Waldorf Essentials

A Journey Through Waldorf Math

Class One through Class Five

by Melisa & Erik Nielsen

 Waldorf Essentials

A Journey Through Waldorf Math

Class One through Class Five

Auriel’s Light

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 Contents

Introduction and how to best use this book 6

Waldorf math: The Nature of Whole to Parts 7

Class One 9
Main Lesson Content: Block One - Introduction to Mathematics 10
• Roman Numerals 10
Main Lesson Content: Block Two - Mathematics 20
• Review Roman Numerals and Introduction to Number Qualities 20
• Introducing the Four Processes and Whole to Parts Math 28
Math and Nature Table Gnomes 37
Bonus Gnome Story 39

Class Two 41
Main Lesson Content: Block One - Mathematics: Time 42
• Time: Months 42
• Time: Days of the Week 45
• Time: Seasons 46
• Time: Introducing the Analog Clock 47
Main Lesson Content: Block Two - Mathematics: Times Tables, Four Process Review, Number Patterns, Money 50
• Times Table Clocks 50
• Times Table Sheet 51
• Times Table String Art 52
• The Richest Number 53
• The Richest Number Kingdom 55
• Odd and Even Numbers 56
• Number Patterns and the Magic of 9 56
• Times and Minus on a Walk 56
• Money 58
• Practice and Assessing 59

Class Three 60
Main Lesson Content: Block One - Mathematics Review 61
• Review the Months 61
• Review Time 61
• Time: Farmer Jack’s Day 62
• Times Table Review 63
• Four Process Review 63
• More Four Process Review 65
• Review Greater Than and Less Than 65
• Money Review 66
• Comprehensive Mathematics Review 67
Main Lesson Content: Block Two - Mathematics 68
• Dry Measure Part 1 68
• Dry Measure Part 2 70
• Dry Measure Part 3 70
• Review 71
• Liquid Measure Part 1 71
• Liquid Measure Part 2 72
• Liquid Measure Part 3 72
• Wrapping Up Biblical Measurement 73
• Perimeter 74

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 • Area 75
• Square Numbers 76
• Cubed Numbers 77
• Prime Numbers 77
• Review 79
Main Lesson Content: Block Three - Mathematics 81
• Place Value: A Very Colorful Problem 81
• Place Value Practice 82
• More Place Value Practice 83
• Review and Practice 84
• Carrying 84
• Carrying Practice 86
• More Carrying Practice 86
• Review and Practice 87
• Borrowing 87
• Borrowing Practice 88
• Check Your Work and Practice 89
• Review and Practice 90
• Odds & Evens 91
• Rounding 91
• Complete Mathematics Review & Practice Sheets 91
• Extra Mathematics Lessons: Biblical Money & Number Patterns 97

Class Four 98
Main Lesson Content: Mathematics Block One 99
• Review Concepts From Class Three 99
• Long Multiplication 101
• Long Division 103
• Two Digit Long Division 105
• Learning to Check Your Work 105
• Averaging 106
• Prime Factoring 106
• Magic Squares 107
• Block Review 107
Main Lesson Content: Mathematics Block Two 109
• Review All Known Concepts 109
• Basic Fraction Introduction 109
• The Numerator & Denominator, Plus Whole to Parts 111
• Practical Applications of Fractions 112
• Dividing the Whole to Find the Fraction 113
• Odd Fractions 114
• Fraction Tree and Equivalent Fractions 116
• Long Division with Remainders 117
• Long Division with Fraction Remainders 118
• Large Numbers for Multiplication 118
• Larger Numbers for Division 118
• Complete Mathematics Review 119
• Mathematics Review & Practice Pages 120
• Block One Review 120
• Block Two Comprehensive Review 121
• Practice Pages 122

Class Five 127

Main Lesson Content: Block One - Mathematics Review 128
• Review Times Tables 128
• Review Time, Money & Long Division 128

