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Class 3 is a time of deep change and growth. At this key developmental time, the nine-year-old child begins to experience the world as a more self-conscious individual. The feeling of oneness with the world, that signifies the period of early childhood, is lost.
The Class 3 curriculum meets the child at this time by offering experiences that express the deep interconnectedness between all realms of life. The children begin farming and gardening, developing their understanding of human stewardship; they delve into the language of music; study the great themes of creation, tradition and authority through history; and experience the interdependence of geography, history, land use and economic life.
Class 3D started our farming year with a visit to a neighbouring property to harvest and roast Bunya nuts; our Davidson Plum seedlings were potted, in preparation for planting; and responsibility for Chickenbimby (and the school flock) was officially handed over. Our young farmers are looking forward with much excitement to our Autumn Festival next week, when they will receive a portion of the wheat saved from last year's harvest by our current Class 4 students, who planted, tended, harvested, winnowed, threshed, ground and baked their crop during their own year as stewards of the land.
In the classroom, the children have been exploring the world of measurement. Measurement provides us with firm boundaries and strict rules – we can’t just make up ways of measuring! Although history has a wonderful record of measurement based on our own human form – feet, cubits, inches, hands, spans, lengths, digits, today we work within the metric system. This system comes with rules and with pre-determined sets of numerical measurements – kilometres, metres, centimetres and millimetres. This exploration and experience of an overarching system with its clear sense of order, provides the nine-year-old child with a feeling of security at a time when she can feel alone and in need of firm boundaries, as she faces many changes within her social and emotional world.
Dallas Hewett
Class 3 Teacher
The Class 3 curriculum meets the child at this time by offering experiences that express the deep interconnectedness between all realms of life. The children begin farming and gardening, developing their understanding of human stewardship; they delve into the language of music; study the great themes of creation, tradition and authority through history; and experience the interdependence of geography, history, land use and economic life.
Class 3D started our farming year with a visit to a neighbouring property to harvest and roast Bunya nuts; our Davidson Plum seedlings were potted, in preparation for planting; and responsibility for Chickenbimby (and the school flock) was officially handed over. Our young farmers are looking forward with much excitement to our Autumn Festival next week, when they will receive a portion of the wheat saved from last year's harvest by our current Class 4 students, who planted, tended, harvested, winnowed, threshed, ground and baked their crop during their own year as stewards of the land.
In the classroom, the children have been exploring the world of measurement. Measurement provides us with firm boundaries and strict rules – we can’t just make up ways of measuring! Although history has a wonderful record of measurement based on our own human form – feet, cubits, inches, hands, spans, lengths, digits, today we work within the metric system. This system comes with rules and with pre-determined sets of numerical measurements – kilometres, metres, centimetres and millimetres. This exploration and experience of an overarching system with its clear sense of order, provides the nine-year-old child with a feeling of security at a time when she can feel alone and in need of firm boundaries, as she faces many changes within her social and emotional world.
Dallas Hewett
Class 3 Teacher