SPECIALTY PROGRAMS

Our puppetry program is a pioneering program among Waldorf schools. In the kindergarten, 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.

Beginning in the 5th grade, classes begin working with wood as a practical art. They create an egg from a block on wood. Woodworking is continued through 8th grade and their final project is a beautiful hand carved spoon.

Eurythmy is a form of movement developed by Rudolf Steiner. It has become 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.
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.

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 are taught to play the violin and sing in the Choir through 8th grade.

Through the generosity of a community member, we were given a grant to build a school garden. It sits off to the side of our first and second grade yard and is seen from Rawhide Road. It is cared for by our gardener and our students. It’s bounty is shared in our early childhood classes for soup making. Kindergartners will often spend time in the garden exploring. All of the grades work in the garden at least once a week. Weeding, creating beds, planting seeds and taking care of the worms, compost and bees are all chores done by our students. Every other Wednesday afternoon, the 6th graders help sell the produce they harvested.

Ideally, Waldorf schools include two modern languages from different language groups in the curriculum such as Spanish and German or French. Our program presently includes Spanish. Beginning in kindergarten, 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.