There is so much "doing" in the practical life curriculum in a Waldorf school 3rd grade, and this year's class has baked, constructed, crocheted, dyed, harvested, hatched, planted, preserved, spun, threshed, etc. Today they spent main lesson out on the play yard forging with local blacksmith, Jeremy Loerch of Alchemy Industrial Arts. Each student made a coat hook: heating, hammering, bending and twisting the metal into shape. You could hear the ring of the hammer around the school building, and at recess time the taped off area around the portable forge was a draw for everyone.
Photos show: hammering and flattening the tip of the hook; shaping the hook; a demonstration of twisting for decoration; while groups of 4 worked at the forge, the rest of the class recorded their observations with both words and drawings.
