Age-Appropriate Learning, Class 1 to 4

In this episode, class teacher, Mrs Liane Amerseder, shares some insight into the importance of following the major developmental stages of the child to provide age appropriate and experiential learning for the Class 1 - 4 child.

Offering appropriate learning to the child at each developmental stage is a gift that Rudolf Steiner left us, providing us with a host of indicators that enable us to encourage age-specific and age-appropriate learning for each of the grades. 

It is highly beneficial for the child that each developmental stage or transition is mirrored by the content and experiences outlined in the curriculum. This content must nourish them and assist them in making these developmental transitions in a balanced, healthy, and harmonious way. The children who feel met, seen, and understood then experience a sense of ‘belonging’ and they are able to move into a space of ‘becoming’. 

We hope that you are able to learn a bit more about how Michael Mount Waldorf School nurtures conscious, creative, independent thinkers who are prepared for life. Please share this episode with others who are interested in a holistic education for their children.

Transcript

EPISODE 2: AGE APPROPRIATE LEARNING CLASS 1-4
Liane Amerseder and Sechaba Motsieloa
 
Offering appropriate learning to the child at each developmental stage is a gift that Rudolf Steiner left us, providing us with a host of indicators that enable us to encourage age-specific and age-appropriate learning for each of the grades. 

It is highly beneficial for the child that each developmental stage or transition is mirrored by the content and experiences outlined in the curriculum. This content must nourish them and assist them in making these developmental transitions in a balanced, healthy, and harmonious way. The children who feel met, seen, and understood then experience a sense of ‘belonging’ and they are able to move into a space of ‘becoming’. 

Where does it all start? The Class 1 children live strongly in the realm of imagination and while their forces of imitation are still strong, they are feeling truly at one with the world around them. They relate to the world through pictures and stories. To meet the children at this developmental stage, all Waldorf teaching is imbued with images, relaying concepts in a way that is pictorial, imaginative and accessible. 

Dry, abstract concepts that are delivered too early are hardening and limiting for the child. Through the wisdom of fairytales, the children learn about life’s trials and triumphs and good overcoming evil. At the same time, through the archetypal images we find in fairytales, the letters of the alphabet start to emerge, each represented by a story, which forms an imaginative and creative connection instead of an abstract symbol.  The dragon that is conquered by the prince in "The Prince and the Dragon", for example, is drawn in a D shape and emerges as the letter D. 

The Class 2 child finds himself in a world of duality, one foot still somewhat on the rainbow bridge and the other foot firmly planted on the ground. The children play this out on the playground where they tend to form groups and may be quite mean or catty to one another. On the other hand, they display awareness and compassion by often assisting a friend or reassuring one another with kindness and care. 

The curriculum meets this age group by emulating the duality they are experiencing through specific story content. In Class 2, the curriculum explores the legends of saints and good people who live with deep compassion and strive to do profound good in the world. On the other hand, we also work with animal fables and folklore where the failings of people and animals are exposed in the one-sidedness of the sly fox, the boastful crow or the greedy dog. The children quickly identify the messages in these stories as opposed to being lectured on how to behave.

Class 3 sees the children cross a pronounced threshold that results in a psychological, emotional, and spiritual transition. They lose their forces of imitation and suddenly feel quite separate from the world, and quite alone. Early childhood has ended, and they have left a kind of paradise, landing with a bump on the earth. We need to help them find a new relationship to their world and the curriculum does this. It replaces the sense of feeling separate from the world with a feeling of responsibility for the world and engages the children in farming, gardening, building, baking and crafting.

By Class 4, the children have crossed this threshold and now start to explore a little bit more of who they are and reveal their budding individual personalities. Here, the curriculum works with stories such as the Norse mythologies that provide a multiplicity of personalities for the children to align with and play out. They can be mischievous like Loki who is cunning and can change his shape, as fair as Freya the goddess of love or as strong as thunderous Thor, who also protects mankind. 

As they no longer consider themselves at one with the world, it is the year in which the curriculum starts to break up the ‘whole’ into parts. For instance, we break up whole numbers and work with fractions. We break up language into the nine parts of speech and the three tenses. Class 4 also helps to orientate this new individual through an overview of local history and geography, starting with the very chair they are seated upon in their classroom and moving out into their home province.

Please note that this is not a verbatim transcript and has been re-organised for a pleasant reading experience.