Lesson Plans: Capital Letters

Main Resources

Waldorf Reading for Homeschoolers by Barbara Dewey of Waldorf Without Walls

Phonic Rhyme Time by Mary Nash-Wortham

Coloring with Block Crayons: Emphasizing the Primary Colors by Sieglinde de Francesca

Notes

The Wise Enchanter: A Journey Through the Alphabet by Shelley Davidow is a great book for bringing the Waldorf way of presenting the alphabet to students who have already learned it by traditional means.

Melisa Nielson of A Little Garden Flower sells the Coloring with Block Crayons DVD set by Sieglinde de Francesca, helpful if you want to see things "in person" as well as a set of 3 Stockmar block crayons in the primary colors (visit store and search for "crayons").

Lesson Plans

• September 14, 2009 - introduce Magic Book (main lesson book) and alphabet book idea by beginning The Wise Enchanter: A Journey Through the Alphabet as read-aloud story, these students have already been exposed to the alphabet by traditional means, read Prologue and Chapter 1 (A),
• September 15, 2009 - B is for Bear

  "The Story of the Three Bears" from English Fairy Tales ed. by Joseph Jacobs, available online

  B rhymes from Phonic Rhyme Time (page 15)

  introduce beeswax crayon drawing, these students have never used block beeswax crayons before, the Magic Book requires special crayons, practice making broad swaths of color, soft clouds of color, layering and color blending, creating shapes by growing them out from the inside, grounding forms in the earth and growing them upward

  continue with chapter book, Chapter 2 (B), B is for butterfly, folded paper in half and traced the letter B with straight edge along the fold, cut out the B and opened the folded paper to reveal a butterfly which we then decorated and hung in the classroom, B is for baby (luckily, a pregnant woman visited the classroom, viewed sideways breasts and baby bump makes a B!)

• September 16, 2009 - make the letter B out of modeling beeswax, add page to main lesson book (2 page spread, right hand page has the letter B in four corners, uppercase print, lowercase print, uppercase cursive, lowercase cursive, as a frame to the illustration, lefthand facing page has title of story "The Story of the Three Bears" at the top with summary of story in child's own words below it)
• September 17, 2009 - D is for Dough

  read story The Duchess Bakes a Cake, this is also the day we did the letter D in the read-aloud story, I had a child yell D is for Danny! and spent a good amount of time trying to touch his toes and make his body the shape of the letter D, at which point all the children tried to get their bodies to form the first letter of their respective names

• September 18, 2009 - we made bread (Whole Wheat Braids)

  D rhymes from Phonic Rhyme Time (page 23)

  add page to main lesson book

  Whole Wheat Braids

  3 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
  3 cups warm water (110 to 115 degrees)
  1/2 cup sugar
  3 eggs
  1/3 cup vegetable oil
  1 tablespoon salt
  5 cups whole wheat flour
  4 to 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

  In a mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add the sugar, eggs, oil, salt and whole wheat flour; beat until smooth. Add enough all-purpose flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

  Punch dough down. Divide into nine pieces; shape each piece into a 14 inch rope and braid three ropes together. Place in three greased 8x4x2 inch loaf pans. Cover and let rise until doubled, about 30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes. Remove from pans to cool on wire racks.

  Yield: 3 loaves (16 slices each)

• September 22, 2009 - F is for Fish

  read story "The Fisherman and His Wife" (Grimm's), also did F is for Fall collages since today was the First Day of Autumn, we took a Nature walk and gathered fall leaves, nuts, and other objects and glued them to a sheet of construction paper in the shape of the letter F (this was a student suggestion, I thought it was a very good one), I also had a student point out that F is for Flower, she had seen a hosta blooming with two sprays of little blossoms which looked like the shape of the letter F, my students are really into making their Magic Book and love the challenge of finding the letters in the world around us

• September 23, 2009 - add page to main lesson book, use the illustration for F is for Fish from The Wise Enchanter to guide us
• September 24, 2009 - J is for Jump

  read chapters H, I, and J of The Wise Enchanter to get to the story of Jumping Jack, J is for Juggle, begin sewing beanbags in Handwork so we can learn to juggle (Juggling for the Complete Klutz)

• September 25, 2009 - J is for Jam, spread strawberry or blackberry jam on cinnamon graham crackers in the shape of the letter J

  add page to main lesson book, use the illustration for Jumping Jack from The Wise Enchanter, this can also be J is for Jester, most students drew him with a jester's hat

• September 28, 2009 - continue with J is for Jam, make Strawberry Freezer Jam as Handwork (see blog post for recipe and suggested story)
• September 29, 2009 - K is for King