Waldorf education weaves the arts, music, and movement into the fabric of every student’s daily life. An interdisciplinary approach to main lessons and specialty subject areas ensures that our curriculum is fresh, engaging, and meaningful. Creativity and imagination are continually sparked in each classroom and within each student. In first grade, students begin lessons with their subject teachers who will accompany them through the grades.
Foreign Languages
Foreign languages begin in first grade. Their foreign language studies begin with songs and poetry and progress to learning about the customs and lifestyle. Children in grades one through three learn foreign languages orally. Written work and grammar studies begin in grade four. Students practice the languages through speaking and responding, skits, songs, stories, reading, and writing.
Handwork
Handwork is infused into the curriculum from early childhood through grade 8. At an early age, children learn to finger knit and complete simple sewing projects. As children develop and their abilities strengthen, the handwork curriculum keeps pace by becoming increasingly complex. Handwork includes: knitting, crocheting, woodworking, machine sewing, and more. The curriculum varies by grade level and scaffolds relevant, age-appropriate academic concepts. Handwork projects provide a meaningful way for students to strengthen the same skills they need for academics, such as fine-motor strength, hand-eye coordination, focus, and attention. As part of the handwork curriculum, students complete individual year-long projects. While engaged in their meaningful and fulfilling handwork project, students gain a sense of competency and mastery. They gain life skills by learning to work through challenges at the same time they are learning a useful craft.
Music Education
Waldorf educators have a deep appreciation for music and encourage students to appreciate music, too. Transitions in the early childhood class are marked with songs and notes played on a lyre. In the early elementary years, students learn to play the pentatonic flute and the recorder. In grade 3, students learn to play the violin and participate in a strings ensemble. In grade 5, they may continue with the violin or transition to the viola or cello. Middle school students participate in orchestra and choir. Singing, poetry, rhyming, and rhythm-building exercises abound in all grades.
Physical Education
Children learn to play cooperative games in the early grades. Through these games, they learn important life lessons, such as taking turns, encouraging others, and trying their best. Games are taught through imaginative stories so that children are joyfully engaged while strengthening essential skills like balance and coordination. By grade 5, students are ready to play together in a more organized way and develop new abilities so skills and rules for playing sports are practiced. In physical education class, students are encouraged to develop their physical bodies for life-long movement and health. Eurythmy blocks and circus arts such as juggling, tumbling, and acrobatics round out the physical education curriculum.