Recorded here is my own personal collection of articles, resources, favorite links, teaching ideas, and lesson plans. It encompasses many years, from the very beginning of my experience studying and learning about Waldorf to the present time. People from all around the world visit my site and recommend it to others. Welcome!
This site records my journey. I hope my honesty is encouraging and helps break down some barriers that may prevent people from trying Waldorf methods. Because this is an ongoing site documenting my curriculum planning and ideas, some materials are more Waldorf-y than others. Please feel free to take what you like and leave the rest.
This page has helpful links and LOADS of free resources to help you plan your fifth grade year. Enjoy!
Pinterest - Renee Schwartz My curated collection of visuals! Browse sample main lesson book pages, watercolor paintings, chalkboard drawings, etc. for
Ancient Greece.
FREE eBooks at the Online Waldorf Library Excellent resource! Published Waldorf curriculum books provided here in PDF format for you to download, keep, and read... for free!
Dorothy Harrer's Chapters from Ancient History is now available online for FREE at the Online Waldorf Library,
so that makes it a budget-friendly option (and, happily, her volume includes Ancient Greek History for grade 6 as well
as the Mythology for grade 5).
I, however, didn't want to go as deeply as the D'Aulaire's book does because
we were doing this in the shortened month of November, and then choosing our
favorite myth to be the subject of our class play in December. That book is long enough for two blocks on Greek Mythology! We did that
for Norse myths but we just didn't have time for that in grade 5.
In Olden Times
Gaea, Mother Earth
The Titans
Zeus and His Family
Hera
Hephaestus
Aphrodite
Ares
Athena
Poseidon
Apollo
Artemis
Hermes
Hades
Persephone and Demeter
Dionysus
Minor Gods, Nymphs, Satyrs, and Centaurs
Prometheus
Pandora
Deucalion
Eos
Helios and Phaëthon
Selene
Pan
Echo
Syrinx
The Wild and Vulgar Centaurs
Asclepius
The Nine Muses
Orpheus
Mortal Descendents of Zeus
Europa and Cadmus
Tantalus and Pelops
Danaüs, Perseus, and the Gorgon
Clever and Vainglorious Kings
King Midas
Sisyphus
Bellerophon
Melampus
Heracles
Theseus
Oedipus
The Golden Fleece
The Calydonian Boar Hunt
The Apples of Love and the Apple of Discord
Everything Must Come to an End
p.11 - Quiz Time: Olden Times, Gaea and the Titans
p.14 - Odd or Even
p.16 - Quiz Time: Zeus and His Family
p.21 - Quiz Time: Minor Gods
p.22 - Mapping Skills
pp.25-27 - "Prometheus" by Lord Byron
p.28 - Quiz Time: Mortal Descendents of Zeus Part I
p.33 - Quiz Time: Mortal Descendents of Zeus Part II
p.34 - I Am Theseus
p.39 - Any Questions?
p.43 - Unit Test
p.44 - Language Writing Activity
p.45 - Conversations
I wouldn't use all of these in 5th grade but since I am working with a mixed-age classroom in our homeschool co-op, I can see a lot of these as
being good for the older children. Since we aren't reading all of these legends, the practice in using an Index to answer the quizzes
will be valuable, as will
the essay writing and analytical assignments for 7th/8th grade. Mapping is good for 3rd/4th grade. The simplest version of the math game "Odd or Even" can be played by the 1st graders!
Famous Myths of the Golden Age retold by Beatrice Alexander (1947)
short & sweet! our primary text for this block in November
The Flame-Giver
Pandora's Box
The Gorgon's Head
The Story of King Midas
The Sun-God and the Mortal
How Phaeton Drove the Horses of the Sun
The Golden Fleece
Cupid and Psyche
The Labors of Hercules
The Six Pomegranate Seeds
The Wanderings of Ulysses
*NEW* this window transparency would be lovely to go along with the legend of Narcissus
chapter 5 - How Telemachus Went to Look for His Father
chapter 6 - How Telemachus Saw Nestor
chapter 7 - How Telemachus Came to Sparta
chapter 8 - Menelaus's Story
chapter 9 - How Ulysses Came to the Phaeacians
chapter 10 - Nausicaa
chapter 11 - Alcinous
chapter 12 - Ulysses Among the Phaeacians
chapter 13 - Ithaca
chapter 14 - Eumaeus
chapter 15 - Ulysses and His Son
chapter 16 - Of the Dog Argus and Other Things
chapter 17 - Of the Beggar Irus and Other Things
chapter 18 - How Ulysses Was Made Known
chapter 19 - The Trial of the Bow
chapter 20 - The Slaying of the Suitors
chapter 21 - At Last
chapter 22 - Of Laertes
chapter 23 - How There Was Peace Between Ulysses and His People
Resources for Greek History
It is almost impossible to separate out Greek Mythology from Greek History, but the idea is that
the mythology is most suitable for 5th graders and the history is most suitable for 6th graders. Just in case you are
combining them, especially so that you can cover other parts of the world in middle school and balance out the
potentially
Euro-centric curriculum, here are some resources for How They Lived (another
option, of course, is a combined Greek & Roman History block in 6th grade).
