Waldorf Curriculum 1
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:
Course Outlines
Waldorf Curriculum 1
Lesson 1: Introduction Lesson 2: Preschool and Kindergarten Lesson 3: Grades 1 - 3 (Part 1) Lesson 4: Grades 1 - 3 (Part 2) Lesson 5: Grades 4 - 6 (Part 1) Waldorf Curriculum 2 Lesson 1: Grades 4 - 6 (Part 2) Lesson 2: Grades 7 and 8 (Part 1) Lesson 3: Grades 7 and 8 (Part 2) Lesson 4: Grades 9 - 12 (Part 1) Lesson 5: Grades 9 - 12 (Part 2) Lesson 6: Evaluations and End of Year Reports |
Tasks and Assignments for Waldorf Curriculum 1.2.
Please study and work with the study material provided for this lesson. Then please turn to the following tasks and assignments listed below.
1. Summarize the study material in your own words and add comments and questions. 2. Create a sample curriculum for a Kindergarten setting for one week (Monday through Friday). Include activities, stories, art, free play, etc. Create the schedule for each day. Please send your completed assignment via the online form or via email. 
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Study Material for Waldorf Curriculum 1.2.
Early Years Care and Education
Children enter the
kindergarten between the ages of three and six. Before this age, baby or parent
and child groups and playgroups/nurseries are provided for younger children.
Group sizes vary. Traditionally, five morning sessions per week are offered,
each session lasting for approximately four to four and a half hours. Children
take up provision according to age and need. Afternoon care is often available
if required. Increasingly, provision is being made for longer hours, with
nurseries and all-day kindergartens. Cognitive, social, emotional and physical
skills are accorded equal value and many different competencies are developed.
Activities reflect the concerns, interests and developmental stages of the
child and the carefully structured environment is designed to foster both
personal and social learning. The curriculum is adapted to the child. Teaching
is by example rather than by direct instruction and is integrated rather than
subject- based. In recognition of its vital role in early education, children are
given time to play. Emphasis is given to regular patterns of activities both
within the day and over each week. A cyclical pattern is reflected in themes of
work related to seasons of the year.
The Nature of the Early Years
Physical, emotional and
cognitive development are subtly and inextricably linked. This view underpins and
informs the Early Years curriculum which is tailored to meet the child's
changing needs during each phase. The formative period (birth to seven) is seen
as the period of greatest physical growth and development. Structures in the
brain are being refined and elaborated, and young children's primary mode of
learning is through doing and experiencing - they 'think' with their entire physical
being. The nature of this early learning should be self- motivated, allowing
children to come to know the world in the way most appropriate to their age -
through active feeling, touching, exploring and imitating; in other words,
through doing. Only when new capabilities appear, around the seventh year, is
the child physically, emotionally and intellectually ready for formal
instruction. Through experiential, self-motivated physical activity, the small
child 'grasps' the world in order to understand it - an essential pre-requisite
for the later activity of grasping the world through concepts. Children are
encouraged to master physical skills before abstract intellectual ones .
Aims and Objectives
Providing opportunities for children to be active in meaningful
imitation
Imitation is acknowledged as the prime means of children's learning. The child learns for life from life (the acquisition of the mother tongue for example, takes place largely through imitation) and children model their behavior on what happens around them. Adult activities stimulate direct responses in the young child, and educators carry out their daily tasks in such a way as to be worthy of imitation. The kindergarten is a community of 'doers' supported through meaningful work, for example by baking bread. The children are welcome, but not required, to help. The activity of the teacher may inspire the children to become independently active, finding their own learning situations in play. Children perceive and register everything the adults do - it isn't only what one does in front of the young child, but also how one does it. Teachers are conscious of their own moral influence upon the child and of the development of good habits through imitation. One would expect to see a range of suitable activities for imitation taking place in the kindergarten; these might include domestic tasks such as baking, cooking, cleaning, toy-making, gardening, etc. - all activities with a social, practical, moral and educational basis.
