Thoughts on the Home Surroundings Blocks in Grades One and Two

An excerpt from Chapter 5.5 of The Roadmap to Literacy

Home surroundings stories apply to 1st and 2nd Grade; in 3rd Grade, the curriculum
switches to presenting facts and real-world experiences. You can find home
surroundings stories in books in the guise of ‘nature stories.’ If you enjoy creating
stories, try to write a few of your own. The following reflections come from Dr. Patrick
Wakeford-Evans, a teacher who took two classes through 8th Grade at the Sacramento
Waldorf School. He writes:

Geography is a very important aspect in the original curriculum of the Waldorf School. It links,
binds, and integrates all of the other subjects into a unity. Unique also to the Waldorf
curriculum is the sequence of subjects in geography. Geography begins as local geography and
expands out from there. It is taught alongside cultural studies from 1st Grade through 8th
Grade.

Geography in grades one, two, three, and four begins close to the child. It acquaints the child
with home surroundings, proceeds to local geography, and by the end of grade four, expands to
include the geography of the whole region, whether it be a state or a unified micro-region.

Prior to the nine-year change, children need to be taught through the teacher’s imagination.
These imaginations inspire the children to have their own feeling-imbued experience of
knowledge. This inspiration is achieved through the telling of stories. Stories convey pictures of
all things students should know about.

The geography curriculum of grades one and two calls for lessons in home surroundings. What
is meant by home surroundings? In public schools, children are taught about their
neighborhoods as civics lessons. They take field trips to a local fire station, for example, and
explore the neighborhood. While this type of lesson is certainly important, Steiner’s indication
was to acquaint the children with the land, the plants, and the animals in the region where they
live. Home Surroundings means becoming acquainted with the eco-systems that surround the
children. In biology one might say they need an awareness of the various habitats and their
inhabitants. These stories are the first lessons in ecology and nature awareness.

In both urban and suburban environments, the wonderful beings of nature dwell and visit the
children. There are noisy mockingbirds, squirrels, spiders, and all manner of insects. In addition,
there are all kinds of flying creatures like red tail hawks. Depending on where you live, there may
even be deer, wild turkeys, and butterflies. In the Sacramento region, you can also hear
mysterious tree frogs and coyotes yipping in the distance, spy possums, and even smell skunks.
In Waldorf education, one of the important maxims is “characterize, do not define.” Waldorf
teachers are encouraged to present nature to the students by crafting stories that are true to the
facts yet glowing in imaginative portrayal. There are many nature stories to be found in
children’s literature; however, teachers can also make their own. The stories you create yourself
portray nature in imaginative ways. They can be as simple as vivid descriptions of nature or a
story that uses literary devices to illustrate facts about the world around them.

In his writings, Rudolf Steiner often points out that there is nothing better than stories the
teachers invent for the children. The children seem to recognize the love and creativity in a story
that a teacher has made ‘just for them.’

All nature stories feature the geography of your locale and/or the creatures that live
there. However, there are two ways to approach nature stories.

The first approach is to describe one or more local elements. Here is a list of possible
topics:

• local flora: trees, bushes, flowers, weeds, vegetables, etc.

• local fauna: insects, reptiles, birds, animals, etc.
• geographical features: rivers, mountains, hills, plains, valleys, etc.
• nature’s rhythms: sunrise/sunset, moonrise/moonset, tides, seasons,
etc.
Create a story, fable, or description of any of these elements. Just make sure that the
description is based on local conditions. For example, if you live in the desert, do not
describe rain forests and luscious ferns but the brief spring rains and the profusion
of wildflowers afterward.

The second approach includes the description of local element(s) but also introduces a
seed-image for a concept that you will teach in a later grade. In Grades 4–8, Waldorf
students study many concepts in geography and in science classes. You can plant seeds
for these concepts in your nature stories in 1st and 2nd Grade by including a description
of something you plan to teach later. When the students get to that subject in a later
grade, the territory will be tantalizingly familiar to them because they encountered it
in story and images in 1st or 2nd Grade. (See The Roadmap to Literacy chapter 5.5 for
examples of teacher–created nature stories.)

You can find inspiration for these seed-images to include in your nature stories from
some of the following blocks:
Animal (4th Grade)

comparing/contrasting two different animals through a conversation between them

life of a specific animal ((See The Roadmap to Literacy chapter 5.5 for an example of a first
grade nature story on this topic written by Patrick Wakeford-Evans.)

Botany (5th Grade)

• regional plants
• metamorphosis of caterpillar into butterfly
• relationship between insects and plants
• changes in a deciduous tree through the season (the leaf cycle)

Chemistry (8th Grade):

photosynthesis (i.e., the formation of sugar and carbohydrates)

(See The Roadmap to Literacy chapter 5.5 for an example of a first grade nature story on this
topic written by Jennifer Militzer-Kopperl and Patrick Wakeford-Evans.)

Meteorology and Weather (8th Grade)

• heat build-up and release with winds

• water cycle (as it relates to the warming and cooling of day and night)
• clouds
• sun and wind*
• sun and moon
• wind and rain
• wind and fog
• the seasons

Adding Nature Spirits to Stories

Nature stories for 1st graders often contain fairies or nature spirits. For
example, the undines, sylphs, and gnome in “Leaf Day” illustrate the process
of photosynthesis. It is useful to consider what nature spirits are, what they do,
and a classification so you can include them in your stories.
 Nature Spirits provide a picture of the workings of nature. They tend to bind or dissolve
matter. There are four main categories as shown in figure 5.5.1.
When you create your stories, consider using one or more of the following nature spirits:

• air beings: spirits of the air (e.g., zephyrs, mistrals, breezes)

• sylphs: small air spirits who care for plants at a local level and foster the
flowers
• fire beings: spirits of fire such as forest fire or candle flames. (They can
weave warmth, including warm days and warmth in fruits.)
• salamanders: small fire beings
• undines: spirits of the water itself (They are like chemists and carry life.
They can be in plants and thus can be quite small.)
• nymphs: fresh water spirits who are bound to a particular body of fresh
water
• nixies: salt water spirits who are bound to a particular body of salt water
• stone beings: spirits responsible for large stony areas like continents or
mountains
• gnomes: small stone beings who are associated with the earth (They tend
to make matter solid.)
These nine characters can help you illustrate what is happening in the
natural world in a 1st Grade nature story. When it is time to describe
elements of nature, find the appropriate nature spirits and add them into
your story.