Grade School Curriculum

Mathematics

In the Waldorf curriculum, the teacher is interested not only in the children’s mastery of the practical aspects of mathematics, but also in developing flexibility of thought and a curiosity about the world as it is revealed through mathematical thought. Great emphasis is placed on working with numbers in multi-sensory ways. Numbers practice in the lower grades is lively. It involves manipulation of natural objects and rhythmical counting and memory games. Children speak and clap loudly and softly, walk, jump, and hop to number rhymes and games. In the upper grades, seeing and drawing geometric forms in a way that emphasizes their beauty is an example of the multi-sensory approach.

Major concepts, such as measurement and time, are introduced to the children when they are developmentally ready to understand the concepts. Mathematical processes like multiplication, division, and fractions are introduced through stories and then move on to abstractions, a progression that aids deep understanding of the concepts. At the end of eight years the expectation is that every child will have mastered the techniques and concepts of geometry and algebra needed for whatever high school they choose.

Natural Sciences

We would like our children not only to begin to understand the laws of nature, but to feel a personal connection to our natural world. When we begin our formal investigations in the fourth grade, the children will already be familiar with the natural world of seasons, plants, and animals. Waldorf students spend plenty of time outside. They regularly explore this world through walks and outdoor play. The discovery of scientific concepts is initiated by direct experience rather than by reading about it in a textbook. Moreover, there is an emphasis on the human being and the spiritual aspects of the universe. Whether studying the earth, the stars, plants or animals, the teacher always returns to the human being and the human connections.

The Natural Science curriculum typically covers the following areas:

First and Second grade: Nature Exploration

Third grade: Farming, Clothing and Shelter

Fourth grade: Preliminary Phsyiology and Zoology - Human and Animal

Fifth grade: Botany

Sixth grade: Geology, Astronomy, Physics - Acoustics, Optics, Heat, Magnetism

Seventh grade: Physiology and Health, Mechanics, Electricity, Inorganic Chemistry

Eighth grade: Organic Chemistry, Physics, Muscular and Skeletal Anatomy