The Waldorf School
of Santa Barbara

Each day begins with the Main Lesson, a two-hour period of concentrated activity focused around a particular subject of the curriculum. Movement, rhythmic activities, speech, singing, and recorder playing precede academic work. New material is presented and received in a personal exchange between teacher and student rather than from a dry or abstract text book. Students work with the content of the lesson, creating their own books which contain written texts, original compositions, and artwork. Each main lesson subject is taught in a three or four week block of time.

The Main Lesson is followed by an outdoor recess after which there are two 40-minute classes in subjects such as Spanish, English or math skills, which require regular repetition. After lunch the children devote themselves to fine and practical arts, gardening, handwork, movement, and sports. What is being studied in the main lesson is integrated into the curriculum of special subjects. Thus, the rhythm of the day starts with the work that requires intellectual focus, and ends with the more physical activities that engage the body and hands. In structuring the year, class teachers will order the main lessons so that the subjects unfold in a varied and orderly sequence.



The Waldorf philosophy recognizes a basic need in elementary-aged children for genuine authority—rooted in love and respect. This need of authority leads to one of the most distinctive features of Waldorf education, the class teacher, who ideally advances with the students from first through eighth grade. The class teacher presents the main academic subjects, coordinates with the special subject teachers, and provides the link between home and school, thereby carefully nurturing each child’s potential. Rather than receiving grades, the children are given written evaluations from their class teacher as well as from special subject teachers annually.



Unique to Waldorf, the history curriculum mirrors the psychological development of the child. Sixth graders, for instance, who see the golden age of childhood passing before their eyes, spend several months studying the rise and fall of the Roman civilization and the reemergence of order in the Middle Ages. In the early grades, children experience history through myths, legend, verse, and imagery. The adolescent revisits that history, but with a deeper understanding and a new faculty for discussion and reflection. In fact, an integrated historical perspective informs much of the curriculum. Science classes study the biographies of great scientific thinkers; a math class may examine Greek assumptions about geometry. The goal is to get students to fully experience the changes in thought and consciousness that have occurred over time so that they will have greater perspective of their own time.



Letters are learned in the same way they originated in the course of human history. Humans perceived, then pictured, and out of the pictures they abstracted signs and symbols. First graders hear stories, draw pictures, and discover the letter in the gesture of the picture. Throughout the grade school, children do much phonetic work in the form of songs, poems, and games in addition to the more traditional speech and drama. This multi-faceted approach helps establish a joyful and living experience of the language. Additionally, texts from world literature provide material for reading as well as a foundation for the study and acquisition of grammar skills.

The Language Arts curriculum moves from the mechanics of learning to read to honing comprehension skills to creative writing. Letters and their sounds emerge from stories so that the "abstract symbol" has context and meaning. Comprehension is exercised through oral retelling of stories as well as by learning to write paragraphs and essays. Students' ability to pay meticulous attention to rich, sequential detail serves them well as they venture off into their own creative writing in the upper grades.



Science begins with nature study, including observation and field experience in the early grades. First, Second, and Third graders develop an intuitive and reverential respect for the earth as they spend time outside throughout the seasons playing, gardening, composting, and simply being in nature. Classes then move to more challenging subjects such as geology, zoology, botany, chemistry, physics, astronomy, ecological literacy, and physiology in grades four through eight. In the upper grades the sciences are taught experientially - that is, the teacher sets up an experiment, calls upon the children to observe carefully, ponder, discuss, and then allows them to discover the underlying conclusion, law, or formula. Through this process, independent critical thinking, sound disciplined judgment, and a respect for the natural world results.



Though the subject matter is similar to what is taught in other schools, the way we teach these subjects is dramatically different. In all grades, standard math text books are shelved in favor of presentations designed by individual teachers. For example, students in seventh grade might be given an assignment to measure as series of circles: trash can lids, tabletops, jar caps. They divide the circumference of each by the diameter to arrive at a number that comes amazingly close to 3.14 – every time. Aha! They have discovered pi. Mathematics taught in this way becomes a wonder rather than a chore. Over time, students develop a sense of awe with regard to the mathematical principles that govern the universe.



