Temporal range: Early Pleistocene to Recent
|At San Diego Zoo, USA|
The California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) is a New World vulture, the largest North American land bird. This condor became extinct in the wild in 1987 (all remaining wild individuals were captured), but the species has been reintroduced to northern Arizona and southern Utah (including the Grand Canyon area and Zion National Park), the coastal mountains of central and southern California, and northern Baja California. Although other fossil members are known, it is the only surviving member of the genus Gymnogyps.
The plumage is black with patches of white on the underside of the wings; the head is largely bald, with skin color ranging from gray on young birds to yellow and bright orange on breeding adults. Its huge 3.0 m (9.8 ft) wingspan is the widest of any North American bird, and its weight of up to 12 kg (26 lb) nearly equals that of the trumpeter swan, the heaviest among native North American bird species. The condor is a scavenger and eats large amounts of carrion. It is one of the world's longest-living birds, with a lifespan of up to 60 years.
Condor numbers dramatically declined in the 20th century due to poaching, lead poisoning, and habitat destruction. A conservation plan was put in place by the United States government that led to the capture of all 22 remaining wild condors in 1987. These surviving birds were bred at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park and the Los Angeles Zoo. Numbers rose through captive breeding and, beginning in 1991, condors were reintroduced into the wild. The California condor is one of the world's rarest bird species: as of June 2014 there are 439 condors living wild or in captivity. The condor is a significant bird to many Californian Native American groups and plays an important role in several of their traditional myths.
The California condor was described by English naturalist George Shaw in 1797 as Vultur californianus. It was originally classified in the same genus as the Andean condor (V. gryphus), but, due to the Andean condor's slightly different markings, slightly longer wings, and tendency to kill small animals to eat, the California condor has now been placed in its own monotypic genus. The generic name Gymnogyps is derived from the Greek gymnos/γυμνος "naked" or "bare", and gyps/γυψ "vulture", while the specific name californianus comes from its location in California. The word condor itself is derived from the Ecuadorian Quechua cuntur.
The exact taxonomic placement of the California condor and the other six species of New World vultures remains unclear. Though similar in appearance and ecological roles to Old World vultures, the New World vultures evolved from a different ancestor in a different part of the world. Just how different the two are is currently under debate, with some earlier authorities suggesting that the New World vultures are more closely related to storks. More recent authorities maintain their overall position in the order Falconiformes along with the Old World vultures or place them in their own order, Cathartiformes. The South American Classification Committee has removed the New World vultures from Ciconiiformes and instead placed them in Incertae sedis, but notes that a move to Falconiformes or Cathartiformes is possible.
The genus Gymnogyps is an example of a relict distribution. During the Pleistocene epoch, this genus was widespread across the Americas. From fossils, the Floridan Gymnogyps kofordi from the Early Pleistocene and the Peruvian Gymnogyps howardae from the Late Pleistocene have been described. A condor found in Late Pleistocene deposits on Cuba was initially described as Antillovultur varonai, but has since been recognized as another member of Gymnogyps, Gymnogyps varonai. It may even have derived from a founder population of California condors.
Today's California condor is the sole surviving member of Gymnogyps and has no accepted subspecies. However, there is a Late Pleistocene form that is sometimes regarded as a palaeosubspecies, Gymnogyps californianus amplus. Current opinions are mixed regarding the classification of the form as a chronospecies or a separate species Gymnogyps amplus. Gymnogyps amplus occurred over much of the bird's historical range – even extending into Florida – but was larger, having about the same weight as the Andean condor. This bird also had a wider bill. As the climate changed during the last ice age, the entire population became smaller until it had evolved into the Gymnogyps californianus of today, although more recent studies by Syverson query that theory.
The adult California condor is a uniform black with the exception of large triangular patches or bands of white on the underside of the wings. It has gray legs and feet, an ivory-colored bill, a frill of black feathers surrounding the base of the neck, and brownish red eyes. The juvenile is mostly a mottled dark brown with blackish coloration on the head. It has mottled gray instead of white on the underside of its flight feathers.
The condor's head and neck have few feathers, and the skin of the head and neck is capable of flushing noticeably in response to emotional state, a capability that can serve as communication between individuals. The skin color varies from yellowish to a glowing reddish-orange. The birds do not have true syringeal vocalizations. They can make a few hissing or grunting sounds only heard when very close.
Contrary to the usual rule among true birds of prey, the female is slightly smaller than the male. Overall length can range from 109 to 140 cm (43 to 55 in) and wingspan from 2.49 to 3 m (8.2 to 9.8 ft). Their weight can range from 7 to 14.1 kg (15 to 31 lb), with estimations of average weight ranging from 8 to 9 kg (18 to 20 lb). Wingspans of up to 3.4 m (11 ft) have been reported but no wingspan over 3.05 m (10.0 ft) has been verified. Most measurements are from birds raised in captivity, so determining if there are any major differences in measurements between wild and captive condors is difficult.
California condors have the largest wingspan of any North American bird. They are surpassed in both body length and weight only by the trumpeter swan and the introduced mute swan. The American white pelican and whooping crane also have longer bodies than the condor. Condors are so large that they can be mistaken for a small, distant airplane, which possibly occurs more often than they are mistaken for other species of bird.
The middle toe of the California condor's foot is greatly elongated, and the hind one is only slightly developed. The talons of all the toes are straight and blunt, and are thus more adapted to walking than gripping. This is more similar to their supposed relatives the storks than to birds of prey and Old World vultures, which use their feet as weapons or organs of prehension.
At the time of human settlement of the Americas, the California condor was widespread across North America; condor bones from the late Pleistocene have been found at the Cutler Fossil Site in southern Florida. However, climate changes associated with the end of the last glacial period and the extinction of the Pleistocene megafauna led to a subsequent reduction in range and population. Five hundred years ago, the California condor roamed across the American Southwest and West Coast. Faunal remains of condors have been found documented in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, and Texas. The Lewis and Clark Expedition of the early 19th century reported on their sighting and shooting of California condors near the mouth of the Columbia River.
The condors live in rocky shrubland, coniferous forests, and oak savannas. They are often found near cliffs or large trees, which they use as nesting sites. Individual birds have a huge range and have been known to travel up to 250 km (150 mi) in search of carrion.
There are two sanctuaries dedicated to this bird, the Sisquoc Condor Sanctuary in the San Rafael Wilderness and the Sespe Condor Sanctuary in the Los Padres National Forest. These areas were chosen because of their prime condor nesting habitat.
