Assessment is a “hot topic” in the news and in educational debate. In Waldorf schools assessment takes many forms, none of which includes standardized testing.During the year, concentrated “blocks” of study might include an end-of-block assessment. A block might be three or four weeks long and concentrate study on one topic. After a botany block in the fifth grade an outdoor “treasure” hunt to find, for example, a monocotyledon, a pistil, a tap root, a deciduous conifer branch, a dicotyledon, and so on, might be the "test.” After a block on physiology in grade seven, an essay entitled, “The Diary of a Sandwich,” might be the means of assessment..... READ MORE
Check out my set "Most Interesting 100" here! Visit my Waldorfschool/Steinerschool related pinboards here!
4th Grade: Language Arts Check out my set "Most Interesting 100" here! Visit my Waldorfschool/Steinerschool related pinboards here!
Check out my set "Most Interesting 100" here! Visit my Waldorfschool/Steinerschool related pinboards here!
This is Jakob Streit's third collection of stories from the Bible, retold for children. It includes stories from the Old and New Testaments, and some from the Apocrypha. A master storyteller, he brings the stories vividly to life, telling them in a way that will capture children's imaginations. They're perfect for Year 3 in the Steiner-Waldorf curriculum, but will also be of value into Year 4 and later. Includes stories of Solomon, Elijah, Tobias, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, Nehemiah, Jonah, Heliodorus, Job, Judas Maccabeus and John the Baptist. Jakob Streit's other books of Bible stories are And There Was Light, and Journey to the Promised Land. b/w illustrations
Got bored kids? Here's a list of 25 different winter activities plus a tutorial to make these beautifully easy Waldorf Window Stars!
Roasted chicken, celery, apple, grapes and walnuts with a lemony Dijon mayo dressing...
Happy fall! (Well, almost. Can you tell we’re just a little excited for the change of seasons?)
A beautiful way to flow through the rhythm of your week and year. My circular calendar depicts the twelve months of the year on the outer circle with hand drawn images that correspond to the season or holiday. The inner circle depicts the seven days of the week in colors that correspond to those used in waldorf education. Both circles turn to display the current month and day of the week. The entire piece put together measures 9.625 inches wide and 11.1875 inches tall. Personal home use only / non-commercial use. This listing is for a digital PDF of my circular calendar. Please do not share this PDF with others, printed or digitally. Helpful info: The PDF is 11 X 17 and intended to be printed on an 11 X 17 card stock paper. You will need to have it printed at a copy shop on card stock if you don't have a large format printer at home. You will need to print, cut, and join the pieces together with a brad. An exacto knife would be very helpful to cut the windows out of the triangular viewer. This calendar is waldorf inspired therefore November depicts a lantern walk in celebration of Martinmas.
This fully revised edition of Understanding the Steiner Waldorf Approach is a much needed source of information for those wishing to extend and consolidate their understanding of the Steiner Waldorf early childhood approach. It enables the reader to analyse the essential elements of the Steiner Waldorf Approach to early childhood and its relationship to quality early years practice. Covering all areas of the curriculum including observation and assessment, child development, play, repetition and the environment, this new edition has been updated to reflect recent curriculum changes and explore the influence of media and technology. Including a new chapter on expanding the Steiner Waldorf approach to work with children from birth to three, the book: describes the key principles of the Steiner Waldorf approach to early childhood with examples from Steiner settings;provides an accessible and objective overview of a key pedagogical influence on high quality early years practice in the United Kingdom;highlights the key ideas that practitioners should consider when reviewing their own practice;contains summaries of key points and reflective practice questions to help students and practitioners engage with the ideas in the book.can be used as the basis for continuing professional development and action research. Written to support the work of all those in the field of early years education and childcare, this text is essential reading for students, practitioners, leaders, managers and all those wanting to improve their early years practice.
Over the years I've had many questions about our own family's birthday traditions- how we celebrate, what we do and what we avoid.