All Waldorf teachers are trained storytellers and, overtime, their students become storytellers too. Instruction in the early grades is primarily oral. Like the balladeers of ancient times, the children recite and retell stories they hear in class. The first real composition work is done in third or fourth grade, often in the form of a class composition. The teacher writes a topic sentence on the chalkboard, and the class adds sentences and edits as a group. Up through sixth grade, students practice their writing skills individually by rewriting what they hear in class. They also compose simple letters and family histories. In seventh grade, student begin to tell their own stories, doing real creative writing for the first time. In eighth grade, they learn to write a traditional research paper with a bibliography.



The Waldorf approach to language instruction is based on the common-sense idea that children should learn a foreign language the same way they learn their own. In the early grades they hear it, sing it, and play games with it the way toddlers would. Gradually they come to understand it, to perform plays in it, and to converse in it. Finally, they learn to read and write it. Here, Spanish is the chosen second language, with the goal of understanding human nature from the perspective of another culture.



In a Waldorf school the arts are an integral part of the curriculum. Each art follows a sequence of development from year to year and all of them supplement and reinforce the main lesson curriculum. More importantly, exposure to the arts supports the inner development of the growing emotional core of each child by engaging the heart.

All students learn to paint and draw, sculpt, sing, play the recorder and stringed instrument, and read music. Each year, every grade presents a play that relates to its academic program.
Handwork
The practical arts – handcrafts and woodwork– balance and complement the student’s academic and artistic work. By learning to knit, crochet, sew and work with wood and clay, students develop manual dexterity, patience, coordination, skill, appreciation for natural materials, a feeling for color, form and design and a personal sense of achievement.



In Waldorf education, the body receives as much attention as the mind. From the earliest grades, where children may learn to recite their times tables while jumping rope, movement informs every aspect of the curriculum, by providing the opportunity for children to have fun, while also deepening their social interactions – learning to play ball with each other before they play against each other, to acknowledge each other, to play safely, and to gain an appreciation for all kinds of movement. In the early years, kindergarten teachers introduce movement through imitation of daily activities, circle games, singing and imaginative play. In grades one through five, various games help develop an enhanced awareness of personal space, with clearly defined boundaries. In the fifth grader there is a focus on beauty and form, and in the spring the fifth graders participate in the Greek Games, a gathering of fifth grade classes from several regional Waldorf schools.

Through our understanding of child development, we see sixth grade as the appropriate age for children to work together as teammates, experiencing the joys and disappointments inherent in team sports in a cooperative spirit. Our after school sports leagues consist of basketball, volleyball and softball.





Pictorial and phonetic introduction to letters
Reading approached through writing
Arithmetic introduction to addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
Fairy tales, folk tales and nature stories



Reading
Writing
Multiplication tables
Numerical patterns and forms
Legends, fables and nature stories



Reading and Spelling
Simple descriptive writing and cursive writing
Grammar, punctuation and parts of speech
Time and Calendar work
Multiplication with higher numbers
Weight, measurement, money
Study of practical life - farming, housing, clothing
Hebrew stories as an introduction to history



Reading, spelling, writing, composition and grammar
Introduction to fractions
Study of animal kingdom
Local geography and map-making
Norse myths
Native American Studies



Reading, spelling, composition, grammar and letter writing
Poetry
Fractions, decimals, freehand geometry
Study of plant kingdom
Physical and economic geography of the United States
Ancient Civilizations through Greece



Letter writing, grammar and essay writing
Literature and library skills
Earth Science and astronomy
Business math, geometry, pre-algebra
Introduction to physics
Physical and economic geography of the Americas
Roman and medieval history



Grammar, creative writing, essays, poetry, drama, , and compositions
Algebra and geometry
Physics and chemistry
Introduction to chemistry
Biology - human physiology, anatomy and health
Cultural geography of Asia and Europe
History of the Renaissance and the Age of Discovery, to present
Cultural geography of Africa and Australia