A Math Block

I have some catching up to do on my homeschool blogging! Back in January we did a short math block for both Robin & Elsa combined. Both are already very familiar with numbers, but Robin needed some review of Roman numerals and Elsa didn't know them at all. So we reviewed number qualities, Roman numerals, tally marks, number words, and some form drawing. We had a fairy tale and a riddle for most of the numbers as well. It was a fun, quick lesson block that was a great start to the new year. Below are my chalkboard drawings for each number, the children copied them into their main lesson books.

Resources:
A Journey Through Waldorf Math
Oak Meadow First Grade

Grade 3/4, Math Block week 2

Not a lot to talk about this week. We are really working on memorizing those multiplication tables, so it was more skip counting to marching and singing, writing them out, etc...

Robin made this fun tool that makes different patterns for the different numbers. Above is the 3's. He sanded the wood and pounded the nails all on his own. I wrote the numbers.

We are working on 2's, 3's and 4's right now. We discovered that the threes can be sung to Frere Jacques. Memorizing the times tables is tedious work though, no matter what you do. They just have to be memorized. Even when the concepts are understood, it really just comes down to memorization. So, we try to make it as fun as we can!

Grade 3/4, Math Block week 1

Robin is working on a 3 week math block. We started out working on his times tables and did lots of fun activities to continue memorizing them.
These multiplication clocks were very fun to do. I had Robin draw the circles freehand (also covering form drawing for the week!), then he figured out the numbers and I wrote them. We colored them together and hung them on the wall.
We also did tons of skip-counting in circle time, and marching while skip-counting. He made a multiplication table and filled in the blocks for 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11, and 12.

Grade 3/4, Week Three

Culture: Southwest
Resources: Keepers of the Night
Mythfolklore.net
A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling Grade Three

"Creation of the Moon" (Navajo/Dine) Keepers of the Night

Southwest Culture (drawing of Hogan)

"The Boy Who Became a God" (Navajo) mythfolklore.net

The Origin of Summer and Winter"" (Acoma/Laguna) A Journey Through Waldorf Homeschooling Grade Three

Since we live in the Southwest, this culture is very near and dear to us. We were able to find many resources locally through friends and family. Above you see Elsa picking the seeds out of cotton bolls. We picked the cotton at a nearby farm.

Gramie has tons of experience with southwest cooking, so invited the kids over for a cooking day. She helped them roast chilis and make delicious lamb-stuffed chilis.

Stuffing the chilis.

They were a little spicy for the kids, but Robin and Elsa enjoyed eating the lamb filling with cornmeal pancakes. Yum! Thanks Gramie!!

My sister lives in Gallup, NM and has Southwest Indian culture all around her. She sent me the recipe for Navajo fry bead and beans which we made one night for dinner. So simple, but soooo good! She also sent the recipe for really amazing Zuni bread and a lamb stew. The bread and stew turned out so good!! Thanks, Hanne!!

Grade 3/4, Week Two

Plains Indian Cultures

Info about Plains Indians: "Kirsten's World" by American Girl

Stories: Iktomi and the Ducks, Iktomi's Blanket, and Iktomi and the Muskrat, all taken from Oak Meadow Indian Legends.

Activities: Make a paper saddlebag in the style of the Plains cultures

Set up tipi!

Iktomi and the Ducks (Lakota)

Iktomi's Blanket (Lakota)

Iktomi and the Muskrat (Lakota)

Eastern Woodland canoes, and Plains saddlebag.

Our Tipi! We made this when Robin was a baby. What fun to see it still in use!

Grade 3/4, Week One

We are doing a split year with Robin this year as he just turned 9 the end of May. We started the year with a 3 week block on Native American Legends. I have divided the legends up by culture so that we can study the various nations that came up with the legends.

To begin, we read a creation story from the book "Keepers of the Night". This was a great intro to the legends and culture. "The Birth of Light" from the Yuchi. It is our only legend from the Southeast cultures.

Our first culture was the Eastern Woodland. We learned about where they lived, thier shelters, clothing, food, games, and a few of the tribes in the culture.

http://www.nativetech.org/scenes/ has some great pages with illustrations.

"Keepers of the Night" has three great legends from the Eastern Woodland cultures.

"How the Bat Came to Be" (Anishinabe)

"The Great LaCrosse Game" (Menominee)

"Oot-Kwah-Tah, the Seven Star Dancers" (Onondaga)

Of course, we had to build a wigwam! Fortunately, we had already grown some sunflowers into a little room so it was no problem to weave them together into a snug little wigwam.

We also did some form drawing based on designs used in the Eastern Woodland culture, and made a little paper canoe.