In the Classroom 1/29/2017

Early Childhood

The children in Apple Blossom Garden have been busy building "Angel Town."

Early Childhood: Tooth Fairy Pillows

The Mighty Oaks in Apple Blossom Garden have been making their very own tooth fairy pillows.

1st Grade: Math

First grade continued its math block this week when they met the fair-minded Diane Divide.

The personification of the operations helps children see the relationship of human activity in math.

1st Grade: Color Relationships

 First graders continued to explore color relationships where the deep blue sea pushed up out if its gloom to mix with red, resulting in lovely purple mountains.

2nd Grade: Number Houses

Second Grade practiced their times tables by making number houses. Students used the skip counting patterns they've been practicing since first grade to write the multiplication sentence on the outside of the windows. On the insides they write the answers. Decorating the outside of the house is a must!

By making their own creative flash cards, students engage with math in a fun and meaningful way.

3rd Grade: Candlemas

The third grade is preparing for Candlemas through stories of Ireland and through candle making. We will make a traditional blessing on our land to ensure a great bounty in the spring.

Check the hallways for a surprise next Thursday!

4th Grade: Forms

In conjunction with our second Norse mythology block, the fourth grade has been drawing a variety of forms that require a great deal of concentration and practice. Many of these forms weave under and over one another in a Celtic knot fashion. This takes great planning and organization, as well as patience. As some of the parents from our class meeting will attest, this is no easy process!

5th & 6th Grades: Demeter and Persephone

The fifth and sixth grades have been working hard on their upcoming class play, a retelling of the Greek myth of Demeter and Persephone.

Persephone, Demeter's daughter, is kidnapped, seemingly forever, by the god of the underworld, Hades. Eventually she is released, but the Fates decree she must spend six months in the Underworld and six months in the land of the living. In the fall and winter, Persephone goes down into the Underworld and Demeter mourns. In the summer and spring, she comes back and Demeter rejoices.

This classic tale was the Greeks’ way of explaining how the seasons came to pass. The Greek myths and ancient Greek history are typically studied in the fifth and sixth grades in the Waldorf curriculum.

7th & 8th Grades: The Golden Mean

This week the seventh and eighth grades learned about the Golden Mean and Golden Spiral.

The Golden Mean, called Phi and written as Φ, is a ratio found throughout the natural world. Phi is an irrational number—a number that neither ends nor repeats a pattern.

A Golden Spiral is a logarithmic spiral which has a growth factor of Φ, The Golden Mean.