Curriculum by subject

Language and letters: Waldorf-inspired blocks for Grades 1 and 2

In Selemo's language blocks, writing comes before reading. Each letter grows out of a picture in a story, so the shape of the letter carries a meaning the child already knows. Reading grows from the child's own written work.

Level Grades 1 and 2 (Foundation Phase)
Blocks 2
Weeks of lessons 7
Outcomes 24

Grade 1 meets the letters through stories set in South African landscapes; Grade 2 turns to fables and trickster tales, retold in Selemo's own words with the tradition named.

The blocks

Grade 1, 4 weeks, 4 days a week, about 100 minutes a day

Letters from Stories

Ten capital letters, M, A, W, S, O, F, T, I, B and L, each grown out of a story set in a South African landscape, drawn as a picture and then found inside it. The block ends with the first small letters and a first sentence.

Why this block

In Grade 1 the letters arrive as pictures before they become signs. Each one grows out of a story your child can feel. The mountain becomes M, the snake's track in the red sand becomes S, the umbrella thorn at the crossing becomes T.
Writing comes before reading. Your child draws each picture, then the letter inside it, then a first word and a first sentence. By the end of the block the main lesson book is your child's own first reader.
The three day rhythm gives each story a night's sleep before it is drawn, and another before its letter is found, so the letters your child learns are deeply their own.
The stories travel the country, from the Drakensberg to Kalk Bay and from the Kgalagadi to Vhembe, with names and greetings in many South African languages, so the letters belong to the land your child lives in.

At six and seven the hand is ready, prepared by form drawing, and children still learn most deeply through pictures and movement. Spring is a season of beginnings, and the first letters are a beginning.

The weeks

Week 1: Land, sky and sea
Week 2: Sand, moon and water
Week 3: Things that stand
Week 4: The long walk home

Grade 2, 3 weeks, 4 days a week, about 100 minutes a day

Hare, Tortoise and Other Clever Ones

Three weeks of trickster tales and clever-animal fables for Grade 2. Hare, Tortoise, Jackal and other small ones outwit the strong in retellings of Southern African tales and in new fables. Each main fable is heard, retold and written, then acted and drawn, and the fourth day of each week is for word families, spelling in rhythm and the children's own fables.

Why this block

Fables show, in a few minutes, how a quick mind can turn things round. Seven and eight year olds love that, and children retell what they love.
The trickster tales of Hare, Tortoise and Jackal are among the oldest stories told in Southern Africa. Retelling them keeps a living tradition close to home.
Each fable has a short, clear shape, a problem, a trick and a turn, which is just right for the first sentences children write and read back themselves.
Hearing, retelling, writing, acting and drawing the same fable over three days lets it settle deeply, so reading grows from words the child already owns.

At seven and eight, children start to notice who boasts, who is greedy and who is patient, in others and in themselves. Fables let them meet this lightly, in animals, while their writing and reading grow out of their own retellings.

The weeks

Week 1: Hare
Week 2: Tortoise
Week 3: Jackal and the small ones

What a morning looks like

A real day from Letters from Stories: The humming mountain.

10 minin-breath
Opening: A new block begins
Light the candle. Tell your child that a new block begins today, and that it is about letters, which live in stories. Say Over the Mountain the Light Is New to them once with the movements, then again together, line by line. Greet each other by name.
20 minout-breath
Rhythmic work: Counting and the mountain path
Count to twenty together, one step forward on every number, then step back down to one. Do it again, clapping on every number. Sit facing each other and pass a beanbag with One for the Mountain, counting on to twenty the second time. Finish by walking the mountain path: up on a slant from the rope, a small stop at the peak, straight down. Four peaks across the room, then draw them in the air.
10 minin-breath
The new story: The new book
Sit at the table. Give your child the new main lesson book with both hands. Look at it together, feel the clean pages, and show how to open it flat and turn a page from the corner. Say that this book will fill up with pictures and letters from stories. Show how to hold a block crayon on its long side for colour, and on its edge for a line.
30 minout-breath
Main lesson book: The mountain path
On the first page, draw the mountain path you walked. Draw a row on your own sheet first while your child watches: up on a slant, stop, straight down, four peaks the same height. Your child draws a row across the bottom of the page in brown, then another above it in blue. Look for sharp points with a small stop at each one, not rounded turns. If there is time, colour a pale yellow sky above.
25 minin-breath
The new story: Story, Nomvula and the Humming Mountain
Clear the table except for the candle. Tell Nomvula and the Humming Mountain slowly, from memory. Hum the mmm low and soft. Slow right down when the sun comes up. End with the wind humming down to the village, and stop. Do not ask questions and do not draw. Put the small stone on the story table.
5 minout-breath
Closing: Closing
Say The Book Is Closed with the movements. Your child puts the crayons back in the tin and the book in its place. Blow out the candle together.

