In the fourth grade of Waldorf education there is a lesson block that looks at the relationship between humans and the rest of animal creation. I had a hard time making sense of it. Having been taught something very different in my grade school days (ideas that have not served well, by the way) it was a whole new perspective to explore, and the full-on Anthroposophic Steiner model didn't work for me. The more I got into it, tho', I could see the core parts were good, and they integrate well with our Eastern Christian understandings. For further reading to understand better the Waldorf/Steiner mode of seeing this topic, the book "The Human Being and the Animal World" by Charles Kovacs is especially good at delving into it. This blog post from Five of Us does a decent job of summarizing. Of course, this is a natural opportunity to include the idea of humanity as the truest icons of the Divine, and that may lead into a further lesson about what icons are and how we use them. I particularly like this blog post on the topic. This intro to the difference between human and animals helps support and make some important underlying foundational concepts that are needed in Eastern Christianity: -- understand the nature of the flow of the spirit through our bodies will be useful later on when breathing & spiritual practice are taught -- the beauty of the head, trunk, limbs metaphor is not lost later on when we learn about the purpose of humanity in God's creation -- no judgement is placed on the rest of God's creation as lesser or lacking, just functionally and different in purpose -- it also does not overemphasize intellect as tho' that is our most important tool; this sets up the importance of thinking and listening from the heart, and not accidentally giving the intellect and "monkey mind" too much significance Here are the beginning pages to our block (the following pages are physical animal studies and observations).
Many Waldorf homeschoolers express difficulty with what is known as the Man and Animal block in 4th grade. Here is Steiner on humans & animals.
We began this block with a talk about how the human body is formed. In short, we have three major parts: head, trunk, and limbs. The basis for this discussion, and our first week of Man and Animal …
(this block explores the threefold of man & his relationship to the animal world. ) monday, november 9th (read on own, my side of the mountain, 45 min) *workbooks (spelling, math & general ed) main lesson: we begin this first week with a discussion of man. we explore the human body & its form, we discover that there are three main parts. the head, all alone at the top, round, the trunk, broader & flatter, with some roundness, and the limbs, our arms & legs which radiate out. *draw a head to toe self portrait lesson b: form drawing, learn to tie & draw "triple overhand knot" tuesday, november 10th (read on own, 45 min) *workbooks (spelling, math, & general ed) main lesson: (recall yesterday's discussion) then delve a bit deeper, relating each body part to the a part of the world... the head, all alone at the top, round, our eyes shining down on the world around us...with our head, our thoughts, we can brighten the world around us, and so our heads are like the sun. the trunk, home to our lungs, our breathing in & out, the chest rising & falling...waxing & waning; like the waves rising & falling; we are flat on our back with a bit of a curve on the front...and so our trunks are like the moon. our limbs...they help us to run & jump, to climb, draw, paint, to create and our fingers & toes that radiate...each with five points, yes!...like the stars... *draw a second self portrait, as the "star child" (to quote mrs. marsha)... lesson b: handwork, continue working on spiral friendship bracelet wednesday, november 11th (read on own, 45 min) *workbooks (spelling, math & general ed) *main lesson: (recall both mon & tues discussions) *write a few paragraphs summarizing the main thoughts lesson b: baking thursday, november 12th (read on own, 45 min) *workbooks (spelling, math & general ed) *main lesson: (recall this weeks work) model star child using fimo (gold, blues & purples) *paint "star child", verse: "favorite star of mine" (3rd stanza, anurag kumar) it is the star that lies beyond the sun, it is the star of ultimate truth, it is the star of love & peace, it is the star where my soul lives." lesson b: handwork, finish friendship bracelets
This is going to be a large post because I'm including both of the main lesson books Leah created for Man and Animal. Please note that she did them in sixth grade and so the amount and quality of writing is more than what you would expect from a fourth grader. I hope they are helpful, regardless. We used the fabulous, fantastic, and free East African Teachers Training Manual 6: Human and Animal Studies. I really like the diagram on page 29 of the "Threefold Human Being." I used this to help me choose which animals we'd study for each of the two blocks. "Thus we may see, as illustrated in the diagram, that just as a baby is born head first and slowly develops the trunk and limbs, so in the evolution of creation the ‘head’ creatures in the sea came first, then the ‘trunk’ creatures like the fishes, insects and reptiles and finally the ‘limb’ animals in the mammals. The different creatures are specifically linked to the form of the human being. On the opposite side of the diagram we may see a different division of the animal kingdom whereby the creatures are linked to the human being through the functions of the three areas of the