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 • Review Whole to Parts 130
• Review Equivalent Fractions 131
• Review the Four Processes 132
• Review Long Multiplication 132
• Check Your Work 134
• Review Long Division with Remainders & Fractions 135
Main Lesson Content: Block Two - Mathematics 137
• Reducing Fractions & Finding Equivalents 137
• Simple Adding and Subtracting Fractions with Common Denominators Review 139
• Improper Fractions to Mixed Numbers 139
• Returning Mixed Numbers to Improper Fractions 141
• Adding & Subtracting Fractions with Different Denominators 141
• Comparing Fractions 143
• Multiplying Fractions 144
• Dividing Fractions 145
• Review All Fractions 145
Main Lesson Content: Block Three - Mathematics 147
• Introducing Decimals 147
• Fractions to Decimal Conversions 149
• Adding and Subtracting Decimals 149
• Multiplying Decimals 150
• Decimal Review and Practice 151
• Dividing Decimals 151
• Review Measurement 153
• Converting Measurements 154
• Practical Math Practice 155
• Complete Mathematics Review 156
• Mathematics Practice Pages 158

Resources and Supplies 171

Waldorf Curriculum Chart 172
Additional Offerings 173

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 One is the Sun who shines above.

What things are there TWO of? Hands, eyes, legs, parents? Practice writing TWO.

Two are the parents that I love.

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Super Sam and The Math Gnomes - Introducing the Four Processes and Whole to Parts Math

Steiner worked with the concept of “whole to parts” with just about everything. We often only see the world as parts
but we know we are much more than that. I am not just an arm or just a brain. A flower isn’t just the bloom. A dog
isn’t just a tail. When we are talking about people or parts of nature we can easily see the whole, but what about in our
world? Often the world and the modern media shows us only one perspective and that one perspective can be all
people see if they don’t insist on seeing the whole. Of course in this lesson we will only focus on the concept of whole
to parts as it relates to mathematics, but as your child grows through this curriculum, bit by bit you will see that we
are always working from the whole.

When working with this concept for math, the best way to describe it is like this:

While 3 X 4 is 12, 12 is more than 3 X 4. 12 is 6 X 2, 2 X 6, 4 X 3, 12 X 1, 6 + 6, and so on.

So how is that translated practically for a child? You can ask a child the open ended question of “what is 12?” and
allow many answers because there are many answers, allowing them to see the big picture of all that 12 really is,
rather than only giving them a small representation of 12 and telling them later “and by the way, XYZ is also 12.”
Discovering numbers for a child is an experience that comes very much from their core of how they understand the
world around them. They see the family as a whole; they rarely see just mom or just dad when they are young (before
seven years.) Even if you have a single parent household, children see their family as a WHOLE, including
grandparents, friends, etc. and so to bring them only pieces goes very much against how they see the world.

Steiner says in Teaching Arithmetic:

“The living thing is always a whole and must be presented as a whole first of all. It is wrong for children to have to
put together a whole out of its parts, when they should be taught to look first at the whole and divide this whole into
its parts; get them first to look at the whole and then divide it and split it up; this is the right path to a living
conception.”

This is very foreign to most of us and how we were taught math. Many of us were counting and trying to memorize
numbers and their abstract symbolism far before we could really understand it – I am amazed at children’s television
programming and so called “math help” for preschoolers and babies! Babies need to be babies, not counting
machines! Most of us were taught to add and subtract first only to be bombarded with multiplication and division in
later grades. Steiner’s math concepts have children learning all four math processes on the same day! Steiner believed
that introducing them all at the same time would allow for true freedom in thought as children grew into adults. Think
about that for a moment…there is freedom in knowing that there is more than one way to derive an answer. This is
true for all things, not just math. He discusses synthesizing verses analyzing – when we synthesize something, we
have to add something together working up from the parts, but when we take time to analyze something we can
separate it out or divide it into parts. Steiner believed that thinking had these two major components (synthesis and
analysis) and that children by nature will choose to analyze things. With an education system that forces synthesis
over analysis in these early years, he believed it would have strong consequences later in life – spiritual ones! Now
whether or not you believe it, take some time to look at the world around you. Materialism abounds from the thought
pattern that we must add more and more to become whole. How many of us have gone on spiritual journeys as an
adult to become whole only to find out we already were whole and our ego just didn’t know it? How much time would
we have saved if we could have seen ourselves as whole? When we teach a child they are whole from day one, then
we give them a great gift – a gift they can share with others. Much of Steiner’s work sounds a lot like today’s work in
quantum physics, but this shouldn’t be surprising…remember, truth is everywhere.

