Saint Francis & the Saints Block

Our first block this year in second grade is on the Saints.  This is a block that I was unsure about when I first began to learn about 2nd grade in Waldorf.  Why learn about the saints I wondered?  Catholicism is not my spiritual path though I see the beauty and meaning in all religions & faith &amp. So trusting Waldorf & it's approach I set off to learn more.

I decided to look up a book recommended by my curriculum, Waldorf Essentials. My Life with the Saints is such a beautiful & personal book about what the Saints mean to author James Martin.  He talks about how he first "meets" or learns of each one of the Saints. This is not a dry look at history but a personal, inside view of what the Saints mean to him. I also found, The Lessons of Saint Francis, by John Michael Talbot, very helpful.  This book was even more spiritually meaningful to me then My Life with the Saints.  It talks about how to apply to our lives the spiritual qualities that Francis expressed. Through these books and reading the Saint stories in my curriculum I grew comfortable with and excited to teach this block.  The way I see it learning of the Saints is simply learning about lives that are devoted to higher good.  Each one of them has something beautiful to offer at a time when developmentally our children are learning how to place good first and foremost in their lives. These are examples of lives filled with meaning, compassion & love. I'm ecstatic to bring these examples to my son.

Some children's books I've found helpful in learning about Saint Francis are the following...

Franicis, The Poor Man of Assissi by Tomie De Paola,
Brother Sun, Sister Moon by Margaret Mayo,
Saint Francis of Assisi, A Life of Joy by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Saint Francis Sings to Brother Sun, A Celebration of His Kinship wwith Nature, selected and retold by Karen Pandell

Michael and I read together Tomie De Paola's book after our week of hearing lesson stories from our curriculum.  We read selected stories form Saint Francis Sings to Brother Sun.  The illustrations in that book by Bhou Le Tord are lovely, very folk like, simple & beautiful.  We liked looking though the pictures and reading what we felt inspired to read.  The others I read on my own in preparation.

We really enjoyed making our drawings of Saint Francis. They centered around the story of Saint Francis rebuilding a church.  We drew the figure of Saint Francis together and then we each created the backgrounds and other elements in the drawing on our own. Our favorite stories were those of St. Francis joyfully preaching to the birds & animals.  St. Francis exuded qualities of love, compassion, gentleness, & joyfulness.  We see many Saint Francis statues about our community and now they have so much more meaning to us.

This block also gave us opportunities to talk more about our own spiritual beliefs.  On to Fables next week.

Until next time...