Class 1 with Ms. Tiffany (2023/2024)

Class Description

Once upon a time, a class full of knights, wizards, fairies, princes, and princesses set out on a journey to discover new places, stories, and many new things in the world around them. … It is a great privilege to guide them as they continue their journey down the Class One path.

The weeks of this school year are woven together with magical threads of fairy tales.  As the children experience this significant transition time from Early Childhood years into Grade School, they are enveloped by the mists of the fairy tale realm encountering various characters and events that bring to them the experiences of various archetypes of the human being reflecting the brightly shining virtues of courage, honesty, and goodness.

The entire curriculum is presented in a way that appeals to the child’s sense of wonder and fosters the child’s capacities of imagination supporting them in building their own inner pictures from the stories, songs, and learning experiences.

The letters of the alphabet are introduced through storytelling and beautiful drawings that give rise to letter symbols.  Sound and symbol relationships are practiced through the writing of short sentences that gradually become a little longer as the year nears its end. Children prepare to begin reading. 

Numeracy skills and familiarity with the four basic math processes are developed during this school year. Qualities of the number are explored first through story and movement followed by the experiences that engage the children in their quantitative and ordinal aspects. Rhythm, speech, and physical movement activities assist the children in the development of balance, coordination, and left/right recognition. Furthermore, nature stories, songs, music, poetry, handwork, painting, guided drawing, and beeswax modeling weave together each lesson block, bringing it to life in beautiful and lively ways.

Class 1 Steiner pedagogy:

Language Arts: introduction to letters and writing, Introduction to reading

Fairy tales (Grimm’s and fairy tales from around the World)

Math: Quality of numbers, counting, skip counting to introduce times tables (2, 3, 5, 10, 4), ordinal numbers, Roman numerals, Introduction to the four basic processes (add, subtract, divide, multiply)

Arts: Watercolor Painting, Beeswax Modeling, Crayon Drawing, Form Drawing, Knitting, Sewing, Pentatonic flute, Songs, Reciting Poems and Verses

Work Samples:

Class Sample Video:

Handwork With Ms. Maggie

We will begin the child’s handwork journey in first grade by exploring raw wool, where it comes from, and how it is spun into yarn. We will learn how to dye wool and learn the meditative process of winding wool. The children will make wooden knitting needles, hear a knitting story and verses while learning to cast on. Color theory will be introduced as the children choose two colors, one dark and one light, to knit a striped pattern that moves from dark at the bottom to light at the opening of a flute case. Mathematics will also be practiced as the children keep track of their knitted rows by counting by twos. The children will also learn to shape an animal from knit squares. This will introduce them to basic sewing and stuffing techniques. All of these activities will be a wonderful introduction to knitting and help stimulate the child’s mental development and awaken their tactile sense through use of natural fibers.

Eurythmy Inspired Movement With Ms. Tiffany

The theme for first grade is “Discovery.” In this class we use eurythmy gestures through seasonal storytelling and imagination which help in the discovery and building of the will-forces. Along with contraction and expansion, polar contrasts, and rhythmical principles, we will also work with geometric forms and basic copper rod exercises and activities.

American Sign Language with Ms. Rebecca

Children in first grade will have the ability to discover American Sign Language through talking about day to day events. In main lessons they will be introduced to new topics such as what it means to be D/deaf and hard of hearing. Children will learn about Deaf culture through songs, verses.

Music with Mr. Mark 

In Music Class 1 we use singing games, dancing games, sing-alongs and stories to create music together. We explore physically the steady beat, how the beat relates to rhythm, and how beat and rhythm relate to melody in a naturally organic progression. The material we use incorporates the season we're in as well as aspects of the students’ Main Lesson blocks. Emphasis is on creative expression and musical exploration, where everyone participates together in the creation of beautiful music. Music Notation is introduced in a fun, organic way that relates to the Feeling Life of the music rather than the Intellectual. We will also introduce Beginning Recorder!