Valley Waldorf City School’s Curriculum
Valley Waldorf City School’s curriculum is inspired by Waldorf pedagogy. When the child is ready for first grade, it is appropriate to use the powers of understanding for more abstract matters, including writing, reading and arithmetic. But to the child, it is not simply the acquisition of knowledge that is important. The process by which this knowledge is learned, through the creativity of the teachers, must meet the inner need of the child and provide a secure basis for the child to reach out into the world.
Between the ages of seven and fourteen, the child is primarily a being of feeling, imagination and aesthetic sensitivity. The thinking and intellectual capacities are beginning to develop but do not dominate until puberty. For this reason, all instruction in the elementary years, be it reading, writing, arithmetic, history, geography, botany, or foreign languages, is presented in an artistic way by the teacher and involves and develops the artistic sensibilities and capacities of the child.
The class teacher will, ideally, stay with a class from grade one through grade five. This "class teacher" provides a structure of authority and security and is a person whom, it is hoped, the children both love and respect. The class teacher is responsible for bringing the comprehensive curriculum inspired by Waldorf Pedagogy to the children. The curriculum includes writing, reading, arithmetic and other basic academic skills. Over the five years, it also features fables, fairy tales, Biblical stories and stories of saints, Norse mythology, Greek and Roman history and mythology, the culture of the Middle Ages, the religions and cultures of the non-Western world including India, ancient Persia, China, Japan and Africa. Children also study both American and world history, zoology, botany, physics, chemistry, business math, and basic algebra.
Our curriculum also includes the full range of arts and handcrafts. The children learn to paint, draw, model with beeswax and with clay, knit, crochet, sew and embroider, and ideally will have the opportunity to carve and work with wood (a program to be developed). They also learn to sing and to play music. In the first grade all children begin to play the pentatonic flute and from the third grade on, begin to work with the recorder. Also in our third grade each student undertakes the study of an orchestral instrument.
They learn to speak clearly and to recite poetry. Every year they participate in putting on a major dramatic production in which the children use their various developing artistic capacities. Gardening is a part of the curriculum and our school has vibrant garden where the children can plant, tend and harvest their own vegetables. Children also take frequent field trips to organic farms and homesteads.
A "main lesson," usually ninety minutes in length is the cornerstone of each day covering the specific topics in the curriculum for that year. Topics are taught in blocks. For example, each day for three weeks the main lesson may focus on local history and geography (fourth grade) or botany (fifth grade). In all blocks, the teacher seeks to integrate the particular subject with others. For example, in teaching American geography she will interweave material from history, botany, literature, and so on. For each block, every student makes a main lesson book that contains factual information received from the teacher but also his or her own original drawings, illustrations, observations and compositions.
Each main lesson is designed so that the child's intellect, feeling life, and physical will forces, in other words, the head, heart and hands, are engaged. The balance of the morning is usually taken up with special subjects that are primarily intellectual in nature, such as mathematics, reading and grammar. In the afternoon, classes take place that involve physical activity and/or the arts; handwork, games, music, foreign language (we offer Spanish & German), painting and modeling.
The living, direct relationship between the teacher and the children through the spoken word is considered of great importance. Thus the teacher rather than the textbook, television or computer is the source of most information. Also, there are no spelling books or readers; the children read classics of children's literature. Through the early grades, there are no tests or exams and no letter or numerical grade. Waldorf Education seeks to bring forth a person who loves learning for its own sake, not one who learns in order to pass a test. Our teachers meet regularly with parents to report on a child's progress and challenges. In our Upper Grades, the teacher may start to give quizzes as a way of reviewing material and also as a preparation for the world of testing, which the students will encounter in their later schooling.
At the beginning of each day, the teacher greets the students by name and a handshake, as they enter the classroom. The class starts their day by reciting their morning verse, then engages in movement, singing, and playing instruments prior to their written work.
