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Sophia Institute online Art of Teaching Waldorf Program

Art of Teaching Waldorf Grade 1

Lesson 7

HELP

Waldorf Curriculum

Introduction

A curriculum could be compared to the list of ingredients for a recipe. However good the recipe, the quality of the ingredients is crucial but to make a start the components also need to be available. When they are to hand, the next question is whether the cook is skilled enough to combine and adjust flavors so that each item plays its part without overwhelming the others. An experienced cook may be able to substitute one ingredient for another, even to improvise in such a way that something new is created. But we should not forget that emotion, even love, goes into the preparation of food and this will influence how it is received. And, of course, the expectations, health and culinary experience of the diners also makes a difference.

A curriculum guides an entire learning process. It should not, like a dish into which a chef has thrown every possible taste, explode in an overwhelming, sensation-bursting blowout; it should bring to the table ingredients that are well- balanced, digestible and nutritious, that promote health and stimulate, not stupefy, the senses. Over time, as with diet, a curriculum can introduce items that may not be immediately appealing, stronger tastes or more subtle and complex ones: intellectual chillis, subjects initially sour or astringent, as well as flavors, textures and scents that help to educate the palate. A primary school curriculum, in particular, sets out ingredients for the hors d'oeuvres of lifelong learning.

Of course, many school curriculums share common ingredients, but the distinctive qualities of the Steiner-Waldorf curriculum framework are, we believe, unique:
  • The curriculum unfolds over time, is wide and richly experiential: not merely designed towards narrowly-defined 'achievement', but intended to promote capability for the art of living
  • The curriculum is really only a series of 'indications', as Steiner described them, pointers inviting interpretation and free rendering, i.e. it calls on and encourages the creativity ( or artistry) of teachers
  • The importance of content is fully recognized (young people need certain skills and useful knowledge), but as a creative framework, the Steiner- Waldorf curriculum is embedded within a developing practice and method. The curriculum outline takes its cue from the development of the child: subject, or content, provides a medium for a meeting and collaboration of teacher and learner. Thus, since meaning and knowledge are built over  time, this is co-constructive learning in which understanding unfolds as a process of learning to learn encompassing both students and teacher
  • Subject content and necessary competence are always relative to the child: the curriculum is midwife to the emerging individuality, rather than suit of clothes into which the child must be made to fit
  • The shaping principles of the curriculum are extraordinarily robust and resilient. Many independent educators recognize this fundamental coherence, which has stood the test of time and many generations of children
  • The creative freedom within the Waldorf curriculum framework enables it to be successfully adapted for a variety of settings, languages and cultures. Schools founded on the principles and example of the first Waldorf School (Stuttgart 1919), can be found around the world, including every inhabited continent. What started as a central European curriculum has been modified by applying its essential principles to the education of children in -the Americas, many parts of Africa, the Middle East, India and the Far East, as well as most of the rest of Europe.

Course Outline

Sophia Institute Waldorf Courses: The Art of Teaching Waldorf Grade 1
Lesson 1 / Waldorf Curriculum / Introduction
Lesson 2 / Waldorf Curriculum / Grades 1 - 3 (Part 1)
Lesson 3 / Waldorf Curriculum / Grades 1 - 3 (Part 2)
Lesson 4 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Introduction
Lesson 5 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Reading / Grade 1
Lesson 6 / Waldorf Methods / Reading and Math / Math / Grade 1
Lesson 7 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Chemistry / Introduction
Lesson 8 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Physics / Introduction
Lesson 9 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Life Sciences / Introduction
Lesson 10 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Geography / Introduction
Lesson 11 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Geography / Grades 1 - 8
Lesson 12 / Waldorf Methods / Sciences / Gardening and Sustainable Living
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Tasks and Assignments for Art of Teaching Waldorf Grade 1 /AoT17

Please study and work with the study material provided for this lesson. Then please turn to the following tasks and assignments listed below.

1. Study the material provided and look up other resources as needed and appropriate.
2. Create examples of curriculum that addresses the learning method and content appropriate for grade 1. Curriculum examples should include outlines and goals, activities, circle/games, stories, and illustrations/drawings: Create 2 examples for grade 1.
3. Additionally submit comments and questions, if any.

Please send your completed assignment via the online form or via email.