The evening before

Read Nomvula and the Humming Mountain twice, then tell it aloud once to yourself without the text. 20 minutes
Read the two notes, Letters Grow Out of Pictures and The Three Day Rhythm in Practice. 10 minutes
Set out the new main lesson book, block crayons and the candle on a clear table, and lay a rope across the floor. 5 minutes

The block begins. The new main lesson book is opened with the mountain path, and the story of Nomvula and the humming mountain is told. The whole morning runs about 100 minutes.

Materials to have at hand

Main lesson book
Beeswax block crayons
Stick crayons
A candle and holder
Two beanbags
A long rope or skipping rope
A tray of sand or salt
A board, or large sheets of paper on the wall
A small story table
Block crayons and stick crayons

What you will notice

The signs Selemo asks you to look for as the block goes on. Each one belongs to an outcome; when you see it, a sentence in the journal is enough.

Literacy

Says the sound when shown the letter
Writes the letter from memory with the right strokes
Offers three words that start like the letter of the day
Leaves a finger space between words
Keeps letters on the line
Points to each word while reading it
Writes a lower case letter beside its capital
Starts sentences with capitals and ends them with full stops
Reads a page of their main lesson book fluently
Writes three words from one family
Steps out the letters of a four letter word
Writes three words of a family without copying
Sings ah
oh and ee clearly with the matching gesture
Says which vowel a name like Anja or Itumeleng begins with
Leaves room at the top for the picture
Writes the word from left to right under it

Language and story

Tells beginning
middle and end
Uses words from the story
Speaks a whole verse alone
Asks about the story the next day
Explains how the hare tricked the lion in their own words
Invents a fable with a beginning
a trick and an end
Says what Tortoise or Hare noticed before the others did
Says a tongue twister slowly and then faster without losing the sounds

Number

Counts in fives while clapping
Counts back from twenty

Arts and handwork

Draws the form large in the air before drawing it on paper
Closes forms neatly
Fills the page with sky and ground as well as the animals

Movement and music

Keeps a steady beat across a whole verse
Changes voice and posture for each animal

Practical life

Sets out the main lesson book and crayons without being asked

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.

Recognises and writes upper case letters met through letter pictures, saying their sounds.

Selemo brings each letter out of a story picture at a slower pace and meets capitals first; CAPS works through many single sounds in lower case from the first term.

Recognises and writes upper case letters met through letter pictures, saying their sounds.

Selemo writes capitals first and lower case later in Grade 1; CAPS forms lower case letters from the start and adds capitals later.

Copies a short sentence from the board into the main lesson book, with spaces between words.

In Grade 1 Selemo children copy sentences the class has made together; writing their own sentences comes mostly in Grade 2.

Reads back simple sentences the class has written together.

Selemo lets reading grow out of the child's own writing and starts formal reading later; CAPS begins group guided reading with graded readers in Grade 1.

Reads back simple sentences the class has written together.

Reading back familiar sentences comes before reading unseen graded readers, which Selemo leaves mostly to Grade 2.

Begins to write lower case letters as they grow out of the capitals.

Selemo meets lower case letters later in Grade 1, as they grow out of the capitals; CAPS starts with them.

Safety notes

An adult lights and blows out the candle, and it stands where an arm cannot knock it over.
The snake story is gentle. If you meet a real snake on a walk this week, stand still, keep your child close and let it move away.
Light and blow out the candle yourself, and keep it away from paper and costumes.
In tug of war games, pull gently and never wrap the rope round hands or wrists.

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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