The Curriculum of the Steiner School - Class 3

Notes and Lesson Plans

Wonderful Houses Around the World
updated August 19, 2023


Recorded here is my own personal collection of articles, resources, favorite links, teaching ideas, and lesson plans. It encompasses many years, from the very beginning of my experience studying and learning about Waldorf to the present time. People from all around the world visit my site and recommend it to others. Welcome!

This site records my journey. I hope my honesty is encouraging and helps break down some barriers that may prevent people from trying Waldorf methods. Because this is an ongoing site documenting my curriculum planning and ideas, some materials are more Waldorf-y than others. Please feel free to take what you like and leave the rest.

This page has helpful links and LOADS of free resources to help you plan your third grade year. Enjoy!



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Housebuilding
for Class 3


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Waldorf Main Lesson Block Planning: Housebuilding


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Pinterest - Renee Schwartz
My curated collection of visuals! Browse sample main lesson book pages, watercolor paintings, chalkboard drawings, etc. for Housebuilding.


FREE eBooks at the Online Waldorf Library
Excellent resource! Published Waldorf curriculum books provided here in PDF format for you to download, keep, and read... for free!

Learning about the World through Modeling by Arthur Auer, pp.68-71, 73

  • Designing Your Own Wonder House
  • Native American Dwellings: Fort Building, Adobe Village
  • Simple Pottery: Basic Pinch Bowl or Pot, Coil Method
  • Snow House


Sample Lessons and Free Curriculum



Other Helpful Links


Books to Buy

I highly recommend using your public library extensively for this block, although if you can find a used copy of Roy Wilkinson's out of print book Teaching Practical Activities: Farming, Gardening, Housebuilding for Ages 9 and 10, I suggest using it to frame these two classic 3rd grade main lesson blocks.


Housebuilding for Children: Step-by-Step Plans for Houses Children Can Build Themselves

I love the simple greenhouse design in this book and it also ties in well with the Farming & Gardening block.


Housebuilding notes - Africa:

    Traditional Houses from Around the World by A.G. Smith is good background information for the teacher. It is a Dover coloring book but you can use the illustrations and background information to help you plan. Somba clay houses in Benin, Masai houses in Kenya, Dogon cliff dwellings in Mali, Moroccan brick houses in North Africa, painted mud houses in Nigeria, and a Baobab tree house in Sudan are all included.

    How Do People Live? by Philip Steele (based on the Hungarian original by Lajos Boglar) is also a nice resource, which includes Tuareg animal skin tents, mud houses in Nigeria and Mali, wood and mud buildings around Lake Chad in West Africa, branch and cowhide huts on the Africans plains, mud brick houses in the Nubian desert, and the thatched huts of the Dogon people. The illustrations are really lovely. They would be great for a chalkboard.


    If You Lived Here: Houses of the World

    by Giles Laroche includes the decorated houses of Ndebele (Pretoria, Transvaal, South Africa)


    Wonderful Houses Around the World by Yoshio Komatsu includes Togo and Senegal. Photographs of the exterior and drawn diagrams of the interior are featured.


    Rain School

    by James Rumford

    I also really love A Ride on Mother's Back: A Day of Baby Carrying Around the World by Emery & Durga Bernhard. It includes the Mbuti, Tuareg, and Mandingo.


Housebuilding notes - Native Americans:


Recorded here is my own personal collection of articles, resources, favorite links, teaching ideas, and lesson plans. It encompasses many years, from the very beginning of my experience studying and learning about Waldorf to the present time. People from all around the world visit my site and recommend it to others. Welcome!

This site records my journey. I hope my honesty is encouraging and helps break down some barriers that may prevent people from trying Waldorf methods. Because this is an ongoing site documenting my curriculum planning and ideas, some materials are more Waldorf-y than others. Please feel free to take what you like and leave the rest.


Blog posts from when I taught this block as a summer camp in 2019:


Blog posts from when I taught this block as a summer camp in 2018:


Blog posts from when I taught this block in Spring 2018:


Older versions of this block:

  • Human Habitation (PDF)
  • Native American Legends
    some families do Native American Legends simultaneously with a block on shelter building; others do them as their own topic
  • See also the notes from my 2008 Summer Camps - camp topics included Farming & Gardening and Housebuilding.



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