Ecology and behavior
When in flight, the movements of the condor are remarkably graceful. The lack of a large sternum to anchor their correspondingly large flight muscles restricts them to being primarily soarers. The birds flap their wings when taking off from the ground, but after attaining a moderate elevation they largely glide, sometimes going for miles without a single flap of their wings. They have been known to fly up to speeds of 90 km/h (55 mph) and as high as 4,600 m (15,000 ft). They prefer to roost on high perches from which they can launch without any major wing-flapping effort. Often, these birds are seen soaring near rock cliffs, using thermals to aid them in keeping aloft.
The California condor has a long life span, reaching up to 60 years. If it survives to adulthood, the condor has few natural threats other than humans. Because they lack a syrinx, their vocal display is limited to grunts and hisses. Condors bathe frequently and can spend hours a day preening their feathers. Condors also perform urohidrosis, or defecate on their legs, to reduce their body temperature. There is a well-developed social structure within large groups of condors, with competition to determine a pecking order decided by body language, competitive play behavior, and a variety of hisses and grunts. This social hierarchy is displayed especially when the birds feed, with the dominant birds eating before the younger ones.
Wild condors maintain a large home range, often traveling 250 km (160 mi) a day in search of carrion. It is thought that in the early days of its existence as a species, the California condor lived off the carcasses of the "megafauna", which are now extinct in North America. They still prefer to feast on large, terrestrial mammalian carcasses such as deer, goats, sheep, donkeys, horses, pigs, cougars, bears, or cattle. Alternatively, they may feed on the bodies of smaller mammals, such as rabbits or coyotes, aquatic mammals such as whales and California Sea Lions, or salmon. Bird and reptile carcasses are rarely eaten. Since they do not have a sense of smell, they spot these corpses by looking for other scavengers, like eagles and smaller vultures, the latter of which cannot rip through the tougher hides of these larger animals with the efficiency of the larger condor. They can usually intimidate other scavengers away from the carcass, with the exception of bears, which will ignore them, and golden eagles, which will fight a condor over a kill or a carcass. In the wild they are intermittent eaters, often going for between a few days to two weeks without eating, then gorging themselves on 1–1.5 kilograms (2.2–3.3 lb) of meat at once.
Condors begin to look for a mate when they reach sexual maturity at the age of six. To attract a prospective mate, the male condor performs a display, in which the male turns his head red and puffs out his neck feathers. He then spreads his wings and slowly approaches the female. If the female lowers her head to accept the male, the condors become mates for life. The pair makes a simple nest in caves or on cliff clefts, especially ones with nearby roosting trees and open spaces for landing. A mated female lays one bluish-white egg every other year. Eggs are laid as early as January to as late as April. The egg weighs about 280 g (10 oz) and measures from 90–120 mm (3.5–4.75 in.) in length and about 67 mm (2.6 in.) in width. If the chick or egg is lost or removed, the parents "double clutch", or lay another egg to take the lost one's place. Researchers and breeders take advantage of this behavior to double the reproductive rate by taking the first egg away for puppet-rearing; this induces the parents to lay a second egg, which the condors are sometimes allowed to raise.
The eggs hatch after 53 to 60 days of incubation by both parents. Chicks are born with their eyes open and sometimes can take up to a week to leave the shell completely. The young are covered with a grayish down until they are almost as large as their parents. They are able to fly after five to six months, but continue to roost and forage with their parents until they are in their second year, at which point the parents typically turn their energies to a new nest. Ravens are the main predatory threat to condor eggs, while golden eagles and bears are potential predators of condor offspring.
Obstacles to recovery
In modern times, a wide variety of causes have contributed to the condor's decline. Its low clutch size (one young per nest), combined with a late age of sexual maturity, make the bird vulnerable to artificial population decline. Significant past damage to the condor population has also been attributed to poaching, especially for museum specimens, lead poisoning (from eating animals containing lead shot), DDT poisoning, electric power lines, egg collecting, and habitat destruction. During the California Gold Rush, some condors were even kept as pets. The leading cause of mortality in nestling condors is the ingestion of trash that is fed to them by their parents.
In addition to this, cattle ranchers who observed condors feeding on the dead young of their cattle assumed that the birds killed the cattle. This fallacy led to the condor's extirpation in some parts of the western United States. This belief was so deeply ingrained that the reintroduction of condors to the Grand Canyon was challenged by some cattle ranchers, who mistakenly believed that the bird hunted calves and lambs.
Unanticipated deaths among recent condor populations occurred due to contact with golden eagles, lead poisoning, and other factors such as power line collisions. Since 1994, captive-bred California condors have been trained to avoid power lines and people. Since the implementation of this aversion conditioning program, the number of condor deaths due to power lines has greatly decreased. Lead poisoning due to fragmented lead bullets in large game waste is a particularly big problem for condors due to their extremely strong digestive juices; lead waste is not as much of a problem for other avian scavengers such as the turkey vulture and common raven. This problem has been addressed in California by the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act, a bill that went into effect July 1, 2008 that requires that hunters use non-lead bullets when hunting in the condor's range. Blood lead levels in golden eagles as well as turkey vultures has declined with the implementation of the Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act, demonstrating that the legislation has helped reduce other species' lead exposures aside from the California condor.
California Condor Recovery Plan
As the condor's population continued to decline, discussion began about starting a captive breeding program for the birds. Opponents to this plan argued that the condors had the right to freedom, that capturing all of the condors would change the species' habits forever, and that the cost was too great. However, the project received the approval of the United States government, and the capture of the remaining wild condors was completed on Easter Sunday 1987, when AC-9, the last wild condor, was captured. There were only 22 condors in existence, all in captivity.
The goal of the California Condor Recovery Plan was to establish two geographically separate populations, one in California and the other in Arizona, each with 150 birds and at least 15 breeding pairs. As the Recovery Program works toward this goal the number of release sites has grown. There are three active release sites in California, one in Arizona and one in Baja California, Mexico.
The captive breeding program, led by the San Diego Wild Animal Park and Los Angeles Zoo, got off to a slow start due to the condor's mating habits. However, utilizing the bird's ability to double clutch, biologists began removing the first egg from the nest and raising it with puppets, allowing the parents to lay another egg.
