At any time, enter any of our classrooms, and you are likely to see, hear, and feel the artistic expression of our students and teachers in concert with each other. Music often fills the rooms while beautifully rendered paintings, drawings, colorful lesson pages, and crafts adorn learning spaces.
Waldorf education is an artistic one, developing creative capacities in visual arts, music, and movement. From a very early age, students are bathed in a curriculum full of color and imagination. A core value embedded in the methodology is that a child has learned something well when they have worked with a lesson artistically.
In kindergarten children paint, draw, color, craft, sing, act, and dance throughout the school week. As they move up the grades, students are taught painting and drawing skills, work with seasonal themes and stories which are woven into their academic lessons and finalized into their main lesson book. Annually, each class presents a play based on the story curriculum of their grade.
First graders are introduced to the pentatonic flute, an instrument made from pear wood that makes gentle musical tones. They play simple songs with their teacher often complemented by beautifully sung choral pieces. In later grades, students learn to play the recorder and to read music. By eighth grade our students have learned to play multi-part, classical works often complemented by modern pieces.
Although we are not all going to be career artists, every child leaves Woodland Star having developed artistic capacities to the best of their ability.
