Class 5 Waldorf Steiner Stories and Study

The class 5 child strengthens their individual relationship within the world.  The experience and sense of self grows and we help develop the young students with the connectedness in the overview of the world through the Ancient Times.  Through a learning development of the culture and the mythological picture of these ancient cultures, the artistic and literary impulses may be deeply experienced.  Through these pictures of human evolution, the stories of these ancient civilizations give a historical picture of the human being in his development into the material world, which parallels the child's own development into the material world.  Now, as the consciousness is engaged with the deep history, students may come to experience time and history through the ancient words and their cultures.  

In this Class 5 Waldorf Ancient Cultures class, I will teach Ancient Cultures of India, Persia, Babylon, Greece and Egypt through lessons using art and story to share the history and culture.  (Note, this is not a full curriculum course, only the Ancient Cultures lessons, and will include literacy, math and measurement, geography and history.)

This course is designed to run over 6 months (or longer) to include plenty of art (through pastel drawings, water color paintings, clay work and more) and story.  At the end of the study I will cycle through back to the beginning again so any students who came in later may pick up what they missed at the beginning.

Through our historical cultural studies, students will learn how language has changed over time and some of the history of our English language as well as exploring synonyms, antonyms and homonyms.  Students will be asked to write retells of our class stories (both independently and in a group setting in class).  They will listen to cultural texts and convey details of some social, historical and cultural contexts within the texts through evaluative reviews.  Students will hear some ancient epochs, particularly from Greece, and represent these times and tales through their own expressive works.  Each student will take the tasks and use their strengths and interests (writing, painting, drawing, etc) to express the pieces we will work on in class.

In this class students will learn, recite and discuss a range of poetry including that derived from the ancient epochs, including creation hymns, Olympic oaths, and the Iliad and the Odyssey and they will recreate these literary texts imaginatively, creating their own verses and poems from the lesson content.

They will hear the tales of Arjuna and Krishna in the Bhagavad Gita, learn the tale of Gilgamesh and learn about Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva from Ancient Persia, India and Babylon; hear stories of the great Egyptians such as Osiris and Isis and follow the buildings, geometry and monuments the Egyptians left behind; and move to Ancient Greece with tales of Troy and the journey to the city-state developments, to Plato and Aristotle.

Students will draw illustrations (with crayons, pastels, pencils and watercolor paints) and form drawings which will correspond to the tales and stories we hear about.    They will use other creative resources to express and retell the stories such as clay and natural materials.  

Students will write words in Hindi and Egyptian, use modelling clay to sculpt figures and pyramids, and hear some of the roots of the words we use today.

As this class will have a different theme each week, students are welcome to join at any time.  Some stories may take a few weeks to finish so feel free to contact me if you'd like to know where we are up to.

Homework is given weekly but is optional.

Week of September 1st: Introduction to Units, Main Lesson Book cover drawing, begin stories of Hindi gods
Week of September 8th: Stories of the Hindi gods, stories of Vishnu and Krishna, Bhagavad Gita
Week of September 15th: Bhagavad Gita, arts, and writing exercises
Week of September 22nd: Bhagavad Gita, arts, and writing exercises