As the number of condors grew, attention began to focus on releasing some back into the wild. In 1988, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service began a reintroduction experiment involving the release of captive Andean condors into the wild in California. Only females were released, to eliminate the possibility of accidentally introducing a South American species into the United States. The experiment was a success, and all the Andean condors were recaptured and re-released in South America. California condors were released in 1991 and 1992 in California, and again in 1996 in Arizona near the Grand Canyon. Though the birth rate remains low in the wild, their numbers are increasing steadily through regular releases of captive-reared adolescents.
The California condor conservation project may be one of the most expensive species conservation projects in United States history, costing over $35 million, including $20 million in federal and state funding, since World War II. As of 2007 the annual cost for the condor conservation program was around $2.0 million per year. However, nesting milestones have been recently reached by the reintroduced condors. In 2003, the first nestling fledged in the wild since 1981. In March 2006, a pair of California condors, released by Ventana Wildlife Society, attempted to nest in a hollow tree near Big Sur, California. This was the first time in more than 100 years in which a pair of California condors had been seen nesting in Northern California. As of November 2011 there were 394 individuals living, including 205 in the wild and the rest in the San Diego Wild Animal Park, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Oregon Zoo, and the World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho. As of October 2010, the wild condor population in its name state of California reached 100 individuals, and 73 wild condors in Arizona. As of May 2012, the number of living individuals has reached 405, with 179 living in captivity. By June 2014, using data from the National Park Service, the condor population has reached 439: 225 in the wild and 214 in captivity.
As the Recovery Program achieved milestones, a fifth active release site in Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park, Baja California, Mexico, was added to the three release sites in California (Big Sur, Pinnacles National Park and Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge) and the Vermilion Cliffs release site in Arizona. In early 2007, a California Condor laid an egg in Mexico for the first time since at least the 1930s. The population of the condors has risen due to these wild and also captive nestings. In the spring of 2009, a second wild chick was born in the Sierra de San Pedro Mártir National Park and was named Inyaa ("Sun" in the Kiliwa language) by local environmentalists. In 2014, Condor #597, also known as "Lupine," was spotted near Pescadero, a coastal community south of San Francisco. Lupine had been routinely seen at Pinnacles National Park after having been released into the wild at Big Sur last year. Younger birds of the Central California are seeking to expand their territory so this could mean that a new range expansion is possible for the more than 60 condors flying free in central California. Also in 2014 the first successful breeding in Utah was reported. A pair of Condors, who were released in Arizona, nested in Zion National Park and the hatching of one chick was confirmed.
A crowdsourcing project called Condor Watch (CW) was started on April 14, 2014, hosted by the web portal Zooniverse. Volunteers are asked to examine motion-capture images of California Condors associated with release sites managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service and Ventana Wildlife Society. The tasks on the website include identifying tagged condors and marking the distance to feeding sources such as animal carcasses. The project's frontpage explains that the California condor is a critically endangered species and that its population is suffering from the effects of lead poisoning. The frontpage also explains that by tracking the location and social behavior of the animals scientists can better detect early warning signs of the illness.
Condor Watch enables volunteers, or Citizen scientists, to participate in active research. The project has up 175,000 images to view and assess. This is far more than the CW science team could hope to view, and so are engaging Citizen scientists through their website to help tap into this wealth of information. Myra Finkelstein, the lead scientist and an adjunct professor of environmental toxicology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, stated: "Condors are unique in that they are so closely managed. One of the fun things about Condor Watch is that when you identify a bird it gives you a little biography about that individual." CW follows a long tradition of Citizen science being used in Ornithology, for instance The Audubon Society's Christmas Bird Count, which began in 1900 and the Breeding bird survey which began in 1966. Some of the benefits of incorporating Citizen Science into ecological research are not only limited to helping collect data, but enable volunteers to gain experience in making observations, taking part in active research and perhaps developing a greater sense of stewardship over the populations they survey. The same can be true for the professional scientists taking part in the study. CW will improve the ability of condor biologists to identify birds that are at high risk for poisonings and develop better strategies for ensuring the species' successful recovery in the wild.
Relationship with humans
Throughout its historic range, the California condor has been a popular subject of mythology and an important symbol to Native Americans. Unusually, this bird takes on different roles in the storytelling of the different tribes.
The Wiyot tribe of California say that the condor recreated mankind after Above Old Man wiped humanity out with a flood. However, other tribes, such as California's Mono, viewed the condor as a destroyer, not a creator. They say that Condor seized humans, cut off their heads, and drained their blood so that it would flood Ground Squirrel's home. Condor then seized Ground Squirrel after he fled, but Ground Squirrel managed to cut off Condor's head when Condor paused to take a drink of the blood. According to the Yokut tribe, the condor sometimes ate the moon, causing the lunar cycle, and his wings caused eclipses. The Chumash tribe of Southern California believed that the condor was once a white bird, but it turned black when it flew too close to a fire.
Condor bones have been found in Native American graves, as have condor feather headdresses. Cave paintings of condors have also been discovered. Some tribes ritually killed condors to make ceremonial clothing out of their feathers. Shamans then danced while wearing these to reach the upper and lower spiritual worlds. Whenever a shaman died, his clothes were said to be cursed, so new clothing had to be made for his successor. Some scientists, such as Noel Snyder, believe that this process of making ceremonial clothing contributed to the condor's decline.
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- Nielsen, John (2006). Condor: To the Brink and Back—The Life and Times of One Giant Bird. New York: Harper Perennial. ISBN 978-0-06-008862-0.
- Snyder, Noel; Snyder, Helen (2000). The California Condor. Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-654005-5.
|Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gymnogyps californianus.|
|Wikispecies has information related to: California condor|
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife California Condor Recovery Program
- Ventana Wildlife Society including the Live Condor cam at Bigsur.
- Peregrine Fund
- Condor Watch The Condor Watch crowdsourcing project, started April 2014.
- Vulture Territory Facts and Characteristics: California condor
- BirdLife Species Factsheet
- Pinnacles National Park Condor Program
- Hunting with Non-Lead
- California Department of Fish and Game: Get the Lead Out
- California condor videos and photos at the Internet Bird Collection
- Ecology of condors


THE COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS
and FEATURE FILMS IN THE ELA CLASSROOM
The limited use of feature films — carefully selected, properly introduced, perhaps shown with a movie worksheet, and always followed by discussion and assignments — will interest students in their schoolwork and allow teachers to meet standards. Some of the new Common Core State Standards acknowledge this by specifically refering to the use of film and other multimedia. In addition, movies can assist in meeting many of the standards that make no specifid reference to film. Therefore, the use of movies in class, on a limited basis, is a valuable tool for ELA teachers.
