The Grades: an artistic, holistic, approach to learning
The Waldorf curriculum is designed to work in rhythm with the natural stages of children’s development. The curriculum of each grade is specifically designed to develop and inspire new capacities
for growing and learning. The cornerstone of the day in grade school is the Morning Lesson, a two-hour period at the beginning of the day when children are most ready for academic work. Morning
Lesson blocks are focused on a single curricular subject, i.e. Language Arts, Math, and continue on for three to four weeks. All Morning Lessons incorporate the arts, and can include storytelling,
movement, music, poetry, drama, drawing, painting, modeling, reading, and writing. Students record and illustrate their lessons in Morning Lesson books that are treasured for years.
Class teachers remain with the same class throughout the eight elementary years when possible. As a result, the teacher and students build close, secure relationships that accommodate individual needs, and the teacher-parent relationship functions as a partnership.
Every aspect of the curriculum is designed to inspire imagination, cultivate creativity, encourage flexibility of thought, freedom of expression, and promote problem-solving.
The grades curriculum is designed to match certain developmental benchmarks and to create in students a love of learning. Cultural literacy themes such as; fairy tales, stories of the saints, fables, Hebrew legends, and Norse mythology, serve to create a stable and engaging framework for learning.
Specialty Classes are an important part of the grade school day, to learn more see
Specialty Classes
The following is a basic overview of the curriculum content offered at Tacoma Waldorf School and all traditional Waldorf schools.
Preschool & Kindergarten
Multi-sensory activities fostering brain development, social skills, gross and fine motor skills; developmental and experiential free play; oral tradition introduction of literature through nursery rhyme, song and fairy tales; circle work and finger games; preparation for and participation in seasonal multicultural festivals; nature stories; beeswax modeling; painting and drawing; food preparation, cooking and baking; handwork projects including seasonal crafts, sewing and finger-knitting.
First Grade
Fairy tales, folk tales and nature stories; pictorial and phonetic introduction to letters; form drawing; preparation for reading through writing; qualities of numbers; introduction of the four processes of arithmetic; lower multiplication tables; pentatonic flute; knitting; beeswax modeling; Japanese and Spanish.
Second Grade Legends and animal fables; continued work in language (phonics, reading, writing, punctuation, spelling) and arithmetic (the four math processes, odd/even numbers, times tables, place values); cursive writing introduced; form drawing;Japanese and Spanish.; handwork.
Third Grade Stories from Old Testament history; composition and grammar; study of practical life (farming, housing, clothing); higher multiplication tables; weight, money and measurement; form drawing; Japanese and Spanish; handwork (crochet); lyre instruction.
Fourth Grade Norse mythology and sagas; Native American mythology; letter writing; language arts (composition and spelling); local geography and map making; study of the animal kingdom; arithmetic and fractions; form drawing; Japanese and Spanish; string instruction begins; handwork (cross stitch).
Fifth Grade Ancient history and myths through Greek times (Indian, Persian, Egyptian); American geography related to vegetation; agriculture and economics; botany; decimals; ratio and proportion; language arts; form drawing; handwork (knitting socks); woodworking; Japanese and Spanish; string instruction.
Sixth Grade Roman and medieval history; geography; astronomy; geology; physics (acoustics, optics, heat); algebra; geometry and geometric drawing; business math (interest, percentage, discount); language arts; woodworking;Japanese and Spanish; handwork; string orchestra; community service.
