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Grades
When children are ready to enter first grade, they are eager to explore the world through their imaginations. The grade teacher's task is to transform all that the child needs to know about the world into the language of imagination. This is done through storytelling and song, through music and art, and through the children's own creations—from lesson books to knitted crafts. The class teacher stays with the children as they move through the grades, sharing responsibility with the parents for each child's development. The teacher creates a cohesive group of students while working to help each child achieve his or her full potential.
 Children in the middle grades enter a world of intellectual depth and insight. At this stage, when they aspire to problem-solving and knowledge, students are challenged with great philosophical ideas, the precision of mathematics, and the beauty of ensemble music. The breadth and depth of the curriculum expands to meet the needs of the preadolescent.
In a deliberate and unhurried way the Waldorf curriculum unfolds with the child’s developmental requirements:
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Science begins with nurturing the child’s innate joy and wonder of our living earth through seasonal festivals, nature stories, and outdoor play in kindergarten and the early grades. In grades four and five zoology and botany focus on how plants and animals live and grow to build on the child’s natural curiosity and enjoyment of nature. As students become more interested in how things work, they explore optics, acoustics, and electricity beginning in grade six. By eighth grade students have discovered principles of mineralogy, astronomy, physiology, chemistry, and physics.
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Language arts begins with the children discovering the forms of letters in pictures they draw to illustrate stories they are told. From their own writing, they learn to read. Poetry, creative writing, oral storytelling, and a library of well chosen children’s literature provide a rich medium for the student’s development in the art of listening, speaking, and writing.
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Literature and history give a broad overview of cultures throughout the ages. Children are led from the fairy tale world in first grade, into humanity’s earliest stories and myths in grades two through four, through ancient history beginning in grade 5, and into modern times by eighth grade.
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Mathematics progress from rhythmic movement, recitation, and games in the early grades, where the children discover the qualities of numbers, to the computation, including mental computation, of problems in algebra and geometry.
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Geography leads children from their familiar surroundings into the wider world, beginning with local geography, leading to the city, the state, the country, the continent, the earth, and the universe. Through the study of their ever widening circle the children discover their responsibility for the earth and love for all peoples.
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First Grade
Preparation for reading comes through writing; letters introduced pictorially
through stories; writing evolves through drawing; forms, sounds and
 letters evolve into word usage and sentences; simple spelling; fairy tales, folk tales, and nature stories are told and retold or dramatized by the class; arithmetic, numbers from 1 to 100, qualities of numbers; elements of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division; rhythmical counting of the “number families” (multiplication tables); French; recorder (pentatonic flute) and singing; handwork (knitting); eurythmy; painting; beeswax modeling; drama; physical education (games).
Second Grade
Reading, writing, and spelling; first elements of grammar, dictation, simple
composition, beginning cursive writing; arithmetic including the multiplication tables; fables and legends, saints stories, nature lore; French; recorder and singing; handwork (knitting); eurythmy; painting; beeswax modeling; drama; physical education (games).
Third Grade
Reading and spelling; composition and letter writing; elements of grammar; cursive writing; sense of practical life fostered through stories, trips, study of farming, housing,
cooking, clothing, money and other activities of human life; arithmetic, multiplication tables, measurement (linear, weight, dry and liquid, musical notation); Old Testament stories; French; recorder, singing, string instrument, ensemble. Handwork (crochet); eurythmy; painting; beeswax modeling; drama; physical education (games).
Fourth Grade
Reading and spelling; composition and letter writing;  research and report writing; formal grammar (parts of speech); arithmetic, fractions, decimals, ratios; local and state geography, map making; Norse myths; Native American legends; zoology; French; recorder, singing, string instrument, ensemble, choir; handwork (cross-stitch, design); eurythmy; painting; clay modeling; drama; physical education (games).
Fifth Grade
Composition; grammar (tenses); spelling; reading; research and report writing; arithmetic, decimals, fractions, ratio, metric system; geometry, construction of figures, calculations of area, Pythagorean theorem; ancient history and mythology (Indian, Persian, Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek); botany, scientific observation and research; American geography; French; Greek as it relates to English; recorder, singing, string or wind instrument, ensemble, choir. Handwork (advanced knitting, design); eurythmy; painting,
clay modeling; drama; physical education (games and pentathlon events).
Sixth Grade
Language arts: composition, business letters, development of style, grammar, spelling. Literature: folk lore and
 historical studies, biography, research and writing, creative writing.
Math: arithmetic, practical business math, interest, percentage, discount, constructive and
calculative geometry. Geography: Europe and South America. History: Roman history, medieval history, current events.
Science: Physics (acoustics, optics, heat, light), experimental objectivity and analytic procedure, mineralogy, astronomy, geology, gardening.
Arts: Music, recorder, string or wind instrument, orchestra, choir, handwork (hand sewing, design), eurythmy, painting, perspective drawing, geometric drawing, clay modeling, woodworking, drama.
Foreign language: French, Latin. Physical education: Games and sports, pentathlon, medieval games.
Seventh Grade
Language arts: Composition, poetry, grammar, spelling, literature, writings of
Shakespeare, elements of poetry, creative writing, research and report writing.
Math: arithmetic, algebra, geometry, business math, profit and loss.
Geography: Historical and modern Europe, Africa, Asia, South America.
History: Renaissance, Reformation, Age of Discovery, American History, current events.
Science: Astronomy, physics (electricity, magnetics, mechanics), inorganic chemistry, human physiology, nutrition, gardening.
Arts: Music, recorder, string or wind instrument, orchestra, choir, handwork (felting, hand
sewing, design), eurythmy, painting, perspective drawing, black and white drawing, geometric drawing, clay modeling, woodworking, drama.
Foreign language: French, Latin. Physical education: Games and sports.
Eighth Grade
Language arts: Composition, business English, grammar, spelling, literature (epic and
dramatic forms, works of Shakespeare). Math: Arithmetic, algebra, geometry, computer science.
Geography: World geography. History: 17th century to present, American history, US Constitution, current events. Science: Physics (mechanics), organic chemistry, physiology, gardening, meteorology.
Arts: Music, recorder, string or wind instrument, orchestra, choir, handwork (machine sewing and design), eurythmy, painting, perspective drawing, geometric drawing, clay modeling, woodworking, drama.
Foreign language: French, Latin.Physical education: Games and sports.
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