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Study Material for this Lesson

Introduction

" ... ancient wisdom contained no contradiction between body and soul or between nature and spirit; because one knew: Spirit is in man in its archetypal form; the soul is none other than the message transmitted by spirit; the body is the image of spirit. Likewise, no contract was felt between man and surrounding nature because one bore an image of spirit in one's own body, and the same was true of every body in external nature. Hence, an inner kinship was experienced between one's own body and those in outer nature, and nature was not felt to be different from oneself. Man felt himself at one with the whole world. He could feel this because he could behold the archetype of spirit and because the cosmic expanses spoke to him. In consequence of the universe speaking to man, science simply could not exist. Just as we today cannot build a science of external nature out of what lives in our memory, ancient man could not develop one because, whether he looked into himself or outward at nature, he beheld the same image of spirit. No contrast existed between man himself and nature, and there was none between soul and body. The correspondence of soul and body was such that, in a manner of speaking, the body was only the vessel, the artistic reproduction, of the spiritual archetype, while the soul was the mediating messenger between the two. Everything as in a state of intimate union. There could be no question of comprehending anything. We grasp and comprehend what is outside our own life. Anything that we carry within ourselves is directly experienced and need not be first comprehended. ... Precisely because man had lost the connection with nature, he now sought a science of nature from outside." - Rudolf Steiner in "The Origins of Natural Science."

In Waldorf education, the science subjects do not start with nor are built from theories and formulas. Rather they start with the phenomena and develop in an experiential way, by first presenting the phenomenon, having the students make detailed observations, then guiding the students to derive the concepts that arise from the phenomena, and finally deriving the scientific formulas and laws behind the phenomena.This methodology reflects the way basic science actually has been developed by scientists and trains the pupils stepwise in basic scientific thinking and reflection on the basis of personal experience and observation of the phenomena of nature and the history of science. In kindergarten and the lower grades, the experience of nature through the seasons is brought to the children through nature walks, nature tables and observation of nature around. In later grades, there are specific main lesson blocks dealing with Man and Animal, and other themes. In grade 5, scientific ideas may be taught historically through the study of the Greeks, for example, Aristotle, Archimedes and Pythagoras. In grades 6-8 the science curriculum becomes more focused with blocks on physics (optics, acoustics, mechanics, magnetism and electricity), botany, chemistry (inorganic and organic), and anatomy. In high school, science is taught by specialists who have received college level training in biology, chemistry and physics and these three subjects are taught in each of the 4 years of high school.
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​Chemistry/Kindergarten/Grades

​Popular science books, including those for  children, frequently introduce models of atoms  and molecules that bear little resemblance to  contemporary understanding of 'sub-atomic' and  particle behaviour. The crude, billiard ball picture  of chemical processes is both inaccurate and at odds  with a phenomenological approach to the subject. 

The Steiner-Waldorf curriculum for chemistry,  as for other subjects, aims to give a developmental  and adaptive picture to children and young people,  based on clear observation and open-ended  questioning. In this way, pupils follow some of the  key steps taken during the history of the physical  sciences and can learn to appreciate the intricacies  and the power of practical applications of the  subject. The chemistry curriculum is informed  by the principles that inform the other subjects,  encouraging lateral and creative thinking across  the whole curriculum. By fostering imagination  from early years onwards and working from this  towards close study of observable phenomena, the  pupils are well-prepared for atomic theory and,  the sphere of life science, genetics and Darwinian  evolution, which will normally be studied in depth  in Class 11. 


Kindergarten to Class 6 

In popular understanding, the word 'chemistry'  implies crystals, powders and liquids in bottles.  If the study of chemistry is not to isolate children  from the living world, then it must be deeply  integrated into the life science curriculum from  the beginning and not used during this phase of  childhood to train them into current materialistic/  reductionist explanations. All the considerations  given to the place of the life sciences therefore  apply to the chemistry curriculum. The whole  curriculum, from kindergarten onwards, supports  the approach to chemistry that will come to focus  in Class 7. 

In Class 6, within the geology main -lesson,  limestone, silica, chalk and coal illustrate the way  in which what is dead and mineral can arise from  life. Living organisms shed enough materials in  growing and dying that they can be responsible  for substantial geological strata. It is only relatively  recently that science has acknowledged the living  origins of such deposits and it is an important  counterbalance to the prevailing view that a dead  mineral world is the foundation of life (evolved  from a 'primeval soup'), to see that dead matter can  arise from life through excretion and death. 


