Waldorf Kindergarten Crafts

[Grayson's Mom]

Can anyone please inspire me?
I am running a small Waldorf inspired kindergarten playgroup for a couple of friends and our homeschooling 3-5 year olds.
I am having a brain block and can't think of very many Fall crafts to make with the children. I need 8 crafts for 8 'classes.'
Help?
Thanks a bunch!

[blumom2boyz]

felted acorns, nature people (created using pine cones and various nuts, felt, etc.), corn husk dolls, indian corn necklaces, leaf rubbings, nature mobiles, beeswax/dried playdough items (if you bake the playdough, then you can paint them...this would be a good two week project!), apple stamping

hmm...seems I have run out! Ha Ha.

I like the book Earthways for ideas as well as the Rhythm of the Home blog.

Hope this helps!

[rype]

Second the indian corn necklaces. We did those last year following instructions that said to pour boiling water over them the night before. Worked great very easy for little hands.

Also acorn necklaces. We collected tons of acorns the day before and then I drilled holes in them with a small drill bit using the electric drill. Very pretty in combo with the corn. Then whatever capes didn't stay put you can use for the felt acorns.

Leaf prints. Collect leaves and then paint with a brush or roller. Use the leaves as stamps. You can print them onto anything! I want to make autumn place mats this year and maybe napkins.

[MammaG]

Do roving-painting. You give each child a flat piece of felt and lots of different colours of roving and have them take tiny pieces of the roving to stick to the felt in a picture. We made pictures of apple orchards last week and my boys (6 & 4) had lots of fun.

Maybe do some simple cooking projects? Apple sauce, make apple rounds and dry them for Winter, make an apple pie.

Check out the Michaelmas thread for some ideas for Michaelmas-related crafts.

I'm working on generating ideas for a hat project. I'm thinking I want to make the boys felt gnome hats and then let them do the wool-roving painting on them, then I'd needle-felt their designs for them. Not sure if that might be too labour-intensive, though!

Our homeschool group is working with a Waldorf teacher, and our first two classes taught rope-making (you take three strands of wool and string them between two partners. Twist until really tight, then find the middle, hold the two ends together, and when you say 'Magic!" and let the middle go, the yarn twists itself into a rope. Hope that made sense, I couldn't find a tutorial in a 10-second google search). The other project we did was finger-knitting. I plan to curl up the boys' first finger-knitted lengths to make simple snails.

Have fun! Let us know what you come up with...I know we're always looking for great ideas at our house.

[Mama Shifra]

I find the book Earthways to be the easiest book of Waldorf crafts.