Turtles and Form Drawing

Here at the Hive we generally start off our homeschool year with a full month of form-drawing. If you aren't familiar with form-drawing, it is a series of exercises popular for grades 1-4 in Waldorf Schools. During G4, these start to segue into free-hand geometry lessons. Go here to check some out at Eugene Schwartz's Millennial Child site:
http://www.millennialchild.com/FormDrawings01.htm

When you have over twenty desert turtles living in your backyard (and they aren't shy at all about coming in through the pet-door)

You start to pay attention to things that can be used during lesson time! Did you ever notice that there Really Are Thirteen Moons on Turtles Back just like the Joseph Bruchac book?

The Worker Bees' named this King of All, he is the largest turtle in the yard:

This is Azul, he has a blue head.

I don't know who this one is, but she was standing around posing for me!

What we've noticed is that in spite of the many colors and patterns and sizes of our turtles, they ALL have thirteen sections on their shells! How Cool is that?!

So, I've been collecting stories like the Native American legend, "How Turtle's Shell Got Cracked", and we've been drawing the patterns we see on the shells. We have also been drawing the spirals that turtle must have made both when the wolves threw him through the air into the water; as well as the spirals turtle made when dove down deep in the water!

Look around outside and see what pattens you can find at your hive!

Mama Bee