{"id":313,"date":"2021-05-23T16:40:19","date_gmt":"2021-05-23T16:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/acaciawaldorfschool.com\/2020\/?page_id=313"},"modified":"2021-06-24T17:51:12","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T17:51:12","slug":"school-life","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/acaciawaldorfschool.com\/2020\/programs\/school-life\/","title":{"rendered":"School Life"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cAcacia Waldorf School recognizes that how lessons are taught makes a big difference in a child\u2019s learning.\u00a0 True learning is a lifelong\u00a0process of discovery that engages the human being.\u00a0 Here, the passion to seek and discover is awakened and enlivened in every child.\u00a0 Waldorf Steiner education sees the child, not as an empty vessel to be filled by an adult and worldly concepts, but as a being of unfolding capacities who must be nurtured so that he or she may become his or her own person \u2013 balanced in the head, heart, and hands, fully upright, and consciously engaged in society and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

– Panjee Tapales, AWS parent, 2008<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\"\"Morning Circle<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Each class day begins with a morning circle. \u00a0As one settles down in a classroom to learn, rather than jump straight into a first lesson of the day at the sound of the bell, a morning circle forms a prelude to the Main Lesson. \u00a0Morning circle activities are varied and may serve the theme of the main lesson and aid a Student\u2019s development over a range of domains: spatial awareness, rhythm, balance, gross motor skills, fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, maths, language, music, speech, and drama.<\/p>\n

Music and choral speech recitation work towards developing a sense of how individuals strive and work together in harmony towards a whole.\u00a0 A morning circle may include coordination games with bean bags, balls, sticks, or rods; numbers, songs, or verses accompanied with simple rhythmic actions such as clapping, tapping, walking, stomping, hopping, or skipping; and playing themed music on pentatonic flutes.<\/p>\n

As the children grow older, music learned in a morning circle may evolve into round songs or two-part harmonies, and later, multi-part harmonies; multiplication tables recited during a morning circle make their way into regular Maths practice. \u00a0The experiences of rhythmic exercises, tone and rhythm in music, and choral speech recitation also allow Students to experience how a class of individuals can work rhythmically, and in harmony towards a whole.<\/p>\n

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Main Lesson<\/strong><\/h3>\n

After a morning circle, \u00a0a Student in Grade School and Upper School is immersed in the Main Lesson class for the rest of the first two hours of each school day. \u00a0Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, History, or Geography Main Lessons are taught daily for three or four weeks each.<\/p>\n

Daily lessons are presented in creative and artistic ways that engage the students\u2019 feeling life, and not just the intellect. \u00a0Concepts are introduced through stories, images, verses, music, art, and experiential activities that allow each student to engage and connect one\u2019s thoughts and feelings in deeper ways to learn about a subject.\u00a0 The Students also make their own Main Lesson books, which is a portfolio or record of a Student\u2019s own learning, created with a Student\u2019s own imagination, will, and sense of responsibility.\u00a0 New ideas introduced in the Main Lessons are practiced in regular Skills Practice classes a few days each week.<\/p>\n

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\"\"Art and Music<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Art and Music in a Waldorf Steiner curriculum are valuable not just for their own sake, but whose nature offers much that is useful for one\u2019s education, albeit in many intangible ways. \u00a0Fine Arts<\/p>\n

at our Waldorf Steiner school typically includes crafts, painting, drawing, and clay modeling. \u00a0Although there are separate subject periods to focus on experiencing particular aspects of these, Art and Music are also integrated into daily class experiences, such as singing a song in morning circle in connection to the Main Lesson theme or festival or creating drawings and tasteful borders to frame a Main Lesson book page.<\/p>\n

The musical experience of tone and rhythm enhances a mood as the music unfolds.\u00a0 While music and art allow for the inner experience of a mood, a Student also engages one\u2019s heart and will to create and behold beauty, while a piece is being sung, drawn, crafted, and completed. \u00a0In Early Childhood and Kindergarten, a child hears and sings simple, gentle melodies within a pentatonic scale. \u00a0A lyre or glockenspiel, with its mellow, twinkling sound, and simple pentatonic songs accompany many transitions and rituals in a Kindergarten day. The warm, enveloping quality of music without any jarring elements provides a soothing experience for young children.<\/p>\n

A young child takes up a C-flute or Soprano recorder in Lower School. \u00a0String musical instruments such as violin or cello are learned in Class Three onwards.\u00a0 Ensemble playing is introduced in Middle School. \u00a0In Upper School, a Student may join an ensemble or jazz band and may learn to play other musical instruments of choice, such as trumpet, guitar, or drums.\u00a0 As a student grows older, music becomes more complex, and each time, playing music is a meaningful activity that engages the Student, enhances learning, and is supported with regular practice in class and at home.<\/p>\n