Last week, I introduced the girls to the character of Gnome Share through an extensive story here. We continued through the week with various exposure to the concept of division. Here is some of what we did that tied into math... In our first Maths Block, I had several stories going for the qualities of numbers that I thought I would weave number stories into this block. So for the number One, I told the girls the story of "Offerus the Giant" by Jakob Streit found in "The Easter Story Book" (the legend is actually of St. Christopher and is found in many books by various authors. Here is a very short version of it more appropriate for young ones, which takes out the devil section and the section in the end where St. Christopher goes Home to Heaven.) One represents God. We then went into the living room and Gnome Share revealed his sign in nature. I showed the girls the chalkboard drawing and read the verse to them. We then drew it in our main lesson books together. Gnome Share told the story for number 2, which was "The Two Kings' Children" by the Brothers Grimm. For number 3, he told, "The Three Sons of Fortune" by the Brothers Grimm. All week we've had fun *sharing* things together. For the first exercise, I took the basket of eggs we painted and counted out 12 of them in one basket. I presented two empty baskets next to it as follows: I told Elena that I'd like her to count the eggs and then divide them evenly so that she and her sister would have an equal amount. She loved this! I then made up a story of some squirrels who were hungry and gathered around her, hoping she would share some nuts. So she worked within the confines of the story and was dividing them equally among the squirrels. I then would increase or decrease the number of squirrels so that she could see that 24 divided by 4 equals 6 and 24 divided by 6 equals 4. Or 24 divided by 2 equals 12, etc. Then Charley finished what she had been working on and came to try, too. I started her with the 12 eggs divided into two baskets, then told her I wanted some eggs, too - so she divided 12 by 3. And then Daddy wanted some eggs, as well so she divided 12 by 4. They had so much fun with this and started to see some patterns. I wrote down the equations on a dry erase board. And we made a second MLB drawing to represent our equations. We also worked with bean bags and rhythms. We were counting by two's and passing our bean bag to the next person on the 2's and then jazzed it up by alternating the bean bag from hand to hand while passing on the 2's. That was a bit of a challenge for them as it involves the thinking and the movement on the appropriate number. I wrote down the numbers on a board so they could see a pattern. 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 22, 24, 26, 28, 30 32, 34, 36, 38, 40 etc... When they could see the pattern emerging, they could count by 2's up to 144 (and then they kept going even though we're focusing up to 144)... This week, we'll be meeting the next process gnome...
Anyone who has come into contact with Waldorf education -- and those of us who have invested our hearts and souls into it’s tenets -- know firsthand the misunderstandings that arise within and around this extraordinary system of education. The aim of this article is to help clear up some fundament
Let the beauty you love be what you do.
Another post on Quiet Time activities? Why yes. There is just so much more I want to share with you! Quiet Time is a topic that I could chat about for a very (very, very) (very) long time. I have shared with you lots of Quiet Time activities in this space, and even written
Happy New Year’s to you all! Many best and bright wishes to my readers in this lovely New Year! Many of you know that given my background as a physical therapist and homeschooling parent, work rev…
The Six-Year Transformation By Michelle Brightwater The six-year transformation or change is an amazing and tumultuous time in the life of your youngling (and for you!). This time is referred to as the “first puberty,” which gives a great deal of insight into the kind of behavior you might expect during this time. Although it […]
This book presents a clear, deep and accessible overview of the philosophical, developmental and educational foundations of Rudolf Steiner/Waldorf education—as a dynamic, adaptable, creative process for which a profound sense of the uniqueness of each child is foundational. It demystifies Steiner as a philosopher of "freehood" and discusses the threefold human being in psychology. Child development: topics covered include the 12 senses and sensory motor development, language, and inner life. Education principles covered include imitation, purposeful activity and free play; nature; music and the arts; rhythm, structure, trust and security; observing and understanding children; self-development and reflection; comparison with other preschool approaches.
Create your own homeschool curriculum plan for main lessons with this outline of the traditional Waldorf block rotation for homeschoolers.
