| Puppetry
Our
puppetry program is a pioneering program among Waldorf schools.
In thekindergarten, puppet performances are brought that are based
on the fairy tales and simple repetitive stories. In the grades,
one through eight, the puppet projects are presented in block periods
wherein each grade develops a different style of puppet. Each student
handcrafts their own puppet and leams how to gesture and enliven
it. The class then stages a puppet performance, drawn from the stories
of each grade's curriculum. Elements of color, music, and lighting
are woven into the performances, as well as complementary aspects
of the history of puppetry to the upper grades.
Foreign
Languages
Ideally, Waldorf schools include two modern foreign languages from
different language groups in the curriculum such as Spanish and
German or French. Our program presently includes Spanish. Beginning
in the lower grades, the children experience the foreign culture
through songs, verses, stories and games. Gradually the written
language and its grammar are introduced, culminating in reading,
writing and conversation in the middle school years.
Music
Singing is a part of every school day. Starting with simple melodies
in the early grades, the children progress to learning rounds and
songs with two or more parts. The main lesson teacher leads this
daily activity and also introduces the children to the pentatonic
flute beginning in the first grade. Music notation is brought in
the middle grades. And beginning in the fifth grade students choose
an instrument to play in Band and join in the Choir.
Arts
The class teacher gives regular instruction in drawing and water-color
painting through the grades. In the early grades painting is non-representative;
children are immersed in the experience of the different colors
and leam the quality of each. Beginning in fourth grade, painting
lessons are often related to the subject being taught in the main
lesson. Clay modeling, veil painting, drawing with charcoal and
pastels and other art forms may also play a part of art lessons
through the upper grades.
Form Drawing
Form drawing is taught in grades one through five as part of the
main lesson or in a period of its own. Forms of various kinds are
drawn, beginning with straight and curved lines in first grade.
This is the foundation for the child learning to print and write.
By third grade the forms become quite complicated and help to develop
the child's spatial orientation and sense of balance and proportion.
In fifth grade, with this experience behind them, the children practice
free hand geometry.
Eurythmy
Eurythmy is a form of movement developed by Rudolf Steiner. It has
be come a well known dance form, on a par with ballet, on the stages
of Europe. Ideally, children would have eurythmy once or twice a
week from first grade on. Our school is currently still in the process
of recruiting a Eurythmist for this program. Speech eurythmy makes
visible the formative gestures of vowel and consonant sounds; tone
eurythmy makes visible the elements of music - for example, pitch,
interval, major and minor. Eurythmic gestures and movements allow
children to develop balance, spatial coordination, fluidity and
grace. In the later grades, it gives them a way to understand the
formative powers at work in language and music and to express in
archetypal gestures a wide range of feelings.
Handwork
Each class leams handwork from the first grade on to strengthen
the child's will and develop fine motor skills and the related brain
functions which are the foundation for thinking. Handwork skills
taught through the grades include: knitting, purling, crocheting,
spinning and simple weaving, cross-stitch, four needle knitting,
doll making, hand sewing and machine sewing.
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