2024 - 2025 Class 4 Main Lesson
in order to begin Class 4 in the Fall, the student must have turned 9 by May 1st of that year.
Our Class 4 maximum class size is 14 students, allowing the teacher to get to know each student and creating a school-family environment during class.
The nine-year-old and ten-year-old student is excited to meet the world with growing capacities of thinking and feeling. The intention of the fourth-grade curriculum is first and foremost to honor and guide the powerful energy that children this age bring to the world. The students need to be challenged and stretched in every possible aspect of their work. Our aim is to meet the growing interest of students in more concrete areas of knowledge and to provide them with opportunities for more independence in their work.
Language arts
Students start the year with an opportunity to open their imagination with the wonderful tale of Beowulf. Later in the year, the tumultuous stories of Norse mythology teach about character and individuality in a complex world. The Norse characters are not the perfect but make mistakes and face the consequences. This is soul food for the 10-year-old child who is facing his or her own humanity separate from his or her grownups. The Fourth Grader might become afraid of things they were not afraid of before and begin to ask questions about death. The Norse stories meet them in this place where Ragnarök is coming, but life is full of vitality! Class 4 students write their own compositions with support and instruction, and sometimes collaboration. Rich literature is also part of the US Geography and Human and Animal blocks.
The 4th Grade student has moved from the “learning to read” to the “reading to learn” stage. Grammar and spelling practice are incorporated throughout the year, and composition is part of every main lesson block whether it be through paragraph writing, creative writing, journaling, dictation, or sentence practice.
Math
There are three Math Main Lessons in Class 4. During these Main Lessons, topics such as fractions, factors, equivalences, least common multiple, greatest common factor, long division and much more are studied and practiced. Procedures are never given blindly, rather, students are given time to explore and discover during math work. Hands-on and artistic work plays a significant role in Lotus & Ivy Math Lessons.
For a complete math curriculum, Lotus & Ivy recommends that students also enroll in the Expanded Curriculum class, which meets twice a week, in addition to the Main Lesson Classes. Together, the three math Main Lessons plus the year-round Expanded Curriculum classes provide a complete math curriculum covering topics including a review of the four processes with multiple digits, measurement, unit conversion, review division with remainders, finding the common denominator, puzzles, mental math strategies, and more.
Science
The study of animals and how they compare to humans in our Human and Animal blocks is the Class 4 students’ first formal Science Main Lesson. This block provides nourishment to the 4th grade child whose rational thinking is beginning to blossom. The students are becoming interested in real-world, intellectual information now, and this block speaks to their desire for facts and science. As they grow in their intellectual thinking, we still value the imaginative thinking just as much and will present the animals in imaginative ways, while staying true to the science.
And of course, we continue to educate the moral life of the child by discussing what makes us different from the animals. We are not presented as “better than” the animals, but our spine is erect and our hands have been freed for good work. Think of all the wonderful work we do with our freed hands – we write books, we build, we perform surgeries, we create, we invent, we cook, we help each other in many ways.
As it is best to approach new material by starting with what we know, we will examine the human being first and relate the animals back to humans with regards to their anatomy, physiology, and special characteristics. The animal blocks include original composition, painting, dictation, and drawings.
We begin with a study of head, trunk, and limb animals in the first block. We start with the unusual cuttlefish and the clever octopus, and the Fourth Grader loves these fascinating animals. The second block looks more like a zoology study where students are introduced to the different systems (digestive, respiratory, nervous, etc.) and how they develop and become more complex within the different phylum of the Animal Kingdom. Students are supported as they collect information and write a report. These skills begin the process of developing objectivity, a skill necessary for all scientific study and useful as well when working out interpersonal interactions.
History and Geography
Class 4 students have developed to a point where they can be led into the history and geography of their locality and country. Through mapmaking and exploring the world through their local community and state, Class 4 students develop a sense for the goodness around them and where they fit into community.
At the end of Class 4, students study United States geography through stories, songs, mapmaking, writing, crafts, and poetry. They learn about Native American culture and peoples, and we teach that the USA is a “melting pot” of many people woven together to create a beautiful tapestry of rich culture and increasing brotherly love. This is not a US History block. Those will come later in middle school and high school. Through the beautiful stories and arts representing US culture, the child will feel a pride for his or her country and an innate love for all of the people that have made it so wondrous and fascinating.
EXPECTATIONS
Our teachers send home assignments for the week for students to work on outside of class time. Class 4 students can expect to spend about 3 hours outside of class time on assignments each week.
Our classes are recorded and can be watched later for students who miss a class. The recordings are not sold or shared with anyone outside of the class.
Complete Curriculum
Lotus & Ivy’s Main Lessons and homework, when completed, fulfill a complete year homeschool requirement for language arts, science, and social studies. While we offer three math Main Lessons in Class 4, for a complete math curriculum, we recommend that families register for Math and Language Arts Skills classes for Class 2. Skills classes provide ongoing math practice, twice a week, year-round. Language Arts skills are practiced once per week year-round. For more information about our Expanded Curriculum Class, click here.
Lotus & Ivy also offers Complement Classes in addition to our Main Lesson and Expanded Curriculum Classes. Our Complements for this age include Spanish, German, pentatonic flute, practical arts, eurythmy, speech arts & storytelling, and handwork. Students meet once a week with their teacher for these Complement Classes. Families may enroll in as many Complement classes as they like.
Students may enroll in Lotus & Ivy Main Lesson Classes, Expanded Curriculum Classes, or Complement Classes or any combination of the three. Students may enroll in Lotus & Ivy Main Lesson Classes, Expanded Curriculum Classes, or Complement Classes or any combination of the three. Lotus & Ivy recommends that students take all three offerings for the most comprehensive experience, providing hands-on and experiential learning at its best.
SCREEN TIME: HARMFUL OR HEALTHY?
We have carefully considered screen time for all of our classes to ensure the screen time is interactive, not passive or one-sided. Our teachers, along with other health & education experts, have for many years encouraged parents to avoid screens for children because, when the screen time is one-sided, like with television and video games, it is harmful to the child’s brain. Live and interactive online classes make good use of technology and allow us to bring this whole-child education to a much larger audience by ensuring that screen time is two-sided and teachers may respond in real-time to the child.
COGNITIVE FOUNDATION
True to our curriculum, our classes provide plenty of opportunities for artistic and creative work.
According to an article published by the Waldorf Research Institute entitled Waldorf Education is Developmentally Appropriate – What Exactly Does this Mean?, “recent MRI equipment has illuminated the fact that in young children, artistic work, full body playing, and sensory stimulation all light up the whole brain. Focused academic work, on the other hand, only lights up small parts of the brain. That ‘lighting’ up points to the development of neurons, making the child’s brain replete with neurons which end up looking, at their best, like a gorgeous, mature tree crown. Once myelinated, these neurons communicate for clear thinking, flexible problem solving, executive function, and creativity.” (https://www.waldorflibrary.org/articles/1249-waldorf-education-is-developmentally-appropriate-what-exactly-does-this-mean)