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Curriculum Overview

First Grade

“The sun with loving light brightly shines” First Grade - Santa Fe Waldorf Elementary SchoolThe Class I experience is a pivotal one in the development of a child. It makes a very clear and important transition from the nurturing communal experience of the kindergarten into the awakening self-awareness experience of the Class One. It is here that the rhythms and habits of classroom life and work are established that form the foundation for all subsequent school learning.

  • Introduction to writing and reading
  • Writing sentences, stories and poems
  • Fairy tales, folk tales, and nature stories
  • Speech and Drama
  • Arithmetic: an introduction to addition, subtraction, multiplication, division
  • Math games, mental math, and form drawing
  • Nature Study
  • Spanish language
  • Painting, beeswax modeling, drawing
  • Handwork: Knitting
  • Music: singing, recorder-playing
  • Eurythmy (movement)
  • Games
  • Outdoor education: class campout on school grounds related to nature studies

Second Grade

Second Grade - Santa Fe Waldorf Elementary School“That I with all my might, may love to work and learn.”
The consciousness of the child is an ever-changing experience. The 8-year old student now begins to sense that there is more to life than the innocent, imaginative, “the world and I are one” experience of early childhood. The child becomes more aware of the greatness and the failings of human beings. Thus it is timely that fables, often illustrating exaggerated human traits such as greed, boastfulness, stubbornness, and the lives of exemplary people who have overcome these qualities are studied and discussed.

  • Reading stories and short books; improving letter and sound recognition
  • Writing stories and compositions
  • Fables, animal stories and legends of saintly and heroic people
  • Speech and Drama
  • The four arithmetic processes; place value, multiple digit computation,
  • Mental math, math games and form drawing
  • Nature study
  • Spanish language
  • Painting, clay modeling, drawing
  • Handwork: Knitting
  • Singing and recorder-playing
  • Eurythmy (movement)
  • Games
  • Outdoor Education: class camping trip related to nature studies

Third Grade

“Here I stand upon the earth.”Third Grade - Santa Fe Waldorf Elementary SchoolSignificant psychological, cognitive, and physiological changes occur in the 9-10 year old students. They become more self-aware, and with this awareness comes the realization that they are disconnecting from their surroundings in ways that can be disconcerting and unpleasant on the one hand and exciting and self-empowering on the other.  Through stories from the Hebrew Scriptures and farming and gardening the curriculum helps them to develop a new relationship with their surroundings.

  • Reading books, introduction of cursive writing
  • Phonetics and spelling, introduction of grammar
  • Writing stories and compositions
  • Hebrew legends (Old Testament stories), nature stories
  • Speech and Drama
  • The four arithmetical processes, long division and multiplication
  • Measurement, money
  • Study of practical life: house-building, farming, gardening, clothing
  • Spanish language
  • Painting, clay modeling, drawing
  • Handwork: Crocheting
  • Singing and recorder-playing
  • Eurythmy (movement)
  • Games
  • Outdoor education: 3-day class trip to a bio-dynamic farm related to farming and gardening studies

Fourth Grade

“Striding boldly o'er the land.”Fourth Grade - Santa Fe Waldorf Elementary School
The first phase of childhood has been left behind as the children begin to exhibit characteristics of their emerging individualities, both as gifts and talents, as well as challenges. Through the study of Norse myths they are able to “try on” some of these personality traits in dramatic way and by focusing on animals and the land around them they continue to form this new relationship with their surroundings.

  • Reading books and writing book reports
  • Spelling, grammar, composition
  • Norse myths and Native American myths
  • Speech and Drama
  • The four arithmetical processes, fractions, word problems
  • Local geography, New Mexico geography, map making
  • Zoology and the study of the human being
  • Spanish language
  • Painting, clay modeling, drawing
  • Handwork: Cross-stitch, Embroidery, Woodworking
  • Singing, recorder-playing, orchestra
  • Eurythmy (movement)
  • Games and physical education
  • Outdoor education: class camping trip to Chaco Canyon related to New Mexico history and geography studies

Fifth Grade

“I look into the world.”Fifth Grade - Santa Fe Waldorf Elementary SchoolBalance is the goal, as the attainment of a degree of ease and grace of physical movement is intrinsic to this age. Cognitively the students have evolved to a stage of approaching their studies, and life, in a more realistic and reasoning manner. Thus the very significant transition from mythology to recorded history seeks to meet this emerging consciousness.

