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 1.4.
Please study and work with the study material provided for this lesson. Then please turn to the following tasks and assignments listed below.
Create curriculum examples that address the developmental profile, and aims and objectives for one sample class, for instance grade 1. Create 3 weeks of sample Waldorf Main Lesson curriculum plans using the template provided (see here and below). Please send your completed assignment via the online form or via email. 
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Study Material for Waldorf Curriculum 1.4.
1. The Waldorf Main Lesson
Please study the information provided concerning the Waldorf Main Lesson and examples/outlines of Waldorf Main Lesson Curriculum Planning and additional resources as needed.
2. The Lower School: Classes 1 to 3
Curriculum in Classes 1 to 3
The Steiner-Waldorf curriculum usually begins with a subject unknown in other schools. This is 'form drawing' or 'dynamic drawing: Basic straight and curved lines and shapes are made and drawn by the children, preferably making the shapes with their whole body to begin with (walking, running, sweeping movements of the arms and hands) and later using crayons or pencils on paper. Having been experienced in movement, these shapes and rhythms are then brought to rest by drawing them on paper. All this requires the children to make purposeful, concentrated efforts in movement, a medium ideally suited to them. The shapes have no outer meaning, neither do they depict anything in particular, rather they make the dynamic of movement and shape visible in space. The children learn to experience, feel (with their fingers, for example) and understand the inherent quality and nature of different shapes and movements. Experiencing the inner nature of something through movement is one of the basic themes in Classes 1 to 3. Form drawing is also an excellent preliminary exercise to writing. In Classes 2 and 3 such exercises stimulate the activity of forming mental pictures, an activity which both engages the will and stimulates the feelings. In a sense the life of feeling is used as an organ of perception. The child feels the balance, proportion, symmetry, integration and character of the forms and the dynamic movements they embody. In English language lessons the children are introduced to the letters of the alphabet. Initially the aim is to lead the children to experience the qualities of the spoken sounds and sentence melody, whilst the shape, name and meaning of the capital letters of the alphabet are taught. By allowing the shape of a capital letter to emerge from a picture that stands for the character of the sound, the children can develop their own relationship to the individual letters and later to the whole activity of writing. Consonants are evolved out of pictograms, vowels out of interjections and expressions of feeling. The process proceeds from pictorial representation of the letters to formal writing, with the children initially copying examples written by the teacher and later through dictation. The exploration of the relationship of sound and symbol includes the use of emergent writing. From capital letters the children proceed to lower case cursive handwriting, usually in Class 2. The content of written work is related to main- lesson themes and the children's own experiences. As a general guideline, about a third of writing is composed by the children, the other two thirds comprising texts prepared by the teacher and copied from the board or dictated by the teacher. By Class 3 the children write longer, more complex compositions. Instruction and practice in formal letters, diaries and description of nature moods supplement this. Neat legible handwriting is encouraged. Reading proceeds from writing and in Class 1 the children read familiar texts which the teacher has written on the board and which they themselves have written in their exercise books. An integrated combination of whole word, phonic and contextual methods is used to develop reading, though with an emphasis on whole sentences/whole phrases. Reading books are not normally used until Class 2. A differentiated approach to reading is used including whole class reading, child to child and child to adult reading and supported with regular practice in the recognition of auditory, visual and kinesthetic patterns. Spelling is based on a whole language approach reinforced by contextual, phonic and kinesthetic methods. By Class 3 reading progresses to a differentiation of material for different purposes, including understanding instructions and tasks, finding information and reading timetables. Reading aloud is practised with an awareness of content and punctuation. Children are directed to a wide range of reading material according to ability. Oral work plays an important role throughout the classes with equal emphasis on both speaking and listening. Good skills at both are prerequisites for the development of all literacy skills. As well as the daily recitation of poetry and verses, many of which are designed as speech exercises to strengthen pronunciation and articulation, the children are encouraged to describe their experiences and recall the stories they have heard. The teacher's own language serves as a model for the use and form of spoken language. This emphasis on oral work provides a basis for the subsequent understanding of grammatical structures and punctuation as well as exemplifying the linguistic expression of emotional qualities such as surprise, curiosity, denial, enthusiasm, willing affirmation and so on. The work on writing, reading and speaking and listening in the first two classes provides a basis for introducing children to a systematic exploration of grammatical qualities in Class 3, starting with nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. The aim is not only to make conscious principles that have hitherto been learned pragmatically but to school the child's thinking and awareness of the real relationships which grammar and syntax express and define. Foreign language lessons are as important as those focusing on the mother tongue. From Class 1 onwards the children