Apprentices, Journeymen + Master Craftsmen

For our latest Waldorf update: Craftsmen! (=Handwerker)

One exciting unit in the 3rd grade is about trades, such as carpenter, tailor, shoemaker, etc. We learn about the different trades + how they are all connected.

There are trades that have to do with our food:
farmer, miller, baker, gardener, butcher, shepherd, etc.

+ that have to do with our clothing:
spinner, weaver, tailor, tanner (leather), shoemaker, shepherd, etc.

(The basketweaver* doesn't tend to make clothing in our neck of the woods, but who knows? ;) )

+ that have to do with the building of our houses:
carpenter, roof-thatcher, mason, etc.

Of course, sailor is also another trade :)

(And here's a wee birthday tribute to my wonderful dad, with whom I got try my hand at stonecarving in Italy :) Love you, Dad! Thanks for inspiring me in so many ways + joining me on that creative adventure!)

+ finally that have to do with what we put in our houses:
potter, barrel-maker, basketweaver, blacksmith, silversmith + other kinds of smiths ;), etc.

Spinner belongs up above, but here is our weapons-smith :)

We got to try our hand at the pottery wheel:

Here are two of the items thrown on the wheel:

And as a blacksmith:

We each made a blacksmith's nail

Here's my finished product:

including the 4-faceted head:

Then we also visited an awesome museum called the Museum of Forgotten Work. There are collections of old toys, carriages, etc.

There is a manual crank siren for the fire fighters. There is a cow that you can actually 'milk' (that gave one of my students quite a surprise! ;) )

There are old tools from the kitchen, as well as for rope-making, book-binding, brush-making, spinning, weaving, etc.

There was even a potato-sorting machine that the kids got to crank to sort different sized wooden balls.

The sign says "The potato saved Germany!"

So many cool things!

*About basketweaving -- that was the running joke in my mom's family, an example of an eccentric course to take at university "Underwater basketweaving". I have since taken a basketweaving course + found that there is quite a bit of logic in the underwater part of things -- in order for the willow branches to remain supple, you need to soak them :)