More on third grade...

Below I listed my responces to what Enki is calling for in the third grade curriculum overview, but we are doing some other things that arent on there at all. Such as a more in depth block on Jataka Tales. I know in Waldorf third grade the Old Testament is a huge part of the year, and the Creation stories from many cultures is sort of the Enki counterpart to that, however I wanted to take some time to really enjoy the Jataka Tales. I find them to be really inspiring and beautiful. Currently I am reading Kindness: A Treasury of Buddhist Wisdom for Children and Parents and we have read many stories from the 20 Jataka Tales book; however a friend of mine turned me on to these wonderful childrens picture books of Jataka Tales published by Dharma Publishing. I ordered their twelve book collection and a couple of coloring books and they are wonderful, beautiful, hard bound books that Im sure each of the kids will really enjoy. It comes with a Teacher's Guide, which I havent really checked out yet, but it may have some crafts or ideas for expansion in there. This block will be united with GD and GM together.

The continents block I mentioned below will be a lot of fun and something we did for our Science Coop this past spring with Africa, but I want to expand it a bit. We will have a block with each continent, where we will explore the biomes, ecosystems, native animals and resources for each continent. We are making large (18X24) spiral bound books (main lesson books style) for each continent and will then be able to come back and add in to them when we begin looking at the history of Man on that Continent. During each continents block we will (in a way not obvious to the kids) be listening to native music, making native crafts, hearing native stories, and trying native foods from that land. I want the experience to NOT be a cultural Disneyland, but more of an experience and foundation of the land; a perspective builder for later studies. This is one area I would love some ideas for. I will be re-reading the Foundation Guide on this topic and trying to be very mindful of not allowing it to become an experience of "they" but more just about the NATURE of that place on this planet. For instance eating a food that is made from a native plant rather than saying "irish people eat a lot of potatoes" I want to explore why potatoes grow so well in Ireland (probably a lame example)...

Roots & Shoots: We will continue our work with Roots & Shoots as a family. This is a passion for the entire family and we really love the people we have met doing this. Again, this ties in our science, humanities and geography.