Now of course there are plenty of instances when synthesis is necessary and appropriate, but teaching from an
analytical standpoint first allows the child the freedom to see what method will work best to solve each of life’s
challenges.

In The Renewal of Education, Steiner has this wisdom to share:

“If I have to add two and five and three in order to find the total, I am not free, for the answer is fixed by an
underlying law. But if I begin with the number ten, I can view it as consisting of nine and one or five and five; or I can

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The king counted out Divide’s bag and sure enough, his gnomes came through once again. There were 10 jewels in
her bag. He bid them a good day and called for the treasury gnomes to come and take away the jewels of the day.

The Four Processes, Part 2 - Focus on Plus

Today you will want to reinforce the concepts learned in yesterday’s lesson. There are so many ways to do this! I like
to give the gnomes a chance to go for a walk; some days they go together and some days not. I will give you a couple
of scenarios in the following lessons and you can always make up more if you need to. I think you will find that most
children want to have more and more gnome stories, so get ready!

Today let’s have Plus go alone. Your main lesson page may look something like our picture. Notice I added some
writing to it as well as some math problems. I would write it all in your main lesson book; they can do a two page
spread with the verse on one side and the math problems on the other. I would include some practice as well. The
verses come from Harrer’s book Math Lessons for Elementary Grades and she adapted them from verses written by
Margaret Peckham.

Now you may look at this lesson and notice it isn’t whole to parts! You might be saying, “Melisa, you told me that
Steiner says it has to be whole to parts!” No worries! We worked from the whole (48) down to the parts with
yesterday’s work, but today we are dealing with Plus. By his very nature he is a greedy little synthesizer! He adds to
his materialism constantly; he is a perfect example of what Steiner meant. Balance out today’s work with whole to
parts practice tomorrow! Some further writing for today might be to write the names associated with Plus. He is also
known as Addition, but usually only his mother calls him that (“Plus Addition, get in here!”) Point out that when Plus
adds things together they are called “sums.” You don’t have to worry too much about making them memorize it just
yet; I do like to make colorful signs for the schoolroom space, using recycled water color paintings for backgrounds
and writing different “rules” as we come across them. It does help to have them write it, too.

When Plus adds things together they are called sums.

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February brings flowers of light
Petals three of snowdrops white.

March’s blossoms – purple, gold,

Six petals to the sun unfold.

April’s here, gold trumpets sound

And stars of white bedeck the ground.

May is the month of pink and white

Apple, May, and Parsley light.

June brings flowers of rainbow hue

Crimson, gold, and heavenly blue.

Flowers gay we still may see

Though dark the green on July’s tree.

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Times Table Sheet

Today with your freshly made times table clocks, have your child do a regular table that you would normally find in a
school setting. This will help with their spatial and relational skills as they go up and down, back and forth to insert
their answers. If your child is intimidated by a completely blank table then help them out with a few answers;
encourage them to do as many from memory as they can. The table will help them see patterns in math that we will
cover later in this block. One thing they might do in a Waldorf classroom and it would be totally appropriate here
would be to draw it out on fabric in crayon. Once you have them all you can iron it for a permanent piece that they
can carry with them. We have also just used the first math block each year to create a new paper one.

