It is a pleasure to work with the students of the Third Grade, and our new students are a wonderful addition; they have all entered naturally into our Eurythmy lessons with goodwill.
We began the year by working with a form composed of seven triangles. This is done to a poem entitled "Three Jolly Gentlemen." The starting form transitions when the children from each of the seven triangles move into two concentric circles which rotate in opposite directions. The difficult part is having the students on the inner and outer circles arrive back at their triangles at the same moment. This form is both fun and challenging; it requires the students to quickly change directions, orient themselves in space, while maintaining awareness of where the others from their triangle are throughout each transition.
In third grade the students learn that Eurythmy is a "secret" language, and that each sound of speech has a corresponding gesture. Now they are ready to consciously learn which sound each gesture represents and that each sound holds a meaning of it's own. We accomplish this by working on a poem entitled "The Sailor's Alphabet" in which each sound is connected to something about the life of a sailor. In addition, when each child in the class has their birthday (or half birthday for the summer birthdays) I tell them that their name tells a story about who they are and then perform the sounds of their name in Eurythmy, bringing out the qualities that are inherent in each individual child through the sounds in their name.
Third grade students are ready to move from working with the pentatonic scale to working with the the diatonic scale. This year they will learn to play the C Major scale on either a C Flute or a soprano recorder. To support this, I will formally introduce the Tone Eurythmy gestures for the C major scale. This work will then be applied to moving choreography and performing Tone Eurythmy gestures to a composition written in C major.
All year the third graders delve into the earth in their gardening class. With their own hands, the children discover the “beginnings” of the food that eventually reaches our tables. The children learn how difficult it can be to work the land and what careful tending it takes to help things grow. As their vegetables, fruits, and flowers grow this brings them great joy in their accomplishment and they also come away with a greater understanding of the food we eat.
To bring their gardening and farming experience into Eurythmy, we perform the following verse: Bread is made from dough, Kneaded and risen And leavened. From the grain Of the wheat, From the fire Of the sun, That our hearts May be strong, And true.
Throughout the year the third grade students will work on a variety of coordination and spatial exercises that specifically develop the ability to quickly orient oneself in moving left and right. One such exercise that the class is enjoying is performed in two groups to OP.51 ,No.4 from "Seven Cheerful Variations on a Slovakian Folk Song" by Dmitri Kabalevsky.
If you have any questions,please send them to me through the contact page. I wish all the children and families of the third grade a happy school year.