Working with rhythm and repetition
Children need the reassurance of continuity and regular events to mark the year, week and day. Seasonal activities celebrate the cycles of the year - autumn in kindergarten might be a time for threshing and grinding, and spring a time for planting. A 'seasonal area' in the room or wider environment reflects the changing natural world, as do the themes of songs, stories and poems. In addition, each week has its own regular rhythm of recurring activities, such as baking day, painting day or gardening day. Every day also has its own smaller rhythms which support the day's activities. These daily rhythms help the child to feel secure and to know what to expect. A tidy up song, for example, might signal the end of one activity and the beginning of another. The day is structured so that there is a varied pace - with periods of contraction and expansion - providing a balance between times of activity and times of rest. In practice, this might mean that creative play would be followed by a more concentrated ring-time, or energetic outdoor activity by a quiet story. There is a rhythmic alternation between the child's time (creative play, outside time) and the teacher's time (ring-time, story), the teacher's time being comparatively short at this age. Working with rhythm helps children to live with change, to find their place in the world, and to begin to understand the past, present and future. It provides a very real foundation for the understanding of time - what has gone before and what will follow - and helps children to relate to the natural and the human world. Attention to rhythm promotes healthy development and leads to a balanced life later. Repetition also plays a key role in establishing continuity, good habits and in the healthy development of memory. Children's memories are strengthened by recurring experiences; and daily, weekly and yearly events in kindergarten are remembered and often eagerly anticipated a second time around. Stories are told not just once, but many times: repetition brings the opportunity for children to familiarize themselves with the material and to deepen their relationship to it.
Personal, social, emotional and moral development
Children learn, through their creative play and through their daily social activities, to interact with each other. In kindergarten they learn to share, to work together, and to co-operate. They know and trust their teachers and are able to establish effective relationships with other children and adults. Teachers and children care for and respect each other. Much emphasis is placed on caring for the environment - both inside and out. Wooden toys, for example, can be polished and mended, unlike their plastic counterparts. Where possible, gardening and composting activities introduce children to the idea of ecology and form an important part of the curriculum. There are moments of reverence each day, and teachers lovingly create opportunities for children to experience joy, awe and wonder. Kindness is practiced by teachers and encouraged in the children. Festivals provide rich cultural and religious experiences for the child. Traditional fairy tales and nature stories address the feeling realm and gradually awaken a fine moral sense for knowing right from wrong. The teacher sets the example and has certain expectations of the children.
Providing an integrated learning experience
The learning experience of children under seven should be integrated and not compartmentalized. Young children need to experience the relevance of their world before they separate themselves from it and begin to analyze it in a detached way. Consequently, learning in kindergarten is integrated rather than subject based. Mathematics and use of mathematical language, for example, might take place at the cooking table, where food is prepared (thinly sliced carrots make wonderful natural circles and have the added virtue of being able to be eaten later in soup!) and concepts such as addition and subtraction (or more or less), weight, measure, quantity and shape are grasped in a practical manner as part of daily life. Meal times offer an opportunity for the moral, social and mathematical to work together as children engage in place-setting, serving and the sharing of food which has been prepared earlier for everyone to eat. Through movement games, children recognize and recreate patterns - in, out, alternate, in front of, behind. Natural objects such as acorns, pine cones, conkers and shells are sorted, ordered and counted, as part of spontaneous play. Children in Waldorf kindergartens are directly involved in mathematical experience and use mathematical language in a natural way which is usually embedded in a social and moral context. Learning experiences for the young child are not separated from the business of daily living: learning gains meaning by its relevance to life. As indicated above, a similar approach is taken to the teaching of language and literacy. Children develop competence in talking, listening and in the ability to use words with confidence they speak freely and learn to listen to others. Good speech and the development of aural skills are promoted. Concentration is on the oral tradition and the