What is Main Lesson in a Waldorf School?
The tour of our main lesson provides a glimpse into the active and joyful learning of the students in our grades. During the two hours of the daily main lesson, the teacher engages the students in a multi-sensory exploration of the subject that they are focusing on for a block of time. For example, during a four-week math block in second grade, the students will start their main lesson with energetic activities like jumping rope while chanting times tables. Then they will play their recorders and sing, chant a seasonal poem, and then settle in for the lesson of the day. The teacher will enliven the times tables by showing them on the chalkboard how to create a times table star design, helping them to discover for themselves the pattern. The students will then draw the star in their main lesson books, writing out the accompanying times table. The teacher ends the lesson by leading the class in a review of the story he or she told the prior day and then tells either a new story or the continuation of the story, usually a folk tale, fable or legend.
3’s multiplication time table
While the content is different in the upper grades, the rhythm will be similar, as the teacher strives to engage the students in their thinking, feeling, and willing. During a 6th grade physics block, for example, the teacher may have the class start outside with an exercise with wooden staves which requires alertness and awareness of one’s neighbor. Back inside, the class will sing a song with multiple parts and then play the same song on their recorders (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass). They recite a dramatic poem, work out a few algebra problems on the board, and then transition to the lesson of the day. The teacher asks different students to explain what they discovered in the previous day’s lesson: which materials generated static electricity and which did not. The teacher helps guide the students to form out of themselves the principle of static electricity. Then the teacher demonstrates the Van de Graff generator and the students laugh as their hair stands on end or a pie plate floats in the air. After the gaiety and awe of the experience, they settle into writing down the previous day’s demonstration in their books, illustrating it with care. At the close of the lesson, the teacher tells a story about the Hindenburg disaster and how, according to one theory, static electricity played a role in it.
What is a Main Lesson Tour?
While these are examples of a full main lesson, on a main lesson tour, you will catch glimpses of such lessons, as you spend about 10 minutes in each grade. During your time in a classroom, you will have the opportunity to look at some examples of the students’ main lesson books in addition to watching their engagement with the task at hand. In between each classroom, the tour guide will provide additional information and answer a few questions. After visiting the last class, the participants will be able to ask more questions and will learn about next steps should they choose to apply to the school.
1st-5th gRADE: Nov.7th 8:15-10:10 AM
6TH-8TH GRADE: NOV.9TH 11AM-12:20 PM
If you are interested in an arts-based, developmentally-appropriate curriculum that engages the whole child in head, heart, and hands, please contact us.