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Review Time

Many children have a pretty good concept of the passage of time by now, but it is still a good idea to review it.
Review how many seconds in a minute, minutes in an hour, etc. Perhaps even make a sign for your school space if
you don’t already have one from last year.

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Time: Farmer Jack’s Day

Today we will visit Farmer Jack. For main lesson drawings, you could have your child draw from the story with
clocks next to each one to illustrate the time. At 6:00 a.m. Jack greets the day. He eats some hot cereal, then he’s on
his way. Jack milks the goat at 6:45 a.m. and feeds the hens at 7:00 a.m. He works the fields until lunchtime and
comes home sometime around 11:00 a.m. At 1:30 p.m. he gathers hay and feeds it to the cows. At 3:15 p.m. he takes a
break. His day is almost through, and the dogs and cats gather round to join in relaxing, too. At 4:10 p.m. Jack walks
the farm and gathers the animals in, for evening comes around 5:30 p.m. and they need to settle in. It’s dinner time for
farmer Jack at 7:00 p.m. on the dot. What a day he’s had; what fun it’s been! Would you like to join him? Or not? For
further writing and math practice: Farmer Jack has 10 hens. He also has 1 milking goat. Jack has fields full of corn
and spelt. Jack has four cows. Five dogs and two cats live on Jack’s farm. How many animals does Jack have?

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Block Two - Week One - Dry Measure

Dry Measure Part 1

Today you will begin dry measure or mass. Let’s consider a farming family that is preparing things to sell at the
village market. The children in the family do the baking with their mother and need to figure out how much grain and
sugar they need for their baked goods. It would be a good idea to have a small scale on hand if you can. A kitchen
scale or postage scale will do; an old fashioned scale or even child’s play scale would be great as well. We will tie this
lesson to their other studies by using biblical measures. Scripture tells us that both David and Ezekiel attempted to
standardize weights but neither could achieve complete uniformity. Some people tried to be unfair by having two sets
of weights, an honest set and one that was off; it led to commoners carrying their own weights to see if they were
being cheated. This is said to have upset some of the prophets because it was a sign of the poor spiritual conditions at
the time.

Let’s begin with the basics of weight measurement in ancient times, the shekel. It is uncertain where the practice of
using grain as a weight measurement began, whether it be with the Egyptians or the Babylonians, but it is easy to see
that it could be a fairly honest standard since grain should weigh about the same.

Using grain, wheat being the standard, but rice will do if you don’t have any wheat, practice counting out what a
shekel would be and then using the conversions for larger measure; take the time to measure things around your
home.

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In the main lesson book, consider a drawing like this one. A great verse for cursive practice relating to scales would be
Proverbs 11:1 “The Lord abhors dishonest scales, but honest weights are his delight.”

It may be worth noting that early coins were representative of these weights, also. The Roman weights varied. Going
back to the uncia, as the standard for weight also – remember it means 1/12, but in this case 1/12 of what? Certainly
not the foot! The libra pondo, or pound, was used by the Romans as the standard for mass, but it again was hard to
standardize. Interesting bit of trivia, though: we often see “lb”as the abbreviation for pound; this refers to the original
term libra pondo.

Different kings tried to standardize throughout history, and trouble always arose when converting mass to liquid
measure; this is a future lesson.

Through many years of arguing on the part of many men who all wanted to be right, we have these current
measurements for mass:

• 16 ounces to a pound
• 2,000 pounds to a ton; however, a long ton is 2,240 pounds

Dry measure can also be measured as follows:

• 2 pints in 1 quart
• 4 quarts in a gallon
• 2 gallons in a peck
• 4 pecks in a bushel

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They began to move the piles of colors to the shelf and noticed that at the end of each shelf there was a message. At
the end of the red shelf was a note that said, “9 rubies is 1 amber.” Then they looked at the end of the orange shelf and
it said,“9 pieces of amber is 1 topaz.” Divide finally understood! She grabbed Minus and they looked at the rest of the
shelves. They each had such messages on them, and they also noticed that at the end of the shelves there were color
coded bags with the same message on it. As Plus and Times piled up the stones, Minus and Divide put them in the
proper space, and each time there was a pile of 10 they moved them to a bag and put them in the proper pile. In no
time they had all of the jewels sorted.

