McGregor Waldorf School

Primary School

Besides working with reading, writing and number work creatively, our school offers our children eurythmy, circle dancing, arts and crafts, music and drama. All of these lessons are given by teachers who are highly experienced in their field. The classes are small which allows the teachers to attend to the individual needs of the children.

CLASS 1

The time has come for the ‘free play’ and fantasy mode of the pre-school years to be purposefully directed towards specific learning tasks.
These learning tasks utilise and nourish the child’s imaginative capacity, and include experiential activities in which movement, rhythm and repetition are prominent as tools of memorisation. Games and exercised to develop balance, co-ordination, fine muscle control, auditory and visual discrimination skills and spatial awareness are practised daily.

Sensory and motor development

These games, singing-games, rhymes, movements are part of the daily routine throughout the year as exercises and activities to develop the senses.

Form drawing and writing

The children are led to writing through artistic media, especially form-drawing, painting and drawing. This is a 3-week main lesson block every term in the first two classes as a preparation for learning writing and reading.

Language

The teacher presents imaginative pictures in which characters representing both the shapes of letters and their sounds play an integrated role, and from these characters the forms of the letters are abstracted and practised. The children copy sentences from stories first and learn to read them. Fairy stories and traditional tales, nature stories and poems, rhymes and songs are used as a basis for writing words, phrases and sentences, leading to reading.

Mathematics

The numbers 1-10 are introduced in a qualitative manner, as are the four operations. Counting and multiplication tables are introduced through rhythmical movement.

Environment/nature studies

Here the stories reveal the different elements of the environment in a truthful manner, evoking feelings of reverence, love, wonder and gratitude for creation.

Second and third languages

By means of songs, rhymes, poems, games, puppets, stories and simple dialogues the children will absorb the vocabulary and a feeling for the sound and rhythm of the second and third languages. All teaching is in oral form for the first two to three years.

Arts

Painting
Here the painting wants to give the children a ‘colour experience’ without wanting to go into form. Motifs out of stories are painted reflecting the mood rather than realism.
Drawing
Drawing is an integral part of the main lesson. The children draw out of their own imagination.
Eurythmy
The teacher selects poems and music connected with the main lesson or a theme from the environment the class are involved with and leads the children, as if in play, into movement.
Music
Exercises in training the ear, singing and instrumental activities are integrated into the daily routine of the class and are handled by the class teacher.
Drama
The child develops an unconscious involvement in improvised dramatic activities in the classroom, which are integrated into the main lessons to aid the learning process in each subject, and to develop language, speech and body co-ordination.

Technology Lessons

Crafts such as knitting, paper folding and gardening are all used to develop the practical aspects of the human being. Working with the hands develops the intelligence of the child, the ability to think logically and methodically.

CLASS 2

The nature of the child is similar to that of the previous years. Increasing confidence in themselves in relation to the world beyond that of the immediate family is fostered as the previous year’s work in writing and reading is consolidated.

Sensory and motor development

More challenging ‘exercises’ are devised by the teacher and presented through rhymes, songs, games, action-poems and movement sequences.

Form drawing

The work done in class 1 is continued in more complicated forms, introducing vertically mirrored forms (symmetry exercises).

Language

Animal stories and fables are told in which the animals speak to each other, displaying human virtues and vices, to which the children readily relate. Later in the year legends are included in which humans form a relationship with animals, overcoming negative attributes and working with them in a positive way.
By the end of the year the children master accurate copying of text and writing their own simple sentences. Cursive writing is introduced and practised.
The printed text is introduced to read from and phonic work continues.

Mathematics

They learn to count forwards and backwards by means of rhythmical movements between 0 and 1000. The multiplication tables (2,3,4,5 and 10) are introduced and practised through rhythmical movement. Number patterns are discovered and explored. Various ways of recording them are devised. Part of each day’s routine includes oral practise in mental arithmetic and solving simple problem sums. Bonds are discovered, learnt and practised below 10, crossing the 10 barrier, the 20 barrier and beyond. Hundred, Tens and Units are introduced and practised with concrete materials and Geometry is continued.

Environmental/Nature studies

They are a continuation of class 1.

Second and third languages

They are a continuation of class 1.

Arts

Painting
Wet-on-wet water-colour painting is continued but motifs are included from the story material of the integrated main lesson , translating them into simple gestures expressed through the colours.
Drawing
Is a continuation of class 1.
Eurythmy
More complicated geometrical forms are moved in space to poems and music. Mirror-forms are included. Movement exercises to improve social awareness are introduced.
Music Is a continuation of class 1.
Drama
Dialogues between animals, and animals and humans provide excellent opportunities to develop speech and dramatisation.

