Third Grade
updated August 20, 2021
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.
Class Three in Waldorf Education
Mission Statement - Consulting Services - Lending Library
Notes on Schedule of Main Lesson Blocks
Everyone does it differently, and you don't have to think of the main lesson topics as "subjects" because many of them are interdisciplinary.
I labeled them to the left but it is a bit arbitrary.
However,
I find it helpful to give them rough categories so that I can be sure we are balanced in the kinds of thinking we practice throughout the school year.
Each discipline has different habits of mind, and I like to rotate between them. Alan Whitehead suggests this, although he suggests using three-week long blocks. We do a nine month school
year with month-long blocks: two blocks of each subject plus a class play each year.
The Old Testament Stories could be considered Language Arts or Cultural. Topics like Fibers & Clothing
and Housebuilding could be considered Science or Cultural. If you incorporate a look at the biomes
of the world into Housebuilding, you are definitely giving it a Science slant. Likewise, if you are
raising silkworms in the classroom or at home for the Fibers block. It's a rich year!
Some people incorporate their Grammar study into the first block of Old Testament Stories (the creation
of things being a good time to talk about nouns), but I prefer to give Spelling & Grammar an entire block
because we use this time to introduce the Montessori Grammar symbols and to begin Structured Word Inquiry.
Both of these are an excellent fit with Waldorf.
Perhaps you might consider an order like this...
Old Testament I; Baking (Time, Temperature, Weight & Volume); Spelling & Grammar; Housebuilding; Old Testament II; Currency; Fibers & Clothing;
Old Testament III; Farming & Gardening (Linear Measurement)
A Peek into the Classroom
Morning Verse for Lower Grades
Waldorf Today Gallery of Main Lesson Book Pages - Elementary School
Beautiful and inspiring
Gallery of Chalkboard Drawings in the Waldorf Classroom grades 1 - 8
Waldorf/Steiner Main Lessons and Main Lesson Blocks VERY helpful article
from the Sophia Institute Online Waldorf Teacher Training program
- The Main Lesson - Principles and Features
- The Main Lesson - Structure
- The Main Lesson - Rhythm
- The Main Lesson - Planning a Main Lesson Block
- Sample Template for Waldorf/Steiner Main Lesson Block
samples from the Third Grade Curriculum by Live Education!
General Waldorf Resources
The Education of the Child in the Light of
Anthroposophy
article by Rudolf Steiner
How To Create, Tell, and Recall a Story
Four Ways to Connect with Storytelling
blog post - Simplicity Parenting
Overview of Childhood Characteristics - includes the four temperaments
article by David Mitchell
Blackboard Sketching book
by
Frederick Whitney (1908)
available online for free - with step by step directions and illustrations
How to Bind a Main Lesson Book
Main Lesson Book
pages shared by Christopherus Homeschool Resources
browse through my collection of Pinterest Boards
with chalkboard drawings and main lesson book pages for many main lesson blocks
Movement for Childhood - wonderful site!
Waldorf Today Newsletter
very interesting & free weekly newsletter sent via email each Monday
Block Rotations Grades 1 - 8 (PDF)
by Jamie York
Summary of Math Skills for Grades 1 through 8 (PDF)
by Jamie York
A Grades 1 through 8 Math Curriculum Overview (PDF)
by Jamie York
Word Problems in Grades 1 through 8 (PDF)
by Jamie York
Jamie York has a BUNCH of free resources on his site including sample math MLB pages for grades 1-11,
and lesson plans and assessments for grades 1-5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12.
Waldorf Science Newsletter - issues available in PDF format
page 13 of Vol.1 has a Science Curriculum in the Waldorf School Grades 1-8 overview / one page handout, and
page 14 has
the same for the Waldorf High School Grades 9-12
World Geography and Waldorf Education
blog post - Switzerite
When Should My Child Begin Music Lessons?
article by Sarah Baldwin
The Spiritual Gifts of Handwork
blog post - Knitting with Children
"Foundations of Waldorf Education" Series Notes
FREE links to all 25 volumes in this series of educational writings by Rudolf Steiner
DO NOT MISS The Online Waldorf Library's tremendous selection of Waldorf education books
converted into PDFs and available for FREE download! You can literally save $1000's of dollars!
Curriculum Planning
- Grade 3 Content from Waldorf Teacher Resources
An unbelievable resource with FREE main lesson pages and lesson plans (called "gems")
- The AWSNA Curriculum Chart is an INVALUABLE resource
Highly recommended, inexpensive, concise format, yet detailed and thorough -- and it's only $8.00! If you plan on homeschooling with Waldorf, you need to get this.
- Read My Blog - to follow our homeschool journey day by day...
Visit the Links to the Left - for my notes about each main lesson block I've taught...
Check out Additional Lesson Planning Notes below:
- Color Coding - how we organize our daily record keeping / plan books
