Lower and Middle School

Our geography curriculum begins in our own schoolyard and expands through the years to cover people and places worldwide. The depth and breadth of understanding develops as the students do, with map-making beginning in grade 4 and gaining complexity as they progress.

Just as a Waldorf education follows the pattern of a child’s developmental stages, our curriculum follows the pattern that has unfolded through the history of civilization, with an emphasis on Western civilization. We explore humankind’s development through the great stories, from fairy tales and fables to Nordic and Greek myths to medieval, Roman, Renaissance, and modern history, which the class teacher brings to life through oral storytelling. Written and artistic work follows, further deepening students’ understandings.

Storytelling is at the heart of learning to understand and to love language. Through the grades, our students compose stories based on their learning and read what they wrote to others — both exciting steps as they progress toward the complex expression of moods in poetry and short story plots. The study of grammar as the skeleton of language supports this writing as well as the scientific summaries and works students create for other subjects. Drama and oral recitation deepen the students’ speaking and acting skills as well as their understanding of myths and classics.

We take math from the written page into the physical world, teaching young students mathematical basics in part through movement of the body. Students might clap the multiplication tables, find Pythagoras’ theorem with lentils, or walk the addition of negative and positive numbers. Not only do activities strengthen number sense and confident computation, they enhance students’ performance during daily, more traditional mental and written math exercises. The combined approach helps prepare students for challenges such as algebra, geometry and business math in middle school.

Our approach to science is similar to the process of discovery that scientists undertake: closely observing the natural processes around us, demonstrating phenomena, asking students to explain the cause through observation, and drawing conclusions.

Younger children learn the basics of science — primarily the quality of observation — through outdoor play and experimentation in nature. In grades three through five, plant and animal facts are connected to human activities through storytelling. Formal lab science begins in grade 6.

Our study of world languages begins in grade 1 in much the same way that children learn their first language: through listening and imitation. We teach songs, games, and stories orally, with the help of pictures and gestures. In grades 4 and 5, we transition to the more academic, practical work of the upper grades, where conversation, grammar, written work, and reading become increasingly important.

Learning languages gives students a broader vision of the world, inspires a genuine interest in multiculturalism, and prepares them for a life where they will be better able to listen, understand and communicate with others.

Here the arts are not extras, but an integral part of the everyday curriculum — both as individual arts classes and as part of the morning lesson. For example, grade 1 students draw pictures of the stories they hear, which evolve into the forms of the letters they study. By grade 7, students learn to draw with perspective, tying into their study of Renaissance art as well as geometry. Painting and modeling complement math study, develop dexterity and mastery of hand-tools, and engage the students in an experience of practical competency.

Every student takes part in handwork class to not only create work that is meaningful and beautiful, but because the rhythmic, purposeful movement of hands as they knit, crochet, cross-stitch, embroider, felt, and sew is a blueprint for the process of receiving, integrating, and using abstract concepts of higher learning.

Handwork provides rich “felt experiences” through touch, smell, and movement, which also activate neural pathways in the brain. There is simply a deeper connection made when a child who is learning about wool experiences petting a sheep, washing and carding its wool, and then using that wool to felt, knit, or crochet.

In the first three years of school, children learn to knit and crochet — the beginning of their deeper connection with the natural world and of orderly, joyful work habits. In grade 4, students focus on cross-stitch. Grade 5 brings embroidery and knitting. In middle school, patterns are introduced as students piece together projects for felting and sewing.

In grades 1 through 8, students learn to sing and play recorders together — in unison, rounds, canons, and multiple parts — led by their class teacher as part of the daily activities, and in support of the main lesson curriculum.

In grade 4, each student begins to play a string instrument in a twice-weekly orchestra class with our specialty strings teacher. Music reading begins, and daily home practice is expected. Choir begins in grade 6 with an emphasis on developing a confident voice, using various vocal colors and techniques, and introducing a wide variety of musical styles.

When students sing, act, and play instruments, they develop a deep appreciation of the arts and of their own talents and also gain confidence in public speaking and performance. Each year, every student takes part in a class play, with increasingly complex involvement in the play production and performance as they grow older.

In our well-furnished Manual Arts Studio, separate from the main school building, our students continue to refine their dexterity and increase concentration. Students work with appropriate hand tools; power tools are not used.

Games and movement are critical to shaping growth: physical, social, and emotional. That’s why we teach physical education focused not only on the benefits of exercise, but as a complete program of balanced spatial education.

In the lower grades, physical education ties into the overall focus on imagination; we strengthen the child’s spatial awareness with creative games that include string and clapping games, body geography, and bean bags, as well as circle and tag games.

By grade 4, we satisfy the children’s awakening intellects with games that achieve a task or solve a problem.

Grade 5 students practice for the regional pentathlon, a sports event that emphasizes grace, beauty, and skill in the tradition of the ancient Greeks, to complement their academic study of ancient civilizations. Bothmer movement exercises are also introduced to support the students’ developing spatial awareness.

Our Developmental Circus Arts Program is built into our movement curriculum, enabling our students to acquire unique skills — such as juggling, acrobatics, and clowning — in a collaborative, non-competitive environment. We depart from the team-versus-team tournament model found in sports and the access-by-audition model of elite performance arts groups, in favor of a “troupe” model that is inclusive of all young people of every age, athletic capability, body size, developmental capability, socioeconomic status, academic standing, race, and gender.

Our students' circus education culminates in the very popular public performance of the Hilltop Circus, which is produced annually by our grade 7 and 8 students.