Arts & Special Subjects

Rudolf Steiner, founder of Waldorf education, formulated the educational task of the arts in the following way:
“Children need art – both fine arts and poetry, and music. And there is a way of being actively engaged in both sorts that is suitable for children in their school years. …[A]rt exists for its own sake. Teachers should love art so much that they do not want this experience to be lost to children. They will then see how the children grow through their experiences in art. It is art that awakens their intelligence to full life.”
At Greenwood, artistic elements are integrated throughout the children’s academic curriculum year-round:
Visual Arts The Arts curriculum helps children to integrate and harmonize what is being learned academically. The visual arts, including painting, watercolor painting, form drawing, illustration, modeling/ceramics, and art appreciation are woven into Greenwood’s block curriculum. Artistic activity stimulates the children’s visual and tactile senses and helps them to enter into their lessons through their feeling life, as well as their intellect. At Greenwood, the arts are structured and presented in ways that nurture children’s aesthetic experience of their lessons, as well as providing them with concrete skills for creative self expression.
Music Singing and playing musical instruments cultivate joyful and harmonious experiences in the life of a child and provide healthy avenues for self-expression. Singing begins as a natural part of the child’s day in kindergarten. In the grades, vocal music is woven throughout the program. Songs from around the world are sung, chosen in relationship to the academic themes at each grade level, and enlivening the children’s experience throughout the curriculum. Choral singing is integrated into grades six, seven and eight. Introduction to a wide range of musical instruments begins with simple flutes in the first grade. Students learn to play the recorder beginning in third grade, and continue through eighth grade. String instruments — violin, viola, or cello — are introduced in the second half of third grade. With fourth grade, children begin orchestra classes and weekly private lessons on their chosen instrument. A child may choose to switch from a string instrument to a wind instrument such as a flute or clarinet in sixth grade. Eurythmy Eurythmy is an art of movement originated by Rudolf Steiner, the founder of Waldorf education. Eurythmy makes visible both speech and music (tones) by means of movement in which the whole body is engaged as an instrument. In addition to its beneficial effect on sensory integration, coordination, concentration, and posture, Eurythmy helps bring balance and harmony to the unfolding individuality, and fosters social integration among students in each class. It enlivens the creative forces in children and provides an artistic complement to the subjects taught at each grade level.
Poetry Greenwood School has fostered an award-winning poetry program since its founding. A joy and enthusiasm for language is central to our school’s culture and is explored through a designated poetry and creative writing program that is cultivated year-round. Students’ work has been honored in the River of Words poetry national competitions over the years. Click here for examples of student work.
Drama Drama gives children an opportunity to enter directly into story, literature and history. Teachers use drama in a variety of ways to bring their lessons alive. In addition, all Greenwood students — at each grade level — participate yearly in a much-anticipated theatrical production that highlights one of the themes of their grade level curriculum for the school community. Practical Arts and Crafts Students in kindergarten through eighth grade are trained in a progression of handwork by skilled and inspiring teachers. The handwork curriculum grows from simple activities to more complex ones, and includes finger knitting, two-needle knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, sewing, four-needle knitting, leather work, and machine sewing. In grades five through eight, students learn to create beautiful and useful objects with hand tools in woodworking classes. Handwork The goal of the handwork, or handcraft, curriculum in the Waldorf curriculum is for children to focus their will toward the creation of beautiful, useful objects. Greenwood’s handwork curriculum grows from simple activities to more complex ones, and includes finger knitting, two-needle knitting, crochet, cross-stitch, embroidery, sewing, four-needle knitting, leather work, and culminating in eighth grade with machine sewing. To develop mastery with ones hands generates a deep sense of accomplishment and helps to foster a sense of inner wholeness. Practical arts also aid the development of strong hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity, which is useful for a child throughout his or her life. Woodworking At Greenwood, in fifth through eighth grade, children take woodworking classes. They learn about the qualities of wood and how to use the tools that shape it. Students begin making simple objects, such as an egg, a spoon, or a bowl, and graduate to more complex objects. Woodworking helps develop creativity, perseverance, and skillfulness of eye and hand. Throughout, the teacher attempts to awaken an appreciation for the combination of usefulness and beauty in making each object. Games & Physical Education At Greenwood, the goal of the games and physical education curriculum is to help the child integrate his or her conscious awareness progressively with the physical body. Through imaginative games, children are physically challenged in enlivening ways that help them build skill and confidence in their ability to command their movements in space, and in relationship to others. Physical activity provides a vital pathway for self-exploration and healthy growth throughout childhood. It lays the foundation for healthy brain development, as well as enhancing physical, emotional, ethical, and spiritual aspects of the developing child. Our program is structured to promote different abilities and experiences at each stage of development. In the early years, games emerge out of imaginative pictures stimulating a healthy joy in movement. By fifth grade cooperative games are integrated with competitive sports which continue through the middle school years.
“For a human being can only come to an experience of freedom if his intellectuality awakens within him of itself. ...But it must not awaken in poverty of soul.” —Rudolf Steiner “What is unique about Waldorf schools is not that they provide courses in art and courses in academics [but] that virtually all courses are at once academic and artistic, so that the adolescent is always addressed as a whole person.” —Eugene Schwartz, from “The Search for the Self”

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