Multiplication wood block

My planned two week break is not looking much like a break at all. Today, for the session with Iman I started off with the story of John the woodcutter. It is basically a combination of 'Snow White', 'Hansel and Gretel' and 'Little Red Riding Hood'.

It goes;

Once upon a time, there lived a woodcutter called John who worked for a wicked queen. This queen had a magic mirror from which she'd ask " Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest one of all?". The mirror always replied that it is the queen who is the fairest. However, one day the mirror told the queen that she was no longer the fairest but instead Snow White has taken her place.

Terribly angered by this, the Queen told John to kill Snow White. John took Snow White deep into the forest to kill her, but had not the heart to do so and he let her go. Now, having done that, John could not go back to the castle but instead went back to his family in the village far away from the evil queen.

His wife was not happy as now John did not have a job and as the days go by, they were running out of money and John had no choice but to sell wood at the marketplace. He did not make much money and there were days that the family would go hungry as there was no money to buy food.
Out of desperation, John agreed to his wife's pleas that they abandon his children in the forest. Their stepmother loathed them and saw this as a chance to get rid of the children. So, one day, John took his children Hansel and Gretel to the woods on the pretext of having a picnic. They walked very deep into the forest that the children kept asking, " Are we there yet?"

After about twenty times asking, their stepmother laid out the mat and put down their picnic basket where they had their lunch of hard bread and butter with raspberry juice. Halfway through the meal, their wicked stepmother told the children that she and John are going deeper into the woods to cut some expensive wood to sell in the marketplace and that the children were to stay quietly at their picnic spot for them to return.

Of course, John and his wife never came back. That night and many nights after that, John could not sleep as he was always thinking of Hansel and Gretel. As a result he was always tired and did not have the strength to cut up much wood and thus did not make much money.

His wife was angry with him. One day, she decided to leave John and as she dashed out of the house a horse carriage was going down the road at breakneck speed and she died from her injuries.

John now had no wife nor children. He decided that instead of grieving he should work hard and try to find his children. Everyday, John would wake up very early to get the best wood and search for his children in the evening after returning from the marketplace.

On one such day, as John was searching for his children in the woods he heard a little girl cry for help. He thought it was Gretel, but when he peered into the house where the cries were coming from he saw a little girl in a red hood and her grandmother shivering in fear as a wolf was coming at them.

Quickly, John drew out his gun and shot the wolf and the little girl and her grandmother was safe. The old woman was so grateful to John that she gave him a job as a gardener at her huge cottage and the farm around it.

John was so happy because now he has found himself a job. He was grateful to Allah for His blessings and prayed that he will soon find his children. As John was getting ready to sleep, he heard knockings on the door. When he opened it, Hansel and Gretel hugged him tightly. They all stood there hugging each other for some time before John made both the children a cup of hot chocolate and that night they sat by the fire, drinking their hot chocolates and biting into marshmellows and told their father their adventures in the cottage of the wicked witch.


Whew! that's a long story to write compared to telling. After that, we did some symmetry exercises on the blackboard that formed the base of the picture for the letter "J". The children then worked with their materials and later did their copywork of the drawing.


For closing, we made a multiplication woodblock for woodwork. You can see how it is done under 'lessons' at www.waldorftv.com.