For practical work, take your colored jewels and have your child sort them so that there are only nine in each pile. We
have small paint jars that we have labeled with the place value for each color: red ones, orange tens, yellow hundreds,
green thousands, blue ten thousands, indigo hundred thousands, and purple millions. To practice what goes where, I
give simple problems like 495,429 and ask how that would look in jewels. Of course it will take them a moment to
understand that we move from right to left in math; this concept is hard for many children. Practice this for the day
until they are comfortable with it, reminding them that there can only be nine in a pile. Ask what would happen if we
added one more to the ones? Can your child easily see that no more can be added to the pile and that one more must
be added to the next pile over?

Place Value Practice

Now that the gnomes have had their time in the king’s treasury, they want to make sure things never get out of hand
again. Help the gnomes make a new chart for the treasury wall so that it is easy for the treasury gnome to have a sick
day or a break now and then.

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 Class Four - Mathematics Block One

Welcome to our first mathematics block of Class Four. Hopefully, you have been continuing with practice problems.
We’ll begin with some review and then go right into long multiplication and division.

I like to make a title page for the main lesson book.

Block One - Mathematics Review Week One

Spend this week reviewing. Please do not underestimate the power of review. By this point your child should be
getting fairly proficient at their times tables, at least through the 6’s or 7’s. Keep building. We like to play math
games, toss bean bags, play math bingo and other fun games during this review week. We have two review main
lesson page samples. Write the problems in their main lesson book and see what they can do without your help. These
are concepts from Class 1 and up. The end of this chapter has story problems written for this week; you can work
these orally or have them draw in their main lesson book from them. I also like to have them create a new times tables
sheet. This “cheat sheet” is something they can keep all year as they are practicing proficiency at their multiplication.
A larger review will follow Block Two.

If by chance your child is not at this place in their mathematics journey, do not fear! Go back to a place more
comfortable for your child, that is the beauty of having all the grades here in one place.

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Block One - Mathematics Week Two

Long Multiplication Part 1

Today’s lesson will focus on multi-digit long multiplication. Be sure before you do this lesson that you have reviewed
carrying with your child, as that skill will be crucial.

I like to have my child record this process in their main lesson book or even in a separate little book they can use for
all the processes and sequences they will be learning from here on. A sample Math Sequences book is on the next
page. The main lesson content is the same; teach from one and help them write the process in their book or you can
write it for them in their processes book while they record it in their main lesson book.

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 Class Four- Mathematics Block Two

Welcome to our second mathematics block! In this block we will introduce fractions and go more in depth with long
multiplication and division. We will have much more fraction work in Class Five; for now we are just practicing and
getting used to the terms.

Block Two - Mathematics Week One

Review All Known Concepts

Make today a review day. Hopefully you have been working on math concepts a bit each day so this should be easy. If
you don’t feel like you need the review then please walk forward to the next lessons. Look at all concepts learned so
far and put together a main lesson page for your child. I find this to be the best “test” of where they are; it will give
you a good idea of where you still need to go.

Basic Fractions Introduction

Most children will already know basic fractions because you have likely been baking together. Take some time to get
to the heart of what they know by testing them a bit. Since we can start with simple baking rules, take one cup (the
whole). How many ways can we break it down to parts? Most of our kitchens have measuring cups to about 1/8 cup.

By playing with the cups, it is easy to see that 1 cup contains in it 2 – ½ cups, 4 – ¼ cups, 8 – 1/8 cups. Now, what
about that 1/3 cup? That’s an odd one; how many of those are in 1 cup?