Background — a Crisis of Motivation in Education:
One of the key problems in American education is that students have little motivation to learn. A major cause is that students live in an age awash in personal computers, iPods and smart phones, while they're required to attend schools that use an English Language Arts (ELA) curriculum originally designed in the 19th or early 20th centuries. Other contributing factors are that current teaching methods and technologies make little use of personal digital devices and that classes are held in buildings with a design similar to schools built after the Civil War. For today's wired students, walking through the schoolhouse door is like entering a time warp and going back more than a hundred years.
Every school day, hundreds of thousands of ELA teachers attempt to swim against the current of modern technology and the fact that today's youth are more interested in watching stories on a screen than reading a book. Teachers come up with interesting assignments, they look for the most exciting text-based stories, they entertain, they cajole, and they discipline; committed teachers work long hours trying to motivate their students — and for many students they succeed. However, screen-based stories are the literature of today's youth and teachers who don't use movies as an integral part of their lesson plans are denying themselves and their students a powerful motivator. They are foregoing the benefit of the strong current of modern technology to assist in education.
One Small Part of the Solution:
Over the years, thousands of movies have been released which are works of art dealing with important issues of modern life or which are reasonably historically accurate. There are many more feature films that contain isolated scenes which can be used in education. In order to appeal to a mass audience, Hollywood advertises movies as merely entertainment but frequently, directors and actors put heart and soul into making great art and providing accurate portrayals. Sometimes, it's just a scene or two that can be isolated and used in class as a snippet
; often it's the entire movie.
TeachWithMovies.com has prepared lesson plans and Learning Guides
to 350 of these films, from artistic classics like The Searchers
, Cyrano de Bergerac
, to films which portray historical events with fundamental accuracy such as Remember the Titans
or The Right Stuff
A properly used film will be carefully chosen to interest and engage students and to support a lesson plan that meets curricular goals. Showing the film will be preceded by an introduction which places the film in the context of the curriculum and provides appropriate background. After the introduction, students will be given a movie worksheet to read before the film starts. The worksheet requires students to answer questions that relate to subjects that are being covered in class. After the movie is finished, there will be a class discussion or an assignment to make further use of the interest that the film has generated.
For example, when a class is going to learn how to derive theme from printed texts, the movie worksheet should include questions about the messages of the film. It should also include questions that serve as a review of past instruction. If, in the past, the class had studied plot structure, learning about rising action, climax and falling action, prompts on the worksheet can require students to apply that learning. During the screening of the movie, students should be given a few short breaks during which they are allowed to make notes of responses to the prompts contained in the worksheet. When the movie is over, students should be given time to write out their responses or engage in class discussion about the issues raised by the prompts. In the alternative, students can be required to write a short essay or respond to the worksheet prompts as homework.
When the right film is fully integrated into a lesson, it becomes a powerful educational experience that will not disappear from the minds of students as soon as they leave the classroom.
Unfortunately, teachers who are stressed or who have given up trying to educate their students often use movies to babysit classes. Teachers seeking to reward their classes for completing a difficult assignment will let them watch films with no artistic merit, no relationship to the curriculum, and no benefit for the students. These practices have given the use of movies in class a bad name. But it doesn't have to be that way. The experience of good teachers has shown again and again that film can be a powerful educational tool.
To correct the problems of modern education will take fundamental reform and more resources than American society is presently willing to commit. However, until the reforms are implemented, removing one factor that depletes student motivation is a good interim step. Using some of the screen-based stories that comprise the literature of today's youth can inspire students and interest them in schoolwork.
The New Curriculum Standards:
The 2010 Common Core State Standards in ELA and Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science and Technical Subjects
(the CCS Standards) describe a set of skills necessary for success in college and the workplace, i.e., proficiency in reading complex texts, writing, speaking, and listening. Each skill area is divided into strands called "College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards" (CCRs). Under each CCR there are a number of specific standards. Through grade eight, each standard sets out goals for the skill levels to be met by the end of the school year. For high school, the standards set out skill levels for the end of 10th grade and the end of 12th grade. The CCS Standards "focus on results rather than means" and do not prescribe how teachers are to reach the goals set out in the document. CCS Standards, p. 4. The manner of teaching the course is left up to the teacher's discretion.
Despite its emphasis on teaching students to read complex texts, a substantial number of the CCS Standards set out goals for teaching about movies and "diverse media", which includes filmed presentations. Because class time is limited and there are many standards to be attained each year, the opportunities to both meet the requirements of the CCS Standards and use movies in the classroom are limited. However, because certain standards require the use of movies, classrooms without film cannot meet all the CCS requirements. Moreover, when properly used, movies are helpful in attaining the non-film related CCS Standards. Good educational practice, therefore, argues for the judicious use of film in education, perhaps one or two movies per semester and short film clips more frequently. The key, of course, is that movies used in education be focused on the curriculum and part of a carefully considered lesson plan.
CCS Standards that Require or Specifically Permit the Teaching of Film:
28 important CCS Standards, most relating to grades 6 - 12, refer directly to the use of movies, employing the word "film," the term "diverse media" or similar terms. Several standards refer to "drama", which at page 57 of the Standards is defined to include filmed versions of plays. There are many plays set to film including most of the works of Shakespeare, The Crucible
, The Glass Menagerie
, Cyrano de Bergerac
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS GRADES K - 12
Reading: CCR 7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse media and formats, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
Grade 4: RL.4.7. Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text.
Speaking and Listening: CCR 2. Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
Grades 1 - 5: SL.1.2. Ask and answer questions about key details in a text read aloud or information presented orally or through other media. [Standard 1.2 for Grades 2 - 6 contain increasingly complex activities with text read aloud and information presented . . . in "other media" or "diverse media". These activities include distilling and describing the main ideas, paraphrasing, etc.]
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS GRADES 6 - 12
Reading: CCR 3. Analyze how and why individuals, events, and ideas develop and interact over the course of a text.
Grade 6: RL.6.3. Describe how a particular story's or drama's plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution.
Reading: CCR 5. Analyze the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole.
Grade 7: RL.7.3. Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot).
Grade 8: RL.8.3. Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
Grades 11 - 12: RL.11-12.3. Analyze the impact of the author's choices regarding how to develop and relate elements of a story or drama (e.g., where a story is set, how the action is ordered, how the characters are introduced and developed).
Grade 7: RL.7.5. Analyze how a drama's or poem's form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its meaning.