  • Language arts, spelling, grammar, composition
  • Early American history and biographies of North American pioneers
  • History of ancient civilizations up to Alexander the Great (India, Persia, Babylonia, Egypt, Greece)
  • Speech and Drama
  • Mathematics: percentages, fractions, decimals, ratio, and proportion
  • North American geography
  • Botany, Zoology
  • Spanish language
  • Painting, clay modeling, drawing
  • Handwork: Advanced knitting (with 4 needles), Woodworking
  • Singing, recorder-playing and orchestra
  • Eurythmy (of movement)
  • Games
  • Outdoor education: class camping trip related to botany studies

Sixth Grade

Sixth Grade - Santa Fe Waldorf Elementary School“Strength from stones I’m given.”
Class VI marks the dawn of adolescence and the beginning of the struggle between light and darkness. Children experience a significant developmental change at around 9 years of age. In Class VI around the twelfth year, there is another important change in the quality of the child’s consciousness. At this time there is a first dawning of intellectual consciousness as the child’s feeling perception passes over to the world of ideas. This feeling approach to thinking is a first step toward the true critical independent thinking and judgment that is to come. The curriculum, as always, seeks to meet and foster these emerging capacities.

  • Language arts: spelling, grammar, composition
  • Independent study and report writing
  • Ancient history (Roman Republic and Empire) and the Middle Ages
  • Speech and Drama
  • Mathematics: Business math, percentages
  • Geometric form drawing using precision instruments
  • World Geography I
  • Geology and mineralogy
  • Physics: optics, acoustics, magnetism, electricity, heat
  • Astronomy
  • Spanish language
  • Painting, clay modeling, drawing
  • Handwork: Sewing, Woodworking
  • Singing, recorder-playing and orchestra
  • Eurythmy (movement)
  • Games and physical education
  • Outdoor education: class camping trip to Carlsbad Caverns related to mineralogy studies

Seventh Grade

“In heights of world without…”Seventh Grade - Santa Fe Waldorf Elementary SchoolLooking outward while feeling inward the adolescent Class VII student is living an emotional life filled with expressiveness and forcefulness. Questioning authority and challenging all that is, with their questions, the students seek to assert their independence and find their place among their peers. It is thus no accident that The Renaissance is a theme that underlies much of the Class VII curriculum. Adolescence often typifies a looking back to try and understand what lies ahead. Harking back to an experience of the Renaissance ideals of Truth and Beauty can offer a healthy alternative to the sometimes critical attitudes of students of this age.

  • Language arts: grammar and composition
  • Creative writing, biographies
  • Independent study and report writing
  • History of the Late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and the Age of Exploration
  • Speech and Drama
  • Mathematics: pre-algebra, geometry and geometric drawing
  • World Geography II
  • Physiology
  • Chemistry
  • Physics II
  • Astronomy
  • Spanish Language
  • Painting, clay modeling, drawing
  • Perspective Drawing
  • Handwork
  • Woodwork
  • Singing, recorder-playing and orchestra
  • Eurythmy (movement)
  • Games and physical education
  • Outdoor education

Eighth Grade

“In depths of soul within…”Eigth Grade - Santa Fe Waldorf Elementary SchoolIf one looks at the 8-year cycle of the elementary student it can be compared to the musical movement of notes through the scale. Using the octave as a metaphor, the curriculum of Class VIII recapitulates and enhances all that has come before, and yet like that eighth note in the musical scale, it stands as its own foundation for the next step forward in life. It is a big step forward and is thus appropriate that much of the year’s curriculum involves aspects of Revolution—through history, science and literature.

  • Language arts: grammar, composition, creative writing
  • Literature: short stories, letters, Shakespeare
  • Independent study and report writing
  • Modern History: The Age of Revolutions
  • History of the United States
  • Speech and Drama
  • Mathematics: Algebra and Geometry
  • World Geography III
  • Human anatomy
  • Physics III
  • Meteorology
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Spanish Language
  • Painting, sculpting
  • Handwork: Machine sewing , Woodwork
  • Singing, recorder-playing and orchestra
  • Eurythmy (movement)
  • Games and physical education
  • Outdoor education