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Painting<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In Kindergarten and Lower School, a Teacher uses stories to lead children on wet-on-wet watercolor painting. \u00a0For a young child, each painting exercise is a wonderful experience of immersing oneself in a color or a combination of colors and gestures, along with the theme of a season, festival, or Main Lesson. \u00a0The manner of working with wet-on-wet painting is enhanced by creating colored veil paintings in Class 7 and up. \u00a0Upper School students engage in textile painting, woodblock, and linocut printmaking.<\/p>\n

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Form Drawing<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Perhaps unique to Waldorf Steiner schools is Form Drawing in Lower School.\u00a0 Regular Form drawing exercises serve to artistically and creatively prepare and support a young child for writing, reading, and later, geometry. \u00a0All drawings are done entirely freehand and thus allow a child to practice straight and curved lines and the up-down, left-to-right orientation. \u00a0A child draws lines and rhythmic patterns on paper towards a specific movement, and later draws running forms, like those of a castle wall or waves.\u00a0 In the succeeding years, Form Drawing activities use symmetry along a horizontal or vertical axis. Closed, interlacing loops are learned in Form Drawing of Celtic knots in Class 4.<\/p>\n

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Drawing<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In Class 5, students learn to draw mandalas and geometric patterns in freehand. \u00a0In Class 6, a student is introduced to two chief drawing tools, the straightedge, and compass. Precise geometric forms are constructed with their aid, intricate patterns are found within the forms and are highlighted with thoughtful use of colors.\u00a0 In Class 7, a Student also begins to learn to work on perspective drawings, with tools to help render lines with precision.\u00a0 Black and white and colored chalk and oil pastel and pencil drawing activities are done in Middle School and Upper School.<\/p>\n

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\"\"Handwork and Woodwork<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The Practical Arts provides lots of opportunities for a young Student to develop holistically. By the nature of these subjects, a Student engages in learning by doing<\/em>. \u00a0A student imbibes a reverence for people, nature, and the world, and learns what it takes to bring practical tasks into reality.<\/p>\n

In our Waldorf Steiner school, working with different crafts materials and practical handwork and woodwork projects hold opportunities for each Student to develop fine motor skills, cultivate patience, perseverance, appreciation, and respect for the skills of others, and respect for people in our society, whose practical skills contribute to the fabric of our daily lives.<\/p>\n

Young Kindergarten and Lower School children do finger knit and finger crochet. Over the next school years, a Student will create one\u2019s own projects that one will knit, crochet, weave, do macram\u00e9, and sew by hand and then by machine.\u00a0 All the work is practical and self-directed and there is a sense of fulfillment when one completes a project that has a useful purpose, such as a bag, a cushion, a stuffed toy, or a piece of clothing such as an apron.<\/p>\n

A woodwork project may start with a simple piece such as a wooden egg, and a wooden spoon in Lower School, and wooden frames in Middle School.\u00a0 Carpentry and joinery, weaving, and bookbinding are undertaken in Upper School crafts workshops.<\/p>\n

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Gardening<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Our school has an abundance of natural and organic open spaces with a variety of plants, trees, herbs, and vegetable gardens. \u00a0Each classroom is surrounded by nature, and a Student experiences nature on a daily basis.\u00a0 Kindergarten and young children experience the seasons and the gardens as they play outdoors every day.<\/p>\n

Older Students also gain first-hand experiences and a deeper understanding of how nature works through practical gardening and farming work. A Student in Middle and Upper School may plant a variety of plants and vegetables and may prepare and maintain an individual or shared garden plot.\u00a0 A Teacher works with older Students on practical gardening ideas, such as nurturing seedlings for transplanting, making compost, intercropping, and writing nature journals.<\/p>\n

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Movement, Games, and Athletics<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Movement in our Waldorf Steiner school includes dance, rhythmic physical exercises, Eurythmy and\/or Bothmer gymnastics, circle and running games, and athletics.\u00a0 Eurythmy and Bothmer mentors visit the school regularly for Eurythmy or Bothmer activities of the students and faculty.<\/p>\n

Class Five Students learn Greek pentathlon games in connection with Greek History Main Lesson. Class Six Students experience Medieval Games and Archery on campus, in connection with Medieval History blocks. Class Seven Students learn how to sail, in connection with Explorers History Main Lesson. Team and individual athletics such as fencing, gymnastics, volleyball, basketball, running games, table tennis, badminton, and Martial Arts such as Aikido are included in Middle School and Upper School.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAcacia Waldorf School recognizes that how lessons are taught makes a big difference in a child\u2019s learning.\u00a0 True learning is a lifelong\u00a0process of discovery that engages the human being.\u00a0 Here, the passion to seek and discover is awakened and enlivened in every child.\u00a0 Waldorf Steiner education sees the child, not as an empty vessel to…
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