Picture by Kaiti	Special Events
	Between nine and ten years of age children begin to awaken to a new independence in their feeling life. This is a turning point, when basic attitudes formed about themselves and the world may very well be carried through life. In the fourth grade students study the human being as mirrored in the animal kingdom, and they learn to feel in themselves the qualities that each animal has developed as its own: the fierce clarity of the eagle, the courage and enormous heart-breathing system of the lion, the open, sensitive feeling of the mouse with its rapid breathing, the loving calmness and powerful metabolic system of the cow and buffalo. The children can feel in themselves the balance of all these qualities. But unlike the animal, man stands upright with free hands and can adapt to many different environments. He thinks and laughs, and he has self-consciousness. Several themes run through the man and animal blocks, but a common thread is to gain insight into the human being and to develop a love and responsibility for the animal kingdom. With their new awareness students will dramatize different animals, paint and sketch them, and write descriptions of them in their main lesson books. Consequently, the introduction to the study of nature and science is imaginative and artistic. Also in the realm of feeling are studies of the Norse, Celtic, and Finnish myths. The mighty characters of Thor, Odin, and the cunning Loki move through Middle Earth to their last battle Ragnorak, the twilight of the gods, the end and the beginning of all things. As they listen to these powerful stories fourth grade students experience the same full range of emotions that they are beginning to experience and apply independently in their own lives. Norse Mythology is integrated into form drawing as students sketch the weaving designs, symbols, and decorative motifs of the Norse people or the Celts. Geography is introduced in the fourth grade, and study begins locally. Initially students draw maps of the classroom, the school building, and their route to school. They gradually branch out to their town, county, and state. Geography is experienced in a very real way. Students delight in stories of local towns, mountain ranges, deserts, great valleys, the coastal regions. Crops, minerals, and water resources become alive in these places, a part of their inner space. Reading is an important activity in the fourth grade, and composition and grammar are emphasized. Math problems become more complicated and fractions and decimals are introduced. Cross-stitching commences in handwork and meter and time signatures are presented in music. Painting, games, gardening, foreign languages, and eurythmy keep fourth grade students very busy. Continue scrolling through the grades to better understand the phases of development and learning that Waldorf students experience. Early Childhood | 1st grade | 2nd grade | 3rd grade | 4th grade | 5th grade | 6th grade | 7th grade | 8th grade |Specialties | Back
Sandpoint Waldorf School Where the love of learning that lasts a lifetime . . . begins. P.O. Box 95, Sandpoint, ID 83864 (208) 265-2683 e-mail: sws@coldreams.com