learn two foreign languages by the direct method of listening and speaking. Writing and grammar are not touched on during Classes 1 to 3. The children are immersed in these languages by means of poems, stories and fairy tales and dialogue, all learned by heart and enacted in context. Through the other languages they experience a different way of describing things, a different way of looking at things, a different way of approaching the world. This is one of the most important prerequisites for a lively ability to form concepts and also for achieving a more universal view of the world that encompasses more than one perspective, in that it broadens the one-sided orientation of the mother tongue. During the first three years the children acquire orally an extensive vocabulary of everyday things and situations and a practical usage of most of the main grammatical structures of the language. In the succeeding years the children will draw on this reservoir of oral language and experience as they begin to learn to become literate in the foreign language. The stories told in this phase are those which describe 'the child's pathdown tothe earth'. In Class 1 the oneness of humankind, animals, nature and the heavens is experienced in an archetypal way in traditional fairy tales and local folklore. Stories are also chosen which portray the cycles of the natural world and especially the seasonal changes. In Class2 differentiation between these kingdoms begins to be demonstrated through fables and legends. In Class 3 the human being's responsibility towards the earth and God is shown in the creation stories of Genesis and other Old Testament material. (This applies chiefly to schools in countries with a European tradition. Steiner-Waldorf schools where Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Hebrew or other cultures predominate choose other suitable material.) The essential elements in these myths are the creation of the heavens and earth, the plant and animal kingdoms, the divine origin of humankind: the tasting of the Tree of Knowledge, the origin of human community and the laws which govern it. In Class 3, through the themes of farming and house-building, the children's journey is brought literally down to earth. They carry out practical farming and building activities. The actual topics chosen depend on the locality so that, for example, in coastal regions fishing may feature in the lessons. Such practical activities, tailored to the children's age and capabilities contain long-term pedagogical elements that prepare them for later insight into economics and ecology. Learning how natural raw materials are transformed into products, which serve real needs in the world, sows the seeds for a real experience of mutuality and service. Arithmetic also involves movement. In Class 1 the children experience the totality and the individuality of numbers. Whole numbers are introduced with emphasis on their archetypal character - one means unity, two is a duality and so on, using pictures familiar to the child's world (the sun, parts of the body, petals of flowers, etc.). Then come the four basic arithmetical operations and their different qualities, always going first from the whole to the parts. The symbols are introduced in a pictorial way. Rhythmical counting, recitation of tables, number bonds up to twenty and mental arithmetic are all practised intensively in the early years. This gives the children an experience of movement in mental activity, which complements the way the letters of the alphabet are introduced. By Class 2 there is a shift of emphasis from manual operation to mental computation and the exploration of various forms of appropriate notation and algorithm and their application to problem solving. In Class 3 measurement moves from the oral realm, which is comparative, qualitative and contextual (this is bigger, there are more here etc.) to the use of formal units. Starting with traditional measures based on body proportions, the children are introduced to standard units of linear, liquid, weight, time, money and music measurement and notation. In painting with watercolours the inner qualities of a colour are explored. What feelings does this colour generate? What soul qualities are linked to the three primary colours: blue, yellow and red? The aim of these painting lessons is not to copy external objects or make illustrations but to experience and 'listen' to the inner language of colours. The children illustrate their main -lesson books with pencils and crayons, an activity which unites the dynamic of line drawing with the mood and feeling expressed by the colours. In this way the children bring their powers of imagination to what they have perceived with their senses. While in painting the 'sounds' of the colours are explored, in the music lessons during the first three years of school the inner 'colours' or character of the notes are explored. In these first school years, however, it is important that the children do not yet focus on musical moods that are as yet unfamiliar to their experience, such as those connected with the musical scales or the tonalities of major and minor. Their inner life is not yet mature or differentiated enough to empathise with such qualities. At this age the children still need to experience the tones and the space they fill in a free way, for example through the pentatonic mode. The music they play with their simple wooden flutes, recorder, child's harp or lyre is initially related to the songs they have learnt. This can perhaps be compared with the way they learn to write, by beginning with what they already know by heart. There is an emphasis on active listening through singing, often accompanied with movement and gesture in response to melody. Through Class 2 the children expand their range of tunes, and individuals take the step to small solo parts within the context of the class as a choir. In Class 3 the transition is made to music that relates to a keynote or diatonic perspective, when the children meet with an early 'grammar' or 'spelling' (notation) of music. The recorder is an instrument that shapes and differentiates the stream of the breath. Bowed instruments bring in a