Saints, Fables and Folktales: Second Grade Language Arts

Currently, in the second grade classroom, you’ll find a beautiful chalk drawing from the tale of Malindy and the Devil, an African American Folktale familiar in areas of Virginia, Georgia and the Carolinas. The image and story come from the book Herstories: African American Folktales, Fairy Tales and True Tales, and took the place of a lovely drawing of St. Francis that last graced the chalkboard. These images, beautifully rendered by Geneva Cooper, our school chef and former Waldorf High School art teacher, illustrate the array of stories being utilized in lessons in the second grade curriculum.

In second grade, the students are moving from the fairy tales of first grade to stories of the saints, fables and folktales. They are exploring the realm of human traits, the polarities from the good to the bad. The students explore acts of extreme generosity, bravery, cleverness, and compassion as well as disobedience, mischief-making and foolishness. They can see themselves and their classmates through these stories, aspiring to acts of kindness, or antics of the animal kingdom—they are learning valuable lessons about life. These morality tales instruct them on how to be good friends and classmates, creating a cohesive community.