children listen to many wonderful stories - which belong to the literary heritage of the culture of childhood. A well told story creates an appreciation for the human voice and the beauty and rhythms of language. It also helps to extend vocabulary and to aid the development of a good memory. Children leave kindergarten with a rich and varied repertoire of songs, stories and poems; this might also include verses in French or German. Much of this learning will have taken place in the integrated way described - although story time is always a very special event. Children engage in many activities, such as sewing, which develop hand to eye co-ordination, manual dexterity and orientation (useful preparation for reading print from left to right). Children also discuss their own drawings and take great delight in telling stories by ‘reading’ their pictures. This activity promotes the development of verbal skills and frees the narrative from the printed text, thus encouraging children to use their own words. Many children also act out or perform puppet shows and develop dramatic skills through working with narrative and dialogue. Painting and drawing help with balance and symmetry and most five year-olds are able to write their own name. Children experience the musicality of language and its social aspects through playing ring games and doing eurythmy, a form of movement which works with language and music. The combination of these activities cultivates a love of language, promotes fluency and allows children time to become really familiar with the spoken word - the best preparation and foundation for the subsequent development of literacy. Use of language also affects cognitive development as well chosen words and good syntax support clear thinking.
Encouraging learning through creative play and supporting physical development
Children are able to exercise and consolidate their ability to understand and to think through their play. Creative play supports physical, emotional and social development and allows children to learn through investigation, exploration and discovery. It also gives scope for the use of imagination - an essential aspect of human intelligence. Play encourages the child to become inventive and adaptable, and to work with initiative and flair. In addition it develops and strengthens concentration. Studies! show that children who score highest in socio-dramatic play also demonstrate the greatest gains in a number of cognitive areas such as higher intellectual competence, longer attention span, and more innovation and imagination. Good players also show more empathy toward others, less aggression, and in general more social and emotional adjustment. Time and space is given to creative play and a selection of suitable objects, for instance cloths, shells, logs, domestic toys and dolls, is provided in order to support a variety of play situations.
Encouraging children to know and love the world
As mentioned in the section on rhythm and repetition, children develop a good relationship to the natural world. They learn to value its gifts and to understand its processes and patterns of change. Domestic tasks provide opportunities for elementary experiences in science and nature. Children make toys from sheep’s wool, wood, felt, cotton and other natural materials. Family participation is encouraged and teachers, working with parents, create 'birthday stories' which are based on the child's personal biography and are told at special ceremonies to which families are invited. People in the community who practice a particular craft, or who have special skills, are often invited to visit the kindergarten. Outdoors plays a strong role, and in some cases children spend much of the day outside playing or gardening, in the park or woodland, or are taken on local walks.
Providing a safe child-friendly environment
The kindergarten should be a warm and welcoming place, an artistically-shaped free space which serves as the setting for what the day's impulse brings. This 'impulse' is a mixture of child- motivated play experiences and teacher-structured activities. There are few 'finished' toys, which allows imaginative use. Furniture is small-scale and child-friendly and, as mentioned, the day is structured so as to provide the child with periods of activity and periods of rest. Groups are usually of a mixed age range; older children, who are familiar with the rhythm of the particular kindergarten, are able to help the younger members of the group to feel secure.
Working with parents
Waldorf teachers are committed to establishing good relationships with parents and to the process of developing parenting skills. The importance of a happy, smooth transition from home to school is recognized, teachers working closely with parents to achieve this end. The majority of kindergartens hold parent and child sessions and meet with the family before the child enters kindergarten. Teachers promote and emphasize the importance of close partnerships with parents holding the child at the center. Links are also created with parents through a range of social and school- based events and activities. Close liaison between parent and teacher is encouraged and the child's developmental steps are shared.
