Grade one

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Teaching as a Lively Art
Marjorie Spock, Anthroposophic Press, Hudson, NY, 1985.

n Grade One, the morning begins with the group recitation of a poem. After the morning exercises, the children go on to the main lesson, which occupies the first two hours of the morning, and is devoted to a single subject for two to four weeks. The first main lesson subject is painting and drawing, until the children have a facility in handling crayons, paints, and paintbrush. Writing, reading, numbers, nature study and handwork are all taught in ways involving color and design.

Letter writing is presented in a lively pictorial way with the help of fairy stories. “S” may be a fairytale snake sinuously slithering through the grass on some secret errand. The teacher draws on the chalkboard, showing how the letter is embedded in the picture, how perhaps the W is hiding in the drawing of the waves. The children draw the letter in the air with their hands and on the floor with their feet; their whole being participates in the writing experience. Then the children make their own pictures of waves, and then W’s, creating an illustrated book as each letter is presented and experienced.

When the children have mastered the sounds and can name and write them, they are ready for their first reading experience. The episodes of a story are illustrated by a series of pictures drawn on the chalkboard by the teacher and in notebooks by the children. The class composes short descriptive sentences to accompany each picture. The wording is then copied from the teacher’s model. Through these activities the children learn word and sentence structure without conscious effort and have the joy of creating their own illustrated books for reading material.

Exploration of numbers begins with solving riddles such as “What is one thing in the world that there can never be more than one of?” (“Me!”). So the characteristics of one, two, three, etc. are explored in the children’s inner experience and in nature. Children take delight in counting, especially when the strong,

rhythmic choral-speaking of the numbers, is accompanied by stepping and clapping. Through activities, the children befriend the form and movement of the number element, and then begin to practice the four arithmetical processes, always moving from the whole to the parts.

Nature study takes the form of experiencing the world and talking of life and its adventures. The child learns the true facts of nature, but always in vivid, dramatic story form.

Handwork serves several important purposes. Knitting is an indispensable first grade activity as there exists a close relationship between finger movement, speech and thinking. Modeling is done with beeswax. Music periods are devoted to singing and playing the pentatonic flute, which also helps develop dexterity.

The imitative genius of early childhood is still active in the first grade child, making this an ideal time to learn foreign languages by hearing and speaking them– in our school, both Spanish and German.

Eurythmy, the art of movement developed by Rudolf Steiner, is taught by specially-trained teachers. It affects the children’s grace of movement and enlivens hands and feet. Eurythmy heightens drawing and modeling ability, relieves strain and tension, and stimulates musical, poetic and dramatic senses.

K • grade 1 • grade 2 • grade 3 • grade 4 • grade 5 • grade 6 • grade 7 • grade 8 • high school