Class One 2021
We started our very little group of Class One's in January 2021.
Just five children and Teacher Beulah.
Just five children and Teacher Beulah.
How we learn
Ritual, rhythm and routine
Ritual, rhythm and routine are used consciously bringing a sense of reverence, movement and healthy habits to teaching and learning.
Main Lessons
We follow the rhythms of Main Lesson blocks; teaching a specific subject over a few weeks. Running lessons take place after break-time.
Active, creative Learning
Learning is active, creative and holistic, by:
A Narrative Approach
We use stories as a basis for teaching concepts, ideas, enliven the imagination, foster and strengthen feelings and build community. Children are able to experience the symbolic meaning contained in stories, they build strong picture images and they develop their language skills and memory. For example, the fairy tales in Class One, help to give children the feeling that the world makes sense, that life's challenges and adventures have purpose, and that all life is a process of "being" and growth. Children need these stories to nourish their soul - to confirm their innate feeling that the world is a secure house for them. Stories are created or chosen consciously according to the age and developmental stage of the children – so that they will fulfil the needs of the child, and bring depth and meaning.
Ritual, rhythm and routine
Ritual, rhythm and routine are used consciously bringing a sense of reverence, movement and healthy habits to teaching and learning.
Main Lessons
We follow the rhythms of Main Lesson blocks; teaching a specific subject over a few weeks. Running lessons take place after break-time.
Active, creative Learning
Learning is active, creative and holistic, by:
- integrating art, science and language in equal value
- including practical activities and artisan crafts
- encouraging outdoor experiential learning
- integrating indoor and outdoor movement
- including gardening, nature play, games and sport
- Waldorf principles of education, as formulated by Rudolf Steiner, will be implemented in the curriculum, classroom practice and administration
- progress in foundational mathematics and literacy will be evaluated in Class Three and Class Six by an external academic standards assessment
A Narrative Approach
We use stories as a basis for teaching concepts, ideas, enliven the imagination, foster and strengthen feelings and build community. Children are able to experience the symbolic meaning contained in stories, they build strong picture images and they develop their language skills and memory. For example, the fairy tales in Class One, help to give children the feeling that the world makes sense, that life's challenges and adventures have purpose, and that all life is a process of "being" and growth. Children need these stories to nourish their soul - to confirm their innate feeling that the world is a secure house for them. Stories are created or chosen consciously according to the age and developmental stage of the children – so that they will fulfil the needs of the child, and bring depth and meaning.
In a Waldorf school, true academic work does not begin until first grade. Why? It is well known that the body renews every cell in itself every seven years. At about the age of seven, the child has literally become their own new self, and the completion of this work is symbolised by the change of teeth. The forces which were used to form the physical body are freed up and are now available to be used for memory.
Academic work before this time is simply a drain on the child's resources which are designed for physical growth. One of the signs of first grade readiness we look for in a Waldorf school is that the child is able to imagine or think in pictures. Steiner calls this early form of cognition “knowledge via imagery rather than concepts." However, subject and object are not yet separated. The child still identifies with the images and this is reflected in how they are drawn to and engrossed in stories.
In first grade, these stories are fairy tales and nature stories. Through nature stories, the teacher is able to imaginatively connect the child to the greater world and how nature works. Through fairy tales, the child is presented with an archetypal picture of the human being and the experiences and challenges met on his or her journey. The king, for example, is an image of each individual's spiritual essence, the I, or ego.
Throughout the grades, we are concerned with the development of the child's capacities: academic capacities, capacities of love and compassion, and the capacities to fulfil one's destiny. As learning is tightly tied to development, the teacher needs to be aware of the individual student's developmental progress – is dominance established, can the child freely cross both horizontal and vertical midlines, etc. In our modern society, with its lack of movement and flood of media, many children are coming to first grade with a great many hindrances. Our job as educators is to help remove these hindrances, and the task at the beginning of first grade can seem daunting.
