Welcome to the Essential Guide for teaching the Stories from the Scriptures: Kings block.
Whether you are new to Waldorf education or wrapping up Grade 3, this guide gives you the philosophy, goals, and daily rhythm you need to bring the stories of Joshua, the Judges, and the Kings of Israel into your homeschool alongside more advanced grammar and writing.
The Philosophy: The Final Scripture Block of the Year
The Hebrew Scriptures carried your child through Grade 3: Creation, the Patriarchs, Moses, and now the Kings. Each block has met the child at a different stage of the year’s inner journey. This last block, Kings, meets a nine year old who has become braver, more aware of their own strengths and weaknesses, and ready to see imperfect heroes learning to lead.
The stories of Joshua at the walls of Jericho, the Judges (including Samson), and the first three Kings (Saul, David, and Solomon) are full of courage, failure, repentance, and wisdom. These are not squeaky-clean figures. Saul grows jealous. David makes a terrible choice and bears the consequences. Solomon asks for wisdom and becomes the wisest king, yet struggles at the end of his life. The stories are honest, and they are offered to your child exactly because their own inner life is becoming more complex.
Alongside the stories, the literacy work deepens: being verbs and helping verbs, continued cursive practice inside words, weekly spelling, and tricky vowel junctions.
The Curriculum: What You Will Teach
This block is designed to take 15 instructional days. The stories unfold chronologically across the block.
The Stories Your Child Will Hear:
Joshua and the Battle of Jericho.
The Judges (including Samson).
Saul, the first King of Israel.
David and Goliath, and David as King.
Solomon, the wise King, and the Temple.
The Language Progression:
Being Verbs: am, is, are, was, were.
Helping Verbs: have, has, had, will, can, could, may, might.
Tricky Vowel Junctions: going, seeing, flying, playing, doing.
Paragraph Writing: continuing the draft-and-publish rhythm with consistent tense.
Your Learning Intentions:
By the end of the 15 days, your child should be able to:
Retell the main events of Joshua, the Judges, Saul, David, and Solomon in their own words.
Identify being verbs and helping verbs in a sentence.
Write a clear paragraph with consistent tense and strong topic sentence.
Record writing and drawings neatly in the Main Lesson book.
Practical Guidance: How to Set Up Your Space
Materials Needed:
Main Lesson Book and Lined Exercise Book: For bookwork and skills.
Block and Stick Crayons, Coloured Pencils, Graphite Pencil: Plus blue and red coloured pencils for being and helping verbs.
Scrap Paper or a Small Whiteboard: For grammar modelling.
💡 Teacher Tip: The Imperfect King Is the Real Teacher
David is a shepherd boy who defeats a giant, but he is also a king who makes terrible mistakes. Solomon asks for wisdom, but falls into folly at the end of his life. Resist any urge to polish these figures. Your nine year old is beginning to see that real people (including themselves) are made up of both strengths and weaknesses, and the scripture stories honour that truth. A David who only defeats Goliath is a shallow hero. A David who also mourns his own failings is a teacher for a whole life.
The Waldorf Method: How to Structure a Daily Lesson
Each day follows the steady Grade 3 rhythm: Review, New Learning, Bookwork, Story. Here is how it looks on Day 1: The Ark of the Covenant.
Step 1: Review the Moses Block
Recall together the closing moments of the Moses block: the crossing, the wilderness, the Ten Commandments, the sight of the Promised Land. Remind your child that this new block begins after Moses’ death, when the Israelites must learn to live without him.
Step 2: New Learning (Being and Helping Verbs)
Ask your child to define a verb (an action word). Then introduce two new types:
Being verbs: am, is, are, was, were. These do not show action; they tell us what something is. “Moses was a leader.”
Helping verbs: have, has, had, will, can, could, may, might. These work with action verbs. “The Israelites have travelled far.”
Step 3: Bookwork
Example Bookwork Instructions:
Open a new Main Lesson book. Leave the first page for a title page of David and Goliath.
Turn to the next page. Draw a block-crayon border and write the heading Being and Helping Verbs.
Write the being verbs in blue, and the helping verbs in red. Your child writes two sentences using each type.
Step 4: The Story
Put the books away. Read the story of the Ark of the Covenant and the Tent of Meeting aloud. The Israelites build a holy place, bring their finest gifts, and Yahweh’s presence fills the tent. End the lesson here. Tomorrow the story continues with the crossing into the Promised Land.
Build It Yourself vs. The Guided Curriculum
You now have the method and the first day. If you have the time, you can plan the 15-day progression, write age-appropriate retellings of each story, sequence the grammar work, and prepare Main Lesson book pages.
For many homeschooling families, three weeks of thoughtful retellings and coherent grammar teaching is more than a busy week allows. If you would rather spend your mornings reading to your child than planning late at night, the complete Kings block is ready for you.
What’s Inside the Complete Block?
15 Complete Daily Stories: Joshua, Judges, Saul, David, Solomon, paced for 8 to 9 year olds.
Grammar Sequence: Being verbs, helping verbs, tricky vowel junctions, layered alongside.
Paragraph Writing Frameworks: For consistent, clear retelling.
Main Lesson Book Artwork: Reference drawings for each major story.
Daily Skills Practice: Cursive words, spelling, basic facts, time.
Teacher Tips Throughout: So you know when to let the story carry and when to pause for reflection.
Everything is carefully structured to give you the confidence of an experienced Waldorf teacher, right through to Solomon’s Temple.