November Kindergarten 1

Here are the highlights from our Waldorf inspired November kindergarten 1 homeschool lessons. The fall fun continues!

November Kindergarten 1

Our monthly Froebel gift to play with for November kindergarten 1 is not a traditional Froebel item, but it was included in our set. It's "Jun Gabe 1" which is beads in the same 6 colors as the balls from gift 1 and the same shapes from gift 2 (sphere, cube, cylinder). There are two strings for lacing. For each color, there are also models of the cylinder and cube that divide in half.

Week 1

On our nature walks, we watched the pumpkin in our yard gaining some flecks of orange. We found a few more milkweed pods open and some bag worm cocoons on the pussy willow. (They can get bag worms?!)

The main interest this week was the beading activity from the Froebel set, making patterns by shapes and colors. We definitely learned about which forms can roll away under furniture and which have flat sides!

In our Waldorf Essentials curriculum, Super Sam followed a storyline similar to "The Giant Turnip" but I changed it to a more appetizing potato. They are something we grow in our garden, and it was super easy to make using needlefelting.

The farmer, his wife, his son, his daughter, their dog, their cat, and Super Sam worked together to pull the giant potato out of the ground.

We have also been reading a Teddy Robinson book at bedtime, and we finally finished the last chapter. We love him.

Origami is still a hit, and now she can make some challenging figures all by herself but following the diagrams. We also worked on decorating blank puzzles which will be our homemade Christmas gifts for friends and family this year.

Our adventures outside the home included a gem mining experience and a trip to the National Aquarium in Baltimore on their wonderful pay-what-you-want day.

Week 2

On our walks early in the week, we splashed in puddles and pulled carrots from the garden.  Then we had our first frost and it turned much colder, so quick walks! I still think it is good to have some fresh air and movement before circle time.

This week circle time included an old favorite, "Rompompom" which she recognized. We used to do it as part of a Martinmas story from a Spanish book.

Super Sam and his friends went on a lantern walk to celebrate Martinmas, collected some seed babies before Jack Frost comes, and then returned to Sam's house for soup.

Enjoying warm soup after a cold Martinmas lantern walk

We celebrate Martinmas by making a lantern and walking around our neighborhood singing the traditional songs, such as "This Little Light of Mine". The lantern is carried on a stick.

Each year we make our lantern a different way. This year we used some box pieces and contact paper with bits of tissue paper sprinkled inside. For light, we always use LED tea lights flameless candles.

We started reading Dream-of-Jade: The Emperor's Cat as a bedtime chapter book. It has a rich vocabulary yet holds interest.

Week 3

Our nature walks this week were a great sensory experience with crunchy leaves. On one windy day it was like a leaf storm with them racing across the ground and more falling. We found a really big oak leaf for the nature scene. We played on the playground and spent some time kicking a playground ball (gross motor skills).

One day, we measured, mixed up, and strained the ingredients to make our own homemade flax hair gel. Math, science, and health all wrapped into one useful lesson -- homeschooling is easy!

We finished the blank puzzles that we are giving as Christmas gifts. We colored them with beeswax crayons.

It was an exciting week for Super Sam. He finally got to meet Jack Frost and have his questions answered.

Super Sam gave Jack Frost some orange socks as a gift.

This was a busy week for the gnome home, as well. We painted mushroom tables and spent a day making all kinds of Crayola model magic clay food. There is a whole rainbow of fruits and vegetables for them to eat now.

Week 4

This week we splashed in some puddles in front of our house with some birds giving themselves a bath. Then we noticed there were no other puddles along our walk through the neighborhood, only near our house, so we puzzled over the mystery of how the puddles could have gotten there.

We dug up the summer bulbs of dahlias, gladiolus, and cannas so they can sleep in our basement during the winter. We found lots of worms and some millipedes.

This was Thanksgiving week, so we made handprint turkeys and did a craft activity where you draw pictures of what you are thankful for. We sang the awesome "Pumpin Pie" song from Waldorf Essentials while we made our pie.

For Harvest Sunday at church, we collected food to donate to the needy, so that tied right into Super Sam's activity meeting a little gnome named Tenderoot who was stranded in the forest. Sam was able to help him and pay for Mr. Shuler to come repair his shoe.

Sam found Tenderoot sitting on a rock crying.

You know how I feel about limiting screen time, but we did watch a short video clip this week of a Spanish game where a child drops a shoe behind someone, and they run around the circle a lot like "Duck, Duck, Goose". Videos are appropriate when used sparingly and showing something I cannot find as a real life experience in our area. We watch the video then have a circle of gnomes play the game!

Other activities this week included washing curtains and hanging them on the clothesline. We are also still learning that pens are not for writing on pants. We went to Home Depot for one of their free kids workshops to make a Christmas photo ornament.

Extra Week

Our curriculum only gives four weeks of material each month, so for the extra week in November I decided to read Children of the Forest. We painted characters together and then I crocheted hats. She enjoyed mixing the colors to find the right shade.

Bonus material: Meeting the Children of the Forest

I used the picot stitch for the pine cone hat. We talked about giving the mom an apron and shawl to carry the baby, but we ran out of time. Maybe later. We were also going to do white dots on the mushroom hats, but I think they look ok. It's good enough to play with!

Our nature table now has the Thanksgiving wishbone on it. We dug purple sweet potatoes out of the garden. Inside, we learned about treating mealybugs on houseplants (use a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol). We went to the park and practiced bouncing and catching a playground ball in the empty basketball court.

We played the Go Fish card game with friends again. She is really understanding the logic side about figuring out what cards others have.

We spray painted some T-shirts to give daddy for Christmas, and she decided to use color combinations based on the chords in our music curriculum. I was impressed that she thought of that.

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