Children are often unable to focus for very long. Impulse control may be lacking. Their nervous systems are often overloaded. They may have retained reflexes that contribute to learning difficulties. While there is no magic wand, in first grade we move! and move often. We attempt to hit all bases – teach to all learning types - visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic learners. Children may be stronger with details (left brain) or the whole picture (right brain). So we teach both whole to the parts (e.g. whole language) and parts to the whole (e.g. phonics). The task of the teacher is also to blend the many streams of society into one.
Our society is in such a hurry and the pressure on Waldorf schools is enormous. We have numerous children coming into our first grade classes who are fully reading, while many don't yet know their letters. Both types of students can be met. What we are teaching in first grade are the foundation stones for learning. It's ok if children read at a second grade level, we can still present the letter "B" as the symbol adults use for the sound "buh". We feed their soul with imaginations of bears and butterflies – giving life to the soul amongst the ever encroaching intellectual landscape.
Through bringing breathing into our lessons, alternating outer activity and focused work, we support the children developing rhythms which support better focus and clearer thinking. Through using three day rhythms, we use the sleep life to bring warmth to the intellectual material. Through loving our students and our daily meditations, we bring the essence of teaching – the spiritual insights and inspirations that are our gifts to our class.
First grade is about potential and possibility - and beginning the journey to make these manifest.
By Michael Seifert
https://www.waldorfteacherresources.com
Academic work before this time is simply a drain on the child's resources which are designed for physical growth. One of the signs of first grade readiness we look for in a Waldorf school is that the child is able to imagine or think in pictures. Steiner calls this early form of cognition “knowledge via imagery rather than concepts." However, subject and object are not yet separated. The child still identifies with the images and this is reflected in how they are drawn to and engrossed in stories.
In first grade, these stories are fairy tales and nature stories. Through nature stories, the teacher is able to imaginatively connect the child to the greater world and how nature works. Through fairy tales, the child is presented with an archetypal picture of the human being and the experiences and challenges met on his or her journey. The king, for example, is an image of each individual's spiritual essence, the I, or ego.
Throughout the grades, we are concerned with the development of the child's capacities: academic capacities, capacities of love and compassion, and the capacities to fulfil one's destiny. As learning is tightly tied to development, the teacher needs to be aware of the individual student's developmental progress – is dominance established, can the child freely cross both horizontal and vertical midlines, etc. In our modern society, with its lack of movement and flood of media, many children are coming to first grade with a great many hindrances. Our job as educators is to help remove these hindrances, and the task at the beginning of first grade can seem daunting.
Children are often unable to focus for very long. Impulse control may be lacking. Their nervous systems are often overloaded. They may have retained reflexes that contribute to learning difficulties. While there is no magic wand, in first grade we move! and move often. We attempt to hit all bases – teach to all learning types - visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic learners. Children may be stronger with details (left brain) or the whole picture (right brain). So we teach both whole to the parts (e.g. whole language) and parts to the whole (e.g. phonics). The task of the teacher is also to blend the many streams of society into one.
Our society is in such a hurry and the pressure on Waldorf schools is enormous. We have numerous children coming into our first grade classes who are fully reading, while many don't yet know their letters. Both types of students can be met. What we are teaching in first grade are the foundation stones for learning. It's ok if children read at a second grade level, we can still present the letter "B" as the symbol adults use for the sound "buh". We feed their soul with imaginations of bears and butterflies – giving life to the soul amongst the ever encroaching intellectual landscape.
Through bringing breathing into our lessons, alternating outer activity and focused work, we support the children developing rhythms which support better focus and clearer thinking. Through using three day rhythms, we use the sleep life to bring warmth to the intellectual material. Through loving our students and our daily meditations, we bring the essence of teaching – the spiritual insights and inspirations that are our gifts to our class.
First grade is about potential and possibility - and beginning the journey to make these manifest.
By Michael Seifert
https://www.waldorfteacherresources.com