Developmental Picture of the Child
In Grade Three the children go through a natural process of profound neurological and psychological shifts, coming to experience a new sense of self. In Waldorf education we recognize this stage of self-discovery as the “nine-year change.”
New capacities for thinking and judgment are emerging. The young child’s experience of the unity of all things matures into an awareness of a distinctly separate inner life. They are excited about the wonderful world they see with new eyes, but an accompanying uncertainty about their abilities and wistfulness for the security of the past creates inner turmoil. Strong opinions can lead them to being critical of everything and trying out their new independence through defiance.
“Waldorf education enables young people to be in love with the world as the world should be loved.”
Marjorie Spock
Teaching as a Lively Art
How the Curriculum Meets the Grade Three Student
The stories curriculum covers ancient Hebrew stories which serves as an appropriate metaphor for the child’s inner experience. The children understand on an imaginative level what it is to leave paradise, step into the real world, and begin to stand on their own feet. The stories of Noah, Moses, David, and others speak of great individual trials, and provide students with strong role models who show courage and perseverance.
Practical experiences like building, farming, and gardening ground the children in their home surroundings and are often accompanied by stories of the First Nations and stories about the life of the pioneers. Through this story material, students engage with foundational language arts work including writing, grammar skills, and independent reading.
Mathematics:
Continued work with the four processes, deepening the number sense and the concept of place value as well as the times tables; vertical addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division; the history and practice of measurement – measurement of distance, weight, capacity, time; and money.
Language Arts:
Literacy, basic elements of grammar, and introduction of cursive writing; Hebrew stories and other folk tales; a possible class play related to the curriculum.
Enrichment:
