Grades
To enlarge photo, click on it.
Girls in Grades Class learn about starting a fire from friction in a Nature Studies block.
While kindergarteners learn best when taught concretely through movement and example, children in the grade school years (ages 7 to 14) learn best when they are engaged imaginatively, artistically, and hands-on. Academics need to be presented in vivid, lively pictures through music and the arts, storytelling, and direct contact with the natural world, to bring all subjects alive.
A three-dimensional approach to teaching infuses all of the educational work in grade school. Movement to promote thinking on one's feet, stories that touch the heart, and activities that kindle the imagination - these are the experiences that foster joy and love of learning in the grade school years.
In Waldorf lower grades, subjects are introduced in imaginative, lively ways, through storytelling, watercolor painting, beeswax modeling, knitting, circle and singing games, jump rope, bean bag and string games, learning to play the flute, gardening, and imaginative outdoor play. Subjects are taught in 4-week blocks, where each subject is focused on intensely during the morning Main Lesson period.
The Waldorf grade school is unique in that the class stays with the same teacher for first through eighth grade, instilling a strong sense of community within the children. The unique relationship that develops between the class teacher and each child assures depth of understanding necessary for truly productive learning, and adds to the joy and stability of these formative years.
This middle childhood phase is the time for educating the feeling intelligence, as children grow toward their individuality. As they develop their intellects and academic skills, they also develop their inner world of feelings. Waldorf education engages students through feelings by introducing academic subjects through folk tales, legends and mythologies and other artistic mediums which result in an integrated approach of feeling, thinking and doing (willing) that meets the needs of the individual child at this imaginative age.
