 Book Reports on North American Geography The fifth grader has enhanced her recent gains in
consciousness and grown more accustomed to being an isolated self,
seeing the world in a new perspective. Yet, like the third
grader, she is about to leave another phase of childhood behind her and
to cross a new threshold of experience. The curriculum must,
therefore, not only continue to build on already established
foundations, but introduce certain new elements to prepare her for her
next step forward.
History has until now only a pictorial and personal nature and
no attempt was made to introduce exact temporal concepts or to proceed
in strict sequences. Now, however, history becomes a special main
lesson subject, as does geography. History, telling of mankind's deeds
and strivings, stirs the child to a more intense experience of her own
humanness. Geography does exactly the opposite; it leads her away from
herself out into ever wider spaces from the familiar to the unfamiliar.
History brings the child to himself: geography brings the
child into the world.
Ancient history in the fifth grade starts with the childhood
of civilized humanity in ancient India, where human beings were
dreamers. The ancient Persian culture that followed the Indian felt the
impulse to transform the earth, till the soil, domesticate animals
while helping the sun-god conquer the spirit of darkness. The great
cultures of Mesopotamia (the Chaldeans, the Hebrews, the Assyrians, and
the Babylonians) reveal the origins of written language on clay
tablets. The Egyptian civilization of pyramids and pharaohs precedes
the civilization of the Greeks with whom ancient history ends.
Every means is used to give the children a vivid impression of
these five ancient cultures. They read translations of poetry, study
hieroglyphic symbols of the Egyptians, sample arts and crafts of the
various ancient peoples, trying their hands at similar creations.
History is here an education of the children's feelings rather than of
their memory for facts and figures, for it requires inner mobility to
enter sympathetically into these ancient states of being so different
from our own.
 Woodworking Class - Carving Spoons A study of American geography emphasizes contrast. Every
consideration of the earth's physical features is linked with a study
of the way human life has been lived in the region, the human uses made
of natural resources, the industry and produce. As a continuation of
their study of the living earth, the fifth graders begin botany, the
study of the plant world. After discovering some of the secrets of the
plant life found in one's own environment, the child's attention is
drawn to vegetation in other parts of the world.
Building on the years of form drawing, freehand geometry is
introduced. Fractions and decimals continue to be the chief concern of
arithmetic study. Regular choral singing is practiced in the fourth and
fifth grades and the students may come together to become an orchestra.
Whenever possible in a Waldorf school, the practical arts
include woodworking. In some classes the children begin with carving a
mallet to be used for subsequent projects. In handwork, knitting
returns, but now the students use four needles as they create socks or
mittens. Eurythmy, foreign languages, painting, sports and games also
continue.
Many Waldorf schools host a Greek Pentathlon for the fifth
grade students where grace, beauty, form and sportsmanship are lauded
along with individual achievements of speed or accuracy.
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