Bahamas Archipelago Postcard (Talin).jpeg

Class 5

in order to begin Class 5 in the fall, the student must have turned 10 by May 1st of that year.

For Class 5, class size is 12 students, allowing the teacher to get to know each student and creating a school-family environment during class.

History and Geography

Students in Class 5 begin formal history studies and follow the history of humanity with the study of ancient cultures from India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Greece. The lives of Manu, Rama, Buddha, Zarathustra, Gilgamesh, Khufu, Pericles, Socrates, and Alexander the Great are studied among others. The study of history begins in ancient times and works up to the present day from Classes 5 through 8. This evolution of humanity over the course of history reflects the developmental growth of the child through these years and meets them right where they are.

In Geography, students expand out from Geography of the United States in Class 4 to the Geography of Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean. Geography brings the child into the world by starting locally and expanding to the whole planet over the next four years.

Language Arts

Literature includes Greek Mythology and novel studies, and the students are instructed and supported through various written compositions to accompany their history studies. Grammar and spelling practice are incorporated into every main lesson as part of the morning warm-up, and composition is part of every main lesson block whether it be through essay-writing, paragraph writing, creative writing, journaling, or lab reports.

Science

In Science, Class 5 students study the Plant Kingdom with botany, and many science topics are woven into the history lessons. Some examples include: the study of Manu and the flood is a great time to review the water cycle and look at the rainbow and how colors come into being. The Egyptian method of bringing the floodwaters of the Nile to the crops makes for a perfect engineering project building a shadoof, and the study of the ancient environments lends to the study of climates of the world. The study of the regions of India lends to the study of the diversity of animals in the country, from the snow leopard of the Himalayas to the lions and tigers of the southern forests. (Yes, India is the only country where both lions and tigers live in the wild!)

Math

The Class 5 Math Main Lessons are “Geometry I & the Wonder of Numbers” and “Decimals”. During these Main Lessons, topics such as freehand Geometry, geometric terminology, angles, area and perimeter, the four processes with decimals, equivalences, the metric system, divisibility rules, prime numbers, and much more are studied. Formulas are never given blindly, rather, students are given time to explore and discover during math work.

For a complete math curriculum, Lotus & Ivy recommends Class 5 Math Class, which meets twice a week, in addition to the Main Lesson Classes, and provides a complete year math curriculum covering topics including a review of fractions, common and unlike denominators, distance, weight, and volume, U.S. measurement system, angles, Pythagorean Theorem, powers of two, and more.

EXPECTATIONS

Our teachers send home assignments for the week for students to work on outside of class time. Class 5 students can expect to spend 2-4 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 Waldorf Main Lessons and homework, when completed, fulfill a complete year homeschool requirement for language arts, science, and social studies. For a complete math curriculum, we recommend that families supplement with additional math practice at least three times a week. Lotus & Ivy offers additional math classes to meet this requirement. For more information about our Class 5 math class, click here.

If you are looking for a complete wholistic Waldorf program, Lotus & Ivy offers Complement classes in addition to our main lesson and math classes. Our Complements are four rotations of Spanish, German, flute & recorder, and handwork. Students meet twice a week with their teacher for these classes in addition to main lesson and math.

Students may enroll in Lotus & Ivy Main Lesson Classes, Complete Year Math Classes, or Complement Classes or any combination of the 3. Lotus & Ivy recommends that students take all 3 offerings for the most comprehensive Online Waldorf-inspired experience, providing hands-on and experiential learning at it’s 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. Waldorf education, along with health & education experts outside of Waldorf education, have for many years taught to avoid screens because when the screen time is one-sided, like with television, it is harmful to the child’s brain. Lotus & Ivy’s live and interactive online classes make excellent use of technology and allow us to bring Waldorf education to a much larger audience by ensuring the screen time interactive and experiential.

Cognitive Foundation

As true with any Waldorf 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)