Grade 1
The transition from Kindergarten to the First Grade is an awesome moment for the young child, and this is especially so in a school inspired by Waldorf pedagogy.
The children now have daily lessons, with their own class teacher, as well as a variety of other lessons throughout the week, including handwork, art, music, form drawing, German language and games.
Their teacher will meet them each morning, not only with a loving greeting, but with a handshake.
Now the children begin to learn the alphabet through archetypal stories and the symbol language that is drawn forth from them. For example, the teacher may create a picture in which a King stands tall, with sword aloft and one leg striding forward. This picture illustrates the story that the teacher has told. Soon the children recognize the ‘K’ as the ‘King sign.’ Slowly and methodically, through stories and artistic experiences, the alphabet is meaningfully introduced…The children will learn to record their ‘lessons,’ in their own ‘main lesson books.’ It is in these treasured books that the children re-tell the stories and lessons they have experienced throughout the year. Math lessons are also approached in this manner, with the teacher utilizing the visual arts, rhythm and body geography to awaken the children to the archetypal quality of each of the lower numbers. The teacher weaves the four processes into these number stories from the very first days so that the children will experience ‘addition, subtraction, multiplication and division’ through the story, not as abstractions, but as natural steps in combining quantities. In addition, in their Circle Time, the children speak and move in rhythmical number patterns on a daily basis.
In addition to this imaginative teaching brought to the children every day in Main Lesson (the first two hours of the day), First Grade children also have lessons in:
foreign languages
modeling with fragrant beeswax
singing and playing pentatonic flutes
painting
drama
form drawing
games
class outings, nature walks
Full participation in the festival life of the school
Grade 2
The second grade child stands on the edge of a new world.
So far, the learning in a curriculum inspired by Waldorf pedagogy has been somewhat sleepy, with the dreamlike quality of the classical fairy tale. But now, as the children continue their practice with the basic skills and concepts presented in first grade, they eagerly take up the sword of responsibility for their new-found abilities. They write, they read, they calculate.
Each child awakens to these milestones in his or her own time, yet, on the whole, this is usually a year when the child takes giant steps forward in capacity and understanding.
The literary focus of the year reflects this dawning of self-consciousness, with its surprising awakening to the inherent duality in every human soul. On the one hand the children hear stories of idealistic heroes and saints, and on the other hand, they hear Animal Fables. The latter have appeared in all cultures as traditional teaching stories; in them, animals take on human characteristics and foibles, interacting with one another and with human beings in often surprising, but always educational ways. And, finally, some teachers of Second Grade also tell the tale of The King of Ireland’s Son, in which the striving, struggling human being AND the magical, mythical animal characters both play their part. From these stories arise exercises in recitation, group writing, and the beginnings of original composition. These exercises, and the spelling and grammar lessons associated with them, develop the children’s growing literacy.
At the same time, the skills developed in First Grade are the firm basis for further studies in mathematics. But now this work intensifies, as the children learn to solve word problems involving all four processes, and to bring these into written form. The children also continue their rhythmical practice of number patterns on a daily basis, with the recitation of times tables in combination with walking, clapping, stamping and jumping.
Water color painting, beeswax modeling, creating artistic representations of the lessons and form drawing are further weekly exercises that arise out of the story content of the main lesson.
The games and movement lessons continue to be non-competitive, developing such essential skills as jumping rope, climbing, skipping, balancing and teamwork.
In handwork classes, the children continue to gain skill in knitting, moving towards more advanced techniques including purling.
Grade 3
Before the Nine Year “change,” children live in sympathy with everything in the world, with parents and siblings, with loved teachers and friends, with Nature, its creatures and beauties. Now, as the children come to this age they “cross The Rubicon” between childhood and all that will come after. This is an extremely delicate transition. The child is no longer unconsciously carried in the stream of life that was given at birth, but awakens to his or her own separateness from every loved “other.” It is a time when the children need to meet the world in a new way, in a way that brings them the fullness of Earth’s potential for goodness and support. They need to know they can build upon the Earth, and rely on it to sustain them.
