Lightsong Fifth Grade  Curriculum Overview

In fifth grade, the children are invited through the curriculum to develop a broader world perspective.  Until now, history has been only pictorial or personal in nature, free of exact temporal concepts. Now, history and geography become  special main lesson subjects.  Ancient history in fifth grade starts with ancient India, where human beings were dreamy and could still see and hear  into the spiritual world. Ancient Persia felt the impulse to transform the earth, till the soil and domesticate animals, while helping the sun-god conquer the spirit of darkness.The great cultures of Mesopotamia revealed the origins of written language on clay tablets.The Egyptian civilization of the pyramids and pharaohs and the civilization of ancient Greece round out the ancient culture studies. History is an education of the children’s feelings rather than of their memory for facts and figures.Through studies in art, science, government and gymnastics, children have an opportunity to experience the balanced harmony  and beauty of the Greeks. In the spring there is a Greek Olympiad in which fifth graders from several Waldorf schools in the area come together. Grace, form, beauty, and sportsmanship are praised.

They study botany, geography, and in mathematics they continue work with fractions and begin learning about decimals.