Reading: CCR 7. Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words.
See Common Core State Standards Requiring or Authorizing the Use of Movies which highlights in yellow all of the standards that directly require the teaching of film or "media".
Grade 6: RL.6.7. Compare and contrast the experience of reading a story, drama, or poem to listening to or viewing an audio, video, or live version of the text, including contrasting what they "see" and "hear" when reading the text to what they perceive when they listen or watch.
Grade 7: RL.7.7. Compare and contrast a written story, drama, or poem to its audio, filmed, staged, or multimedia version, analyzing the effects of techniques unique to each medium (e.g., lighting, sound, color, or camera focus and angles in a film).
Grade 8: Analyze the extent to which a filmed or live production of a story or drama stays faithful to or departs from the text or script, evaluating the choices made by the director or actors.
Grades 9 & 10: RL.9-10.7. Analyze the representation of a subject or a key scene in two different artistic mediums, including what is emphasized or absent in each treatment . . . .
Grades 11 & 12: RL.11-12.7. Analyze multiple interpretations of a story, drama, or poem (e.g., recorded or live production of a play or recorded novel or poetry), evaluating how each version interprets the source text. (Include at least one play by Shakespeare and one play by an American dramatist.) . . .
The fact that 28 important CCS Standards refer to the use of movies is a statistic of profound significance for film in the classroom. It means that the authors of the Standards recognized the importance of movies in education, while at the same time insisting that the emphasis be on teaching students to read complex texts. Since some of the CCS Standards refer to the use of film in the classroom, school boards and administrators that refuse to allow movies in their schools and teachers who decline to use any film in their classrooms are, in effect, rejecting an important element of the CCS Standards.
Using Movies to Meet Curriculum Standards that Do Not Refer to Film or Other Media: An equally important reason to use film in education (for homework or in the classroom) is that movies will assist in attaining the standards that do not mention film or other media. There are several ways in which movies can assist in meeting general curriculum standards. First, it should be noted that most ELA standards require the development of skills in the areas of reading, writing and speaking. The CCS Standards are no exception. The emotional impact of movies will cause students to do their best in assignments that develop and exercise their skills in two of those areas, writing and speaking. Thus, movies can assist teachers and students in meeting a large swath of the CCS Standards relating to skills. The key is motivation. Many students will do a poor job on writing or speaking assignments that don't interest them. Almost all students will do a better job on writing and speaking assignments when they are emotionally engaged. The ability to tap into the emotions of its audience is the hallmark of a good movie.
Second, certain components of the CCS Standards require students to learn how to analyze fiction. All stories, movies included, contain many of the elements and devices of written fiction. Thus, the vast majority of feature films will have a plot, an expository phase, a climax, and a denouement. There may be flashbacks, flash-forwards, symbols, and extended metaphor. There will be characterization, a protagonist, an antagonist, and, sometimes, foils for major characters. Since screened stories, rather than written texts, are the literature of today's youth (it's worth repeating), students will have a higher motivation to study the elements and devices of fiction when they are presented in a film than when they are contained in a written text. In addition, it will be easier for students to grasp concepts such as theme, character development, and plot structure in the filmed media that they are comfortable with, rather than printed texts which are, regrettably, foreign to many of them. Thus, filmed stories are an excellent way to introduce the analysis of literature. After exposure to the concepts and methods of literary analysis through film, students will be better able to apply these concepts to the less familiar printed texts. This technique is described in a publication by the National Council of Teachers of English, Reading in the Dark: Using Film As a Tool in the English Classroom, by John Golden (2001).
An excellent example of how a film clip can transform an otherwise potentially dry and cerebral lesson that kids might normally dismiss is TWM's Snippet Lesson Plan on The Child Savior Myth and Literary Archetypes — Using a Film Clip from Man on Fire. The film clip is 22 minutes long and the entire lesson takes up one 55 minute class period. It is accompanied by a student handout explaining archetypes in general and the child savior archetype in particular. In the movie, Denzel Washington plays a jaded former special operative in the war on terror with many kills on his conscience. He is to start a job to protect the nine-year-old daughter of a rich Mexican industrialist from kidnappers. However, he is unable to shake feelings of despair and a conviction that his life is at a dead-end. He attempts suicide but by chance he fails. He then meets the young girl he has been hired to protect and is struck by her innocence. Her unspoiled sweetness motivates him to find a mission for his life and he undertakes a journey to self-respect. The regenerative power of the exposure of Washington's hard-boiled character to the sweetness of the young child touches everyone who sees the film. Her role in his salvation is clear. This film clip will help students not only understand the concept of archetypes and the child savior but they will feel it in their hearts, a place where it will last well beyond the school day and the school year. Note that the film clip shows no R rated material.
In subjects not covered by the CCS Standards, the substantive curriculum for history, civics, health, the arts, and the sciences, there are many movies that impart information in a way that leaves lasting memories. However, these are beyond the scope of this article. Readers are referred to TWM's Subject Matter Index for a collection of some of these films.
TWM provides a strong set of curriculum materials designed to assist teachers in maximizing the educational benefit from movies. These include more than 350 Learning Guides and lesson plans for feature films, 30 of these are lesson plans based on film clips and short subjects, such as the lesson plane using a clip from Man on Fire described above. In addition, there are many other curriculum materials to assist teachers. See Movie Worksheets, Articles, Student Handouts and Fully Developed Lesson Plans
One of the techniques recommended by TWM for using film in education that takes up very little class time is to give students a list of movies they can obtain for home viewing. They will then be required to complete an assignment relating to the film. See TWM's Movies as Literature Homework Project and Historical Fiction in Film Homework Project. These assignments allow students to obtain the benefits of instruction using film without investing large amounts of valuable class time.
Conclusion: Underlying facts: (1) part of the problem with the modern educational system and ELA classes in particular is that students lack motivation to learn; (2) the current educational system for ELA is based on literature and teaching methods dating back more than a hundred years; (3) screened presentations are the dominant literature of today's youth; (4) the use of screened stories in whole or in part will increase motivation and interest among students; (5) the CCS Standards for every grade, and especially for grades 6 - 12 envisage the use of film; and (6) the attainment of many CCS Standards that do not refer to film will be enhanced by the use of movies and film clips.
Therefore, when a limited number of films, one or two per semester, are carefully chosen to be an integral part of a lesson plan, are properly introduced with appropriate background, are shown with a well-designed movie worksheet and followed up with class discussion or assignments, they can enhance student interest in ELA classes and improve educational outcomes.
