S1 EP4 - Third Grade
On this week’s episode of Anthroposophy Today, Scott and Sarita talk about the Waldorf third grade classroom.
A YEAR OF TRANSITION: THE NINE-YEAR-CHANGE
Third grade is a very important time of transition for the children. It is at this age (eight to nine years old) that children experience what Dr. Rudolf Steiner referred to as the “nine-year-change”. Their limbs begin to stretch, and their faces—which are still quite babyish at the beginning of the year—have become more elongated and mature by the end. They are leaving the dreamy world of childhood and waking up to things that are more earthly, and this causes a kind of inner drama, a time when the children feel conflicted.
At the stage, the inner life of the child becomes more subjective, while the outside world remains objective—in other words, the child realizes more deeply than ever before that they are separate from their environment, and that their thoughts and feelings are unique from others’. This is a key characteristic of the nine-year-change, which expresses itself in many forms.
During the nine-year-change, the child will become aware that their handwriting is different from their friend’s, that they can jump higher than so-and-so but that so-and-so can run faster than them, and will begin noticing and comparing these differences in a way they did not when they were in first and second grade.
Unless an adult has made the child prematurely aware of the fact that they are not good at something, then the child will not experience this awakening until this age. The child becomes more critical at this age, not necessarily in a negative sense, but in the sense that in third grade they are able to observe and analyze differences more deeply.
In our previous episode on second grade, we discussed how challenging the second grade can prove to be for the teacher, due to the second grader’s new sense of mischief, which we could also term their increased “astrality” (pertaining to the astral body—one of the spiritual bodies of the human being which Steiner described, and the discussion of which we shall save for a future episode). In third grade, the teacher is met with new challenges, and these challenges pertain chiefly to this nine-year-change. The curriculum in third grade is designed to support this change, and the teacher acts as guide through this often rocky patch of terrain.
One of the ways the curriculum supports the child during this time is that it becomes much more practical; there is a much greater emphasis placed on showing the practical applications of all that the children learn in the classroom.
FARMING AND GARDENING
This idea of practicality is a key guiding principle for the third grade, and this is why a large part of the year is spent learning about farming and building. The children learn to apply their math skills in practical ways through baking and building model and full-scale structures, and add a new knowledge of measurements to their math “toolbox”. In first and second grade they have studied the natural world through nature stories and fables, and in third grade this curiosity about the natural world is fed through the study of farming and agriculture.
This year, the children take a number of field trips to local biodynamic farms with which the school has partnered in order to give the children living experiences of how their food is grown, and how the animals are raised. The children love being in contact with nature and farming in this way, and many schools will often have gardens and vegetable patches of their own so the children can experience the wonder of cultivating fruits and vegetables from seed to table. These experiences are then brought into the classroom and used in the creation of the children’s main lesson books.
As we have discussed in previous episodes, the story is the “jewel” of the lessons in the Waldorf school, all the way through to twelfth grade. Storytelling through verse, prose, song, biography, and history remains important throughout all the years of the Waldorf school, and is considered the food that fuels the lessons. Here is an example of a verse that may be used in connection with a block or lesson on farming and gardening:
THE LITTLE PLANT
by Kate Louise BrownIn the heart of a seed,
Buried deep, so deep,
A dear little plant
Lay fast asleep!
"Wake!" said the sunshine,
"And creep to the light!"
"Wake!" said the voice
Of the raindrops bright.
The little plant heard
And it rose to see
What the wonderful
Outside world might be.
Poetry like this creates living images in the children’s minds. It excites and inspires them with the rhymes, wordplay, and the strong imagery.
KNITTING
The children have by this time been knitting for two or three years already. They began with finger knitting in early childhood, then learned to knit with two straight wooden needles in first grade, and finally learned how to crochet with a hook in second grade. Now, in third grade, the children will also take their knitting skills to the next level by learning to knit their own doll.
As part of the farming element of the curriculum this year, the children also often get to visit a local farm and learn about where natural fibers like wool come from. They shear the sheep, then bring the raw wool back to the classroom to wash it, card it, and spin it into the yarn they have been using for their crafts for the past few years.
Scott and Sarita discuss the place of knitting in the Waldorf philosophy, and talk about the many things that knitting teaches the children.
Apart from the obvious coordination and dexterity which are required by knitting, and which are consequently developed in the small child who is learning to knit progressively more challenging designs, knitting has contains many elements of mathematics and geometry.