Our curriculum is based on Rudolf Steiner's views and teachings on child development.
Last week, I promised I’d share Teddy’s DIY finger knitted flower tutorial. Teddy’s been finger knitting like a wild-man and we’ve made so many beautiful creations from the fruits of his labor. I have already shared an easy finger knitting tutorial with you so that you can teach your child this […]
Create your own homeschool curriculum plan for main lessons with this outline of the traditional Waldorf block rotation for homeschoolers.
Kindergarten Gemsby Agnes Taylor KetchumLook inside.
Rudolf Steiner created Waldorf education 100 years ago as a healing education after the devastation of WWI. Here is a Steiner verse for an uncertain world.
I have been using the wonderful book Grammar-Land by M. L. Nesbitt. I bought the book, but it is available for free at Google books as well. It is a story set in the fairy land called ‘Gramma…
From : "Mission of the Folk Souls" Rudolf Steiner ".......In primitive times, as we have shown in the case of the Scandinavian and Germanic peoples, the "I" was revealed clairvoyantly to humanity. According to tradition this "I" ws bestowed upon humanity by an Angelic Being, Donar or Thor, who stands midway between the human being and the Folk Soul. We have seen that individuals still felt themselves to be ego-less, devoid of personality; they looked upon the "I" as a gft from the spiritual world" I had heard so much about the brilliance of the Norse Mythology block, that we couldnt wait to start. It feels like this block was tailor made for our family, with our love for Vikings and Mythology and swordfighting and medieval festivals. The wonderful thing about waldorf, and planning ahead, is that you can prepare the groundwork long before you actually begin. My son had shown a great affinity with these stories for a long time, even more so as he approached his 10th year, his inner developement apparent through his emerging personality. We had started attending medieval festivals about 2 years ago, as some very close friends of ours are professional Orustra(viking) swordsmen, and they often exhibit their skills in public arenas, dressed in authentic viking gear. They also carry years of wisdom and knowedge, and are always ready to answer any questions on Odin, Viking heritage or the correct way to hold a hammer.. We had also signed my son up for winter school at the Michael Mount waldorf school. It was a one week course where he did woodword and metal forging. At the end of the week he had hand carved a beautiful dolphin scene for our Angel Joaquim remembrance table, as well as forged a dagger, a knife and an assegai (african sword) out of iron. So needless to say, when Grade 4 rolled along, we were eagerly anticipating the lesson block. We worked mainly from D'aulares' book of norse myths, and compared a few creation myths and legends to find similarities. We aquired The Bible of Illuminated Letters, and a caligraphy set from Mercurius with gold leaf paper to practice writing some ancient script. Some of my chalkboard drawings during the block. Yggdrasil and the 3 norns. We incorporated the three norns into some language practice, representing past, present and future. From the Christopherus Language arts book we used some fun examples to converting the tenses. Urd-what was-the past Verdanade-What is- the preseent Skuld- what will be- the future Some sentences : Ymir and the cow lived in Ginungagap (written in past tense, from Urd) Then we move between the tenses playing with the words. Ymir and the cow lived in the Ginungagap. ( Verdanade- present) and then Ymir and the cow will live in the Ginungagap (Skuld- future) We followed a typical waldorf sequence of telling the story on day 1, then we would compose a few lines together and draw or paint a picture, then on day 2, my son would retell the story as we walked through the garden, and we would finish composing the paragraph, do gramatical corrections, and then write into his main lesson book. This worked very well, and as my son likes to work at a slow pace, we got through about 3 stories a week. He really enjoyed the drawings. We also played around with form drawing celtic knotwork and used this to make borders around his pages. Here are a few pages from his main lesson book. His 10th birthday rolled along in the middle of the lesson block. He had asked for a violin and a chess board for his birthday, and we were fortunate enough to get them both for him. He has been doing really well at his music lessons, and his music teacher measured him for a violin. He has such long arms that a full size Violin fitted comfortably on his shoulder. He was thrilled with