For a film study worksheet for ELA classes, click here
For TWM's film study worksheet for Cinematic and Theatrical Elements and Their Effects click here
TeachWithMovies.com's Movie Lesson Plans and Learning Guides are used by thousands of teachers in their classrooms to motivate students. They provide background and discussion questions that lead to fascinating classes. Parents can use them to supplement what their children learn in school.
Each film recommended by TeachWithMovies.com contains lessons on life and positive moral messages. Our Guides and Lesson Plans show teachers how to stress these messages and make them meaningful for young audiences.
Each TWM Snippet Lesson Plan Contains:
- Learner Outcomes/Objectives
- Exact Location of the Clip in the Movie, Film or Video
- Step-by-Step Instructions for Using the Clip in the Classroom
Some Snippet LPs
simply identify film clips and Internet resources. Others are complete lesson plans with introductions, handouts, discussion questions, and summative assessments.
Learning Guides Feature the Following Sections:
- Possible Problems
- Helpful Background
- Building Vocabulary
- Discussion Questions
- Links to Internet
- Bridges to Reading
- Assignments & Projects
help teachers develop or improve their own lesson plans to maximize students' classroom experience. Many also feature introductions, handouts, and summative assessments.
SUPPLEMENT SCHOOL CURRICULUM!
PROMOTE SOCIAL-EMOTIONAL LEARNING!
More suggestions about the beneficial use of movies in the classroom and to supplement curricula are added on a regular basis!
Show students that the stories in movies can use the elements that we normally look for in stories told in books.
A subscription to TeachWithMovies.com will give teachers access to 350 Snippet Lesson Plans, Learning Guides, and Movie Lesson Plans. Subscribe Today and use TWM's Film Study Worksheet.


ENGLISH AND LANGUAGE ARTS
First Graders are introduced to the upper case alphabet, simple phonics, and the writing of sentences. This is all done through a “language experience” approach to reading. The students are given an imaginative experience of a story that is told by the teacher; they retell the story verbally; and then an abstract concept or symbol is derived from an artistic rendition of the story. This is how all of the letters and subsequently written stories are introduced. The story material includes, but is not limited to, fairy tales and simple folktales related to nature. Through poetry and alliterative verses, the children partake in the spoken word on a daily basis. Stories from classic literature are read to the children. These may include: Charlotte’s Web, fairy tales, Winnie the Pooh, stories of Tim Rabbit, Wind in the Willows, etc. Toward the end of the year the class performs a play derived from a fairy tale or a nature story, which includes mostly choral speaking.
Second Graders are introduced to the lower case alphabet, more complex phonics, formal reading, and the actual writing of stories that have been told by the teacher. Together with the teacher, the class composes abbreviated stories from folktales, saint stories and fables. In the composing of stories, the students are introduced to a variety of skills such as learning to write from dictation, spelling, correct penmanship, simple grammar, punctuation, and correct use of English. All stories are interwoven with artistic renditions from the story such as drawing, painting, beeswax modeling, and poetry. About mid-year, the students begin reading books that are carefully chosen for aesthetics and content. Reading groups are formed, and the students develop at a variety of paces. Writing from the story experience continues throughout the year. The students are read to from a variety of classic literature such as: Heidi, The King of Ireland’s Son, Stuart Little, Wind in the Willows, etc. The class performs a play, derived from saint stories or folktales with choral speaking and some individual parts.
The Third Grade curriculum’s story content is drawn from the Old Testament and the legends of the Hebrews. The students continue to listen to and retell stories and now begin to engage in class discussions on their response to the story material. Poems and verses recount the seasonal changes, the work of farmers and tradesmen, and may include psalms from the Bible. The class play, often dramatizing a Bible story, has some choral speaking, yet most parts are now individual. Cursive handwriting is introduced. Children write short paragraphs and begin to create their own sentences and short descriptive passages. Spelling is improved through work on word families, phonics games, and dictation of simple sentences. Reading groups are offered twice a week with non-readers and emerging readers getting separate work with the resource specialist. Reading books may include Hay for my Ox, Henry Huggins, and books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The students are read aloud such classics as The Good Master, The Little Princess, and The Little House books.
Fourth Graders are immersed in Norse mythology, Local Geography, and History. The students recite longer verses taken from the Nordic traditions, Native Americans, and early Colorado History. The play that students will perform is usually inspired by these themes, and most students now have an individual speaking part. There is more emphasis on the students’ own writing and an increased focus on grammar and punctuation, especially learning parts of speech and tense usage. The students proceed from development of the sentence to narrative writing and letter writing. Outlines and paragraph form are introduced. The first short research report is written on an animal of the student’s choice and based on information from one or two books. Reading groups continue once or twice a week with books such as Stuart Little, Trumpet of the Swan and Charlotte’s Web.
From stories and mythologies of ancient civilizations, Fifth Graders engage in active recall including question and answer and class discussion with emphasis on sequence and detail. Poems and verses come from ancient India, Persia, Egypt or Greece, nature study, and American tradition. A longer class play drawn from Greek mythological sources is presented. A third to a half of the written work is now student composed following clear paragraph format. There is a greater emphasis on spelling skills, and use of the dictionary is introduced, while grammar work intensifies. One or two reports on a state further expand the writing and research skills as do letter writing, longer narratives and poems. The students do assigned readings from class reading books and are given comprehension quizzes. They present book reports on individual reading in written, oral, or artistic forms. Class reading books may include books such as Sign of the Beaver, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Number the Stars, and My Side of the Mountain.
Topics are introduced in an imaginative way and at a developmentally appropriate age. Studying Mathematics plays a central role in developing the students’ thinking and also helps the students to develop a feeling of trust in the world through the order, regularity, and clarity found through numbers and mathematical laws. Mental math, which is emphasized in the first eight grades, works on mental quickness, memory and concentration. Form Drawing, unique to Waldorf education, and Geometry cultivate spatial imagination and visualization abilities. The students keep notebooks that are divided into sections and develop crucial organizational skills through writing homework problems in a neat, sequential manner. Integrating history into the math lesson awakens an awareness of the interconnectedness of various subjects. Review is important in order to maintain solid skills and is done every year. The Math Department endeavors to graduate students with solid skills, a healthyimagination, and enthusiasm for learning.