Dr. Steiner described knitting as “cosmic thinking”, and considered it very important for children to learn and practice, because it develops thinking in a unique way. Scott comments that, in his experience with knitting his own projects in the past, you cannot avoid seeing a dropped stitch. A dropped stitch quickly threatens to create a run in the project, which must be unwound and corrected in a timely fashion if damage to the rest of the piece is to be avoided. He says that, as he learned this about knitting, it struck him that some interesting correlations may be found between this aspect of knitting and life itself. You throw away a whole project when you find you’ve made a mistake—you may have to unravel a few rows, but then you can move on. When the children encounter what they perceive as a crisis moment in their knitting, they learn how forgiving the loops of yarn can be, and the teacher helps them to see that no mistake is unfixable, it’s just a question of going back a few steps, mending the hole, and then moving forward.
While these concepts are not discussed with the children or brought directly to their consciousness, everything in the Waldorf philosophy is done with purpose and intention. Sarita says that by the end of their education, a Waldorf child will have learned to be purposeful in their way of living, learning, working, in the way they feel, and in the way they give to the world, and that all the elements of the curriculum are designed with this end in mind.
MENTAL MATH AND VERBAL MATH
One of the distinctive characteristics of the way mathematics are taught in the Waldorf school which becomes more apparent in third grade, is the emphasis placed in the Waldorf philosophy on teaching mental math (i.e. solving equations without the aid of a calculator or scrap paper) and verbal math.
An example of a verbal math exercise which is very common in the third grade classroom and beyond is for the teacher to address the class with something like: “take three, add twelve, subtract six, divide by three”. The children will perform these processes in their head and volunteer to give the answer out loud, and it becomes a fun activity for all to participate in together. Sarita jokingly refers to this game as “gymnastics for the mind”, and says that in her experience children really enjoy it.
As with everything in these early grades, the element of play and the joyful experience of learning suffuses each activity, which avoids turning these math games into drudgery or stressful “tests” which children would come to dread, rather than looking forward to them.
Worksheets are rarely used in Waldorf math, apart from ones which the teacher creates him or herself for the students to practice arithmetic. One change which occurs in third grade math is that the questions up until third grade have been laid out horizontally (e.g. 1+1 = 2), whereas now the numbers are stacked vertically. This is done to prepare the child to begin tackling more advanced math, such as long division, where they will learn to “carry” numbers, and handle equations with double and triple digits and beyond. This helps to reinforce in the children’s minds that math is not just about the unit, but about the whole number, including the tens and the hundreds and so on.
MATH BLOCK I: MEASUREMENTS BLOCK
We will discuss three different elements of math that are taught during third grade in this discussion: math for measurement, math for building structures and dwellings, and math for trade and business. There is room for variation throughout the different Waldorf schools around the world as to the order and exact ways these concepts are taught. We will begin by discussing the measurements block, because in general this block is taught earlier on in the year, so that the children can study the technical forms of measurement they will need in the upcoming block focused on building.
They begin studying measurement by using their own body—measuring their wingspan, their feet, their fingers, and their height, and using these body parts to then measure the world around them.
This awakens the children to the fact that that measurements are not just all around us, but within our own bodies, too. It becomes a great game, with all the children wanting to measure their heights and ask their peers what their height is or how big their feet are, and this then blossoms into a great curiosity about the measurements of the world around them.
There’s also a lot of baking and cooking down, beginning in Early Childhood and continuing on through first, second, and now third grade. The children have been helping the teacher to bake loaves of bread, so they can have a warm loaf every day or at least once a week, and now in third grade the children are old enough to actually make the bread for themselves, with supervision. The lessons on math and this measurements block helps give them the tools to accurately tackle the baking instructions, and also introduces the concept of fractions in a more concrete, practical way than pure concepts, or by beginning with word problems such as the typical “if Jack slices his pizza into eight pieces and he gives one slice to Jane, what fraction describes the pizza Jack has left?”.
We all know children who roll their eyes at math and say, “what is the point of this, when will I ever use it?”. What if we say, “this bread recipe calls for 3 1/2 cups of flour, and it makes two loaves—but we have a lot of friends to feed, and so we want to make four loaves of bread. How many cups of flour will we need to double the recipe?”. And then what if we raise the stakes in testing whether our answer to the fraction problem was correct by actually making the bread? This can be an exciting and effective way to introduce measurements and fractions and new kinds of math to children who at this stage of their development crave this sort of practicality.
MATH BLOCK II: BUILDING BLOCK
After the children have completed this measurement block, they use their knowledge not just for baking, but also as part of their building block.
Beginning with a discussion of each of the children’s own homes, the class looks at how different dwelling are built. The class looks at the way the weather and geography of different regions in the country influence the ways houses were built in the past and are built today.