Technology

In knitting the different combinations of plain and purl, increasing and decreasing are learnt in the knitting of simple dolls, glove puppets or animals, with the final touches of eyes, mouth, hair and whiskers embroidered on. Crochet is introduced while paper folding and gardening is continued.

CLASS 3

During this year children begin to become more aware of their surroundings, and are able to view themselves and others more objectively.
In order to promote this connection between themselves and the world of time and space, of work and living, the curriculum focuses on practical technologies such as house building, textiles, pottery, farming and metal forging using stories from the religious books of their culture.

Integrated Main Lessons

Old Testament stories
The children hear, dramatise and write stories from the Old Testament, particularly those from the Creation to the entering of the Promised Land. These stories are chosen for their direct bearing on life, and for their images of the development of human values.
Farming
This main lesson deals with the production of food, coupled with responsibility for the earth and an appreciation for the cycles of nature. A feeling of wonder and thankfulness for the working together of all things that live in the world is fostered. A vegetable garden is dug up, composted and planted, to involve the children fully and practically.
House-Building
The building of houses and shelters in different parts of the world, from whatever materials are/were available in the immediate surroundings, and providing the kind of shelter that living conditions dictated, is studied.

Technology

An introduction to spinning, weaving, pottery, smithying, etc. carried out practically as far as possible.

Motor and Sensory Development

Movement
The development of the senses, body co-ordination, and laterality is continued as part of the daily routine. Traditional dances, especially those connected with the various integrated main lessons are done through circle dancing. Ball skills and juggling, skipping with ropes, co-operative games, running and jumping exercised in patterns, are included in daily or weekly routines.
Form drawing
The children are introduced to mirrored (symmetry) drawing on a horizontal axis. More complicated symmetry drawings are given and exercises in changing round forms to become angular and metamorphosis exercises are done.

First Language

Writing
Writing is practised as the children record practical activities; write news and copy from the board. The distinction between lower and upper case letters in both printing and cursive writing is practised, as is the use of punctuation in simple sentences.
Spelling
Graded spelling.
Reading
Graded reading including verbal comprehension exercises.
Grammar
The children are introduced to ‘doing’, ‘naming’ and ‘describing’ words by means of movement, games, activities and the use of colour as well as relating them to the three parts of the human being.

Mathematics

Multiplication tables
Earlier tables are revised and the 6,7,8,9,11 and 12 tables through their repetitive patterns, forward and backward, in ladder and table form are discovered and mastered.
Counting and place value
Counting exercises forward and backward, exploring odd and even numbers and extending place value to hundreds, tens and units.
Mental Arithmetic
Practise with bonds, 4 operations and simple problem sums are continued.
Four operations
There is consolidation of the 4 operations, vertical and horizontal addition and subtraction and the introduction to vertical and horizontal multiplication.
Measures
Measuring time, length, mass, volume and money is introduced.
Geometry
The children do free-hand geometrical drawing.

Second language

More advanced stories in this language is told, which the children then act out, while the teacher encourages them to speak spontaneously more and more as they gain confidence. Writing of short phrases out of the stories or songs and poems begins.

Arts

Music
Music includes now the semi-tone. Songs in the modal scales and relating to the crafts are sung and then played on instruments. The children learn to read music by writing down simple 2 or 3 note songs they know, and then reading what they themselves have written.
Eurythmy
The gestures learnt can now be combined in the forming of words and in the flow of sentences. Poems relating to the themes of the class, particularly the Old Testament, provide excellent material for the above. Social exercises are continued and expanded.
Painting
While still working with the colour experience, the children are encouraged to allow stronger forms to emerge from the colours on their papers. Producing on their paper secondary and to some extent tertiary colours are explored.
Drawing
The children are encouraged to draw human beings at work and drawing on large sheets of paper by groups of children is done. They are introduced to the shaded technique, to bring movement and texture into the drawing.
Drama
The elements of character and plot begin to emerge. Situations and characters can be dramatised. The children are encouraged to invent their own plays. Choral speaking can now be practised using technique more consciously. The development of the children’s memory can be extended at this age learning lengthy poems, psalms and scripted plays.

Technology

Knitting
The children knit or crochet useful articles.
Weaving
They are learning to use simple wooden or cardboard looms and weave bags and mats. Simple baskets are woven from reeds.
Candle-dipping
Clay modelling
They learn to make simple pots.
Gardening
In connection with the integrated main lessons on farming, the children are involved in building a compost heap, preparing beds with compost and planting flower and vegetable seeds, harvesting and using what they have grown.

