Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Verses (first day of school 2012)

Oh my, first day of school and opening ceremonies are tomorrow!  (we have a rose ceremony where the 8th graders give a rose to the first graders, so sweet...)  Seems like yesterday my son was doing this!  Now he is off living his adventure in the big city !

Fourth grade opening verse: 

From as far as the stars,
To here where where I stand,
I come to use my right and left hand.
The things I create
Are done with great care.
My fingers to help me,
and friendship to share!

(with hand movements...)

Closing verse:

Work together,
Hands and heart.
Truth and beauty,
are never apart.

Then I say,

"Follow your heart,
in all that you think,
in all that you say,
and all that you do."

My verses for other grades include:

May our hands complete our work with patience,
May our work be done with care,
May our fingers work as friends together,
And may we our friendship share.

I have fourth through eighth grade this year...wish me luck!
Oh, and I would love love love to hear your verses you may use!!!  I am always looking for new inspiration, especially for upper grades verses!

4 comments:

Marie said...

Hi, I am a new handwork teacher - actually I was teaching art and craft back in Czech republic, but not in Waldorf school. So I had something like verses for kids, but just what I created all by myself in Czech. Now I am starting as a handwork teacher in Texas. I was wondering - do you use different verses for different grades? We are a small school, so I will have a group of 1st graders, then a group of 2nd and 3rd graders and the third group are 4th graders and 6th graders. Thank you for all the inspiration.

Ms. Sadlier said...

Needed a new closing verse for my 2nd grade handwork class. Thanks for the inspiration.
~C

Theresa said...

@ Marie...I change the verses in grade 5, when I think the other verse is too young for them! I need a new one though, and am always trying to come up with one, but I am so busy that the good 'ole stand-byes win out since I know them...

Oh, and I mistakenly gave the closing verse for lower grades, theirs goes like this:

Our time for now has ended,
Our hands may come to rest,
We thank our hands both left and right,
For helping us to do our best.
(Blessings on our work!)

Unknown said...

I teach craft from grade 1 through to 7 in a Steiner School in Australia, thanks for your blog. It's given me some great ideas.

Here are the verses that I use for my craft:
Class 1 to 3
Nimble work our fingers do
To make our handwork good and true
We knit and weave and stitch and sew,
With colour and beauty our work does glow.

Class 5 to 7
We stand here waiting with quiet minds and peaceful hearts,
And a firm resolve to strive for beauty
In all that we do.