Then, the study of dwellings takes on a global perspective, and the children look at the way houses and buildings around the world are built and how environmental influence have an effect on the building methods and materials used. What does a building in the desert look like? What about a house up in the alps? How are they different in shape, structure, and materials used and why might that be? They look at how houses are built in places that are humid and where wood might be prone to rot, what oceanside dwellings look like that are exposed to wind and salt and erosion, how roofs were historically built out of grass or palms in the tropics and peat moss or shingles in a different climate.
All of these differences are introduced not as being better or worse, but as being brilliant ways of adapting to and living with the natural environment. This study of dwellings is a form of social studies taught within the Waldorf philosophy that allows the children to celebrate other cultures and learn about the world.
It is in this building block that the children work on the project of building a home. They can pick any kind of dwelling from any culture they are drawn to, and they then create a mini scene featuring a model of that kind of dwelling they make themselves. They usually use a piece of plywood or a wooden board as a base, which then becomes the “earth” that they build their little home on. The children bring materials from home to school (such as sand, moss, sticks, clay, etc.) and then create their plans and build their model at school. The teacher may invite students from the high school to come and work with the third graders, which the small children love. A few parents may also volunteer, maybe one or two days a week, to help all of the children in the classroom with their projects. This project culminates in a display in the classroom for the parents. The children at this age don’t display their work to the whole school because, as Sarita says, at this stage their whole world is very local, comprised of their little community of parents and classmates.
Another element of the building block is that the children may participate in the building of a structure for the school, such as a new play structure, shed, fence, or a bin for the composting worms. A class parent may lead this project, if one of them has particular experience with building.
Here is an example Sarita gives of a verse that may be used during the building block:
THE BUTTERBEAN TENT
by Elizabeth RobertsAll through the garden I went and went,
And I walked in under the butterbean tent.
The poles leaned up like a good tepee
And made a nice little house for me.
I had a hard brown clod for a seat,
And all outside was a cool green street.
A little green worm and a butterfly
And a cricket-like thing that could hop went by.
Hidden away there were flocks and flocks
Of bugs that could go like little clocks.
Such a good day it was when I spent
A long, long while in the butterbean tent.
The children love these kinds of poems, even in third grade—they’re not too old for this kind of wonder and imagination. The richness of the images fill them up and inspire them to build their own little houses. In this time of powerful transition for the children, the Waldorf philosophy tries to preserve the remainder of their childhood, while helping them and supporting them as they do the growing up which is coming around the corner this year.
MATH BLOCK III: BARTERING AND TRADE
Another way the Waldorf curriculum meets the child’s newfound thirst for practicality in the third grade is by teaching another math block which teaches the children the principles of the barter system, trade, and basic business math.
Sarita and Scott share how in their son’s third grade class, the form this particular math block took was the creation of a little store in the classroom. The block began with trading and learning about the barter system, and each child made things to bring to the class to trade for the things their classmates brought.
After a time, the barter system in the classroom store evolved into using a form of money that the children came up with, which mimicked the way that the trade and barter system in our society gave way to money.
GRAMMAR AND COLOR
Another unique aspect to the Waldorf approach is the way that principles of grammar are taught. We discussed this in more depth in our previous episode.
Oftentimes, the teacher will use color to represent certain elements of grammar. As we have mentioned before, the children have been creating main lesson books since first grade, and they continue to do so in second and third grade.
In first grade, the primary medium used to create work in the main lesson book is the block crayon, which we discussed in our Early Childhood episode as being specially formulated for small hands to develop the dexterity and motor skills necessary to write.
In second grade, the colored pencil is introduced, and becomes the primary medium.
In third grade, having mastered both the block crayon and the colored pencil, the children use both instruments in their main lesson books.
The children write everything with colored pencils, rather than graphite. This makes everything they write a piece of art, full of color and life. Color is not only used to beautify the children’s main lesson pages and inspire them to continue writing and creating work, but is also used in learning grammar. Color is another tool which the Waldorf teacher uses to ensure the concepts are deeply understood and internalized by the children in a way that will stay with them for their whole life.
For example, verbs are often written in the color red. We previously discussed how verbs are characterized by action, movement, and how verbs are associated with the limbs of the human body which allow us to traverse the world around us. Red is a strong, bright color which embodies this spirit of action and movement. In third grade, this concept of verbs as being words of action and movement are absorbed by the children even further through the use of color.
Blue, which is a little more withdrawn and subdued as a color, is often used for nouns, which unlike verbs are static.
Adjectives, which describe feelings and are connected to the heart, are represented by many different colors, reflecting the huge variety in emotions and characteristics which adjectives represent. Sarita describes adjectives as being like wildflowers, coming in every possible hue.