I like the illustration of a dozen eggs (buy some brown, some white or if you have hens that lay different eggs) – while
an egg is a whole unit alone, it is also part of a larger unit of 12. Now these kids have been breaking down 12 since
they were in first grade so they should quickly be able to understand this relationship. Fractions are about making
equal pieces. Really from the day they learned to play with Divide, they were learning about fractions; we just never
took it to them in that manner. Having both white and brown eggs out, agree that each egg is 1/12 of the whole dozen.
Now play around with the ratio of white to brown eggs. If 5 out of 12 were brown, how would you write that? Now
what about 6 out of 12? Is there another way to say 6/12’s? What is 6/12’s? A half dozen? If 6/12 equals half, then
what does 3/12 (half of the half) equal? You don’t have to reduce the fraction consciously just yet, just get them
thinking about it.

Here is a quick story to help illustrate this.

Remember our farmer from the last math block? Today we are going to talk about his daughter, Sally. Sally is
responsible for the hens and making sure that each day all the eggs get collected. At the end of each week Sally helps
her father put some of the eggs in cartons to take to the market to sell. Sally tends to many hens, but there are four that
she loves the most because of the rich colors of eggs they lay. These hens are called Judy, JoJo, Emma, and Petunia.
Judy lays eggs that are a rich caramel color, JoJo’s are a deep brown, Emma’s a dainty creamy tan and Petunia’s are a
beautiful blue green. When Sally was younger, the farmer let her choose the hens as pets, and Sally picked the hens
with the prettiest eggs.

Four hens each lay one egg per day from Sunday to Saturday. How many eggs does Sally collect from her favorite
hens?
7x4

Sally is also responsible for 20 other hens, who are perfectly lovely but lay only brown and white eggs. Each of those
hens also lays an egg each day. How many eggs does she collect from this group?
7 x 20

Now when it is time to prepare the eggs for the market Sally loves to choose the eggs that will stay behind and feed
their family for the week. Sally carefully chooses the best ones for the refrigerator egg basket. She chooses 4 from
Judy, 2 from JoJo, 3 from Emma and 3 from Petunia. What fraction of the whole (12) are the eggs from each hen?

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We want to play with this concept in a few different ways so they are used to associating them tangibly as well as
written, so we’ve included two different drawings for you to choose the one best for your child.

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Review Time, Money & Long Division

Some review, including time, money and long division. You could take some time to split this lesson up and also put
some drawings about it in your lesson book.

Let’s consider a farmer who has much to do and limited time to do it. Once a week, he takes milk and eggs to market.
Today he is taking 20 gallons of milk and 360 eggs. This week he has 10 pounds of fresh butter, two dresses and 5
pounds of wool to sell at the market as well. The market is 30 miles away. His truck travels best when he drives about
60 miles an hour for speed. The market opens at 5 a.m. and the farmer wants to be there when it opens.

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How long will it take for him to get to the market?

If it takes him an hour to do the morning farming chores and 30 minutes to get dressed, what time will he need to get
up in order to get to the market on time?

How many dozen eggs is he taking?

He expects to fetch:

$1.50 per gallon of milk

50 cents per dozen eggs
$2.00 per pounds of butter
$10.00 for each dress
$5.00 per pound of wool

If he sells everything for the amount he is seeking, how much will he have to spend?

He needs to purchase the following:

• 10 pounds of wheat (for flour)

• 5 pounds of sugar
• 20 canning jars
• Gas for his truck
• A gift for his wife’s birthday

The farmer’s wife needs the flour and sugar to make scones for an afternoon tea party and the canning jars to put
batches of her fresh jam into. Her party begins at 3 p.m. The preparation time for her tea scones is about 40 minutes –
20 minutes to grind the flour and 20 minutes to put the ingredients together. The scones cook for about 15 minutes.
So she is ready in time for her party, what time will she need to begin preparing her recipe? What time will the farmer
need to leave the market in order to be home with enough time for his wife to bake?

When the farmer arrives at the market he quickly sells his products and gets the price he wanted for everything except
the wool; he could only get $3.00 per pound of wool. How much does he have to spend?