new important element. With the recorder both hands are involved in shaping the stream of air. With a bowed instrument the right hand wields the bow, the left hand selects the notes and the listening ear makes sure that the result is in tune. An almost craft-like skill is needed for this, but it remains within the realm of feelings and sensations in the soul. It leads to a sense for the qualitative shaping of time. Eurythmy lessons provide the link between space and time: the sounds of speech and the sounds of music are made visible through movement in space. This art helps the children harmonise their actions through the balance between the alert perception of the senses and bodily movement by filling both with feeling. Eurythmy helps the children become aware of the qualities of the spatial dimension in an artistic way. During the first three years at school the children are led gently through movement to an experience of their own bodily orientation and mobility within their surrounding space. Traditional movement and ring games are learnt and practised, which develop skills and co-ordination as well as having a strong social component. The transition to more formal gymnastic exercises comes in the third year. The harmonious movement sequences already practised become more target-oriented. Handwork lessons are also aimed at training manual skills. All children learn to knit and sew and use basic handicraft tools (scissors, craft knives, adhesives, string, etc.) and work with a range of materials. The children produce useful articles such as recorder cases, potholders, shopping nets and so on. This schooling of fine motor skills, co- ordination combined with the artistic and practical element provides a sound basis for the subsequent basis of practical intelligence.
Summary of Classes 1 to 3
The first three years of school can perhaps best be described as helping the children find their way into the world while taking into account their basic need to experience the 'inner side' of nature, language and music. The children also acquire a range of basic skills. It is important for the children to gain a sense of respect and reverence for what they learn about as well as for the people whose skills they admire. Then, in addition to learning to feel at home in the world, they will strengthen their desire to be good at things, which is an important stimulus to self-activity in learning. This feeling of wanting to be good at things forms the basis for the children's love for the authority of their teachers. In their pre-school years the children had a strong urge to move; their movement was space-oriented and directed into exploring the world around them. In the early school years new developmental forces have to be taken into account, which seek to find an orientation in the qualities of their inner life. A start is made in achieving an interplay between external activity and inner reflection. In this sense it is the teacher's task to help the children acquire a healthy balance between the inner and outer worlds, between taking in and taking part, in bringing the child's own individuality into the right relationship to her own body and environment. This process of finding a healthy balance between the inner experience and the bodily organism is what Steiner referred to as teaching the children to breathe" the breath being the archetype of inner- outer exchange. The metaphor also infers that the exchange is not fixed but rhythmical, with breathing in, a transformation of substance and breathing out.
The Steiner-Waldorf curriculum usually begins with a subject unknown in other schools. This is 'form drawing' or 'dynamic drawing: Basic straight and curved lines and shapes are made and drawn by the children, preferably making the shapes with their whole body to begin with (walking, running, sweeping movements of the arms and hands) and later using crayons or pencils on paper. Having been experienced in movement, these shapes and rhythms are then brought to rest by drawing them on paper. All this requires the children to make purposeful, concentrated efforts in movement, a medium ideally suited to them. The shapes have no outer meaning, neither do they depict anything in particular, rather they make the dynamic of movement and shape visible in space. The children learn to experience, feel (with their fingers, for example) and understand the inherent quality and nature of different shapes and movements. Experiencing the inner nature of something through movement is one of the basic themes in Classes 1 to 3. Form drawing is also an excellent preliminary exercise to writing. In Classes 2 and 3 such exercises stimulate the activity of forming mental pictures, an activity which both engages the will and stimulates the feelings. In a sense the life of feeling is used as an organ of perception. The child feels the balance, proportion, symmetry, integration and character of the forms and the dynamic movements they embody. In English language lessons the children are introduced to the letters of the alphabet. Initially the aim is to lead the children to experience the qualities of the spoken sounds and sentence melody, whilst the shape, name and meaning of the capital letters of the alphabet are taught. By allowing the shape of a capital letter to emerge from a picture that stands for the character of the sound, the children can develop their own relationship to the individual letters and later to the whole activity of writing. Consonants are evolved out of pictograms, vowels out of interjections and expressions of feeling. The process proceeds from pictorial representation of the letters to formal writing, with the children initially copying examples written by the teacher and later through dictation. The exploration of the relationship of sound and symbol includes the use of emergent writing. From capital letters the children proceed to lower case cursive handwriting, usually in Class 2. The content of written work is related to main- lesson themes and the children's own experiences. As a general guideline, about a third of writing is composed by the children, the other two thirds comprising texts prepared by the teacher and copied from