Class 7 

Now chemistry becomes a subject in its own  right. The approach should be phenomenological,  with the emphasis on accurate description and  the children's own experiences, rather than  those mediated entirely by measurement. It is  also important to maintain the widest possible  connections with world processes, in nature and  in the human being. The study of combustion, for  example, will include observations of the burning  qualities of different materials, descriptions of  the power of a forest fire, the nature of biological  respiration and the ritual/sacrificial use of fire in  different cultures andlegends. 

The imaginative and pictorial faculties engaged  here provide a deeper basis for a conceptual  understanding of the roles of oxygen, carbon  dioxide and energy as well as the role of the plant  world over the whole earth. 

Biographies of scientists such as Priestley and  Lavoisier show how science is set in an historical  context and how determined and creative  individuals pursued their fascination with the  phenomena. 

The technical applications (welding, smelting,  fire extinguishers) then take their place within  much wider moral, social and environmental  perspectives. 


Combustion 

* The burning of all kinds of dead material (e.g.  straw, cotton, pine needles, spores, alcohol,  gas) 
* The role of air in fire - forest, bush and oil fires,  fire storms and chimney effects 
* The generation of oxygen from pondweed and  mineral sources 
* The combustion of sulphur, carbon and  phosphorus (volcanoes, charcoal burning and  fireflies) * The role of oxygen and carbon dioxide in  human, animal and plant 
* Smoke and ash, acid and base 
* Indicators, using red cabbage, beetroot, litmus  * The chemistry of the candle


Salts

* Limestone and marble, origins and chemistry. Natural formations, caves and cliffs, flora of  chalk soils 
* The lime kiln and the lime cycle (limestone-  quicklime-slaked lime-chalk). Cement and  mortar 
* The reaction of concentrated hydrochloric  acid and solid sodium hydroxide to illustrate  the power of the acid/base polarity in forming  salts. Practical applications (e.g. toothpaste, the  farmer's use of lime) 

Metals 

* The chemistry and the cultural/historical/  technical significance of those metals that can  be obtained from the earth, naturally or by  reduction of the ore with charcoal (e.g. iron,  copper, lead, mercury, tin, silver, gold) 
* Smelting of iron - historical links with charcoal  burning 


Class 8 

The thinking ability at this age is ready for more  conceptualisation and children are increasingly  interested in technical applications. The choice of plant and food chemistry for Class 8 introduces  quite complex chemistry, while maintaining  the wider picture of the plant world, human  diet, agriculture and food technology as well as  relationships with other main-lessons. Simple  experiments which involve measurement and  testing are more appropriate now. 

The general theme is how metabolism and  the food chain involve a direct relationship with  nature and the seasons, although the ripening  process can be halted (e.g. pickling), slowed  (e.g. storage), or accelerated (e.g. cheese). Food  production also involves separating out and  purifying what was in the natural environment.  The food products may still retain some of  their connection with these origins until they  finally become isolated into chemical substances  (e.g. starch powder, vitamins). The need for  cooking rather than eating food raw needs to be  examined along with the highly processed food  habits of the Western world. Issues of health and  diet arise. 

* The process that changes grain to flour, various  cereals and milling techniques 
* The properties of dough, the role of gluten 
* Breadmaking (practical). Sourdough and yeast  breads 
* Extraction of starch from flour, potatoes or  rice. The qualities of starch, testing with iodine  * Glucose as the primary product of the plant/ sun  relationship. Other sugars in nature. Testing  for sugar (Benedict's or Fehling's solutions) 
* Sources of sugar (historical and cultural). The  effect of sugars on the teeth and the diet. Blood  sugar and diabetes 
* Glucose extraction from sugar beet and its  manufacture from acid and starch 
* Fermentation (practical) and decay 
* Germination of seeds - starch/glucose 
* The roles of starch, protein and yeast in bread-  making 
* Protein in milk, eggs, fish, beans, meat, feathers  and fur 
* The qualities of fats and oils, their relationship  to water and fire. Their origins in plant and  animal 
* Milk - raw, pasteurised, 'long life'  * Cheese and yoghurt (practical)  * Soap manufacture 
* Cellulose in plant and insect. Its role in  human diet. Paper manufacture and recycling  (practical) 
* Leather and tanning 
* Biographies (e.g. Pasteur, Lavoisier, Priestley)

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