He finds out that wheat is $2.00 per pound, sugar is $1.00 per pound, and the canning jars are $0.20 each. What else
was there? Oh yeah! He needs gas for his truck! Oh, and there was something else…he knew that he should have
made a list…what was it? Oh good, you remembered – his wife’s birthday gift!

Gas for the truck is $0.85 a gallon and he needs 12 gallons to last him the week. (You’ll have to help with the decimal
since we haven’t covered that yet.)

The farmer knows how much his wife enjoys tea. He finds a beautiful tea set for $20 and some wonderful imported
tea for $2.00 per pound. He buys two pounds.

How much money does he arrive back home with? Oh wait! He forgot to take out money for tithing. Go back and
look at how much money he got for his sales. $0.10 from each dollar belongs to God. Now how much does he have
left over?

You can allow your child to live a story like this very easily by letting them consciously observe life with you. Many
times we try to shelter them from the costs of everyday living, but I find that they have a much better appreciation for
our job if they can know and understand the stress involved with putting together a budget and sticking to it.

Working this scone recipe together would be a great review for measurement and also prime your child for the
upcoming lessons on fractions. I have made these savory by omitting the sugar and upping the salt content a bit –
adding cheese and garlic makes wonderful garlic cheddar scones for a great dinner treat and they are fast to put
together!

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137
Reducing Fractions & Finding Equivalent Fractions, Part 2

Today we will reduce fractions to their lowest terms by finding common factors. Put this process into the Math
Sequences book on the same page that you put the previous lesson’s examples. Lessons on prime factoring from Class
Four are useful; review them if needed. Teach them to find the greatest common factor or GCF in order to reduce a
fraction. Remember, the GCF is when we find the number or factor that each part of the fraction has in common. Once
you find the greatest common factor, then you divide both the numerator and the denominator to get the reduced
fraction. It is helpful to note that sometimes the numerator can be the factor.

Here is an example:

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Ask your child if they can tell you what they think the right way to write 4/3 might be. Remind them that if 3/3 = 1
then what could 4/3 equal? Main lesson work could be to draw the bagels (or donuts!) illustrating how 4/3 is 1 and
1/3. See if they can also visualize a few others in this manner.

14/12
10/3
7/6

Once they have gained a visual, teach them a quicker way. Copy this example into their Math Sequences book. Plenty
of practice should follow.

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147
The easiest way for me to explain an introduction to decimals is to use the American currency system; even if you are
not an American, it is pretty straightforward. If you aren’t in America and have a similar currency system then feel
free to exchange it for yours. Very simply, there are 100 pennies in a dollar. Even if you get lost on what nickels,
dimes and quarters are worth, just remembering that there are 100 pennies in a dollar will save you! So if we also
remember that the more dollars you have the better off you will be, then you can easily understand decimals to the
hundredths.

Using the 100 pennies to the dollar concept, talk to your child about which they’d rather have…which is bigger?

7.0 .70 .07

Of course the answer should be 7.0! I would much rather have $7.00 than 70 cents or 7 pennies.

How about 6.58 .65 .06 ? It is important to remember that the farther to the right you get, the less money or the
smaller the fraction of 100 you have.

It is best to get your child as comfortable with decimals in this lesson as possible – in order to do that, go back to
common fractions and convert them to decimals.

Again, thinking about money is helpful:

• 1/10 of a dollar = 10¢ or .10

• 2/10 of a dollar = __________
• 3/10 of a dollar = __________
• 4/10 of a dollar = __________

After you’ve thought that one through, try going further:

• 1/100 of a dollar = 1 ¢ or .01

• 10/100 of a dollar = ________
• 15/100 of a dollar = ________
• 35/100 of a dollar = ________

Now think about ½ of a dollar or 50¢, which is noted in decimals as .50.

Which is easier to think about, ¼ of a dollar or .25? Once you can get comfortable thinking about money in decimals
the rest will make much, much more sense. Take some time to add and subtract using the concept of pennies to
dollars.