CLASS 4

The children have reached 9 years of age. Now a significant change takes place within them, as the development of the ‘ego’ (the child’s own identity) causes them to become aware, sometimes suddenly, of the separateness that lies between the self and those with whom they have been intimately bound through birth and early childhood.
There may be a crisis of acceptance and trust, manifesting as a withdrawal from or a struggle with parents, teachers and the world.
Nwabasi writing

In order to reconcile inner and outer the curriculum contains themes that reveal the process of their development, bringing understanding and security in the transition the children are experiencing, and that help to integrate the self with external reality.

Integrated Main Lessons

Mythology
is used to help the children, through imagery to come to terms with the process of separation they are experiencing, giving them reassurance and security in the transition. A theme traditionally called Man and Animal is explored in which the threefoldness of the Human Being becomes apparent.
The local environment embracing both geography and history is another theme. This lesson helps the children to look objectively at their environment. The use of compass and the making of a map are introduced. The history of the Khoi people is looked into.

Sensory and motor development

Movement
The focus is on concentration exercises. Ball skills, co-operative games, complicated patterns of hopping, vigorous traditional dances, stamping and clapping alliterative sounds in poems all help to develop sensory perception and release the tremendous energy children have at this age.
Form drawing
Symmetry exercises combining horizontal and vertical axes are done and the metamorphosis exercises are continued.

First language

Writing and reading is practised and extended in spelling and the use of commas, full stops and capital letters. In grammar the distinction between doing, naming and describing words is deepened and more formalized and extended into verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives and adverbs. The children are made aware of the formation of simple tenses (past, present and future).

Mathematics

Fractions are introduces and the four operations are done with greater numbers. Multiplication by numbers with three or more digits is introduced and special attention is given to long division. Multiplication tables are practised as is mental arithmetic and geometry.

Second and third languages

The emphasis is still on oral work, using poems, songs, rhymes, dramatic plays, conversations and games which are learnt with much movement and dramatisation, to create liveliness, enjoyment and full participation in the lessons. Grammar is introduced and the children continue to read sentences from stories they have heard and dramatised. Little exercises in spelling are devised, read aloud and practised daily.

Arts

Painting
The painting lesson begins to focus on dark and light, and differences in colour tone. The teacher directs how, rather than what the children paint, allowing more individual expression.
Drawing
Animals provide excellent drawing themes.
Modelling
Animals are modelled in clay, beginning from a sphere. The figure remains whole at all times.
Music
The pupils must become more conscious of phrasing. They are led to an appreciation of the different moods created by major and minor keys. Part-singing is developed in which the children learn to hold one part against another. In instrumental playing, the learning of additional notes and playing of songs that are already known is continued. Notation is approached from activity to writing and finally reading what has been written.
Eurythmy
They make a far deeper connection to the essences of verbs and nouns by experiencing them with their whole bodies. Social exercises are continued. Auditory perception is practised through listening carefully to music and then to step its rhythm using long and short steps for correspondingly long and short tones.
Drama
Educational drama is continued, stimulating all children to explore roles, gestures, mime and movement through improvisation. Choral speaking focuses on meticulous articulation. Class plays maintain a careful balance between individual and chorus lines.

Technology

Sewing
All the children learn a variety of different stitches and make useful articles with cross-stitch embroidery.
Gardening
Is continued.

CLASS 5

This period in development stands at the heart of childhood, characterised by physical balance and grace, by inner harmony and confidence, and by a lively interest in and curiosity about the outer world.

Integrated Main Lessons

Ancient cultures
The children are led to explore the ancient civilizations of India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece through stories and practical experience like yoga, meditation, chanting and drama.
Geography/History of South Africa
The children learn about the different provinces, neighbours, climate and vegetation. The history includes an overview of San, Khoi-Khoi, Dutch settlers, French Huguenots and trek Boers.
Animal study
This study focuses on the adaptation of animals to and integration with specific environments.
Plant study
The children grow their own vegetables and investigate the plant ladder and plant metamorphosis.

Sensory Development

Formdrawing
The children are introduced to ‘meander’ forms from Greek and other cultures.

First Language

In oral exercises the speaking of poetry both chorally and individually is done. Writing and reading is expanded and practised. In grammar, parts of speech are extended to include kinds of nouns, adverbs and adjectives as well as pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions. Active and passive voice concord and simple sentence construction are introduced.

Mathematics

The main focus is on fractions and decimal fractions. The four operations, multiplications tables, mental arithmetic and geometry are all practised and extended.

Second language

The children begin to write sections of stories as well as poems they have heard and acted. More difficult words are spelled, learnt at home and then dictated the following day. They practise reading and simple grammar exercises.

