THE 100,000 CRANES What is X? Why is Y? is a transition book, straddling Class 7 primary and Class 8 high school. As such, it seems reasonable to review the number path traveled by children to this point. The following is a brief exposition on Geometry – “Earth Measure”. A 7-year-old girl in Hiroshima was […]
AGE: 7th Grade
Word Circus: The Book Review
New Directions A salutary exercise for Class 7 students enjoying their The Book main lesson is for them to select a book, either fiction or non-fiction, to read and then write a review. The following is one of my own – albeit tongue-in-cheek – efforts; a street directory being an unlikely subject for review (but […]
Word Circus: Print Media
TOWN CRYER TECHNOLOGY Print Media – Class 7 – Middle Lesson “Why have you got that picture on the wall?” asked one of the Class 7 children, a small, Aboriginal girl named Alana, of the newspaper Editor on the Print Media excursion. “That’s St. John,” he answered “Patron Saint of Writers. Sometimes in the hurley-burley […]
Word Circus: Audio & Visual Media
HOLOGRAPHY – HOLLOW LAUGH Audio-Visual Media – Class 7 – Middle Lesson The Class 1 teacher, Steen, had worked in radio before becoming a Steiner teacher; so he was the obvious choice to conduct the Audio-Visual, or Electronic, Media middle lesson in Class 7. This was one of the ever-sensible swaps which occur – or […]
Word Circus: The Book
ON PAPER WINGS The Book – Class 7 – Main Lesson The Librarian replaced the book, the novel Rolf Boldrewood’s Robbery Under Arms, in the shelf; took a last look around the room, turned off the lights – and hurried off home. “It’s funny isn’t it.” Mused Noel to no-one in particular “how books represent […]
Word Circus: The 12 Figures of Speech
ONE BY ONE 12 Figures of Speech – Class 7 – Main Lesson One by one they came, From a pre-cast die On a distant sky…dum, dum, dum…? The trapeze artist caught himself humming that song again as he supervised the roustabouts erecting his rigging. High Flyer, as was his show name, was going to […]
Word Circus: Calligraphy
SIGNATURE OF SEVENTH CLASS Calligraphy – Class 7 – Main Lesson Class 7 is the final year of primary in many Steiner schools. This was not always so, in the “Mutter Schule’ in Stuttgart, the first Waldorf School, that created (at first almost exclusively) for the children of the factory workers in the Waldorf cigarette […]
Word Circus: Encouraging Reading
TO KILL A READING BIRD “…a miracle breakthrough in overcoming reading problems…” trumpeted the T.V. current affairs host recently. Another reading breakthrough?! These have a predictable motion based on the phonics/flashcard (to simplify the ussie) pendulum swing. When the newest word deconstruction method pals, an ‘innovative’ whole-word-recognition breakthrough is discovered. After a couple of years […]
Word Circus: Anzacs in Australia
THE ANZAC ILIAD The place the Spirit of Australia chose for its self-realization is, oddly, Anzac Cove; a timeless sacred site. It is also the womb, as it were, of the mysteries of Muliebrity. Here Zeus hurled the statue of Pallas, the Black Virgin, to earth – hence Palestine; the first of a stream of […]
Word Circus: Dutch Words in Australia
IN THE WAKE OF THE BULDEN DRAAK The name of that dear little 17th Century Dutch discovery pinnace, Duyfken, “falls trippingly off the tongue”. Nor does it lose any of its charm in translation – “little dove”. Other evocative Dutch ship names woven like silver thread through the tapestry of Australian maritime history are: Guldens […]
Earthschooling – an Award Winning Curriculum