- Hands, Heart, Head - how we organize our daily school schedule
- Plan Book Pictures - pictures of my planner and my daughters' plan book pages
A picture is worth a thousand words!
Little Bluestem Homeschool Co-op
2018-2019
This was the main lesson block plan for our combined 3rd/4th grades:
September - Local History & Geography
October - Spelling & Grammar (Structured Word Inquiry, Montessori Grammar symbols)
November - Maths of Practical Life (Time, Temperature, Mass & Volume)
December - Class Play (Great Artists: "The Fantastic Art Show")
January - Zoology I
February - Tall Tales (Local Industry)
March - Fibers & Clothing
April - Maths of Practical Life (Currency)
May - Zoology II
Little Bluestem Homeschool Co-op
2019-2020
This was the main lesson block plan for our combined 3rd/4th grades:
September - Landforms & Water Features
October - Grammar (Structured Word Inquiry, advanced Montessori Grammar symbols)
November - Fractions
December - Class Play (Hawaiian Mythology: "Legends of Hawai'i")
January - Norse Mythology I
February - Farming & Gardening
March - Personal Narratives
April - Linear Measurement & Coordinate Graphing
May - Norse Mythology II
Resources & Recommendations Specific to Third Grade
- The Online Curriculum Project: Grade Three
- Basic Sculptural Modeling: Developing the Will By Working with Pure Forms in the First Three Grades
by Hella Loewe
available FREE as a download at the link above - courtesy of the Waldorf Online Library
- Grade 3 Training Manual FREE PDF
WRITTEN FOR
THE EAST AFRICAN WALDORF TEACHER DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM BY
CATHERINE VAN ALPHEN & PETER VAN ALPHEN
- Extending Indigenous Cultures Throughout The American Waldorf Curriculum
- This is the time for word play with Homophones, Homographs, Homonyms. This is the time when kids really get the jokes
in Amelia Bedelia, and you can use the Homophone Principle to kick off your SWI lessons.
I still laugh out loud at "drawing" blood and "pitching" the tent!
Since Amelia Bedelia's boss writes her list in cursive, I've never understood why these books are categorized as Early Readers. In my
experience, third grade is the best age.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Amazing free books from the Waldorf Online Library:
- Misc. Additional Resources
Out of the Garden and into the Desert:
The Nine-Year Change Through the Stories of the Third Grade Curriculum
Encountering the Self:
Transformation & Destiny in the Ninth Year
- Summer Reading Lists
from the San Francisco Waldorf School
- five math games
- Dangling Modifiers: A List of Examples
my blog post about Grammar resources for grades 3 / 4 / 5 / 6
And Me? And I? The BEST Explanation for This
blog post - Switzerite
if you want to do Primitive Skills in Third Grade, I highly recommend Jeff Gottlieb's work
Fibers of Life: Natural Cordage & Rope Making ($5.00 for 75 page PDF)
Teaching Primitive Skills to Children: An Instructors' Manual
WIGWAM: Building the Traditional Northeastern Domed Shelter
- Third Grade Handwork - Foods
- Grade 3 posts - Schooling from the Heart
- Noah and the Flood - a play for 3rd grade by Eugene Schwartz
- Suggested Course of Study for Third Grade by Waldorf Curriculum
- Parenting the Nine Year Old from Waldorf in the Home
- *NEW* The Nine Year Change
blog post from Momma Skyla
- *NEW* While philosophically I disagree with a lot of the political links on this website, the resource list for week 8
contains many suggestions for print resources that go extremely well with the Waldorf Third Grade curriculum, including making fire, shelter building, handmade baskets, simple pottery, cordage, foraging, stone tools, and tanning hides.
- Books for Third Grade from the Baldwin Project
- The Spring 1977 Issue of the Waldorf Clearing House Newsletter focused on 3rd grade
- Waldorf Third Grade Student Reading List
>How Montessori Teaches Grammar
blog post - Switzerite
For the Money block (in Maths of Practical Life)
"Smart" from Where the Sidewalk Ends: Poems and Drawings by Shel Silverstein
 
related posts from Renee's blog
- Creating a Calendar / Keepsake Art Project
 
- Notes on Homemade Calendar Activity
 
- Live Education! recommends the following books to supplement the third grade curriculum:
The Illustrated Story Bible by Pearl S. Buck
Legends of the Bible by Louis Ginzberg
Class Plays
The following is exclusive content:
Share your ideas! Community Bulletin Board is a unique feature at Waldorf Curriculum where
people can make notes about things they would like to remember
for the future. If you like the idea of never losing your teaching ideas again, submit them to the website
and we'll keep track of them for you! (I can't even count the number of teaching
notebooks and small pieces of paper I have lost -- the site is much
more manageable). Simply join our Group; if you're already
a Waldorf Curriculum member, contact me to submit your ideas.
Is there a subject you're having a hard time finding resources for? Please
contact the Yahoo Group for suggestions from our members or consider
hiring a consultant.
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