children share which allows the teacher to hear multiple students at one time.

                Whole Group Instruction – Responding as a class, difficult to assess individual progress, great for oral language practice.

                The second strategy is the idea of Academic language.  This is the literary terms needed when students are learning the various academic subjects. 

                Realia is the third strategy and seems to be one of the best ways to connect with English learners.  Everyday objects and rituals are taught in English.  This can help connect the child to their learning.

                The last strategy is called Multilevel response and is broken down into beginning - asking yes/no questions, early intermediate – asking either/or questions with one or two word answers, intermediate – asking questions that start with “Why?” or “How?” and receiving short answers or phrases, early advanced – asking “Why do you think?” or “What would happen if?” and receiving answers in complete sentences with a variety of vocabulary and advanced – is when a child has native-live fluency.  

I took out all the negative reflections I had about the cold, plastic like classroom experience for these children and the some of the numbing instruction.  

Creating Curriculum

Whew-
Well I've been so busy!  I finished my Waldorf credential but now I'm in grad school for Waldorf Education AND I've started my teaching credential through CSUMonterey.  I decided I should start adding what I'm doing here and it will be my record of what I'm doing so I have something to look back on.  I came upon this today:

1. Have I given the children something real and appropriate images or pictures in my storytelling or have I given them concepts/judgements?

2. Have I used the night? Has it come back differently from the children? Have I properly reviewed the lesson? 

3. Has every child made at least some effort? 

4. Have I translated as much as possible from the main lesson into movement? 

5. Have I made the children laugh? Was there an ebb and flow, a real breathing in the lesson? 

6. Have I addressed one or more of the temperaments?

7. Have I taught something new? A new skill, some knowledge or a variation on an existing theme?

Waldorf Doll Head Tutorial

I started a new project this year of having my 4th-8th grades make handwork lesson books. I was looking for some Waldorf doll head images and stumbled across this great tutorial.

3rd Grade Crochet

I'm glad I found this blog.  She gives a great overall idea about why we teach crochet.  I was quite shocked to see someone doing the recorder case the same way as I do. 
http://waldorfhandwork.blogspot.com/

Writing first - handwork benefits writing

"Steiner felt that writing was closer to the child, and reading was more intellectual and one-sided.  If writing come first, then reading what someone else has written makes more sense. There is some idea of where it comes from.  The teacher sees how the musical element of speech flows into a harmony with the sculptural moulding processes of drawing-writing during elementary school.  This insures that writing shall be an exercise of the whole person, arms and hands and ears and eyes and spirit.  this way of teaching writing keeps it from becoming abstract.  Its connection with handwork sowed seeds for many later developments in my own life.  What we have come to think of as interdisciplinary, a cross-over between writing and handcraft, is based on a primal union."  From Towards Wholeness by M.C. Richards

Felted Slipper Examples

More 7th grade felted slippers

Waldorf Doll Examples

The 6th grade did a doll parade through the lower grades and kindergartens.  They did a marvelous job and worked really hard to finish, quite a feat with class being only 50 minutes once a week. 

Felted Slipper Examples

Another pair of fun, fabulous, felted slippers!

Felted Slipper Example

Love these felted slippers one of my students made and embroidered.

String games, dyeing, 2nd grade

 After dyeing Easter eggs in class this year we dyed the nylon string games we made.  We soaked them in the dye in the window sill over night.  The colors seemed bright but faded once they dried. We just used vinegar and the PASS dye.

2nd grade math shield

I love this with all the Math Shields together.  Remembering the stories and the different animals.  Great culmination of the block.

Handwork Room explosion of yarn

A Wool and Handspun yarn explosion happened in my room!  Our 5th grade teacher was able to acquire all this from a family that had a super spinner, knitter, handworker that is no longer with us.  Very special!  And all labeled.

Rhyming and fingering verses for early years

Fun rhyming/finger verses for kinder and 1st

Free rendering 2nd grade Saints

For the last day of the Saints language block I had the children do a free rendering of any saint they had learned about this year.  The free rendering was to cut/rip up tissue paper and use it to create a stain glass like mosaic on transparent paper.  I used diluted mod podge and paint brushes.  The children LOVED doing this and many wanted to do another.  The transparent paper I used was Vellum and didn't work so well-rippled.  Next time I would try shrinky dink paper or something else. 

Don't remember which saint this was.  It was a female that is covered in fire, she walked through fire.

 

St. George and the dragon.

Saint Elizabeth - and the Roses.

Saint Clare - before becoming a Nun.

Another version of walking through fire.

 Saint Martin 

Knitting, gnome hat

The Noro yarn we have been using for our 2nd project of a hat in 5th grade has been discontinued so I bought another yarn called Gina and wanted to knit it up to make sure it worked.  Somehow I managed to get them on a size 7 needle instead of an 8 and the hat was coming out quite small. SOOO, instead of taking it out I decided I wanted to use the whole skein and did several rows in between my decreases and made it more of a gnome hat with a pom-pom.  Love the colors and I have several littles I can give this too. 

 

Santa Lucia main lesson book drawing - leading children through drawing on chalkboard.

The children learned the Santa Lucia song, heard the story and made Lucia buns.  We then sang and brought the buns to the 1st grade.  This is not a festival at our school - yet!  The recipe I used for the buns turned out great and I didn't end up having to use the super expensive saffron (that's a lot of saffron if you make it for the whole school).  This is the recipe I used.  
I made the dough ahead of time because I have to teach my handwork classes all day and we just don't have enough time to make it all in the morning.  I gave each child a piece and they loved rolling and shaping them.  It worked great.

SOURCES

Felting needles at Peace Fleece - best price I've found

Main lesson book of Saint Christopher led on chalkboard

In class we were working on naming words, doing words and describing/color words.  I do a main lesson book page and then make it proportionally the same size on the chalkboard and lead them through a drawing.  Christopher was in the middle of the block. 

Saint Francis, Chalkboard drawing, 2nd grade

 

My chalkboard drawing for this Saints/language block.  I'm in love with Saint Francis.  Great movie free on youtube about him with music from Donovan (a favorite of mine) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVG2r7TgMMw

We are singing the song "If you want your dream to be" every morning with a few changes.  Excited to do it in a round in 3rd grade.  We are also singing the canticle.  I started my board drawing with just the tree, Francis and a few birds and I've been slowly adding in birds, flowers and the wolf.  The children are SO excited everyday there is something new. 

My mentor said his arms were too skinny and his hands were too tiny and feet wouldn't hold him up, so I had to thicken them and enlarge them.

My Chalkboard Art

My Chalkboard drawing (on black paper) for my schooling.

Felted Slippers, dying with Koolaid 7th

 In handwork we were able to use the 3rd grade's stove while they were away on a field trip to dye the students felted slippers that didn't get to put color on originally.  I have dye from Dharma but decided since I only have 50 minutes (less really) to get them dyed and out of the class to use Kool-aid.  It worked great and you don't have to add anything.  I used a packet per 2 cups of water.  For each pair of slippers I suggest at least 4 packets.  On a different day we tried to dye this students slippers at the end of another dye bath that was pretty exhausted.  She wanted them darker so we dyed them again.  Grape - Koolaid

They  came out a great dark purple color. 

We then went for the blue raspberry dye (beware - tropical punch is not blue though the package is blue).
This student had also dipped hers into the end of an exhausted grape dye bath and were really light.  So we tried them again but this time in blue.  

 Here you can see the dye is getting exhausted.  All the color is going into the felt and leaving clear water.

 They came out more baby blue. She needs to felt and shape them a bit more but she is pretty happy with them. Another student did this color and they are bright blue!