Third grade is a crucial turning point, the curriculum brings the children into their first experience of humanity’s struggle to find their place on the earth. In this vein, they learn stories of the Hebrew people: The Creation, The Great Flood and their long travail to create community. These stories are the backdrop of the year, but the richness of the Third Grade curriculum also includes other experiences that teach the children the earth is good, and that they can safely work upon it. It will provide the firm ground upon which they may build, and farm, and raise the animals that will sustain their life upon the earth. They learn about grains and fibers and they bake bread and work with wool. The children cultivate their own garden and grow a number of foods that are basic to life. In the end, they also harvest the the fruits of their labor, and bring these into the kitchen to be made into a meal. They raise fruits and vegetables from our trees and garden beds and harvest them for cooking and natural dye projects. They visit homesteads, where they learn about food production, beekeeping, animal culture and cooking. They visit building and construction sites and they learn about everything involved in building a home. They make their first maps and they begin to objectify the space in which they live and move.
Through these experiences, which are the “story” content of the Third Grade, the children learn that the Earth provides all that is needed for life. At the same time, they continue to develop their academic skills, as in the earlier grades, in the most delightful variety of learning experiences.
In addition to the above, the Third Grade lessons also include
Grammar, punctuation and cursive script
Water color painting
Form drawing
Beeswax and clay modeling
In Handwork: crocheting, making an animal or purse, learning about making and dyeing fibres for textiles, such as wool cotton and silk
In Music: singing in rounds and in parts, beginning recorder, notation
In Math lessons: long division, measurement and time, more complex multiplication
In Movement activities: geometric forms and exercises, juggling, balancing
Foreign Languages
Games
Grade 4
In Grade Four, the challenge of the third grade has been met and the child can stand with firm resolution and strength in the world. Themes of separateness and together weave through the curriculum inspired by Waldorf Pedagogy of this year. Handwork incorporates more elaborate design, independent instrument studies and musical ensembles begin, mathematics introduces fractions, and science focuses on the study of man and animal. The minor key is introduced in music, lending a sense of introspection, and the child's newly found sense of self provides the basis for a desire to act in the world with others.
Grade Four Curriculum in Outline
Local history and geography
Norse sagas
Composition
Book reports
Mapmaking
Math: averages / times tables
Science: zoology - human and animal
Freehand geometric drawing
Handwork: cross-stitch / embroidery
modeling with clay - animals and geometric forms
orchestral instrument such as violin or cello / chorus and orchestra
tone Eurythmy / square- and folk dancing
Grade 5
In Grade Five of our curriculum inspired by Waldorf pedagogy, the focus is on balancing the needs of the individual with those of the world.
The study of Ancient History allows the child to experience their own growth through the development and achievements of cultures. These studies incorporate poetry, craft-making, music and story, allowing the child to take part in the learning with all of their senses and truly enter into the experience of ancient civilization's striving. The study of Geography allows the student to understand the experiences of life in that region. Participation in the Greek Pentathlon allows the class to bring their individual talents to a larger community. This reflection of the person through their deeds in the world is woven into the entire fifth grade year.
Botany is the main Science study of Grade 5.
5th Graders join with Waldorf schools across SoCal in a recreation of the ancient Greek Olympic Grades called the Pentathalon.
Grade 5 Curriculum centers around Ancient Civilizations.
Botany is the main Science study of Grade 5.
Grade Five Curriculum in Outline
Ancient History - India, Persia, Mesopotamia, and Greece
Greek mythology / life of Buddha, Zoroaster, Alexander the Great, and others
Parts of speech, syntax, descriptive writing
Math: decimals / fractions / metric system
Science: botany
Geography of North America
Knitting with four needles / wood carving / modeling Greek vases and columns in clay
Three-part singing
Eurythmy to poetry
Tumbling and gymnastics / pentathlon
