Class 1 is a very special year, when the children are filled with a natural sense of wonder and the world opens up to them like a magical place. Thus, the teaching comes from a place of deep reverence and oneness, engendering values which connect the children for their entire Primary School journey.
Much of the Class 1 learning stems from imagery that is woven into the day in the form of stories, of actions or of rhythmical or musical activity. The inner picture the child is forming is absorbed rather than explained. The experience of an idea or a process or a fact is what comes first. This is at the core of Waldorf/Steiner education.
For instance, the role of consonants and vowels in syllables was learned through the tale of Sylvie’s syllable mountain, in which Sylvie calls ‘aaa’ and ‘ooo’ when seeing the view at the top. This is how the beginning reader understands consonant vowel consonant (CVC) words like dot and cap.
Multiplication was learned through one of the four councillors, Timmy Times, who was cartwheeling through the gardens showing everyone how fast she can multiply. When you want to do a cartwheel, your arms and legs go into all four directions, thus revealing the multiplication symbol X. The children were delighted when their teacher also did a cartwheel in the garden and a good one at that!
Navigating friendships is brought through song, rhyme and daily kind gestures. The children sing:
Little deeds of kindness,
Little words of love,
Make the good earth happy
And the heaven above!
A walk by the creek, creating fairy houses and dams, floating little boats and finding the tiniest crystals is as memorable as the bright red and blue dots on every child’s slipper when learning about odd and even numbers. The children find much joy in small things: a pebble, small beeswax playing figures, the Mousie Song or the wonder of the hatching silk moths that have been the centre of attention at every morning meeting lately.
The Main Lessons in Class 1 rotate through literacy, numeracy and nature themes, some of which are interconnected or taught in an interdisciplinary manner. Each is a rich experience in which many senses are stimulated and in which the child’s thinking, feeling and willing are engaged in the appropriate way for their age. As a result, each child develops academically, aesthetically and kinaesthetically. A true artistic approach always arises out of, and leads towards, the understanding and realisation of the complete human being.
Now in Term 4, all the children are well settled in the rhythms of the day, the week, the term and the seasons. Amongst the children is a strong sense of belonging, of reverence and an anticipation of all the years to come. Therefore, in this last term, we can reap the rewards of our work and can show what we have learned in conversations with friends and family, in little projects and also in our upcoming class play.
Anja Grapentin
Class 1 Teacher