Waldorf Teaching

The Most Important Subject Our First Graders Learn

On the very first day of school, our first grade children were presented with the polarity of two kinds of lines - straight lines and curves. Throughout the year they will see the infinite variety of forms that can be created out of these simple elements.

In some respects, Form Drawing is the most important subject that the children will study in first grade, for it provides a good foundation for the letter recognition that is so central to reading, as well as numerical and spatial relationships that are so essential in arithmetic.  The drawings themselves could not be any simpler. All year we work with only two elements of drawing - straight lines and curves. 

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Is Waldorf Education Inspiring Scientific Curiosity?

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A few weeks ago, middle school students in our marine ecology elective at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod demonstrated a wonderful example of how Waldorf education is inspiring scientific curiosity in our students.

Our middle school grades (Classes 6-8) have the opportunity to take an elective class on Friday afternoons. Many of these classes are taught by members of our parent community.
One of the choices for the Fall session this year is Marine Ecology. Dr. Joy Lapseritis, scientist and member of our parent community, introduced students to the relationships of organisms with the marine environment through experiments and observations.  Over the course of 5 weeks, the class was engaged in asking questions and observing diverse organisms such as mollusks, horseshoe crabs, and marine mammals.  These organisms offered entry-points to discuss animal classification, coastal and open ocean ecosystems, life cycles and food webs, and interactions between human development and local estuaries. 

Waldorf Education: Producing Creative Scientists

Fifth grade students may not be ready to write research papers but they are ready to make their first steps in that direction. Our Fifth grade students had their first introduction to group research work this Fall. Some liked working in groups and others were challenged by this work. When asked about this, Fifth grade teacher, Mr. Schofield says:

“I feel an obligation to introduce my fifth grade students to group work. I feel Waldorf Education can potentially produce individuals who are creative scientists and mathematicians. That is what I am trying to achieve.”
- Mark Schofield, Class 5 Teacher

Our fifth grade curriculum has North American Geography as a topic for grade five. Mr. Schofield, thought the idea of studying biomes (ecological communities) went nicely with their study of plants this year and animals last year.

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