updated August 10th, 2009

updates will always post at the bottom

Pyrites.org -  how to build a clay bread oven, willow basketry, making charcoal, limestone kiln. Articles on will developed intelligence, the waldorf craft curriculum, and knitting begets thinking.

2nd & 3rd grade circle songs & activities- title says it all 

3rd grade waldorf block scheduling found in mothering.com message boards see below

3rd Grade Main Lesson Blocks

Main Lesson Blocks:
Sept 8 – Oct 1: Farm Life: Harvest
Fall activities on the farm, with field trips to local farms
Bible Stories: Creation, Leaving Paradise, Cain and Abel

Oct 4 – 29: The Market
Math activities with money, and long division
Bible Stories: Sons of Cain, Noah, Babel

Nov 1 -24: A Shirt Grew in a Field
Clothing and Fibers around the world
Bible Stories: Noah’s Ark Play rehearsals

Nov 29 – Dec 17: People at Work
Parents, Adults visit and talk about their work
Calendar making
Bible Stories: Abraham and Isaac, Jacob, Joseph

Jan 3 – Jan 28: Measuring Every Thing
Length, Distance, Time, Weight
Bible Stories: Moses

Jan 31 – Feb 18: The Life of Moses
Writing, spelling, composition, dictation
Bible Stories: Exodus to the Promised Land

Feb 28 – Mar 18: This is My House
Shelters around the world, made from natural materials
Bible Stories: Joshua, Gideon, Ruth and Naomi

Mar 21 – Apr 8: The Supermarket
Math with volume, and long multiplication
Bible Stories: Samuel, Saul, David

Apr 25 – May 20: Farm Life: Planting
Spring Activities on the farm, people at work in modern settings
Class play rehearsals: Life of Moses
Bible Stories: Solomon, Elijah, Job

May 23 – Jun 8: Review Activities

 

Eugene Schwartz/millenial child website- his lesson block schedule as well as description of what is taught

grade 3 form drawing- also Mr. Schwartz

Movement for childhood-  movement exercises, copper rods, movement standards for waldorf 3rd graders, and many other useful articles

Waldorf clearing house newletter from 1977-3 parts on 3rd grade. Very useful. All about the blocks, many poems & verses, handwork, ect.

part one

part two

part three

Great music teaching ideas- learning to read, and a song

Whit’s Flickr photo stream- terrific photos in several files, look under schoolwork, nature tables & blackboards, sycamore, raphael, & dick bruin painting class for teaching idead & inspiration

 

Old testament & jewish culture:

For the OT stories Mainlesson.com has a free book “Hurlbut’s Story of the Bible”. There are other 3rd grade books under the curricula for Waldorf on the sidebar of the mainpage.

Chabad.org  has just about everything you need to know about the jewish holidays.

In the childrens holiday section  there are stories that correspond to the holidays, as well as simplified desciptions of the holidays, and traditional recipes.

Juggling Frogs- this is a jewish mother’s blog with a huge amount of activities, & tutorials relating to the jewish holidays. Although she seems to have abandoned the blog, the archived posts are worth a look for all of the tutorials, including one on how to make challah, the beautiful braided bread you will be making for shabat in 3rd grade. She even has a recipe for Yekkish, a vegan version of challah. Her sukkot decorations are lively and colorful.

The Hebrew alphabet - a good version with pronounciations

The Hebrew months  as they correspond to the gregorian (the one we use) calendar. September 19th is the first day of the jewish year 5770.

“The Legends of the Jews” by Louis Ginzberg - This is the book that the Live Education curriculum uses for stories. You can use the link to read it for free online. Here is what they say about the book: This is a massive collation of the Haggada–the traditions which have grown up surrounding the Biblical narrative. These stories and bits of layered detail are scattered throughout the Talmud and the Midrash, and other sources, including oral. In the 19th century Ginzberg undertook the task of arranging the Haggada into chronological order, and this series of volumes was the result.

Jewish Fairy Tales & Legends- free online book

Chelm stories-  stories of the make believe town, usually humorous

Children’s Judaica-  Tons of links for holiday fun

Traditional Jewish holiday recipes- I like this site for recipes.

Native American links

Native Tech- unbelievable resource for native american information and how-tos including, but not limited to clothing (patterns for making), shelters, beadwork, basketry, pottery, plants & their uses, willow dolls, games, and toys, corn husk dolls, teas & drinks, weaving, recipes, poems & stories. You can spend days here. the site has everything you would need for your main lesson blocks.

150 native american legends- good stuff 

We will be learning about shelters, and most of our practical activities through Native American studies. We will study native peoples from the Aztecs in the south all the way to th Inuit of the North.  The Aztecs used cocoa beans as money, and they were very valuable. This will serve as an intro to ancient systems of money. We will make hot chocolate as an activity for the block. I hope to start this block around Day of the Dead. This is a mexican holiday, and many parts of Mexico are still very Aztec influenced.  Here are some links to Aztec information.

• Aztec homes
• cocoa as money
• Aztec legends including a creation story & a flood story
• The little blue frog: the Aztec legend of chocolate

 

Straw House Life Lesson Plan - life in a straw house, how to make one, pretzel log cabin, songs, recipes, jump rope rhymes, spool knitting, quilting

excellent site on native american dwellings- pictures, models, facts about tribes, just what you need to prepare native american & housebuilding blocks

  

Measurement-linear

http://applesaucekids.com/LinkPage/Cubit.html - good stuff about the cubit relating to solomon & noah

Charts showing all biblical measurements & equivalents

A History of Measurement and Metrics- concise, informative article

Your body as a ruler

 

Measurement- time: in 3rd grade they should make a sundial, waterclock, and calendar

History of time measurement

History of telling time- good article, starts with nature, moves through sundials, water clocks, and finally watches

A simple water clock how to

Another water clock- starts about half way down the page

sundial using pebbles, a stick, and some clay

simple paper sundial- a good one for using some of the beautifull water color painted papers you have stored up

A wooden pocket sundial or sundial necklace- you enter the degree of latitude closest to you, and then the instructions page shows you how to make a small sundial like in this photo

Walorf Family Network- has pictures & overviews that may be useful

• farming & practical skills
• shelters
• old testament stories
• painting

Lastly, Eric K. Fairman ( a waldorf teacher) in his Path of Discovery 3rd grade book says that word search puzzles are good for spelling, so I will be using discovery education’s puzzlemaker to custom make puzzles with spelling words from our block. It says “buy now”, but you can make puzzles for free by clicking on the type of puzzle you want on the left, and entering the info, and POOF, a puzzle just for your lesson.

http://www.princetonwaldorf.org/willow/willow_20080109.pdf -wonerful article on 3rd grade housebuilding, and an idea for an activity

Today in Faerie School’s post on writing sentences in rainbow for teaching parts of speech,  also painting the seven days of creation with stockmar watercolor paints.

Meaningfullmathbooks.com has pictures of mainlesson books you can look at as well as a free 20 page download containing math fact worksheets  for 20 weeks.

Pictures of children’s 3rd grade main lesson books on Christopherus website.

Yahoo group specifically for waldorf influenced 3rd grade homeschooling   If you are reading this list please join the group to contribute and take away information that will make this 3rd grade journey more fruitful for all of us.