Creating deeper and more meaningful learning opportunities. In order to fully awaken each student’s thinking and creativity, Waldorf education augments all core curriculum topics with special studies, including:

Foreign Languages

Beginning in first grade, students learn two foreign languages—Spanish and German—using the same natural process in which children learn their native tongue.

Music

Singing and pentatonic flute playing start in first grade with the class teacher. In third grade, the pentatonic flute is exchanged for the recorder. Beginning in the fourth grade, each child learns to play a string instrument and participates in a school orchestra and chorus.

Handwork

Handwork teaches children to carry through with a task and appreciate the careful, persistent effort it takes to make things by hand. Beginning in first grade, children learn knitting, crocheting, cross-stitch, felting, and sewing. Woodworking class, which is added in fifth grade, provides the opportunity to make finely crafted wooden bowls, spoons, and games.

Eurythmy

Eurythmy is a movement art developed by Rudolf Steiner which helps students learn to orient themselves in space. It is taught throughout the elementary grades, using characteristic gestures, so that the sounds of language and music become visible as movement.

Movement

Movement education combines elements of traditional physical education (fitness, games and sports which emphasize cooperation and teamwork) with the rhythmical exercises of Spacial Dynamics^® and Bothmer gymnastics.

Additionally, elementary students frequently extend their learning experience beyond the classroom by participating in various class trips. Typically conducted during the school day—or occasionally including one or two overnights—these trips are intended to provide first-hand exploration of:

• nature studies
• history
• cultural immersion
• foreign languages
• geography
• geology
• music and theatre performance
• farming
• community service
• and other topics

Each student also participates in three major trips during their grade-school years, intentionally synchronized with their curriculum studies:

Third grade farm trip: To supplement their studies of living and working with the Earth, third-graders spend a week visiting a working farm during the spring. Here they learn by doing—participating in various farm chores, including planting seedlings, milking cows, collecting eggs, making meals, and caring for the farm animals.

Fifth grade pentathlon: Each spring, fifth graders from several Waldorf schools in the upper-Midwest gather in Wisconsin, for a re-creation of the ancient Greek pentathlon. Each fifth-grade class is divided into city-states (Sparta, Troy, Athens, etc.)—these city-states, comprised of representatives from each school, then compete as a team in five sporting events. The three-day pentathlon concludes with a celebratory feast and awards ceremony.

Eighth grade graduation trip: Each eighth-grade class embarks on a week-long graduation trip to a destination of their choosing, which may focus on cultural immersion, community service, new learning experiences, and/or opportunities for interpersonal growth. It provides an important conclusion to their eight-year journey; a final opportunity to come together as a group before embarking on new and different paths.