Class three 2023
curriculum
Class 3 Curriculum & Goals
Class 3 is often called the turning point of childhood. The eight-year-old is going through a change that is particularly profound. Rudolf Steiner describes how the nine-year-old experiences, at a spiritual level, what the three-year-old experienced when first using the word "I".
Before the age of nine, the major part of the child's being is not yet incarnated, and instead, it lives within everything and everyone they perceive. They feel inwardly related to everything, and can identify fully with almost anything. Now, however, an experience arises of self as something independent of everything else. Now the child may suddenly feel very insecure; their relationship with nature, with eternity, with others, and with themselves, has to be re-established. Life certainly takes on quite a different quality.
This separation and search for one's true home is reflected in the journey of the Hebrew people as they leave the Garden of Eden and are presented with trials where they have the choice to do what is right or not. It is the beginning of individuation. Through our individual decisions to turn away from evil and choose the good, we attain virtue and progress in evolution as human beings. Just as fairy tales in the first grade, and fables and legends in the second grade, nourished children, so stories of the Old Testament form the treasury of sustenance for this year. With these stories comes an introduction to history. These powerful stories closely parallel the child's own experiences. She/he has left behind the "paradise" of early childhood and is becoming more aware of good and evil.
For the child in Class 3, the remedy for being "cast out of Eden," is experiencing that the world is a good place to be. Through the activities of gardening, cooking, building shelters, and making clothing, they learn that they can use what is around them to thrive. They meet the earth around them and discover they have the power to transform it. There are skills they must learn. They learn to measure, to weigh, to use tools, to reap and sow crops, to make bread, follow the seasons, and keep time. With each skill learned, they gain comfort, confidence, and experience joy. The Earth is their home, and it is good and beautiful.
Through the story of the casting out of Adam and Eve from Paradise, comes the grappling with the earth -- farming, gardening, housing and clothing. Through an understanding of the role of the farmer, the children are led to the interrelationships of the Four Kingdoms of Nature as they work together in harmony. Shelters of animals and humans, emphasising different times and climates, give the children an understanding of man's creativity and his use of tools and materials. The practical arts of the home are given attention.
Now the children work on their reading, both silently and aloud, and writing, taking great joy in the stories they write themselves in their main lesson books. Grammar study takes place with active involvement as the children act out doing words, naming words, and describing words. This grammar study is carried into other lessons. For example, in farming, what does the farmer do in the spring? The children name endless activities that the farmer does. These they learn later to call verbs.
Math becomes quite practical, too. Telling time, making change with money, measurement in cooking or in building all have their place. Math is very much a tool dealing with life.
MATHEMATICS AND PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES
Themes
Practical activities include farming and gardening, cooking, shelter and housing, measurements, fiber arts, long multiplication and division, linear measure, liquid measure, weight, time, calendar and money value.
Objectives
Memorisation of times tables will be assessed by student's ability to recite them aloud. Also, the teacher will give work sheets and verbal quizzes to determine the student's familiarity with times tables.
Daily mental math exercises will demonstrate the student's familiarity with the four mathematical processes.
Understanding of long multiplication and long division shall be assessed by work sheets and problems done on the board.
Practical activities shall be assessed by the teacher in the following ways: main lesson work, work sheets and verbal quizzes on time, money, and measurement. The student's participation in projects will also give teacher a sense of what the child has grasped of the lessons.
These assessments shall be communicated to parents in two yearly reports and conferences. Any areas of concern shall be reported to the parent.
LANGUAGE, GRAMMAR & READING
Themes
Comprehension of material read, simple parts of speech, spelling, simple sentence structure and punctuation, creative composition, cursive writing, speech work, dictionary use.
Stories: Old Testament and stories about farming and farm life, seasonal stories and books of interest from the library.
Objectives
PAINTING, DRAWING & FORM DRAWING
With painting in the early school years, the emphasis is not on form but colour experience. Now, in grade three, the children begin to allow form to arise out of the painting itself. Secondary and complementary colours, built from layers of primary colours, helps form come to life in the paintings. Painting exercises arising out of the curriculum of the Old Testament allow the children to experience how to make a variety of browns and oranges. Paintings from the farming and gardening curriculum employ a variety of bright and lively colours.
Drawing becomes more detailed as well in the third grade. The children are now beginning to move away from crayons and are beginning to use coloured pencils more in their main lesson drawings. Different techniques of shading are learned, as well as more detail in the drawings. As always, colour blending is employed.
As Class 3 can be an unsettling year for children, the harmonious, balanced nature of many of the mirrored and transformative form drawings can have a salutary effect. Symmetries that cross from right to left, or from top to bottom, and bringing two different forms together are important new challenges in third grade.
Themes
Mixing colour on the page, mixed media work, coloured pencil work, more form; Old Testament images and images of farming and gardening, also seasonal subjects.
Objectives
In painting, to be able to build complementary colours from the primary colours.
To experience form arising out of the colours in the painting.
In drawing, to become more comfortable using coloured pencils and learn techniques of shading and detail.
To use techniques of balance and harmony in main lesson compositions.