By third grade, the children have already had many experiences with the properties and characteristics of different colors, beginning in Early Childhood where, as we previously discussed, painting is taught through simple storytelling which helps imbue each color with a life of its own.
There are many more elements to grammar than the three which we have described, but the philosophy in teaching all these different parts remains the same: the children experience and connect with the idea first, and only later is the concept itself introduced along with the rules that govern it. In this way, the children can recall the concept faster, because they are able to connect the concept to an image they have learned and an experience they have had.
OLD TESTAMENT STORIES
We have spoken before about what Sarita terms the “umbrella story” or “umbrella theme” that hangs over each grade—a certain kind of story that is told in each grade, which is most relevant for that year of the child’s spiritual development.
In first grade, we had the fairytales.
In second grade, we told the stories of saints, legends, and many fables featuring animals.
In third grade, we use stories from the old testament.
Some people might think that telling stories from the old testament would be related to religious study, but in actual fact, these stories are not told in the Waldorf school for their religious content. The reason for telling these stories in third grade, Sarita says, is because these stories and their themes really meet the children at the stage of transition in which they find themselves. It is the stories themselves and their imagery which resonate with the child at this age, and which serve them powerfully, and not the religious content. These ancient biblical stories are unique in the way that they are able to address the child’s growing sense of subjectivity and individuality, which can cause discomfort in the child at this point in their development.
INNER WORK FOR TEACHERS
Sarita recalls how when she was in Waldorf teacher training, she had a colleague who had real difficulty with this idea of telling old testament stories in third grade. This colleague decided that for her teacher training culminating project she wanted to research other stories that were not old testament tales, and which could be told to the third grade class instead.
She was given permission to do this and spent the whole year researching alternate stories, which she shared with the rest of the class, and which Sarita said were all wonderful.
After having done her year of research, this classmate had encountered a great deal of success in finding many great stories. However, to Sarita’s surprise, her classmate came back to the class and said that after all her research she now had a deeper understanding of why exactly it was that Dr. Steiner recommended the telling of old testament tales in third grade. She came to see that it was not for their religious content that they were so fitting for this age, rather, because they truly addressed certain feelings and impulses which exist particularly strongly in the third grader who is going through the “nine-year-change”.
This anecdote leads Sarita and Scott into a discussion of the importance of “inner work” for Waldorf teachers. They express their admiration for this colleague who showed real courage in facing her own personal emotional blocks toward the old testament stories and overcame these blocks to realize that the stories can be used as powerful learning tools. They describe this as an example of what they mean when they have refer to “inner work”.
The greatest quality to be found in a teacher is their willingness to perform this “inner work”. A great teacher must be able to:
face their own subjectivity and overcome it
be open to constantly evaluating their life and belief systems
be able to accept their opinions and beliefs as valid for the time they held them, but be able to move on from them and not defend them to the grave if they are no longer serving the teacher
Scott and Sarita both agree that at some point in ones teaching career, one will come up against a block or a wall. The important thing at that moment is to be open to looking deeply into where this block comes from and how to address it in oneself.
Referring back to our discussion of the concepts of “sympathy” and “antipathy”, this is another example of how antipathy can be a teacher, acting as a signpost for an emotional block and an indicator that there is some inner work that needs to be done.
When a strong sense of antipathy arose in this teacher during her training, antipathy board the idea of telling old testament tales in third grade, she did not hold fast to it, nor did she bury it within her and ignore this feeling: instead, she addressed it by exploring and researching the subject that had caused the feeling of antipathy. She found a way to transform this antipathy into something that would better serve both her and her future students, and in this way she is a shining example of the opportunities for growth and transformation that await those who have the courage to be open and look deeply within themselves to do this inner work.
FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE NINE-YEAR-CHANGE
Scott recalls how when he and Sarita were in the foundation year of Waldorf teacher training, their class did an exercise to better understand the nine-year-change on a personal level: they were asked to find two photos of themselves as children, one at age six or seven, and one at the age of eight or nine when they would have been in third grade. He describes the subtle but marked difference he observed in the countenance between the two photos, both in his own photos and in those of his classmates. The photo of the six or seven year old was dreamier, more wide-eyed. The photo of the child experiencing the nine-year-change showed a different face: more grounded, more grown up, and perhaps a little more sad and awake to the ways of the world than in the earlier photo.
Scott reflects that it is at this time of the child’s life that they awaken to the fact that they are here on earth, no longer in the “garden of eden” as it were. How inspiring, then, that the Waldorf school teaches building and cooking and gardening at this stage of the child’s development. For what better way to celebrate this arrival on earth than by experiencing the joy of building, making things of value, and cultivating beautiful gardens?