Teaching Vowels, part 5

Five: Painting Vowel Images

The next step was to connect the sound and emotion with the written image. I was intrigued with a description Rudolf Steiner gave of painting emotions using colour, out of which the related forms could be made.

“...we do not begin by introducing the alphabet directly, nor reading as a subject, but... we start with painting. Consequently, when young students enter our school, we introduce them first to the world of flowing colors with watercolor painting.... The children learn how to work with paints, and through the use of color the teacher can guide them toward definite forms. With the necessary skill, the teacher can allow the shapes of the letters to evolve from such painted forms. In this way, the children gain a direct relationship to the various shapes of the letters. It is possible to develop the written vowels A or U so that first one paints the mood..., finally allowing the picture to assume the form of the appropriate letters. All teaching must have an artistic quality based on the pictorial element. The first step is to involve the whole being of the child in the effort of painting, which is subsequently transformed into writing.” (Steiner, 1996, P. 198-200)

Wanting to experiment with this concept, I began to research Goethe’s colour wheel, and match emotions to colours. The list below is of the colours I used for this project:

A - satisfaction, relief – yellow, gold-yellow

E - searching, reaching out – green, yellow-green

I – repulsion - violet

O – shock – red, vermillion

U - disgust, disappointment – blue, indigo

I chose the Grimm’s Fairy Tale, Sweet Porridge[1], as a context for the paintings, and the next main lesson block. Within the story, I identified the five emotions and an illustrative image for each of the five vowel sounds. As a variation, we painted the letter forms out of these story images with the designated colours for each emotion. This time the vowels were presented in a different order.  These vowel form paintings are illustrated below with a picture of the class paintings and a brief description. 

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[1] See Appendix B for story with vowel verses.

Teaching Reading: An Integrated Introduction to Consonant and Vowel Letters

This is my third year teaching grade one, a rare opportunity for a waldorf teacher. I am also a student in the Master's of Education, Waldorf Teacher Training program at Antioch University. The first year I taught grade one, I taught the capital letters through pictures that are ubiquitous on pinterest, and focused my research energy on what Steiner had to say about teaching vowels for the purpose of teaching reading. 

This year, I am researching the general introduction and instructional practices of teaching reading, and continue to integrate my research on vowels in my practice. You have stumbled on my journey. 

First: Upper or Lowercase?

Steiner gave examples of both. Neither were to illustrate the importance of either, but to illustrate the importance of the letters and sounds evolving from an image or feeling (in the case of the vowels). In Practical Advice to Teachers, Steiner gives an example of using a picture, then the lowercase letter f to represent the first sound of fish.

I decided to begin an experiment; I began this year by teaching the lowercase letters to my grade ones, in the order they are presented in Jolly Phonics. 

1. The letter s, introduced through a Chilean folktlale, Delgadina and the Magic Snake. 

2.  The letter a, introduced through the Grimm's Fairy Tale, Sweet Porridge. The story was revisited each time a vowel is introduced in the sequence. 

3. The letter t, introduced through the Bantu tale, The Name of the Tree 

(L'Arbe Ungali in French)

4. The letter i, introduced through Sweet Porridge.

5. The letter p, introduced through a native american tale, Little Possum. (A story of which I am especially fond because we presented it as a group in my training.)

6. The letter n, introduced through the Grimm's Fairy tale, Spindle, Shuttle and Needle

7. The letters c and k, introduced through the classic children's story, chosen for its fairy tale quality, Millions of Cats. 

8. The vowel e, introduced by revisiting Sweet Porridge.

9. The letter h - house, introduced through The Brementown Musicians. 

10. The letter r - rainbow, introduced through The Rainbow Bird

11.The letter m - mountain, introduced through Simeli Mountain

12 The letter d - dog, introduced by revisiting The Brementown Musicians (I really wanted to introduce the d by using a dragon, but ran out of time to find a story....)

13. The letter g - goat, introduced through The Golden Saucer 

14. The vowel o, introduced by revisiting Sweet Porridge

15. The vowel u, introduced by revisiting Sweet Porridge

16. The letter l - light, The Golden Saucer

17. The letter f - fish, The Fisherman and His Wife

  

18. The letter b - boat, The Fisherman and His Wife