In the first grade, Mathematics is brought through pictures from a child’s world. The quality of numbers, as a child experiences it, is explored: one sun, two hands, four seasons, six points in a snowflake, etc. The concrete representation of three fingers in the Roman numeral III becomes the abstract number 3. Rhythmical work with clapping, stomping, and songs enhance the child’s multi-sensory experience in counting, number patterns, and multiplication tables. From this foundation, the children are introduced to all four processes (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), each one brought through enlivened stories, imaginative pictures, and movement. Flexible thinking is of utmost importance. For example, 6 is explored as 5+1, 2×3, 8-2, 1+1+1+1+1+1, and as two triangles.
Second grade builds upon the foundation laid in first grade. The major step taken in second grade is place value, which leads to carrying and borrowing (with addition and subtraction). Multiplication and division are further developed through the use of number patterns in geometric forms. By the end of second grade, children are capable of performing in any of the four processes, and have started to become firm in addition and subtraction facts up to twenty.
In third grade, the students further solidify the concepts of borrowing and carrying. Multiplication as a vertical process is introduced, leading to multiplying with two and three-digit numbers, where carrying is a part of the process. Emphasis is then placed on rhythmical counting as a means for learning the times tables. Division is then taught, beginning with short division and then long division. A key new theme in third grade is measurement: linear measurement, weights, and volume. This leads naturally to the study of our monetary system and then to time, including years, seasons, months, weeks, days, hours, etc.
By fourth grade, the students go from doing practice sheets that involve a single process to doing sheets that mix the four processes. This is the year to solidify knowledge of the times tables first through rhythmical counting and then by quickly recalling any multiplication fact at random. The unity of number is now broken with the introduction of fractions. The work with fractions includes all four processes, thereby reviewing all previously learned skills and giving a sense of relevance to earlier lessons. Further work is also done in the fifth grade with multiplication (with numbers up to four digits), and with long division (with divisors up to three digits).
In fifth grade, the introduction to decimals satisfies the students’ ever-growing desire for more precision. The students also further develop skills learned in previous grades. Fifth grade also marks their first formal introduction to geometry as they freehand draw and identify various angles, polygons, and other geometric forms.
Waldorf science education emphasizes a phenomenological approach in which scientific concepts are based on sense experiences. Throughout the grades, students use sensory experiences as the entry point into an exploration of the science topics. As students progress through the grades, their scientific work culminates in the development of a scientific approach that includes keen observation, detailed mental picturing of the phenomena, and a meeting of the phenomena with clear, logical thinking. Their scientific knowledge is based on experience and logic.
The science curriculum reaches the students from two directions. One is by addressing content that falls into three main categories: science in the human body, science in industry and technology, and science in nature. The other is in the development of critical thinking skills. These skills include both direct analytical skills such as observation and quantification, and concept building, such as seeing relationships among observations. Types of critical thinking styles addressed are divergent, convergent, predictive, sequential, associative, and affective thinking.
Lower School Science
The Science curriculum in the first five grades help the students become acquainted with and aware of their environment as well as their relation to it. The students gain awareness through hands-on activities and experiences. This wealth of sensory experience helps to develop capacities for scientific observation and forming theories. These lessons are primarily auditory in nature and an emphasis is placed on kinesthetic experiences.
In grades one through two, students participate in nature walks where they experience the complexities and richness of plant and animal relationships. Stories heard in these early years emphasize transformation, a necessary concept for later studies in chemistry, physics, biology and the other sciences.
Through farming and gardening, third grade students experience how the farmer and gardener work with the forces of nature. In textiles and house building, a similar preliminary sense for geometry and the lawfulness of structural integrity is instilled.
Fourth Graders study the bridges between animals and humans. This begins with a study of the human body. Later, zoology is studied, and the two are integrated. Students study the geography of their home surroundings and local, city and state geography. The geography lessons are integrated into the zoology lessons about animal habitats and dwellings.
The fifth grade students study Botany, and the lessons journey between the pole and the equator, exploring the climate zones from sea level to beyond the mountain tree line and through the plants (from fungi to ferns to conifers, etc). The study of Geography expands on the fourth grade geography curriculum to include all of North America.
SOCIAL STUDIES AND HISTORY
Kindergarten – Grade 3
The foundation for the formal teaching of Geography, History and Civics is laid in kindergarten through grade three. In the first two to three years of school, students are taught through experience to live as contributing members of the classroom community. This socialization, although incomplete, becomes evident by the beginning of second grade. The kindergartener becomes familiar with his/her environment through the simple act of taking walks with the class. In grades one and two, a universal order and morality are expressed through fairy tales, nature stories, saints’ stories and Old Testament stories. In grade three, the children discover how, through developing the skills of practical living, house building, and making of clothes and farming, human life has been sustained.
With the fourth grader’s developing sense of individuality, we begin the formal study of geography and history. The typical fourth grade year will have two, three-week blocks of the history and geography of Colorado. Our emphasis is on how people have lived on the land from Native American times to the present day. Whenever possible, relevant biographies such as Chief Niwot, Kit Carson, Jim Beckwith or Horace Tabor are used to enliven factual material. The students engage in their first mapmaking experiences by drawing maps of their local surroundings, as well as the state of Colorado. This work is augmented with the reading of books containing stories of Colorado and/or western history and geography, such as Trails, Tales and Tommyknockers, by Myriam Friggens, Mesas to Mountains, by Sybil Downing and Jane Barker, the Little House series, by Laura Ingalls Wilder, or Truth is a Bright Star, by Joan Price.
In the fifth grade, mythology gives way to history. There are Main Lesson Blocks in the mythology and history of ancient India, Mesopotamia, ancient Egypt and finally ancient Greece, up to the time of Alexander the Great. Especially with ancient Greece, the students are shown how many of our ideals of art, education, and government are inherited from that ancient culture. Frequently, The Children’s Homer, by Padraic Collum is read. Fifth grade geography focuses on the United States. Each region of the country is studied, emphasizing the environment, its products, and the people and their livelihoods. Students memorize states, their locations and their capitals. We also include our musical and historical heritage through patriotic songs, poems, etc.
Music is an integral part of the Waldorf curriculum. Rudolf Steiner said, “Everything that takes place in nature is permeated by a mysterious music: the earthly projection of the music of the spheres. In every plant, in every animal, and in the human body, there is incorporated a tone of the music of the spheres. All this the child absorbs unconsciously, and that is why children are musical to such a high degree.”
