Sunday, September 20, 2009

Sunday - a little nature table

Now that the church year has started, I've decided to do a short religious education post every Sunday.

nature table view 3

nature table view 2

nature table

I was inspired to set up a nature table for my Spirit Play classroom. A nature table is a Waldorf idea, to bring nature into the home/school and celebrate the turning of the seasons, and Spirit Play is a Montessori-based religious education method. But why not combine the ideas? My nature table has natural and spiritual elements, and I plan to change parts of it as the seasons change.

I had a little kids desk that my great grandfather had built, and I stuck a bulletin board on top of it, then tacked felt on that board. So now the kids can use it as a felt board and as a nature table, and as a bit of an altar as well.

Today was its first use by children, and they seemed to really like it. Now it's time to add some fall natural elements - leaves, pine cones, etc.

2 comments:

  1. That's a great melding of the two ideas!

    We have and love the rainbow arches and baskets of colorful silks too! My kids would be drawn to this center. Thanks for sharing!

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  2. There are some extremely cool ideas for nature tables in the Magic Cabin catalog. I should bring it by on Sunday. I really like the little Waldorf-style fairies dressed up for each season.

    Anyway, I know Sylvia played in that area and really enjoyed it. I love the Waldorf-Montessori meld :)

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