Orpheus
The Greek Gods and the Beginning of All Things
King Minos of Crete
Theseus
The Aegean Heroes
Heinrich Schliemann
The Twelve Labors of Heracles
Olympic Games
The Delphic Oracle
The Hand of Greece Lycurgus of Sparta Education in Sparta Earliest Athens
Solon of Athens The Tyrant, Pisistratus
Themistocles
Pericles Education in Athens Priests of the Beautiful
East and West Sophocles Phidias The Birth of Philosophy After Pericles
Philip of Macedon Alexander the Great
My notes from teaching this during the 2021-2022 school year:
We would check
versions of the myths from D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths as part
of the recall/summarize step, simply out
of curiosity to compare them, but you could easily skip this.
begin to brainstorm ideas for the Class Play ("Three Vignettes from Greek Mythology") which
will include Echo & Narcissus, Pandora's Box, and The Six Pomegranate Seeds
homeschool co-op play planning meeting - make initial decisions about
three vignettes - Echo and Narcissus, Pandora's Box, The Six Pomegranate Seeds
co-directors - which of the three older students will "adopt" and help with planning each vignette
programs - paper programs will be handed out at the reception so as not to spoil any surprises, the parents of the three older students
will each receive a sealed envelope when they are seated, when it is time for each vignette to begin the family of the child
who helped co-direct it will open the envelope
and look at the enclosed needle felted tapestry and guess what the myth will be
narrator
cast - which child will play each character
Narcissus
Echo (voice)
----------
Zeus
Pandora
Hermes
Hope (voice)
----------
Demeter
Persephone
Zeus
Hades
Hermes
set pieces - blue table in front of the office supply closet will be used in all three stories, first with a mirror on it
as Narcissus stares at his reflection in the lake, then covered with a brown cloth to be the table on which Pandora sets her box,
then covered with a black cloth to be the dining room table in Hades' palace in the Underworld where he tries to tempt
Persephone to eat
stage - how we will organize the space, library as main performance space with audience seating along N wall,
W wall as Mount Olympus, S wall as Earth (Echo will be out of sight and up the steps), E wall as the Underworld (where the narrator will sit until
it is revealed she has been Hades the whole time!)
backdrops - we use inexpensive garment racks and paint cotton sheets and drape them over the racks for scenery, three panels of black
cloth for the Underworld, one panel with grass and sky painted for Earth (also, an assortment of potted plants in front of
library window to be the area of growing things which Demeter tends when her back is to Persephone and she is taken),
two panels with Mount Olympus painted on them (in
front of this will be a large chair with arms
to be the throne for Zeus with great heaps of wool around his throne to be the clouds)
keyboard for musical accompaniment will stand behind panels for Mt. Olympus (beautiful music as Pandora is being created, suspenseful/discordant music as she opens the box and
all of the evils of the world fly out)
other areas - laundry room as off stage area / dressing room, art room as reception area with paper programs
and an assortment of Ancient Greek foods (student
who is doing the "Foods of the World" project will present these)
props - what props we will need (mirror, Pandora's box, beautiful marble to be Hope,
flowers for Persephone to gather, plate and silverware and golden goblet)
prop storage - mirror will stay on blue table and be covered by successive layers of cloth, Pandora's box will under Zeus's throne, flowers and
place setting for the final vignette will be under the blue table (when the table is carried from Earth to the Underworld during the scene change we
will bring them out from under the table)
read additional picture book versions of the story you are co-directing (Pandora's Box, The Six Pomegranate Seeds)
class play planning - look at inside of book jacket "how the illustrations
were created" for The Secret Subway, use our books of Greek Myths
to research costumes for the vignette you are co-directing, think about color swatches, consider whether you want to use masks
daffodil mask hidden under blue table and Narcissus can just reach down and put it on
narcissus plants on reception table?
draft plan for costumes -
Narcissus - clothing in fresh green, yellow mask with orange felt petals
Zeus - clothing in grey, cardboard lightning bolt
Pandora - clothing in pink, barrette in hair
Hermes - clothing in blue, golden winged sandals, staff
Demeter - reversible cloak (blue with green flowers on one side, grey on the other), clothing in dark geen or brown
Persephone - clothing in white, gold headband, necklace of flowers
Hades - clothing in black, black cape with hood, put hood up when changing from narrator to Hades
class play planning - begin rough draft of the script for the story you are co-directing, interview each actor to see who would like
to have lines and what
they would like to say (we always make having lines in the play optional)
look at connections between astronomy and Greek & Roman mythology:
read Greek History chapters from A Child's History of the World:
chapter 14 - Hard as Nails
chapter 15 - The Crown of Leaves
chapter 21 - Rich Man, Poor Man
Tuesday, Dec 7
class play planning - complete rough draft of the script for the story you are co-directing
class play planning - initial script run through, work out blocking, revise and finalize script,
make decisions about lighting and music, practice bows
read Greek History chapters from A Child's History of the World:
chapter 23 - Greece vs. Persia
chapter 24 - Fighting Mad
chapter 25 - One Against a Thousand
Thursday, Dec 9
class play planning - finish cleaning and organizing the library, make props (Narcissus mask, Zeus thunderbolt),
set up Zeus throne, organize special effects for Pandora's Box, practice music
for Pandora's Box, assemble clothing racks for painted fabric backdrops
read Greek History chapters from A Child's History of the World:
chapter 26 - The Golden Age
chapter 27 - When Greek Meets Greek
chapter 28 - Wise Men and Otherwise
chapter 29 - A Boy King
Monday, Dec 13
class play planning - paint Mount Olympus (on navy blue king size sheet)
Tuesday, Dec 14
class play planning - assemble remaining clothing racks and place in position (Mount Olympus, Earth, Underworld), pin up forest scene for Earth, pin up
black fabric for Underworld, make Hermes helmet (regular weight aluminum foil for cap, extra heavy weight aluminum foil for wings), place wool batting around
Zeus throne and the base of Mount Olympus for clouds, test Super Lemony Olive Oil Cake
recipe
Wednesday, Dec 15
class play planning - set up audience chairs, do first dress rehearsal
Thursday, Dec 16
class play planning - do second dress rehearsal, type up programs
Friday, Dec 17
class play planning - prepare and arrange a menu of Ancient Greek Foods for reception, play performance at 2 pm
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