body." So in our first block, we did three groups of animals (head, trunk, limbs), and in our second block we did three different groups of animals (nerve/sense, rhythmic/breathing/blood - carnivores, metabolic - ungulates). To give the briefest possible explanation of the anthroposophical view, the human being is the animals put together and so the animals are the human being taken apart. This view is what separates the Waldorf "Man and Animal" block from the traditional teaching of Zoology in the public school. Here are the pages for Leah's main lesson book. I've tried to include notes as to the source of the story or illustration where I can. Click on any picture to enlarge it and scroll through the photos with ease. her idea: to draw one man and one animal for Man and Animal I and two men and two animals for Man and Animal II Man and Animal I was our fourth block of the year self-portrait as a celestial being inspired by this picture my version (watercolor pencil) from The Waldorf Book of Poetry: Discover the Power of Imagination from my very first Waldorf chalkboard drawing 12 Phyla: Porifera, Echinoderm, Cnidaria, Platyhelminth, Annelid, Mollusk, Arthropod, Fish, Amphibian, Reptile, Bird, Mammal jellyfish poem which we found online life cycle of the jellyfish pull down to reveal... beautiful jellyfish artwork which we made with a guest art teacher too-wet paintings of a snail and an octopus the snail was inspired by this one and the octopus came from instructions in the Dick Bruin and Attie Lichthart painting book I love how she incorporated the octopus and snail into her title page of soil with earthworm facts in the tunnels (her idea) page inspired by this chalkboard drawing "Fishes" poem for two voices from Georgia Heard's Creatures of Earth, Sea, and Sky creating a fish by drawing the watery environment around it, inspired by this illustration from Live Ed! "It Starts with a T and Lives in a Shell" page about turtles and tortoises wet on dry watercolor painting inspired by this one by Rick Tan again, I love her fabulous titles and borders - so creative! on to mammals... painting a seal by painting the watery environment around it, inspired by this one "Seal" concrete poem from the excellent collection of children's poetry edited by Alison Sage "32 Things My Hands Do" metaphors and similes which have to do with animals this idea is from Roy Wilkinson's The Human Being and the Animal World and it's a good one for ending this block Man and Animal II was our ninth block of the year kicking off the block by participating in the annual Great Background Bird Count, done all around the world every February "Sparrow" poem by Kaye Starbird, from Eric Carle's Animals Animals map of all the bird feeders in our yard "The Eagle" poem with young bald eagle talon illustration traced from the Eagle page in Maryjo Koch's Bird Egg Feather Nest chapter 5 from Kovacs' The Human Being and the Animal World: The Harvest Mouse and then the poem "The Harvest" by Alice C. Henderson for many of the remaining animals we used chapters from Thornton Burgess's EXCELLENT Burgess Animal Book for Children, copyright 1920 my edition is leather bound with the original pictures but apparently the modern edition only contains the stories - well worth getting however chapter XXXII Buster Bear chapter XXVII Reddy Fox chapter XXVIII Old Man Coyote "An Almost Dictionary Definition of Lions" - I love her titles! chapter 13 from Kovacs and we must have watched a nature documentary for this as well but I have no idea which one here we switched to Horns and Antlers by the inimitable Wilfrid S. Bronson chapter 1 has a fantastic explanation of the stomachs Ruminants AKA Cloven-Hoofed Cud Chewers describing the step-by-step path through the four stomachs horns vs antlers then we returned to Thornton Burgess XXXV Lightfoot the White-Tailed Deer chapter XXXVI Flathorns the Moose a moose submerged happily in watery vegetation every leaf with a moose fact on it have I mentioned how creative and adorable she is? I LOVED her work for these blocks! I hope this has been fun and inspirational! My other blog posts from teaching Man and Animal: First Block - Form Man and Animal Resources Dancing the Relationship Between Photosynthesis and Respiration List of Resources for the Animals Chalkboard Drawings aka "Am I Waldorf Enough?" Dissecting a Cow Heart - $11.08 David Attenborough and Animal Poetry A Beautiful Way to Do Jellyfish Paintings Second Block - Function I Am a Baby Porcupette Great Backyard Bird Count This post contains affiliate links to the materials I actually use for homeschooling. I hope you find them helpful. Thank you for your support!
"Noble be man, helpful and true, for that alone sets him apart from every other creature on earth." "What the heart feels, the head can plan but only the hands can do." © Sara E. Wilson
I have some more artwork to share: Our second Man and Animal block focused on the three parts of ourselves… the thinking (eagle) self, the feeling (lion) self, and the willing (cow/bull) self…
Kreidebilder aus den Fächern Biologie, Geschichte und Erdkunde, gemalt mit normaler Tafelkreide, weggewischt mit einem normalen Schwamm, vorher aber noch fotografiert und (wenigstens hier) konserviert.
(this block explores the threefold of man & his relationship to the animal world. ) monday , november 9 th (read on own, my side of the mou...
We began this block with a talk about how the human body is formed. In short, we have three major parts: head, trunk, and limbs. The basis for this discussion, and our first week of Man and Animal …
