Curriculum by grade

Grade 3 Waldorf-inspired main lesson blocks

Around nine, children want to know how the world is made and how to stand on their own feet in it. Grade 3 answers with practical life: measuring, building, farming, cooking and the work of real hands.

Level Grade 3 (Foundation Phase, assessment year)
Blocks 1
Weeks of lessons 3
Outcomes 14

Grade 3 closes the Foundation Phase, and the BELA assessment comes towards its end. The full year is planned for a later release; today the library holds a sample block on measuring and building.

The block

Grade 3, 3 weeks, 4 days a week, about 100 minutes a day

Measuring and Building

Three weeks of practical mathematics. Your child measures with hand spans, feet and strides, discovers why people agreed on shared measures, works with metres, litres, kilograms, money and time in real tasks, and ends by planning, building and reporting on a shelter or model house, after meeting homes from across South Africa.

Week by week

Week 1
Measuring with the body
Nomvula the builder measures with her arms, Sipho's plank comes home too short, and a market agrees on one measuring stick. Your child finds their own body measures and the family makes its own measuring stick.
Week 2
Metres, litres, kilograms, money and time
The story of the metre. Your child measures the garden in metres and their body in centimetres, fills and pours litres, builds a balance and bakes weighed bread, keeping track of time and cost.
Week 3
Homes and shelters
Makhulu's round house, homes across South Africa and Kgothatso's string lines. Your child makes mud bricks, plans a shelter or model on squares, builds it and writes a building report.

What a morning looks like

A real day from Measuring and Building: The builder who measured with her arms.

10 minin-breath
Opening: Morning verse
Light the candle and stand together. Teach the morning verse line by line with its movements: you say a line, your child echoes it. Then say it through twice together. This verse opens every lesson of the block, so by Friday your child will know it.
20 minout-breath
Rhythmic work: Heel to toe
Say Heel to Toe with the movements: heel to toe across the floor, hands along the wall, big strides, counting out loud. Then stand side by side and step the two times table, one step forward on each number up to 24 and back down. Clap the five times table the same way. Finish with three quick questions: How many fives make 20? How many twos make 14? What is six fives?
30 minout-breath
Main lesson book: A title page of hands
Open the main lesson book to the first page. Your child traces around their own hand, fingers spread, in block crayon, again and again around the edge of the page to make a border. In the middle they write the title in large letters: Measuring and Building. Show them first on a spare sheet how to space the letters. Let them colour the hands slowly and well. Ask, without answering: What could a hand be used to measure?
30 minin-breath
The new story: Nomvula the builder
Put the crayons away and sit facing each other. Tell the story of Nomvula from memory. Show each body measure with your own body as she names it: the cubit, the arm span, the hand span and the stride. End on Sipho's question, "Whose hand is right?" and stop there. Do not answer it, even if your child asks. Say, "We will sleep on that one."
10 minin-breath
Closing: Closing
Your child puts the crayons back in their box in order and closes the book. Blow out the candle together, shake hands and thank each other for the morning's work.

The evening before

Read the story of Nomvula twice, then tell it once aloud to yourself, showing each body measure. 15 minutes
Set out the main lesson book, block crayons and a candle, and clear a strip of floor for stepping. 5 minutes
Read the short note on why Grade 3 turns to practical life. 5 minutes

The block opens with a title page of traced hands, and the story of Nomvula, who carries her measures in her body. The whole morning runs about 100 minutes.

Materials to have at hand

Main lesson book
Block crayons and coloured pencils
A 30 cm ruler and a tape measure of at least 5 m
A ball of thick string, scissors, labels and an envelope
A straight stick or strip of stiff card about 60 cm long
A measuring jug, a cup, a 500 ml bottle, a 2 litre bottle and a small bucket
A plastic or wooden coat hanger and two paper cups
A kitchen scale that weighs in grams
Ingredients for the weighed bread rolls
Clay soil, dry grass and a small mould for mud bricks

What a parent can expect to see

Selemo's outcomes describe what you can notice, never a test. Coverage counts only the outcomes you confirm from your own record.

Number

Measures length with body measures (hand span, foot, stride) and explains why a shared measure is needed.Look for: Measures a table in hand spans and compares with a friend
Measures and records length in metres and centimetres with a ruler and a tape.Look for: Measures to the nearest centimetre
Measures capacity and mass with simple containers and a balance, and estimates first.Look for: Estimates before weighing and compares
Works with money and time in real tasks (a shopping list, a building plan, a day plan).Look for: Adds the cost of three items on a list
Estimates a length, a capacity or a mass before measuring, then measures and compares the estimate with the result.Look for: Writes the estimate and the measured result side by side
Converts between metres and centimetres, and between kilograms and grams, in measurements taken at home.Look for: Writes 135 cm as 1 m 35 cm and back again

Practical life

Plans and builds a small shelter or structure with others, using natural or found materials.Look for: Draws a plan before building
Describes how homes in different South African places are built from local materials.Look for: Names two building materials and where they come from
Uses simple tools and measures safely in real household work such as baking, gardening and building, with an adult nearby.Look for: Carries, uses and puts away tools safely

Literacy

Writes short factual texts (instructions, a building report) in clear sentences.Look for: Writes instructions someone else can follow
Reads simple factual texts and finds the information they need.Look for: Finds a measurement in a short text

Science and nature

Investigates materials (clay, wood, stone, reed) for strength and use.Look for: Tests which material holds the most weight

Arts and handwork

Draws a simple scaled plan and models a building in clay or wood.Look for: Keeps the model in proportion to the plan

Language and story

Retells a story or a true account about measuring or building in sequence, with the details that matter.Look for: Tells how the builder solved the problem in their own words

Where the timing differs from CAPS

Selemo meets most CAPS topics in its own order. These notes say where it comes earlier or later. They are written in Selemo's own words and are being checked against the Department of Basic Education's documents.

Measures length with body measures (hand span, foot, stride) and explains why a shared measure is needed.

Selemo returns to body measures in Grade 3 to show why a shared measure is needed; CAPS uses informal units mostly in Grades R to 2.

Measures and records length in metres and centimetres with a ruler and a tape.

Selemo brings in metres and centimetres in a Grade 3 measurement block; CAPS starts standard units of length in Grade 2.

Works with money and time in real tasks (a shopping list, a building plan, a day plan).

Selemo meets time through real plans in a practical block, rather than first through clock reading.

Draws a simple scaled plan and models a building in clay or wood.

Selemo children draw a scaled plan of something they will build; CAPS meets plans and views as a space and shape topic.

Estimates a length, a capacity or a mass before measuring, then measures and compares the estimate with the result.

Selemo estimates and measures length, mass and capacity together in one practical block, where CAPS meets length and then mass and capacity in different terms.

Converts between metres and centimetres, and between kilograms and grams, in measurements taken at home.

Selemo converts between metres and centimetres in Grade 3 through measurements taken at home; CAPS measures in both units here and builds converting more fully in later grades.

Safety notes

The adult does all cutting with a saw, secateurs or a craft knife. Your child uses child-safe scissors.
Stay close whenever there is water in a basin or bucket, and empty it as soon as you finish.
Work outdoors in the morning or late afternoon, with hats and water, and stop for storms and strong wind.
The adult handles the hot oven and hot trays on baking day.

Teach it at home

Selemo plans these blocks into your year, prepares each evening with you, and keeps the record as you go.

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