Easy Stop Motion Animation for Kids

Stop motion animation is a filming technique that breathes life into inanimate objects making them appear independently mobile. If you’ve ever watched the behind the scenes of Wallace and Gromet and other claymation films, then you have a good idea of how much work is involved. Unless, of course, you’re making easy stop motion animation …

How Waldorfish Helped Me To Be A Better Human

I watched as the watercolor paper swayed back and forth, deeper into the shallow, water-filled bin. The water looked clear, cool, and so refreshing. The paper resisted at first, but then I could almost feel as much as see the tiny fibers of the paper begin to absorb the even-more-minuscule water molecules.  Shimmery, aquatic rainbows …

Music For Peace – Melody Harp

Music is powerful magic. It has the ability to soothe a baby to sleep. It can add festivity and invoke tranquility and love, like the sounds of the melody harp. Music is for the soul. It has absolute control over an atmosphere. It is created from within as a means of creating a feeling on the …

Spring Sheep Scrolls

Spring intentions can be pretty profound when a lot of heart is put into them. I have my own Spring rituals that give empowerment in the meanings of Spring, so sharing more kid-friendly ideas with my students to give them their own sense of empowerment makes all the stress of teaching way worth it. My …

Jolly Spring Sheep Craft

Spring is often associated with blooming flowers, butterflies, baby birds, and, well, pollen. Sheep are fluffy meanings of spring, too and you can make a sheep craft using just a few household and crafty items. I originally found this tutorial from Croissant and Lavender. If you’re doing this with a classroom of kids then purchase …

Make Magic Fabric Jellyfish

Swim in a sea of gentle, luminescent jellyfish… or at least hang them in your window. After you have learned The Parts of a Jellyfish using The Montessori Company‘s nomenclature cards, then drew and painted a jellyfish like a pro from How to Draw a Jellyfish, now you’re ready to sew a jellyfish. The child …

How to Draw a Jellyfish

In Parts of a Jellyfish – Nomenclature Cards, we learned about the anatomy of a jellyfish with the intention of gaining more respect for this beautiful, free-flowing (but sometimes painful) creature. We used The Montessori Company’s beautifully illustrated cards, which can be found HERE. Jellyfish have also been depicted in tons of different kinds of …

Parts of a Fox II – Making Clay Foxes

Once upon a time there was a cheeky little fox named Foxy Sasha who loved playfully pouncing on little anoles in the forest… After learning about the Parts of a Fox using beautifully hand-drawn nomenclature cards from The Montessori Company, creating this clever little fox creature with clay is a great follow-up. Using clay is highly …

Sticker Sentences – Parts of Speech

Most kids love to draw. Most kids, however, do not love grammar and parts of speech. But what if the child could draw while he’s working on grammar or parts of speech? This lesson, simply called Sticker Sentences, is oh-so-very popular because it does just that. Sticker Sentences can be used for children who are …

The Kingdom of Twig… or just some really cool building blocks

We love blocks at our house. We have so many different versions, including ones that have the Periodic Table of Elements on the sides. I always keep blocks in my classroom to help kids decompress after a lot of academic work. It truly seems to work. Even after about fifteen minutes of playing with Equilibrio, …

The Finger Labyrinth – Make a Rubbing

In this new labyrinth post, you’ll learn how to make artwork from your tabletop finger labyrinth by doing a rubbing with crayon or soft pastel chalk. I love this sort of lesson since it seems that art and mindfulness go hand in hand. When I’ve observed people of all ages do this particular project, I …

Chemistry: Energy Shell Peace Flags – II

This is the ultimate follow-up to the previous Chemistry/Art/Peace lesson called Chemistry: Energy Shell Peace Flags. Before you can attempt the rest of this lesson, you’ll need to see how this is done… click here. Recently, some middle school students got in on the process of making these and chose which elemental groups they wanted …

Chemistry: Energy Shell Peace Flags

A few years ago I was teaching a middle school science class at an SEL school. Because of the school’s alternative nature, I was allowed to use whatever creative methods I wanted to help the kids to understand math and science. In comes the Periodic Table of Elements. It’s pretty fascinating stuff, but not so much …

Flower Suncatchers

Creating flower suncatchers is a fun way to get kids’ hands on the different parts of a plant, especially the flowers. It’s also a great way to celebrate the spring equinox or summer solstice. After learning about the anatomy of a flower in Parts of a Flower I, II, and III the vocabulary is tossed …

Peaceful Crystal Fairy Wands

The summer solstice gives us plenty of reasons to celebrate. Whether it’s for religious purposes or for the pure enjoyment of the summer season – and it being the longest day of the year!– there is still plenty of mystery and subconscious healing in being aware of the cycles of nature. Making crystal fairy wands …