First finished hat and wrist warmer set of the school year (5th grade 4 needle knitting)!!!  Look at the hand dyed yarn!  I love this, I love how every single child dyed their own wool!  Socks are next (the sock yarn was bought variegated yarn...pre-dyed).  Not every student will finish all three projects, but most will....this is a class of go-getters!

7th slippers and blacksmithing .

I sure haven't been keeping up on this blog!  Oh well, that means I have been very busy with students and handwork and a lot of fun in my personal life!

Anyhoo...here are some pictures of first, a few finished boiled wool sewn slippers from 7th grade.  They took to this project with such enthusiasm this year!  I would love to do wet felted slippers, but with 30 students it just doesn't work.  This is my second choice, and they really had some fun with it this year.

The next two pictures of the knife is actually my son's knife he made in his senior year at Sacramento Waldorf School in his Blacksmithing class.  He loved it, and he loves his handwork teacher.  The shape of the top is for a bottle opener...hmmm.  They had to go to the river to get the mud to make the forges, sew the bellows...chop the wood for the coals...I wish I had this class!

Michaelmas

Well, up to the last minute my 6th graders were putting finishing touches on their dragon head!
It looks great...and very intimidating!

We made it with paper mache...all their design.  I will miss "Courage Day" at our school so that I can attend my son's last Michaelmas at his high school...

singer sewing machine

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2WVejdbYFs

just love these old adds....seems kinda pricey for those days.  Love the husband sitting around reading the paper while his wife happily sews away!  lol....

Animated Sewing Machine

Wow, while reviewing the history of the sewing machine to teach my 8th grade, I came upon this which really is great to understand how a sewing machine works...but alas, we do not use videos in a Waldorf methods school, but I think between my drawings and our "Human Sewing Machine" , plus taking a machine apart, they get it....
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ML8CMNzW6Tg&feature=related

pretty cool!

First Day of 2011-12

Oh boy, here we go again!

Probably one of the best opening rose ceremonies yet!  Our new music teacher had faculty and staff singing an African song in 4 parts, and we all came up to the front like a flash mob at the beginning...it was pretty cool, ya had to be there!

I did have one class today, 5th grade.  We just talked about our Summers, I gave them the skinny on the year, then we had some free time...some still had their cross stitch from last year, and were working on those--how fabulous!
What we will be doing in 5th:
 *Last minute addition of pencil roll ups, something we do in 6th grade, but the class has a need, so here we go first thing...pencil roll ups.
 *Dyeing our wool for hats...next week in small groups while others are sewing pencil roll ups.
 *Refresher in knitting and purling and casting on...most should remember, this was a great knitting group.
 *Hats, wrist warmers, socks.
 *Later we will get an old fleece they harvested and card, dye and drop spindle spin it!  I am hopefull to make rock drop spindles...the school has some of the regular kind, but I like the idea of walking down to the river, finding their rock, spinning, then returning that rock.  This may happen in Nov or Dec, we shall see.
 *For those high achievers, or those who are just frustrated with knitting but tried their best, we will crochet a little at the end....it seemed to be all the rage with last year's 5th at the end of the year, so why not?!

Verses dilemma !!!

Ugh, I am so tired of the old handwork verses I have been using, but cannot seem to come up with anything original or even already existing poems or songs....

 I would love to have a song for opening verse...mostly for upper grades....the verses I am trying to change are for 5th grade and up... Ideas anybody??

We start school this week, all my supplies are in disarray and underneath another teacher's supplies who cannot get into his classroom due to the flooring finnish curing...we are both very anxious about it!  Oh well, it will be what it will be and we may just start a little late...

Here are some more pictures of the process for the cement bird bath!  So fun!  :

Until then, I will continue my search for verses...