King Equals and the Math Gnomes

I made Math Gnomes! That is a statement I never thought would come out of my mouth, but it just did.

As part of the Waldorf Essentials Curriculum that we use at home, math is taught through the concept of storytelling. In fact, that's one of the many things that I love most about the Waldorf approach - there is a significant focus on learning through the art of storytelling. This approach really resonates with both of my boys. They've grown up around it; from reading books every night since they were born to our Saturday night family tradition of listening to the Minnesota-grown stories of Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion. Storytelling is no stranger in our house. In fact, if you spend some time with our boys, you're likely to get roped into telling them "a story about when you were little." They will beg for it. They love a good story.

That's why when I saw that Waldorf Math was taught through the whimsical and iconic story of King Equals and his kingdom of dutiful four process math gnomes, I knew it would be a hit. And I knew we needed our very own to make the math stories come to life. So, I got to work.

I bought Woodpeckers Decorative Wooden Doll People online along with some quality paints to make them come alive. Once I received my materials, it was game time.

I started by painting each gnome with a different skin color (because DIVERSITY people!) as well as giving them each a different color body of clothes. Believe it or not, there IS a rhyme and reason to the color choices made. In the context of the story, each gnome has a color - and even a personality - associated with it. Their names are Plus, Minus, Times and Divided By (but you can call her Divides!)

• Plus = Green (He is a jolly gnome and is motivated by collecting things)

• Minus = Blue (He is a sad little gnome. He tends to whine a lot)

• Times = Yellow (She is cheery and bright as the morning sun)

• Divides = Red (She is nice with a sweet heart but can be bossy at times)

• King Equals = Purple (A Great and Wise King, he is responsible for training math gnomes who help to keep the sacred order all over the world. He has a big job but believes in his dedicated math gnomes to meet his expectations)

See? Isn't it fun to imagine their little personalities as they move towards teaching us about how numbers work? I think so! I KNOW I would've loved math a lot more with this fun story behind it.

After painting the little wooden people, I then stitched together felt hats. My time at Parent/Tot classes at the Minnesota Waldorf School helped prepare me to stitch for this project. I'm not much of a homemaker (as much as I want to be), so knowing this stitch was a big deal for someone like me!

First I made the jolliest of them all...Plus.

I gave them all little eyes and rosy cheeks but nothing else in terms of facial detail. I wanted them to be reflective and true to the Waldorf approach - simple and not distracting from the lesson itself.

I was pleased with the final result.

And I'm very excited for King Equals to see all the wonderful work his dutiful math gnomes will accomplish.

I crocheted a little handbag for the gnomes and King Equals to go in and plan to give that to Odin as part of this lesson we will soon be embarking on. I don't doubt he'll be thrilled. I mean, they're pretty darn cute, don't you think?

Who knew math could be so fun?!

#Homeschool #simplethings #Math #Gnomes #Create