Third Grade

“The third grader, becoming aware that he or she is forever leaving the world of early childhood, suffers a sense of irretrievable loss. This is experience, which is microcosmically akin to the “expulsion from Paradise,” is addressed on the soul level by our study of the Hebrew Stories, On the physical level, just as Adam and Eve were told that they would have to earn their keep “by the sweat of their brows,” the third grader seeks a way in which his or her will may be brought in relationship with their new home – the earth. With this in mind, we learn how the gardener and the farmer live and work.”  Eugene Schwartz – millennialchild

In this exciting year the children garden and build and immerse themselves in all things practical and grounded.

  • Cursive writing
  • parts of speech
  • sentence building and punctuation
  • composition
  • time / weights and measures
  • money and the use of money
  • higher multiplication tables
  • measurement
  • carrying and borrowing
  • Old Testament stories as an introduction to history
  • American Indian legends
  • foreign language (same as above)
  • the octave in song and recorder
  • musical notation
  • luster colors and interaction of colors in painting
  • crochet
  • modeling from main lesson work
  • house building, farming and clothing
  • building materials and food productions
  • ring games, line games, work games and songs

MEET THE TEACHER

Hillary Lowenberg

Hillary Lowenberg was born and raised in Washington, D.C. She studied Global Environmental Policy and the Media at the University of Vermont and traveled abroad through the International Honors Program to England, Tanzania, India, New Zealand and Mexico in a year-long study abroad program called Rethinking Globalization. Her professor gave her the advice of returning to the US to affect change locally, so she did. Hillary began teaching farm and garden-based programs to children both in Vermont and then in Portland, OR. Her passion for connecting children to nature through arts-integration and her desire to have long-lasting relationships with the students led her to obtaining dual masters degrees from Southern Oregon University: Masters of Arts in Teaching and a Masters of Science in Environmental Education.

Hillary discovered Waldorf education through her quest for an educational pedagogy that focused on teaching to the whole child through the arts and a deep connection to the earth and community. Her first teaching job after graduate school was at Madrone Trail in 2014, where she taught first through fifth grades. In addition, Hillary taught online during the pandemic at the Portland Village School and also at a small Waldorf-inspired farm school in Ashland, OR. Hillary attended the Micha’el School’s Waldorf Foundation Year training, as well as grades preparatory trainings from the Rudolf Steiner College.
In her free time, you can find Hillary kayaking with her labrador retriever, Soli, singing songs, making ceramics, rafting, swimming and going on adventures both locally and abroad.