Imitation is acknowledged as the prime means of children's learning. The child learns for life from life (the acquisition of the mother tongue for example, takes place largely through imitation) and children model their behavior on what happens around them. Adult activities stimulate direct responses in the young child, and educators carry out their daily tasks in such a way as to be worthy of imitation. The kindergarten is a community of 'doers' supported through meaningful work, for example by baking bread. The children are welcome, but not required, to help. The activity of the teacher may inspire the children to become independently active, finding their own learning situations in play. Children perceive and register everything the adults do - it isn't only what one does in front of the young child, but also how one does it. Teachers are conscious of their own moral influence upon the child and of the development of good habits through imitation. One would expect to see a range of suitable activities for imitation taking place in the kindergarten; these might include domestic tasks such as baking, cooking, cleaning, toy-making, gardening, etc. - all activities with a social, practical, moral and educational basis.
Working with rhythm and repetition
Children need the reassurance of continuity and regular events to mark the year, week and day. Seasonal activities celebrate the cycles of the year - autumn in kindergarten might be a time for threshing and grinding, and spring a time for planting. A 'seasonal area' in the room or wider environment reflects the changing natural world, as do the themes of songs, stories and poems. In addition, each week has its own regular rhythm of recurring activities, such as baking day, painting day or gardening day. Every day also has its own smaller rhythms which support the day's activities. These daily rhythms help the child to feel secure and to know what to expect. A tidy up song, for example, might signal the end of one activity and the beginning of another. The day is structured so that there is a varied pace - with periods of contraction and expansion - providing a balance between times of activity and times of rest. In practice, this might mean that creative play would be followed by a more concentrated ring-time, or energetic outdoor activity by a quiet story. There is a rhythmic alternation between the child's time (creative play, outside time) and the teacher's time (ring-time, story), the teacher's time being comparatively short at this age. Working with rhythm helps children to live with change, to find their place in the world, and to begin to understand the past, present and future. It provides a very real foundation for the understanding of time - what has gone before and what will follow - and helps children to relate to the natural and the human world. Attention to rhythm promotes healthy development and leads to a balanced life later. Repetition also plays a key role in establishing continuity, good habits and in the healthy development of memory. Children's memories are strengthened by recurring experiences; and daily, weekly and yearly events in kindergarten are remembered and often eagerly anticipated a second time around. Stories are told not just once, but many times: repetition brings the opportunity for children to familiarize themselves with the material and to deepen their relationship to it.
Personal, social, emotional and moral development
Children learn, through their creative play and through their daily social activities, to interact with each other. In kindergarten they learn to share, to work together, and to co-operate. They know and trust their teachers and are able to establish effective relationships with other children and adults. Teachers and children care for and respect each other. Much emphasis is placed on caring for the environment - both inside and out. Wooden toys, for example, can be polished and mended, unlike their plastic counterparts. Where possible, gardening and composting activities introduce children to the idea of ecology and form an important part of the curriculum. There are moments of reverence each day, and teachers lovingly create opportunities for children to experience joy, awe and wonder. Kindness is practiced by teachers and encouraged in the children. Festivals provide rich cultural and religious experiences for the child. Traditional fairy tales and nature stories address the feeling realm and gradually awaken a fine moral sense for knowing right from wrong. The teacher sets the example and has certain expectations of the children.