To master more complicated form drawings employing right and left symmetry and above and below symmetry.
Assessments
The teacher shall assess each child's artwork according to the outcome, whether the painting or drawing is led by the teacher or free-rendered by the child. Emphasis will be on colour blending and subject matter.
Drawings in main lesson work shall be assessed by the teacher and parent during conferences.
Success with form drawings shall be assessed by the teacher after leading them through the form and then observing how the child executes and masters the form.
MOVEMENT
Movement is necessary for neurological, emotional and even intellectual development. The movements, the following of directions, and the cooperation employed in enjoyable organised games, helps the child develop large and small motor skills, and also assists with their social development. The use of beanbags, balls, and copper rods during circle activities not only promotes the above-mentioned skills, but also strengthens the will and a child's confidence as they master an ever-increasing complexity of exercises. These movements are frequently used in conjunction with speech work, adding another dimension which enriches the experience
Themes
Organised games, both indoor and outdoor, clapping rhythms, beanbags, balls or copper rods used in a variety of patterns
Objectives
Observation of the child during games and circle activities, noting challenge areas and also improvements.
HANDWORK
Handwork lessons are more than a means of promoting dexterity and skill. Through rhythmically repeating movements and exercises while working on tasks suited to the age of the child, the hands help to bring about both a strengthening of the will and of the capacity for logical thinking.
Themes
The first garments are made to be worm. Beginning with the head, caps are knitted or crocheted. The techniques learnt can be used elsewhere. There is plenty of room for the children's imagination in making glove puppets.
Objectives
From direct observation by the teacher.
Class 3 is often called the turning point of childhood. The eight-year-old is going through a change that is particularly profound. Rudolf Steiner describes how the nine-year-old experiences, at a spiritual level, what the three-year-old experienced when first using the word "I".
Before the age of nine, the major part of the child's being is not yet incarnated, and instead, it lives within everything and everyone they perceive. They feel inwardly related to everything, and can identify fully with almost anything. Now, however, an experience arises of self as something independent of everything else. Now the child may suddenly feel very insecure; their relationship with nature, with eternity, with others, and with themselves, has to be re-established. Life certainly takes on quite a different quality.
This separation and search for one's true home is reflected in the journey of the Hebrew people as they leave the Garden of Eden and are presented with trials where they have the choice to do what is right or not. It is the beginning of individuation. Through our individual decisions to turn away from evil and choose the good, we attain virtue and progress in evolution as human beings. Just as fairy tales in the first grade, and fables and legends in the second grade, nourished children, so stories of the Old Testament form the treasury of sustenance for this year. With these stories comes an introduction to history. These powerful stories closely parallel the child's own experiences. She/he has left behind the "paradise" of early childhood and is becoming more aware of good and evil.
For the child in Class 3, the remedy for being "cast out of Eden," is experiencing that the world is a good place to be. Through the activities of gardening, cooking, building shelters, and making clothing, they learn that they can use what is around them to thrive. They meet the earth around them and discover they have the power to transform it. There are skills they must learn. They learn to measure, to weigh, to use tools, to reap and sow crops, to make bread, follow the seasons, and keep time. With each skill learned, they gain comfort, confidence, and experience joy. The Earth is their home, and it is good and beautiful.
Through the story of the casting out of Adam and Eve from Paradise, comes the grappling with the earth -- farming, gardening, housing and clothing. Through an understanding of the role of the farmer, the children are led to the interrelationships of the Four Kingdoms of Nature as they work together in harmony. Shelters of animals and humans, emphasising different times and climates, give the children an understanding of man's creativity and his use of tools and materials. The practical arts of the home are given attention.
Now the children work on their reading, both silently and aloud, and writing, taking great joy in the stories they write themselves in their main lesson books. Grammar study takes place with active involvement as the children act out doing words, naming words, and describing words. This grammar study is carried into other lessons. For example, in farming, what does the farmer do in the spring? The children name endless activities that the farmer does. These they learn later to call verbs.
Math becomes quite practical, too. Telling time, making change with money, measurement in cooking or in building all have their place. Math is very much a tool dealing with life.
MATHEMATICS AND PRACTICAL ACTIVITIES
Themes
Practical activities include farming and gardening, cooking, shelter and housing, measurements, fiber arts, long multiplication and division, linear measure, liquid measure, weight, time, calendar and money value.
Objectives
- Multiplication and division tables to 12 x 12 = 144.
- To understand and demonstrate understanding of long multiplication.
- To understand and demonstrate understanding of long division.
- Familiarity with linear measure using an actual building project as practical application.
- Familiarity with liquid measure using cooking as practical application.
- Familiarity with weight.
- Ability to tell time accurately and familiarity with the passage of time in terms of hours, days, weeks, months.
- Familiarity with money values and making change.
Memorisation of times tables will be assessed by student's ability to recite them aloud. Also, the teacher will give work sheets and verbal quizzes to determine the student's familiarity with times tables.
Daily mental math exercises will demonstrate the student's familiarity with the four mathematical processes.
Understanding of long multiplication and long division shall be assessed by work sheets and problems done on the board.
