Discovering Principles: The Head leads the Whole Body

Discovering Principles
We explained that the ancient Hebrews also used the letters in their Alphabet as numbers. We asked what number we usually start counting with (1), and drew the number 1 on the board. We pointed out that we only have one head on our bodies, and asked how hard it would be to make decisions and do things if we had more than one head.

We asked how our heads help our bodies. Then we asked them to pinch their arm and see if they felt their skin telling their brain it is getting pinched. We also told them to look around the room for a particular color, and listen for a sound. We pointed out that our bodies send messages to our brain about what we experience. Then, our heads listen to our bodies, and learn what the world is like and what is going on around and to us. We mentioned that if we felt our stomach tell our mind that it is empty, our mind would know that we need to eat food to get more energy for our body to work well. Our head listens to our body, and then help us know and decide what to do.

Next, we had the children touch their toes, their nose, and other things, and asked how they got their body to move. We talked about how their mind helped them decide to obey our instructions, and sent messages to their muscles. Then, their muscles obeyed the instructions from their minds. We pointed out that our heads are very important, and they help take care of our whole body, not just parts and pieces of it. We asked if our heads ever want any part of our bodies to hurt, and explained, that they don’t, the head wants every part of our body to be as healthy and happy as possible! Even though our bodies are made of lots of different parts and pieces, our heads help all those parts work together as one, whole body. 

Exploration Activity & Movement: Moving Our Body

We told them we were going to use our heads to move our bodies to some music. We turned on some music and danced around, making all kinds of different circles as we did. We noticed circles on our bodies, and ways we can move our bodies in circles, like summersaults, spinning and such.

Language & Symbol: 1, A, Circle, Aleph

Language and Symbol (math): Ancient Hebrew, Letter Aleph, A, Number 1, Circle

We moved near a whiteboard and told the children there were people who lived a long long time ago, called the ancient Hebrews, which used a picture of a head as the first letter in their alphabet. They had animals, called oxen, which are kind of like big, strong, powerful cows. We drew an ox-head with horns on the board as we told them that to ancient Hebrews, letters meant more to them than just a sound to make. The head of an ox also meant things like strength, power, and leadership.

Over time, as more and more people used this letter, it changed, bit by bit, until it became the letters we use today in English, and in other languages like Latin and Greek. In the English language the ox-head became the letter, “A”. We drew the ox-head sideways, and finally, upside down, showing how the shape evolved into our letter.

We explained that the ancient Hebrews also used the letters in their Alphabet as numbers. We asked what number we usually start counting with (1), and drew the number 1 on the board. We pointed out that we only have one head on our bodies, and asked how hard it would be to make decisions and do things if we had more than one head.

Beauty and the Beast: Divine Worth and Potential

Main Lesson: Fairy Tale – 
Beauty and the Beast & Divine Worth and Potential

We told the children, “only you get to be you, and nobody else, and you have so many special things about you to discover. So does this amazing world we get to live in. Then, we sang a song called, “How Beautiful the World Is”, as we moved near the couch to get ready for story time. As we settled in, we said a short little verse about a wise old owl, which emphasizes the power of listening and learning.

Text

Next, we read the story of Beauty and the Beast, and talked about how they discovered that love helped the beast turn back into his true form, a Prince! Likewise, every person is a Prince or Princess from Heaven. It may not always look or feel that way. Sometimes, we may think others, or even ourselves seem more like a Beast than a Prince or Princess, but love can always help to reveal the divine nature within us and others, no matter how beastly we’ve become! Then we pretended to put on imaginary crowns, by making circles with our hands and putting them on our heads.

Morning Verse: Number 1

One is the sun that shines so bright,
One is the moon so high;
One is the day and one is the night,
One is the sheltering sky.
One is a head so still and tame,
Upon one body whole with health;
And I is the one and the special name
That only I can call myself!

*a Waldorf verse

Circle-Time: An Introduction

What is circle time, you ask?

The Present Box: An Introduction

Present Box: Bubbles

We discovered a bottle of bubbles in our present box, and pointed that each bubble captures a little ball of air. We need air to live, and what a marvelous gift it is for us! We asked who the first person was to breathe on earth (Adam). We asked where Adam got his breath from (God). God gave Adam breath, and it has been passed down from Adam and his wife, Eve, to every living person, including each of us.

We took a moment to close our eyes, and be present with the present of air, through the breath flowing in and out of us for 3 breaths. Then, we pretended to blow a big bubble that was big and round above our heads that reminded us of the sun.