Providing an integrated learning experience
The learning experience of children under seven should be integrated and not compartmentalized. Young children need to experience the relevance of their world before they separate themselves from it and begin to analyze it in a detached way. Consequently, learning in kindergarten is integrated rather than subject based. Mathematics and use of mathematical language, for example, might take place at the cooking table, where food is prepared (thinly sliced carrots make wonderful natural circles and have the added virtue of being able to be eaten later in soup!) and concepts such as addition and subtraction (or more or less), weight, measure, quantity and shape are grasped in a practical manner as part of daily life. Meal times offer an opportunity for the moral, social and mathematical to work together as children engage in place-setting, serving and the sharing of food which has been prepared earlier for everyone to eat. Through movement games, children recognize and recreate patterns - in, out, alternate, in front of, behind. Natural objects such as acorns, pine cones, conkers and shells are sorted, ordered and counted, as part of spontaneous play. Children in Waldorf kindergartens are directly involved in mathematical experience and use mathematical language in a natural way which is usually embedded in a social and moral context. Learning experiences for the young child are not separated from the business of daily living: learning gains meaning by its relevance to life. As indicated above, a similar approach is taken to the teaching of language and literacy. Children develop competence in talking, listening and in the ability to use words with confidence they speak freely and learn to listen to others. Good speech and the development of aural skills are promoted. Concentration is on the oral tradition and the children listen to many wonderful stories - which belong to the literary heritage of the culture of childhood. A well told story creates an appreciation for the human voice and the beauty and rhythms of language. It also helps to extend vocabulary and to aid the development of a good memory. Children leave kindergarten with a rich and varied repertoire of songs, stories and poems; this might also include verses in French or German. Much of this learning will have taken place in the integrated way described - although story time is always a very special event. Children engage in many activities, such as sewing, which develop hand to eye co-ordination, manual dexterity and orientation (useful preparation for reading print from left to right). Children also discuss their own drawings and take great delight in telling stories by ‘reading’ their pictures. This activity promotes the development of verbal skills and frees the narrative from the printed text, thus encouraging children to use their own words. Many children also act out or perform puppet shows and develop dramatic skills through working with narrative and dialogue. Painting and drawing help with balance and symmetry and most five year-olds are able to write their own name. Children experience the musicality of language and its social aspects through playing ring games and doing eurythmy, a form of movement which works with language and music. The combination of these activities cultivates a love of language, promotes fluency and allows children time to become really familiar with the spoken word - the best preparation and foundation for the subsequent development of literacy. Use of language also affects cognitive development as well chosen words and good syntax support clear thinking.
Encouraging learning through creative play and supporting physical development
Children are able to exercise and consolidate their ability to understand and to think through their play. Creative play supports physical, emotional and social development and allows children to learn through investigation, exploration and discovery. It also gives scope for the use of imagination - an essential aspect of human intelligence. Play encourages the child to become inventive and adaptable, and to work with initiative and flair. In addition it develops and strengthens concentration. Studies! show that children who score highest in socio-dramatic play also demonstrate the greatest gains in a number of cognitive areas such as higher intellectual competence, longer attention span, and more innovation and imagination. Good players also show more empathy toward others, less aggression, and in general more social and emotional adjustment. Time and space is given to creative play and a selection of suitable objects, for instance cloths, shells, logs, domestic toys and dolls, is provided in order to support a variety of play situations.
Encouraging children to know and love the world
As mentioned in the section on rhythm and repetition, children develop a good relationship to the natural world. They learn to value its gifts and to understand its processes and patterns of change. Domestic tasks provide opportunities for elementary experiences in science and nature. Children make toys from sheep’s wool, wood, felt, cotton and other natural materials. Family participation is encouraged and teachers, working with parents, create 'birthday stories' which are based on the child's personal biography and are told at special ceremonies to which families are invited. People in the community who practice a particular craft, or who have special skills, are often invited to visit the kindergarten. Outdoors plays a strong role, and in some cases children spend much of the day outside playing or gardening, in the park or woodland, or are taken on local walks.
Providing a safe child-friendly environment
The kindergarten should be a warm and welcoming place, an artistically-shaped free space which serves as the setting for what the day's impulse brings. This 'impulse' is a mixture of child- motivated play experiences and teacher-structured activities. There are few 'finished' toys, which allows imaginative use. Furniture is small-scale and child-friendly and, as mentioned, the day is structured so as to provide the child with periods of activity and periods of rest. Groups are usually of a mixed age range; older children, who are familiar with the rhythm of the particular kindergarten, are able to help the younger members of the group to feel secure.