Arts

Painting
The curriculum brings children into conscious connection with the plant world. Characteristic gestures of different trees, flowering plants, ferns, lichen and mushrooms are explored. The same applies to animal studies, in particular the animal forms arising out of the environment. Painting is also used in the integrated main lessons e.g. Maps in geography.
More techniques are introduces such as intensification and thinning out of colour on the page.
Drawing
The children strive for perfection and their use of form, colour and movement in their drawings reaches a peak.
Modelling
The clay modelling finds its inspiration in plant and animal study and the study of ancient civilizations.
Music
Class 5 eurythmy

A wide range of songs in major and minor keys are undertaken to experience the variety of moods that can be expressed in these keys. A theoretical knowledge is integrated with the songs chosen. More difficult rounds are introduced which develops the ability to hold one part against another and to hear music in multiple voices. The reading of music is practised both in the playing of the recorder.
Eurythmy
Continuations of the work done before but poems are moved more expressively, using larger or smaller forms in space. Energetic steps and rod exercises help to improve control of limbs.
Drama
Is a continuation of previous work.

Technology

Crochet
The children crochet a winter bonnet.

CLASS 6

Physically this stage is characterised by a period of growth, and they become awkward and more earth-bound as their limbs begin to lengthen. There is a more consciously thoughtful involvement with both their own inner and the outer worlds, and opportunities for discussion often arise as they query and challenge. Social conflicts sometimes occur, and the teacher can use these as opportunities to help them establish a means of resolving them rather than maintaining fixed positions towards each other.

Class 6 art

Pedagogically the time is ripe for ordering and formalising, for the imaginative solving of real problems, and for establishing a balance between aesthetic appreciation and technical, scientific precision. The core themes of the year attempt to meet this developing consciousness of the children.

Integrated Main Lessons

Roman Culture and History
The highly disciplined military organization and imposed order on their world through efficient communication and transport networks and the development of a sophisticated system of government and law, are studied.
South African History
The highly organized and precisely administered Zulu military kingdom is explored.
Geography of the African continent
The topography, climate, rainfall, temperatures, vegetation and animals of Africa are most effectively taught through studying the traditional way of life of the people who live or lived in close harmony with their specific environment.
Geology
Reflecting the development of a more materially bound thinking in the children, the study of the most material part of our existence – the mineral world – is begun.
Physics
In order to enhance the newly emerging ability to think more concretely, the study of physics is introduced. Taking great care to maintain the wholeness of the child’s world, and to maintain the continuity and interconnectedness of all aspects of human life, the study of acoustics and colour is based on what the children have built up over the years in music and painting.

First language

Oral skills
include the oral presentation to the class of individually- or group-researched topics arising from the general themes studied during the year.
Part speaking in choral verse is introduced and practised.
A wide range of novels, stories and poems with different cultural backgrounds are used for reading. Discussion around them is facilitated. In writing techniques in note taking are introduced and practically used in lessons. The writing of simple business letters is undertaken and the writing of poetry is continued.
In grammar the children are encouraged to formulate and tabulate the basic structures of their fist language for themselves, and to compare this with other languages they are learning.

Mathematics

They are introduced to business practises and the world of money. They learn percentage, simple interest, discount, profit/loss and taxation in the context of how these are used in daily life. The work on fractions and decimals is continued and averages and graphs are introduced.
Geometry
Form drawing and free-hand geometry now evolves into formal geometry using instruments.

Second and third languages

The children are introduced to the culture of the people whose language they are learning. Suitable reading matter, songs, poems, plays and examples of arts and crafts are introduced and creatively worked through with the children, with the aim of developing a feeling for the character of the language. Extension of vocabulary and attaining fluency in reading is striven for.

Arts

Painting
The children are led to understand colour in a scientific way. In connection with the themes studied, they are guided into painting landscapes and made aware of particular colour ranges. In studying the animals they explore the environment in colour and in Geology they need to explore how to portray the rich and varied hues of African soil and rocks by means of tertiary colours.
Drawing
More shading techniques are taught and an awareness of negative space is created. The children do exercises in cross-hatching and shadow drawing. They start sketching directly from the observation of nature.
Modelling
Geometric forms and crystalline form are modelled.
Music
Is a continuation and intervals are practised, especially in connection with physics.
Eurythmy
Rod exercises are practised energetically to help the children connect their psyches to the muscular system. There are exercises in transforming triangles and squares in space as well as geometrical movement. The children are introduced to all the interval movements for the whole scale.
Drama
Is continued. Choral verse-speaking is now developed to a high standard, with considerable diversity of individual, small group an entire group alternation, and conscious use of variety in pace, pitch and volume. Class plays are far more structured, with individual parts and crowd scenes and fewer chorus parts.

Technology

Sewing
The children make stuffed animals. They create their own pattern.
Woodwork
They learn to make a useful object.
Gardening
The continuation provides them with basic vegetable gardening skills.

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McGregor Waldorf School

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