Eurythmy plays a central role in Waldorf Education.  As a pedagogical artistic subject, it serves to support the development of a healthy relationship to the body.  This is done by providing a playful, stimulating and challenging way for children to strengthen their abilities in spatial orientation, coordination, memory and listening skills, geometric forms, as well as a sense of the liveliness of language, and an experience of the wisdom of music.  Additionally, there is an important social component of eurythmy which helps children to develop social collaboration and coordination as well as a sensitivity to where they are and to where others are in space.  Each grade has a eurythmy curriculum specifically crafted to meet the child’s current stage of physical, emotional, and cognitive development. 

Beginning in third grade, students are introduced to violin, cello or viola. Things stringed instruments trains the ear in a deep way. Students refine their sense of pitch as each note is created by their fingers. The tangible vibrations of the string resonate near their heart through the flowing movements of the arm. In keeping with the Waldorf understanding that children aged seven to fourteen are in the feeling phase of life string instruments play an important role throughout their elementary and middle school years. Building upon the experiences in Music class, reading music and music theory and strengthed with practical application.  

All grades students at AWS study French first through eighth grade. In the “global village” of the 21st century, language instruction gives students insight into different cultures and broadens their perspectives. Not only does it serve the child in a practical sense of being able to speak French, it also stimulates the mind encouraging it to work in new ways, cultivates the heart as the child explores new ways of feeling and nourishes the spirit. 

Oral work is key to learning languages in the early grades.  Through songs, poems, rhymes, counting, games, stories and imagery the children are immersed in the language.  In the later grades, written work is introduced as they continue to build off of the oral foundation from the earlier grades. Grammar is studied directly, students begin learning to read and write, and oral work is still practiced through poetic recitation.  Along with language acquisition, the French program fosters cultural competency; beginning by instilling a love and appreciation for French speaking cultures and building off of that in the later grades by reading stories and poems written by native speakers and their experience in this country.    

Instrumental music instruction begins in first grade with simple flutes. Starting in third grade, each student learns to play the violin and participates in group lessons (see Strings.)

Music class also includes the voice! By third grade, students are singing simple rounds. Beginning in third grade, all students are also taught music theory and by 5th-grade students are singing in harmonies. We introduce rhythmic and notation work and concepts of major and minor modes, as well as sight-singing.

Choral and instrumental performances take place regularly through school assemblies and seasonal celebrations. Students learn to feel confident performing in class and at school events. The experience of singing and playing music also provides a lively and harmonizing atmosphere to the culture of the school.

We provide Games classes as one piece of our movement curriculum. As one might expect in a Waldorf School, PE looks different from grade to grade, as the children are in different places developmentally. In the early grades, we play imaginative games which include running, jumping, skipping, and dancing and provide both exercise and good lessons in social interaction.

In Grade 5, Games focuses on the events of the Greek Pentathlon, in conjunction with their study of ancient Greece. This culminates in a regional event held in the spring, in which 5 or more Waldorf Schools from the Southeast region participate in a Greek Pentathalon together.

In 6-8th grades, we begin to develop the skills necessary to play a variety of sports strenuously and by the rules. Activities such as volleyball, basketball, baseball, and frisbee begin to develop physical strength and mastery of one’s body, as well as team work and good sportsmanship.

Every grade school class takes on a yearly production to perform for the school community, giving the class teacher many opportunities to build on the social strength of the class. The play aids in developing skill and capacity in the students, strengthening the sense of interdependence in the class and highlighting the creativity of the class through drama.  

Music, singing, movement, set and prop design are always incorporated into the production and offer roles and responsibilities that fit every students personalities.  Rehearsals and performances give students an exhilarating opportunity to portray characters, build props, design sets, memorize lines, and collaborate together with a shared storytelling vision.

The handwork curriculum through the grades educates students on many levels. At its most literal level, students learn traditional crafting skills that have been practiced for centuries and are increasingly being lost to a digital world. Learning how to create beautiful and useful objects builds fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination, powers of concentration, perseverance with difficult tasks, facility with counting and patterns, and the confidence and satisfaction that comes from making something by hand. At a deeper level, using the brain to control the hands, tools (such as knitting needles), and natural materials is a complex activity that, like handwriting, stimulates multiple regions of the brain and offers cognitive benefits.