the board or dictated by the teacher. By Class 3 the children write longer, more complex compositions. Instruction and practice in formal letters, diaries and description of nature moods supplement this. Neat legible handwriting is encouraged. Reading proceeds from writing and in Class 1 the children read familiar texts which the teacher has written on the board and which they themselves have written in their exercise books. An integrated combination of whole word, phonic and contextual methods is used to develop reading, though with an emphasis on whole sentences/whole phrases. Reading books are not normally used until Class 2. A differentiated approach to reading is used including whole class reading, child to child and child to adult reading and supported with regular practice in the recognition of auditory, visual and kinesthetic patterns. Spelling is based on a whole language approach reinforced by contextual, phonic and kinesthetic methods. By Class 3 reading progresses to a differentiation of material for different purposes, including understanding instructions and tasks, finding information and reading timetables. Reading aloud is practised with an awareness of content and punctuation. Children are directed to a wide range of reading material according to ability. Oral work plays an important role throughout the classes with equal emphasis on both speaking and listening. Good skills at both are prerequisites for the development of all literacy skills. As well as the daily recitation of poetry and verses, many of which are designed as speech exercises to strengthen pronunciation and articulation, the children are encouraged to describe their experiences and recall the stories they have heard. The teacher's own language serves as a model for the use and form of spoken language. This emphasis on oral work provides a basis for the subsequent understanding of grammatical structures and punctuation as well as exemplifying the linguistic expression of emotional qualities such as surprise, curiosity, denial, enthusiasm, willing affirmation and so on. The work on writing, reading and speaking and listening in the first two classes provides a basis for introducing children to a systematic exploration of grammatical qualities in Class 3, starting with nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. The aim is not only to make conscious principles that have hitherto been learned pragmatically but to school the child's thinking and awareness of the real relationships which grammar and syntax express and define. Foreign language lessons are as important as those focusing on the mother tongue. From Class 1 onwards the children learn two foreign languages by the direct method of listening and speaking. Writing and grammar are not touched on during Classes 1 to 3. The children are immersed in these languages by means of poems, stories and fairy tales and dialogue, all learned by heart and enacted in context. Through the other languages they experience a different way of describing things, a different way of looking at things, a different way of approaching the world. This is one of the most important prerequisites for a lively ability to form concepts and also for achieving a more universal view of the world that encompasses more than one perspective, in that it broadens the one-sided orientation of the mother tongue. During the first three years the children acquire orally an extensive vocabulary of everyday things and situations and a practical usage of most of the main grammatical structures of the language. In the succeeding years the children will draw on this reservoir of oral language and experience as they begin to learn to become literate in the foreign language. The stories told in this phase are those which describe 'the child's pathdown tothe earth'. In Class 1 the oneness of humankind, animals, nature and the heavens is experienced in an archetypal way in traditional fairy tales and local folklore. Stories are also chosen which portray the cycles of the natural world and especially the seasonal changes. In Class2 differentiation between these kingdoms begins to be demonstrated through fables and legends. In Class 3 the human being's responsibility towards the earth and God is shown in the creation stories of Genesis and other Old Testament material. (This applies chiefly to schools in countries with a European tradition. Steiner-Waldorf schools where Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, Hebrew or other cultures predominate choose other suitable material.) The essential elements in these myths are the creation of the heavens and earth, the plant and animal kingdoms, the divine origin of humankind: the tasting of the Tree of Knowledge, the origin of human community and the laws which govern it. In Class 3, through the themes of farming and house-building, the children's journey is brought literally down to earth. They carry out practical farming and building activities. The actual topics chosen depend on the locality so that, for example, in coastal regions fishing may feature in the lessons. Such practical activities, tailored to the children's age and capabilities contain long-term pedagogical elements that prepare them for later insight into economics and ecology. Learning how natural raw materials are transformed into products, which serve real needs in the world, sows the seeds for a real experience of mutuality and service. Arithmetic also involves movement. In Class 1 the children experience the totality and the individuality of numbers. Whole numbers are introduced with emphasis on their archetypal character - one means unity, two is a duality and so on, using pictures familiar to the child's world (the sun, parts of the body, petals of flowers, etc.). Then come the four basic arithmetical operations and their different qualities, always going first from the whole to the parts. The symbols are introduced in a pictorial way. Rhythmical counting, recitation of tables, number bonds up to twenty and mental arithmetic are all practised intensively in the early years. This gives the children an experience of movement in mental activity, which complements the way the letters of the alphabet are