Grade One
Academic work begins in first grade, when the child is developmentally ready to begin the journey out of the magical realm of early childhood. The grades program is comprehensive and covers a classical curriculum in an imaginative and personal way that seeks to meet the children’s growing capacities physically, emotionally, spiritually, and academically. The Micha-el School’s grade school includes the full Waldorf curriculum of traditional academic subjects as well as music, eurythmy, handwork, games, and two foreign languages- German and Spanish. The following is an abbreviated curriculum outline by grade.Grade One* Fairy tales, folk tales, nature stories
* Pictorial and phonetic introduction to letters, form drawing, reading approached through writing
* Qualities of numbers, introduction of the four processes in arithmetic, lower multiplication tables
Grade Two
* Legends and animal fables
* Reading, spelling, writing, elements of grammar
* Arithmetic, multiplication tables, further work with the processes
Grade Three
* Old Testament stories that introduce history and creation
* Study of practical life, farming, house building and clothing
* Reading, writing, original compositions, grammar, punctuation and parts of speech, cursive writing
* Higher multiplication tables, weights and measures, time and money
Grade Four
* Grammar, letter writing, spelling, composition
* Arithmetic, fractions
* Local geography and history
* Study of humans and animals
* Telling of Norse myths and sagas
* orchestra
Grade Five
Greek myths, history, and culture, history of ancient civilizations, freehand geometry, North American geography, composition, grammar, spelling and reading, decimals, study of the plant world, Greek language.
Grade Six
Roman and medieval history, Central and South American geography, geology, physics, composition, grammar, spelling, and artistic geometry with instruments.
Grade Seven
Voyages of discovery, the Renaissance, world geography, physics, physiology, astronomy, chemistry, composition, grammar, spelling, arithmetic, and introduction to algebra.
Grade Eight
American history, literature, Shakespeare, composition, grammar and spelling, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, world economic geography, physics, chemistry, physiology, meteorology.
Subjects Classes:
Spanish, German, Eurythmy, Handwork, Woodwork, Games & Movement education.
A Note on Variation:
In Waldorf education, teaching is regarded as an art as well as a science. This means that there must be freedom for the teacher to adapt both the form and the content of instruction to time and place in general, to the capacity of the particular children involved and to the qualitative needs of each moment. In this sense, the Waldorf curriculum is created freshly all the time to meet the appropriate developmental stages in a child’s life. The Curriculum is designed to teach all the academic skills while strengthening the child’s moral purpose and artistic sense.
A Note on Grades and Student Evaluations
The Micha-el School does not issue grades or administer standardized tests. Children’s progress, however, is constantly monitored. Parent- teacher conferences are scheduled several times throughout the year. Teachers write lengthy reports about each student at year end.