Working with parents
Waldorf teachers are committed to establishing good relationships with parents and to the process of developing parenting skills. The importance of a happy, smooth transition from home to school is recognized, teachers working closely with parents to achieve this end. The majority of kindergartens hold parent and child sessions and meet with the family before the child enters kindergarten. Teachers promote and emphasize the importance of close partnerships with parents holding the child at the center. Links are also created with parents through a range of social and school- based events and activities. Close liaison between parent and teacher is encouraged and the child's developmental steps are shared.
An Example of a Kindergarten Session
Perhaps the best way to exemplify the integration of the above educational aims is to describe a typical kindergarten morning session. This example, of course, only highlights one range of activities. Normally each day of the week would have its own main focus and these vary with the changing seasons. The kindergarten staff spend hours in their kindergarten both before the children arrive in the morning and after they have gone. There are activities and materials to prepare, of course, but more importantly there has to be the right mood in the place. The staff often meet in the morning to say a verse together before going to their rooms to be there when the children arrive. As the children begin to arrive, the kindergarten leader is already busy so that the children, having hung up their coats and changed their shoes, can be given a homely welcome. At first there may be a period of free play with small groups of children choosing their area, perhaps getting the dolls up and dressed, building with small logs or driving a bus made from an upturned chair. The adults are usually engaged in some task, such as preparing the dough if it is baking day, or the soup for lunch. There is conversation and some of the children may prefer to be around the adults, as children traditionally have been, watching, 'helping', while adults work, asking questions and so on. These informal moments are vital, not least in a world in which everyone is often so busy. During this time children also have the opportunity to do a domestic, handicraft or artistic activity alongside the adult or on their own. There is no deliberate effort to teach the children in any formal sense. The conscious activity of the teacher is imitated by the children. The adults initiate the next phase by beginning to clear the things away and the children join in helping each tool or object to find its place on shelf or in basket. The forces of imitation are strongest at this age and can be most easily directed when the adults perform their tasks in a conscious and careful way, repeating the gestures of each action in a rhythmical and natural way. Children can learn to do quite complex practical tasks, even involving sharp or awkward tools or equipment, if they see them regularly performed with love and care. Tidying up is an important task and it is done in such a way that it does not occur to the children that this is something which spoils their fun or is a tedious chore. Once things have been put back in their places, the children gather for ring-time, during which traditional songs are sung, and rhythmical verses spoken and acted out. Please see the following for an example of circle time activity and singing in a Waldorf kindergarten.
Sometimes the eurythmist or foreign language teacher may visit and contribute to the circle's activities. These activities help focus the children's attention and especially strengthen their linguistic skills. Listening and clear articulation can be exercised through this kind of rhythmical recitation. Afterwards, the children go to the toilet and wash their hands. Some of the older ones who are first back help lay and set the table with place mats, cutlery and perhaps a vase of flowers. Bread is cut and everyone gathers to say a grace and sing some seasonal songs. Following the morning snack, some of the children help clear up while others get ready for the outdoors, where they could play in the garden or sandpit, work in the vegetable patch or clear the leaves alongside the adults, or engage in a craft activity. A walk to the park could also be a possibility. On their return, the children change, wash and come together for story time, where the teacher tells a folk, nature or fairy tale or performs a puppet show. By then the parents are waiting outside to collect the children. Some kindergartens include afternoon sessions as well. In this case lunch is eaten, followed by a rest and then further periods of play. Each day of the week has its own artistic or handicraft activity, such as a baking day. While most kindergartens offer watercolor painting and drawing with wax crayons, or beeswax modelling and eurythmy, the handicrafts vary according to the facilities or the particular skills of the adults concerned. In all these activities the children learn by example, finding their way in to the experiences at their own pace. In this way the children learn to explore and be creative whilst acquiring a love of work. This manifests itself in an increasing mood of self-reliance and calm industriousness when the children are engaged. The same mood is carried over into creative play. A strong and lively rhythm helps give the children a deep sense of security.