introduced. By Class 2 there is a shift of emphasis from manual operation to mental computation and the exploration of various forms of appropriate notation and algorithm and their application to problem solving. In Class 3 measurement moves from the oral realm, which is comparative, qualitative and contextual (this is bigger, there are more here etc.) to the use of formal units. Starting with traditional measures based on body proportions, the children are introduced to standard units of linear, liquid, weight, time, money and music measurement and notation. In painting with watercolours the inner qualities of a colour are explored. What feelings does this colour generate? What soul qualities are linked to the three primary colours: blue, yellow and red? The aim of these painting lessons is not to copy external objects or make illustrations but to experience and 'listen' to the inner language of colours. The children illustrate their main -lesson books with pencils and crayons, an activity which unites the dynamic of line drawing with the mood and feeling expressed by the colours. In this way the children bring their powers of imagination to what they have perceived with their senses. While in painting the 'sounds' of the colours are explored, in the music lessons during the first three years of school the inner 'colours' or character of the notes are explored. In these first school years, however, it is important that the children do not yet focus on musical moods that are as yet unfamiliar to their experience, such as those connected with the musical scales or the tonalities of major and minor. Their inner life is not yet mature or differentiated enough to empathise with such qualities. At this age the children still need to experience the tones and the space they fill in a free way, for example through the pentatonic mode. The music they play with their simple wooden flutes, recorder, child's harp or lyre is initially related to the songs they have learnt. This can perhaps be compared with the way they learn to write, by beginning with what they already know by heart. There is an emphasis on active listening through singing, often accompanied with movement and gesture in response to melody. Through Class 2 the children expand their range of tunes, and individuals take the step to small solo parts within the context of the class as a choir. In Class 3 the transition is made to music that relates to a keynote or diatonic perspective, when the children meet with an early 'grammar' or 'spelling' (notation) of music. The recorder is an instrument that shapes and differentiates the stream of the breath. Bowed instruments bring in a new important element. With the recorder both hands are involved in shaping the stream of air. With a bowed instrument the right hand wields the bow, the left hand selects the notes and the listening ear makes sure that the result is in tune. An almost craft-like skill is needed for this, but it remains within the realm of feelings and sensations in the soul. It leads to a sense for the qualitative shaping of time. Eurythmy lessons provide the link between space and time: the sounds of speech and the sounds of music are made visible through movement in space. This art helps the children harmonise their actions through the balance between the alert perception of the senses and bodily movement by filling both with feeling. Eurythmy helps the children become aware of the qualities of the spatial dimension in an artistic way. During the first three years at school the children are led gently through movement to an experience of their own bodily orientation and mobility within their surrounding space. Traditional movement and ring games are learnt and practised, which develop skills and co-ordination as well as having a strong social component. The transition to more formal gymnastic exercises comes in the third year. The harmonious movement sequences already practised become more target-oriented. Handwork lessons are also aimed at training manual skills. All children learn to knit and sew and use basic handicraft tools (scissors, craft knives, adhesives, string, etc.) and work with a range of materials. The children produce useful articles such as recorder cases, potholders, shopping nets and so on. This schooling of fine motor skills, co- ordination combined with the artistic and practical element provides a sound basis for the subsequent basis of practical intelligence.
Summary of Classes 1 to 3
The first three years of school can perhaps best be described as helping the children find their way into the world while taking into account their basic need to experience the 'inner side' of nature, language and music. The children also acquire a range of basic skills. It is important for the children to gain a sense of respect and reverence for what they learn about as well as for the people whose skills they admire. Then, in addition to learning to feel at home in the world, they will strengthen their desire to be good at things, which is an important stimulus to self-activity in learning. This feeling of wanting to be good at things forms the basis for the children's love for the authority of their teachers. In their pre-school years the children had a strong urge to move; their movement was space-oriented and directed into exploring the world around them. In the early school years new developmental forces have to be taken into account, which seek to find an orientation in the qualities of their inner life. A start is made in achieving an interplay between external activity and inner reflection. In this sense it is the teacher's task to help the children acquire a healthy balance between the inner and outer worlds, between taking in and taking part, in bringing the child's own individuality into the right relationship to her own body and environment. This process of finding a healthy balance between the inner experience and the bodily organism is what Steiner referred to as teaching the children to breathe" the breath being the archetype of inner- outer exchange. The metaphor also infers that the exchange is not fixed but rhythmical, with breathing in, a transformation of substance and breathing out.