Chickarees

The eight year old child continues to reside in a largely self-created psychological landscape and are exploring the world around them. It’s a period of magical discovery as they develop alertness and observation skills. With this heightened awareness, students begin to experience the positive and negative aspects of personalities – both their own and those of others. The events and experiences of the outside world are filtered through the child’s imagination and rearranged to accord with the child’s homogenous world-picture. The curriculum content for this age serves to cultivate a sense of breadth and richness of language, differences, and emotions.

Here are just some of the activities that make up the daily rhythm of our Chickeree Pod:

Spelling
Reading
Writing
Introduction to the elements of grammar
Arithmetic: all four processes
Legends of Saints and Culture changers,
Multicultural folklore, animal fables (retold and dramatized, leading to composition in the own child’s words)
Grammar
Form Drawing: running forms
Nature Study: through Aesop's fables, and Native American stories
Singing
Recorder
Handwork: Knitting and Crochet
Painting and Modeling
Foreign Language

This year, children continue to familiarize themselves with the fundamentals of arithmetic and literacy, further developing a repertoire of skills that were initially introduced in grade one. Cognitively, the child continues to be at home in an environment where content is presented in a richly pictorial way. Concepts are best understood when they are mobile and organic in quality.

Various curriculum components adopted from: waldorfcurriculum.org, waldorfschool.com, sanderlingwaldorf.org, marinwaldorf.org, and friendsofwillowtree.org.