The 3rd Grade child experiences the significant threshold of becoming aware of themselves and the world in which they live. The child’s imitative capacity is fading away as they awaken to their individuality. With the nine/ten- year change, the child realizes they are an “Ego” bearer, that an “I” lives within.  

To support the child through this transition, the adult authority carries a mood of reassurance. The curriculum is meant to reassure, to nurture, and to help the child to move ahead with confidence. Each morning the children work through exercises in recitation, singing, movement,  and other rhythmic activities as a way of entering into the work of the day. A major theme for language arts is taken from the Old Testament/Hebrew Scripture. These give a picture of the joy of life in the Garden of Eden, the Fall from Paradise  and the human being’s need to work in connection to and as a steward of the earth, to transform the earth for food, shelter and clothing. These stories tell of people who wander the earth in a search for their home on the earth; they speak to the child in an unconscious but deep way: “Others have done this before me; I am not alone in this experience.”

Children continue with recitation, play acting, singing, flute-playing and rhythmic movement as a way of entering into the activities of the day. Arithmetic work includes the four processes, which segues into carrying and borrowing along with long division and multiplication. The children also transition to measurement work as these lessons meet the children’s new orientation to the outer world. Just as they begin to size up those around them, students have a chance to apply this skill constructively.