his gfts, and it is clear he appreciated them immensly. The chess board we picked up from a retired couple who were selling second hand collecters item chessboards. It helps to search sites like www.junkmail.co.za or www.bidorbuy.co.za to find good deals.The chess pieces are individualy hand painted, and are all knights, kings and queens from the medieval era. His birthday party theme was easy! Vikings! Our dear friends from Orustra agreed to come and entertain the boys in exchange for tea and cake! We set up an arena in our garden and planned a quest for the boys. It took about 2 weeks of prep work which we incorporated into our homeschooling crafting days. We made each boy a shield, viking helmet and hammer that we cut out of cardboard boxes that we had collected from recycling areas. We glue gunned them together and duct taped them together and even stapled them together. It was really all trial and error until we got them perfect. 11 of each! http://www.stormthecastle.com/how-to-make-a/how-to-make-cardboard-shields.htm We made a huge Pinyata out of a guitar box. The tutorial we found here.http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-pinata/ Then we tackled making a Viking lonboat out of card-board boxes. The weather was acting unpredictably, so we built the longboat in our lounge, everyone doing their bit to help with the sticking, painting and design work. The cake we made out of cupcakes, following this tutorial.http://runs-like-doe.blogspot.com/2012/06/viking-party-cupcakes.html We planned a quest for the boys. It was written on a scroll that my hubby (dressed in medieval garb) anounced in his booming voice across the garden: "hear ye! hear ye! you have been selected to go on a quest to slay the dragon. for this quest you will need: Bravery Wisdom Fearlessness Endurance and Strength you have 5 tasks to complete to prove that you are worthy to prove you are brave, you must enter the abandoned unicorn castle, and fight your way through the briar patch, through the dark cave, and then cross the raging waterfall bridge. If you make it through the maze, you will come upon the dragons lair, there you must creep in as silent as a mouse, and take from the dragons treasure box, a scroll with an ancient writing code. to prove your wisdom, you must desipher this code, and find a medalion on the yggdrasil tree with your name on it. to prove your fearlessness, you will be required to eat a magic worm. the test of endurance will be age old viking games. 1. viking longboat race 2. musical vikings 3. viking pass the parcel the last test, that of endurance, will be the jousting of the pinyata. where you will combine your skills and slay the dragon. may you be greatly rewarded for your courage, young vikings!" When the guests arrived they were given their shields which they had to decorate inside the longboat, with runic stamps we had made from kitchen sponges. Once they had all arrived my husband gathered them all together and read from the scroll. They made their way through the course we had plotted out in the garden. The unicorn castle was one we had built for my daughters birthday a month before out of refirgerator boxes. We placed the castle in front of a large bush that our rabbits live in, and the boys had to crawl through the bush, and they came out in to our trampoline that we had covered with fabric(the dark cave), once through that, they had to climb over the "bridge" which was a garden bench draped in blue silks. The dragons lair was our tent that we had decorated, and inside we had draped silks and voils to make chambers. In the last chamer, one of the older boys was dressed in a dragons costume, guarding his treasure chest which was filled with the scrolls we had made earlier. Each scroll had the ancient runic alphabet code, we had stained the paper with tea, burtn the edges and put a wax seal on it. The boys took their scroll and headed back into the garden to find the Yggdrasil tree, that had all the medalions hanging on the branches. The medals we had carved out of wood, and engraved each childs name in runic. Once they had achieved this, they were handed their axes and helmets, and they joined the Orustra vikings in the arena. Lunch was "long boat" dogs, and viking juice. It was a great success! We are looking forward to the second block, which we will do after our fractions lesson block and our man and animal block.
Five years ago, I started making waldorf-inspired dolls with my company Brambles & Blossoms. I only had 4 little boys at the time and longed to make them soft, cuddly dolls to be their best friends. My very first dolls were ones I made for the first four of my boys, but my fourth son, …