This year, it wasn’t looking like I was going to teach, but due to a last-minute staffing change, I got slotted in to teach mostly geography classes in the upper grades.

Now, ordinarily, geography would not be my first choice of topics to teach summer training teachers. Here’s why.

Teaching geography is complicated.

First, Steiner gave decent indications about geography for fourth grade, but there’s not much for the rest of the grades (other than the statement that geography is the “most important subject”).

Everyone is just figuring it out.

Second, because there is so little to go on, teachers are left to figure it out, and there isn’t general consensus among Waldorf curriculum developers (i.e., teachers) about what should be done in the different grades. This means that if I prepare to talk to seventh-grade teachers about teaching Asian Geography that year, there’s a chance someone will have already done it in sixth grade. What you do each year is highly dependent on what you did the previous year and what you’re going to do next year. So, my message to the poor sixth-grade teachers was to decide now what you’re going to cover in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade. I tried giving them a crash course in 6th-8th grade child development to guide their decision-making, but it’s definitely not ideal.

Teaching geography has changed.

Back when I first started teaching, we quite naturally taught the geography of Africa in connection with our study of the Age of Exploration, calling it “economy of soul”. The very idea of teaching this rich culture through the lens of colonialism is inconceivable to me now. I can’t just pull out those notes and recommend that teachers take that approach. And anyway. . .

My notes are sketchy.

Here’s the thing. Geography is a big outbreath subject, so it’s best taught at the ends of the year—either fall or spring. Almost always, I taught geography in the spring, often as the last block of the year. And you know I try to be diligent about my lesson planning and record-keeping, but spring has its way with the best of us.

Spring is a time when lessons get bumped for plays, field trips, assemblies, and so many other things. And despite my best efforts, often those geography blocks were not my best examples of imaginative, content-rich curricula.

There. I said it.

So, all this to say, though I was excited to talk to teachers about geography, I knew it was going to be work! In the end, the extra prep time was worth it, the classes went great, and I’m happy to share some of what we explored with you.

And I’ll say right off what I told every class I taught this year—geography is a high-prep subject. You don’t get to open the book of Norse Myths and start telling stories. And there’s no linear progression to follow (like with history). In fact, one of the things we talked about was making an effort to remove the geography block from history. Of course, trying to tell stories that transcend time is an exercise in frustration, so ultimately, my best recommendation was to bounce around through history. Tell indigenous and early settler stories from long ago AND from the modern day.

So, to get us ready for that work, here’s a quick peek at what we DO know.

Waldorf Fourth Grade Geography

Rumor has it that this is the grade that Steiner gave the most information about. And it’s true, in my experience, there is some general consensus about what should be taught in fourth-grade geography. The challenge, of course, is that it’s local geography, so still, every teacher is creating content about their local area. So even the fourth-grade teachers aren’t off the hook from doing the big work.

Fourth grade is the year when you start as close to the student as possible and then move out in expanding concentric circles. So, starting with the desk, the classroom, the school, the route from home to school, and eventually covering the town/city and state. There’s a big map-making component to this block that is suddenly age-appropriate for the shifted gaze of the fourth grader. Whereas previously, they were only able to view the world through their own perspective, the fourth grader can now shift and comprehend the bird’s eye view.

Throughout the block, you tell stories that are meaningful for your area, through both an indigenous and early settler lens. Tell stories from various times throughout history, without pigeonholing the indigenous perspective as “historical.”

I happened to start our fourth-grade year with this block, so I’ve got great notes, and I even put together a curriculum guide. It’s, of course, local to my area (Portland, OR), so I offer it at a pretty steep discount. It might give you an idea of what you can put together for your own area.

Waldorf Fifth Grade Geography

This year continues the expanding circles of fourth grade to include the home continent. We don’t, however, need to limit ourselves to the rigid structure of expanding circles. Basically, at the beginning of the first block, give an overview of the continent, and then explore various regions in a way that makes sense to you.

Steiner’s indications for fifth grade include:

• The relationship between the land and the economy, and how they were shaped by each other.
• Artificial rivers, dams, and canals

That’s it. The rest you get to figure out.

And though I’ve talked a lot about trying to separate geography from history, fifth grade is one place where we can take inspiration from the history curriculum to form our content. Fifth-grade history, which studies human evolution through the cultural epochs of India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece, tells the story of how human beings gradually made the earth their home. This seems in keeping with Steiner’s indications for geography above.

So, after giving an overview of the continent (I love to use the story of Paul Bunyan for this), go through the different regions telling stories about how people lived on the land, creating different kinds of maps, and observing climate patterns along the way.

I’ve got a (pretty great, if I do say so myself) North American Geography Curriculum Guide that breaks down how I taught it one year, including great instructions for guiding your students through a state report. But here are a few ideas of stories, just to get your wheels turning.

• The Erie Canal
• Tall Tales and Legends (Old Stormalong)
• The Hudson Bay Beaver Trade
• The Iroquois League
• Steamboats on the Mississippi
• National Parks (great tie in with Botany!)
• The California Gold Rush

By the way, this is a great time to connect with those teachers you meet at summer conferences. Find out what they taught for local geography in fourth grade, and bring those lessons into your regional explorations in fifth grade.

Okay, with fourth and fifth grade outlined a bit, we can start thinking about sixth through eighth. I’m really excited about what we came up with as an approach for these grades, but I’ll cover all that in another post.

