(age 10 – 11)
The pivotal point between childhood and puberty.
Strong group dynamic in the class.
The children are involved in their work, with a new self-assurance.
Physical:
Increased balance and coordination
Growth in the limbs
Increased strength and endurance
Cognitive:
Thinking and reasoning becomes more active: though the pictorial aspect is still strong, the child is starting to think in concepts
Questioning and criticising, but now starting to be combined with a more realistic and rational understanding of the world
The class 4 concern with fairness deepens into a greater use of conscience and sense of responsibility
Greater memory and appreciation of time
Emotional:
Growing sense of self
Growing confidence in their own capacities
Needs of this age:
New intellectual, moral, social challenges
A teaching style which brings pictorial images into reasoning
Thirst for knowledge of a wider world, both geographically and over time
An understanding of the inter-relatedness of human cultures and their environment
Steiner Curriculum themes to meet the needs of this age:
Main Lessons:
A move from myth to history. Strong pictures of early civilisations and the gradual change in consciousness from one civilisation to another, with each civilisation having a new relationship with their gods, the world and each other.
Ancient India -sense of oneness, spirituality, ancient clairvoyance – Ancient East – eg China
Persia – farming and agriculture; themes of light and darkness
Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Sumer, Babylonia, Assyria – guidance through a spiritual leader, the ordering of society, identity as a group
Ancient Greece – new power of thinking, the new concept of "conscience" and self-responsibility, rather than obeying the will of the gods. The birth of philosophy and scientific thought; a new artistic impulse marrying beauty and form; new social & political structures. The development of democracy has a bearing on the social stage of the class.
Biographies of great leaders from ancient cultures
Grammar - time and space concepts
Maths -geometry
Botany : "how does the earth work upon the plant?"
Environmental studies: "how does the human being work with the plant world?"
National geography, including social and economic aspects: "how does the human being work with the physical world?"
Class 5 Main Lessons
Grammar and Punctuation and Dictionary skills
Writing – Text Types
Measurement – Volume, Capacity, Mass
Fractions and Decimals
Weather, Graphs & Problem Solving
2D Geometry
Botany
Australian Society/Aboriginal Studies – eg, Rise of the colonies, Federation, White Australia Policy, Votes – women and Aboriginals, Stolen Generations, History of 1800s – early 1900s
Australian Geography – National, State and Regional – mapping skills
Ancient East (India, Persia, China, narrative content and reading material, stories taken from ancient eastern cultures up to the time of classical antiquity, Hindu legends of Krishna and Ardjuna, Sumerian legend of Gilgamesh)
Ancient Egypt
Ancient Greece
Teaching styles:
More practical, objective approach to the world, though still engaging feeling
Teaching needs to be lively with strong leadership
Children respond to and respect specialist knowledge brought by subject teachers
Social skills development continues, with the theme of the individual working for the group
