Eurythmy means “beautiful or harmonious movement.”  It is a unique experience to the Waldorf curriculum.  Developed early in the last century by Rudolf Steiner eurythmy is neither dance nor mime, but uses the body as an instrument in space.  The air is the medium in which eurythmists make forms and gestures much as a sculptor uses wood or stone. Attempting to sing and speak through movement, eurythmists “sound” in space, bringing the life and color of music and poetry to vivid expression.  They strive to make the invisible dance of creative sound a visual experience.

Knitting and other handwork projects play an important role in the development of fine motor skills, inner calm, and intellectual clarity.  The specific handwork taught in Waldorf schools “grows with the growing child.”  In the first grade, the curriculum calls for learning the basic knit stitch and creating a practical and useful project in a warm textile such as wool.  In second and third grades, this is continued with purling and crochet, which add new movements and require more focus on each row and stitch.  Around age nine or ten the children undergo a change of consciousness:  they are individuals within themselves, no longer as open.  The hats that the third graders knit to cover their heads represent this developmental milestone.  Third graders are also experiencing the beginning of critical thinking, and in the knitting of hats they are introduced to small patterns, thus engaging their new thinking skills.  The cross stitch taught in fourth grade reflects this more elaborate stage in their development.

The fifth grade advances to more complicated knitting.  Knitting socks requires using four needles instead of just two, and it is a task that requires much perseverance, providing challenges and valuable lessons for the children.

Developmentally, the sixth graders are coming into form.  The children sew animals, which requires planning, patterns, cutting, basting, and other skills for children who are now more intellectual in their planning and thinking.  The sewing the children undertake in seventh and eighth grades requires extensive forethought and mathematical skills.  In seventh grade they often sew dolls by hand, and in the eighth grade, sewing machines are used for various projects such as clothing and often massed production gifts for the lower grades.

Handwork offers many opportunities for reinforcing math skills in practical, challenging, and enjoyable ways. 

The woodworking curriculum develops skill in the use of hand tools, precision, and patience in the craftsmanship of the students. Working with wood requires an application of physical strength to the project at hand and can ultimately reveal the presence of the directed will as it comes in contact with physical matter such as wood. The woodworking curriculum fosters artistry and cognitive awareness in such projects as animal carving and precision and accuracy in the measuring, cutting, and drawing of projects like geometric relief. Craftwork is intimately linked to the development of character, and woodworking can be introduced to the 10/11-year-old (5th grader). The following is a summary of the grades.

In a very elementary way it introduces the child to the world of work with the consistent effort this class requires. It emphasizes a whole-hearted participation, and the gradual development of individual skills as the final product demonstrates.

Grade Five

Developing the physical and manual skills called for in the handling of wood. Learning the proper use and safe handling of tools like a mallet, gouge, and rasp. Emphasis is placed on gaining roundness and symmetry of form in projects like the construction of a simple boat.

Grade Six

More specialized work can begin with the use of chisels of all sizes and shapes, saws, rasps, wood files, planes, sandpaper, etc. Precision and control become predominant with the 11/12-year-old, and they can begin to carve spoons, bowls, and other simply detailed structures like a house, bridge, or cathedral. The students also begin to learn how to use various clamping devices. At this level, the students exhibit varying degrees in the mastery of the tools.

Grade Seven

There is an awakening ability for abstraction and a deeper grasp of specialized techniques. This can be seen, for example, in carving that requires the student to work from the two dimensional into the three dimensional. At this level, more complex carvings are possible, such as a ship or an artistic relief. The students can also make a variety of movable toys.

Grade Eight

The students can begin to work on projects that require more precision in measuring, drawing, and carving in the artistically rendered geometric relief and three-dimensional animal form.

Child development is taken into account in Movement and Games classes. The activities that are chosen reflect this understanding. Each lesson contains a rhythm of joining together and moving apart. Highly active games balanced with quieter ones and working together as a group are part of each class.

Games in first and second grades have the gesture of the circle, keeping the children protected and part of the whole.  As we move up the grades, the children are slowly coming into their individuality and the Games curriculum reflects this.  By the fifth grade there is a focus on beauty, form, and preparation for the Olympic competition in the spring.  In sixth, seventh, and eighth grades the more conventional sports are brought into the curriculum.  At this time the children have a growing understanding of rules and teamwork. At the same time they are developing their own self discipline and competitive nature.  They are aspiring upwards in terms of exactness, technique, timing, and the spirit of the law while becoming more aware of the world around them.

In a culture where organized team sports hold such high status, children can sometimes think of movement only in these terms.  The Movement curriculum tries to give the children basic coordination and movement skills that will help them when they decide to play organized sports.  Depending on the grade, the children will play games or do relay races that serve to develop skills that are also required for conventional sports.  String games and jumping rope are also activities that develop skills which can be used in many different sports.

Not only does a Movement class provide the opportunity for the children to play games and have fun, it also works with their social interaction by teaching them to play 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.

Music education is a vital part of our day to day curriculum and is taught in all grades by the class teacher. Music not only enlivens the spirit but increases a child’s capacity for learning. Through the study of music, we learn to sensitize our hearing, allowing us to better listen to the sounds of the world and to each other.

There are many important inner skills to be learned in the study of music. The discipline of practicing an instrument helps children find the inner discipline to face other challenges in life. Group music lessons offer an opportunity for children to practice the ability to listen to others and to work cooperatively.  It is quite a challenge for a group of children to work completely in unison in any realm, be it social, academic, or physical.  In trying to sing or playing instruments as a group, with the same timing and pitch, the resulting harmonious sound allows them to directly experience the value of working well together. Singing and playing an instrument is a means of self exploration, self-expression, and creativity that allows the children to grow into more well-rounded human beings.

Throughout the grades, children are taught music through singing and playing instruments. In first and second grades, the children sing as a group and learn to play the pentatonic flute. In third grade, children begin singing rounds and begin to play the recorder. In fourth grade, two part songs are added, and the children learn about holding their own voices against others to create harmony. Fourth grade children continue to play the recorder and begin string instruments. In fifth through eighth grades, recorders are still used in the classroom, and string instruments are often still offered. Students in the middle school are often playing Renaissance recorder ensemble music with soprano, alto, and tenor recorders.

Spanish is taught in grades 7-12. In the early grades, foreign languages are taught orally, giving the young children the opportunity to hear the different sounds and feel the mood of the language. Verses, songs, stories games, tongue-twisters, and counting are brought to foster group knowledge of the language and appreciation of the folk soul of the peoples who speak the language.  In the older grades, grammar and the study of the structure of the language are taken up, along with reading and writing.