• .50 + .75 = _________

• .35 + .45 = _________
• .77 + .23 = _________
• .86 + 1.28 = __________
• 5.24 + .86 = __________

Once they are comfortable with adding money, chances are they will be able to quickly visualize the answer. You want
to continue this with the lessons to follow. Practice as often as you can when shopping or counting out allowance.
Making change is also a great way to continue practicing. For today, just work on oral practice and the place value
chart in the main lesson book or in their Math Sequences book.

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 Resources & Supplies

As always, my aim is to help you save money whenever possible. If you take really good care of your supplies, they
will take care of you. I still have crayons and pencils that are nearly ten years old! Remember that wonderful supplies
alone will not make beautiful lessons; planning and being prepared should be your first priority, supplies second.

Helpful tools in your mathematics journey:

• Classes 1-3: Math jewels, stones, shells or some sort of counting manipulative.
• Block & stick crayons for main lesson drawings.
• Lyra colored pencils for main lesson drawings.
• Lead pencils for writing with erasers, most important for classes 3 and up.
• Main lesson or sketch book to put their lessons in.

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 Waldorf Curriculum, Major Themes Grades 1 to 6

There is a more complete chart on our website in the Resources section.

Grade 1 Grade 2 Grade 3
History, literature & LA History, literature & LA History, literature & LA
• Learning to read and write with • Fables & saint stories to • Biblical stories as part of
the help of the fairy tales as a continue the reading journey, history
base for stories local folklore • Full introduction to parts of
Mathematics Mathematics speech, begin sentence
• Counting, introduction to the • Continue with times tables, structure
four processes through stories time & money, extending Mathematics
Geography & science skills with the four processes • Continue times tables, begin
• Home surroundings Geography & sciences measurement, place value,
Languages –foreign languages • More home study carrying & borrowing
can be taught, through song and surroundings, observing Geography & sciences
culture, no tapes or TV animals from their fables • Cycles of the year
Art & music work • Farming, homes and
• Painting, drawing & modeling Continue language study dwellings, clothing, etc.
from lesson work Art & music Continue language study
• Knitting simple projects • Continue painting, drawing & Art & music
• Penny whistle or recorder & modeling from lesson work • Continue painting, drawing &
singing • Begin knitting more modeling
complicated projects • Begin crocheting
• Continue with instrument & • Continue with instrument &
singing singing
Grade 4 Grade 5 Grade 6
History, literature & LA History, literature & LA History, literature & LA
• Stories from Norse myth, local • Stories from ancient cultures • Rome, Life of Christ &
history & history, India, Persia, Muhammad, Medieval society
• Poetry, deepen grammar work, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, • Writing is more in depth
spelling up to Alexander the Great Mathematics
Mathematics • Writing longer compositions • Geometry
• Long divisions/multiplication, Mathematics • Business math, pre-algebra
fractions, averaging, proofs, • Geometry as part of drawing Geography & science
factoring • Decimals, fractions, metric • Geography of Canada, Latin
Geography & science system America, & countries being
• Zoology, man & animal and Geography & science studied
their relationships • Botany, plant and earth • Physics, geology, more botany
• Local geography, being aware relationship Continue language study
of local plant life • Zoology, a continuation Art & music
Continue language study • Geography of your own • Continue painting, drawing &
Art & music country modeling, more complex
• Continue painting, drawing & Continue language study • Sewing
modeling, more complex Art & music • Continue with blowing
• Sewing, embroidery, cross • Continue painting, drawing & instrument & singing
stitch modeling, more complex • Orchestra or string instrument
• Continue with blowing • Four needle knitting
instrument & singing • Continue with blowing
• Orchestra or string instrument instrument & singing
• Orchestra or string instrument

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Waldorf Essentials
Curriculum. Coaching. Community.

www.waldorfessentials.com
www.aurielslight.org

If you have questions or need

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