Practical activities shall be assessed by the teacher in the following ways: main lesson work, work sheets and verbal quizzes on time, money, and measurement. The student's participation in projects will also give teacher a sense of what the child has grasped of the lessons.
These assessments shall be communicated to parents in two yearly reports and conferences. Any areas of concern shall be reported to the parent.
LANGUAGE, GRAMMAR & READING
Themes
Comprehension of material read, simple parts of speech, spelling, simple sentence structure and punctuation, creative composition, cursive writing, speech work, dictionary use.
Stories: Old Testament and stories about farming and farm life, seasonal stories and books of interest from the library.
Objectives
- To be able to read confidently, both aloud and silently, and demonstrate comprehension of material.
- To have an awareness of a qualitative difference between "naming", "doing", "describing", and "how" words (later referred to as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs).
- To be able to sound-out and spell words, both simple and complex; familiarity with "sight" words.
- To demonstrate understanding of simple sentence structure and punctuation use.
- To be able to write short original creative compositions.
- To continue working on neat cursive writing.
- To demonstrate clarity and quality in their speech work.
- Reading ability shall be assessed by hearing the child read aloud.
- Comprehension shall be assessed by hearing the child retell the previous day's story or reading.
- Familiarity with parts of speech shall be assessed by main lesson work and board work, asking the children to break down sentences and identify the parts therein.
- Spelling ability shall be assessed by independent writing, weekly dictation exercises and spelling quizzes.
- Ability to write independently shall be assessed by teacher's observation and editing of student's compositions.
- Quality of cursive shall be assessed by observation of child's writing.
- Familiarity with dictionary shall be assessed by child's success in finding words in the dictionary.
- Clarity in speech work shall be assessed by the teacher upon hearing the child recite individually in class.
PAINTING, DRAWING & FORM DRAWING
With painting in the early school years, the emphasis is not on form but colour experience. Now, in grade three, the children begin to allow form to arise out of the painting itself. Secondary and complementary colours, built from layers of primary colours, helps form come to life in the paintings. Painting exercises arising out of the curriculum of the Old Testament allow the children to experience how to make a variety of browns and oranges. Paintings from the farming and gardening curriculum employ a variety of bright and lively colours.
Drawing becomes more detailed as well in the third grade. The children are now beginning to move away from crayons and are beginning to use coloured pencils more in their main lesson drawings. Different techniques of shading are learned, as well as more detail in the drawings. As always, colour blending is employed.
As Class 3 can be an unsettling year for children, the harmonious, balanced nature of many of the mirrored and transformative form drawings can have a salutary effect. Symmetries that cross from right to left, or from top to bottom, and bringing two different forms together are important new challenges in third grade.
Themes
Mixing colour on the page, mixed media work, coloured pencil work, more form; Old Testament images and images of farming and gardening, also seasonal subjects.
Objectives
In painting, to be able to build complementary colours from the primary colours.
To experience form arising out of the colours in the painting.
In drawing, to become more comfortable using coloured pencils and learn techniques of shading and detail.
To use techniques of balance and harmony in main lesson compositions.
To master more complicated form drawings employing right and left symmetry and above and below symmetry.
Assessments
The teacher shall assess each child's artwork according to the outcome, whether the painting or drawing is led by the teacher or free-rendered by the child. Emphasis will be on colour blending and subject matter.
Drawings in main lesson work shall be assessed by the teacher and parent during conferences.
Success with form drawings shall be assessed by the teacher after leading them through the form and then observing how the child executes and masters the form.
MOVEMENT
Movement is necessary for neurological, emotional and even intellectual development. The movements, the following of directions, and the cooperation employed in enjoyable organised games, helps the child develop large and small motor skills, and also assists with their social development. The use of beanbags, balls, and copper rods during circle activities not only promotes the above-mentioned skills, but also strengthens the will and a child's confidence as they master an ever-increasing complexity of exercises. These movements are frequently used in conjunction with speech work, adding another dimension which enriches the experience
Themes
Organised games, both indoor and outdoor, clapping rhythms, beanbags, balls or copper rods used in a variety of patterns
Objectives
- To be able to follow directions and play according to the rules of a game.
- To experience oneself as a part of a group and to work in cooperation with that group to achieve a goal.
- To experience self-motivated movement.
- To be able to handle the beanbag, ball or rod without dropping it.
Observation of the child during games and circle activities, noting challenge areas and also improvements.
HANDWORK
Handwork lessons are more than a means of promoting dexterity and skill. Through rhythmically repeating movements and exercises while working on tasks suited to the age of the child, the hands help to bring about both a strengthening of the will and of the capacity for logical thinking.
Themes
The first garments are made to be worm. Beginning with the head, caps are knitted or crocheted. The techniques learnt can be used elsewhere. There is plenty of room for the children's imagination in making glove puppets.
Objectives
- To knit/crochet hats, potholder, scarves.
- To knit or crochet glove puppets.
- To embroider with silk to enhance the shape and reflect the use of the object.
- To consolidate basic stitches and stitching.
- To practise the techniques learned.
- To felt a large pictorial scene as a class project.
From direct observation by the teacher.
TIME & TIMING |