In the early grades, class teachers are responsible for music instruction and integrate music into many class activities with singing and playing of pentatonic flutes. Children learn the concepts of pitch and rhythm in an imaginative way. In the spring of 2nd grade, string instruments (violin, viola, cello) are introduced to the children so they and their parents can choose an instrument to begin the following year.
In third grade, diatonic recorder is introduced. Classes in violin/viola and cello are offered twice a week in third and fourth grade. After basic instrumental skills are established, music reading is introduced and enhanced through the playing of beginning string literature. Beginning in 4th grade, singing is taught as a separate class once a week, though morning lessons still include singing and recorder playing.
In fifth grade some students switch to brass or woodwind instruments, while string students begin to play in orchestra. Students participate in their instrumental ensemble and choir class twice each week.
WORLD LANGUAGESMWS offers German and Spanish in Grades 1-12. Grades 1-7 have three lessons each week in blocks. At the end of a block, students switch to the alternate language. In Grade 8 students choose between Spanish and German and continue with this selection in the High School. Beginning in Grade 9 each student has four World Language classes per week. The World Language teachers strive to integrate Morning Lesson topics into the World Language lessons in support of our interdisciplinary approach to teaching.
In the early grades, languages are taught largely through imitation, storytelling, verses, songs, drama, recitation, games, puppetry, and movement. The teacher places great emphasis on pronunciation and speech. We work to instill the students with joy and pride in learning the target language and culture. Comprehension rather than output is emphasized.
In Grades 4-5 writing and reading become a focal point. Beginning elements of grammar are taught. The language teacher uses dialogues, storytelling, verses, songs, tongue twisters, and small plays during instruction. Throughout these years, the students’ vocabulary comprehension increases,and they are able to say simple descriptive sentences, perform dialogues, and retell simple stories.
EURYTHMYEurythmy is the art of bringing speech and music into human movement. In 1st grade, the children imitate the movement of the teacher as they become the characters in the fairy tales. They move to different rhythms. The second graders’ story material is drawn from the fables and saints. They become more conscious of moving together on the circle, more aware of how they affect the others. Third grade material is drawn from the study of the Old Testament, and many forms are based on the six-pointed star. By fourth grade, the children begin to work with forms that face front, rather than being oriented toward the center of the circle and part of the whole. Frontal movement allows them to move right/left, up/down, laterally and back and forth. We incorporate material from the Norse myths, learning about major and minor in music, and work to establish good rhythmic stepping in the feet. In fifth grade the history blocks that include India, Persia, Babylonia, Egypt and Greece provide a rich background to enliven the imaginations that accompany the movement.
In first grade, most activity takes place in a circle. Moving in a circle means being aware of others and of each person’s effect on the whole. Students come close together, then step apart, and go to a new partner. The children are able to move the basic form elements of straight line and curve, as well as expansion and contraction, by creating an internal picture of the movement and then to try to place the movement into the space around them.
First graders are also learning to listen and follow directions. We begin the lessons with an opening verse, followed by warm-up movements using finger plays, stepping, skipping, running or hopping rhythmically to music, or over the copper rods. We also use the copper rods to gain dexterity in the fingers, or rolling them up and down the arms and catching them before they fall. The main part of the lesson often includes an imaginative story that consists of moving forms and eurythmy gestures. The class ends with a closing verse.
In second grade the children continue to experience eurythmy through stories, poems about the saints and fables, and musical activities. Children are still learning through imitation and rhythmic repetition. Most of the activities are built on the circle. Moving in a circle means being aware of others and of each individual’s effect on the whole. The children learn the specific gestures for the consonants and vowels more consciously. Geometric forms are moved as a group and individually, in circle, square, triangle, spiral, and weaving forms. Gross motor skills are practiced with skipping, galloping, jumping, hopping, etc. Eurythmy with copper rods is introduced with simple exercises.
The third grade curriculum establishes firm ground on which to stand and a path into the practical activities of life. For example, there are blocks that deal with farming, housebuilding, and measurement. The eurythmy lessons echo and deepen these lessons with stories and verses that use those same themes. The main part of the lesson is usually an imaginative story that contains arm gestures and form elements of eurythmy. Some examples of the form elements are: spirals, squares, the Cassini curve, expansion and contraction, rhythm, beat and pitch, and learning about major and minor modes in music. In third grade, children learn that the gestures we are making with our arms are related to the sounds that we make when we speak.
In fourth grade, the children begin to come into more formed movement and exhibit strengthened spatial orientation. After the experience of the nine-year-old change, the child begins to transition from working mostly in a circle, with others, toward facing frontward with a greater emphasis on experiencing all the directions around oneself as an individual. Age-appropriate challenges, as well as understanding and observing rules become very important. At this point the class will work in many directions, including: stamping the consonants in an alliterative poem, building the walls of Asgard, learning a mirror-form, stepping rhythm and beat to music, copper-rod exercises or working on the crown form. We continue tone eurythmy with the C-scale and moving our arms with the rising and falling pitch in musical selections.
The fifth grade class learns the major scales and moving in different ways to the melody and baseline in various pieces of music. Rod exercises are used to work with the children’s posture and to help them focus their attention. We learned the eurythmy alphabet and used the gestures to interpret a number of poems. Geometric forms, like the five-pointed star, bring clarity to the students’ thinking and allow them to understand how to move together as a group. The main lesson curriculum is reflected through the ancient civilizations, for example, with the use of a Hindu verse called “Look Well to the Day” and two sacred dances originating from Greek culture called the “energy dance.”
HANDWORKIn the handwork and practical arts curriculum at Shining Mountain, we consciously cultivate manual dexterity in order to further cognitive development. Handwork and practical arts are integrated at all grade levels – not simply to teach a skill, but to support every student’s unfolding as a well-balanced individual with self-confidence. We recognize that both simple crafts and modern technology are creations of the human imagination. Therefore, students receive fundamental skills and understanding to develop and evolve future technology. Mathematical concepts such as parallelism, mirror imaging, progression and geometric forms are implicitly experienced through a tactile learning process.
For first and second grade, children learn to knit and sew. In third grade they learn to crochet, and certain blocks in the curriculum involve basketry, spinning, weaving, and gardening. In fourth grade, the children take up cross-stitch. In fifth grade, children learn how to knit with four needles; woodworking is now added and continues through eighth grade. Sixth grade brings the opportunity to design and hand-sew an animal. Seventh grade progresses to hand-sewn dolls and doll clothing. In the eighth grade, while students are studying the Industrial Age, the Handwork curriculum involves sewing clothes on a treadle sewing machine.