Curriculum

Curriculum

MSA integrates a traditional Waldorf curriculum with the State Common Core. In this way, the students will receive a robust and comprehensive education. In addition to the common core requirements in math and language arts, the incorporation of Waldorf curriculum will involve stories from around the world, history, science, arts, practical arts, movement, foreign language and music.

Curriculum and practices at the school will be designed to nurture and support the development of the whole child: their head (or thinking and analytical abilities), their heart (or feeling and intuitive abilities), and their hands (or their physical and tactile abilities). Each lesson and each day will be designed to support the development of each of these important aspects of the child as a whole person. Children will be seen as more than a score, a number, or a particular set of skills, but rather as an entire human being. The development of mastery over one’s physical body, one’s movement and motor capacities, the cultivation of one’s sense of feeling, of imagination, of responsibility, and creativity, and the fostering of one’s critical thinking and cognitive abilities will all be valued as essential to the emergence of a whole, integrated person. Lessons will all be designed to help each child do, feel and think.

Developmental Model: Waldorf curriculum is based on a developmental model where the subject matter taught aligns with the developmental stage. Curriculum is harmonized with the traditional presentation of subjects and themes in Waldorf schools. Presentation of subjects is related to the age and stage of the children. Slow beginnings are honored, and individual children are encouraged to learn and blossom at their own pace. Homework and additional projects are limited and always connected to deepening learning and supporting the child.

Global and Cultural Scope: The Waldorf curriculum is seen as an ascending spiral with new information and competencies building upon those introduced in earlier years. Much of the language arts and history instruction can be found in the study of stories: tales, fables, myths, cultural practices and history that is drawn from the global sphere and then presented creatively as the students explore the world through the ideas, traditions and stories of ancient and modern cultures. History, language arts, science, math, and history are taught in main lesson blocks of three to five weeks during the morning main lesson hours. Topics covered in main lessons include:

·         Primary Grades 1-3: Pictorial introduction to the alphabet, writing, reading, spelling, poetry, and drama. Folk and fairy tales, fables, legends, ancient Hebrew stories. Numbers, basic mathematical processes of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Nature stories, house building, and gardening.

·         Middle Grades 4-6: Writing, reading, spelling, grammar, poetry, and drama. Norse myths, history and stories of ancient civilizations. Review of the four mathematical processes, fractions, percentage, and geometry. Local and world geography, comparative zoology, botany, and elementary physics.

·         Upper Grades 7-8: Creative writing, reading, spelling, grammar, poetry, and drama. Medieval history, Renaissance, world exploration, American history, and biography. Mathematics, geography, physics, basic chemistry, astronomy, and physiology.


Detailed charts outlining the curriculum for K-8 and competencies and skills taught for each grade are available:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8-8bZ6MOc2yRTlMTTRxelhneEU/edit?usp=sharing

Specialty Classes:

Specialty Classes:  In addition to the broad arts-infused academic curriculum, MSA offers a variety of specialty classes taught by teachers with a focus on a particular subject.  Some classes are taught throughout all grades and others are introduced in the upper grades, as appropriate.

Handwork / Woodwork: builds fine motor skills, fosters brain integration, and develops an artistic aesthetic as children learn to knit, crochet, embroider, carve and other skills.

Spanish: begins to immerse students in a foreign language in a way that is similar to their acquisition of their primary language, though stories, songs, rhymes and poems, as children mature, the complexity and precision of instruction also increase.

Dance: is taught by a visiting artist from Tanner dance.  The focus is on creative and expressive movement, using the body to tell a story.  In addition, in older grades more technique, muscle control and coordination are emphasized.

Eurythmy: may be the most distinctive course offered in Waldorf-inspired schools. The word “eurythmy” stems from Greek roots meaning beautiful or harmonious rhythm. Eurythmy is a dance-like art form in which music and speech are expressed through bodily movement. Specific gestures represent spoken sounds, both vowels and consonants. Eurythmy can be thought of as “visible speech or song.” It is useful in helping to teach language as it pairs movement with the sounds of words, and it enhances coordination, strengthens the ability to listen, and promotes harmony in groups. 

Environmental Stewardship / Gardening: involves students in opportunities to observe and interact with the natural world.  Children learn about plants, animals, ecology and the world around them through hands-on experiences a caretakers.  They begin to internalize their connection to and responsibility to care for the natural world.

Physical Education and Movement:  involves many aspects of learning which are deepened as students develop hand-eye coordination, synchrony, and balance through games and activities designed to engage the whole body.

Speech: is taught a visiting speech specialist works with students on the qualities of the spoken word to enliven children in the use of speech.

Strings:  begin in the third grade as students learn the violin and then build in complexity.

Choral Music: begins in fifth grade as a separate class.  While in the lower grades singing is integrated into much of the class activity, in the upper grades as students learn to read music and sing in parts a more conscious study of choral music begins.

Drama:  may be present in the traditional class plays of all grades, but is taught as a special class for older students, often in conjunction with speech. 

Second Language: is offered in addition to, not replacing Spanish, beginning in sixth grade.

Technology and Ethics: begins in sixth grade as students begin to use more technology in the classroom.  This is a specific curriculum that has been developed for use in schools and helps students to consider their use of online resources, social media and other current issues in the digital age.

Art Explorations:  brings a professional art teacher and visiting local artists into the upper grades to introduce a wider variety of artistic mediums to the students.

Outdoor Adventures: are monthly opportunities for students in the upper grades to connect their learning to nature through trips off campus.  These may include traveling to observe caves or mineral deposits studied in sixth grade, learning about the muscular and respiratory systems and their function during anatomy or physiology and then making observations and comparisons of the two during a hiking or biking outing, or studying references to nature in renaissance writing while in the canyon.  

Community of Caring: is described in more detail as a component of MSA’s discipline policy.  It serves as the basis for defining agreed upon behaviors in the school community, resolving conflicts, teaching a social and emotional and health curriculum, and facilitating the building of a strong school community.