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It’s been a summer FULL of work — no vacation this year — so I’m actually feeling a little ahead of the game. We’re starting out with online learning (another post about that coming soon), and I knew there would be lots to adjust to with that new modality, so I decided to get a good chunk of curriculum planning in the bag early.

Planning for Online

I also decided that, at least when it comes to planning, not to do anything different with curriculum prep. There are some things — different supplies and materials, for example — that require a different approach, but my regular block planning is looking remarkably the same.

I figure I’ll adjust as necessary, but the first step is to get the curriculum map figured out. Luckily, this step is the most fun and I always get excited and enthusiastic about the year to come when I start thinking through the stories.

Thankfully, this year is no different.

Waldorf 4th Grade Blocks

The first step, as always, is to map out the blocks on the school calendar. Here’s the order I’ve got them arranged in this year.

• Local Geography #1
• Norse Mythology #1
• Math #1, The Kalevala
• Human and Animal #1
• Math #2, Introduction to Fractions
• Norse Mythology #2
• Human and Animal #2
• Norse Mythology #3
• Math #3, Simplifying Fractions, Multiplying and Dividing
• Local Geography #2

You’ll see that I like to put the more outward facing blocks on the ends of the year, to allow for field trips (though our capacity in that regard will be pretty limited.

Block Planning

One other change I’ve made this year is that I’ve put together a Block Plan document that shows what the imaginative content, skill content and practice work. In the past, I’ve collected this information for myself and outlined it in my teacher planner, but this year I know that parents are wanting more information so they can track their students’ progress themselves. I actually appreciate the inspiration it’s giving me to get more-organized about the work. I’m hoping it will pay off during the school year when planning time will be much more limited.

The First Block — Local Geography

I’m actually really excited about my Local Geography block and I’m approaching it differently this time around. In the past, I’ve essentially taught a block on the indigenous/native perspective and a block about early settlers (for us that means Lewis and Clark and the founding of Portland.)

This time around, it just didn’t feel right to separate the content this way. I’ve been talking with indigenous teachers about how to approach the topic mindfully and every recommendation has been to incorporate modern perspectives, making sure the students know that the native experience is something that is happening now — not separate from other perspectives.

So, instead, each week I’m telling three different types of stories:

• An indigenous story
• An early settlers story
• A purely geographic/connection with nature story

And I’m breaking up the content by location. For the first block we’ll stay right around Portland; the second block will include the entire state of Oregon.

Field Trips

As I learn about all of the different locations around Portland — some that I’ve never visited before — I’m finding good excuses to go out walking with the dog. We’ve hiked all over this city and I’m getting excited about providing my students with hiking guides that they can explore as a family.

At some point we may be able to explore together in small groups, but we’ll start out with individual family explorations, and I think they’re going to have a lot of fun with it.

Academic Skills

As always, the beginning of the year is full of learning new rhythms and establishing routines and practices. This year of online learning (at least for the beginning of the year, that is) is no different. We’ll be figuring out how to work together online, which will actually be very different than what we did in the spring. (I promise a post all about it is coming soon.)

And though our focus won’t be too much on gaining new academic skills, we will do plenty of review, getting back in the swing of things and writing a report.

All About Me Report

When I went through my notes from last time I taught 4th grade, I saw that I had my students complete an All About Me report. I was new to this group of students, so I used it as a chance to get to know them better.

But it also ties in really well with one aspect of the 4th grade curriculum, which is continuing to support the students’ growing individuality. Being able to locate themselves — in space and time — is an important part of this report and greatly contributes to the development of the 4th grader. It will also give us a chance to explore verb tenses in an organic way, before learning about them more formally in our next block.

At this point — and, really, through 5th grade, reports are strongly guided. I give the students a weekly homework assignment with the questions I want them to answer. I make sure they know to answer the questions in complete sentences and then they put their sentences together in a formal report (after I’ve collected and corrected their homework, that is.)

For this report, each week the homework will have a different theme.

• Week 1: When I was a baby
• Week 2: My friends and family
• Week 3: When I first started school
• Week 4: Who I am now

Each week they’ll get three or four questions that will come together to make up that portion of the report. I’ve been using this structure for report writing for awhile and I find it really helps kids until they start to learn what a report looks like. Then they can start taking on structuring their report themselves. Until then, they’ll be supported by the regular structure of our homework routine, which will break the report down into manageable chunks.

I’m really looking forward to teaching this block (yes, even via Zoom) and I’ll definitely update you once the school year gets rolling.

How’s your summer prep going? Are you ready for the first day?

Related posts:

When Do You Start Planning?

Making Time for It All | Skills Practice in Grade 4

North American Geography

The post Waldorf Grade 4 Planning appeared first on A Waldorf Journey.

For this block — our final block of the year — it’s been especially so.

First, we covered the Puget Sound area — where we took our trip to the Olympiad. Story content included:

• Lewis and Clark
• Captain George Vancouver

I could have also included the native people there, though much of the Native American content was brought last year in fourth grade.

Then, we moved on to the Great Plains. Story content included the following:

• Cowboys
• The Pony Express

This week I’m planning on telling the story of Chief Sitting Bull and the Battle of Little Bighorn.

I’m hoping to go into California a bit the following week, including the missions and the Gold Rush. Last time around I also brought the Grand Canyon, but we’ll see if that happens this time.

Geography really requires the teacher to reach into the depths of her intuition and find what would be most compelling for her students. We’re doing lots of map-making, drawing and painting, as well.

It is challenging to have such a labor-intensive block at this point in the year, as we have so many other things to finish up.

At least we’re busy as the year comes to a close!

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