Pasadena Waldorf SchoolAwakening to Wonder

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Waldorf School Education

Pasadena Waldorf School strives to educate each child to embrace the wonder and challenge of the world while achieving academic proficiency.

Nurturing the imagination and engaging the intellect. Children at Pasadena Waldorf School learn to approach the world both creatively and analytically. Integrating the visual, textural, and performing arts, Waldorf education activates the senses and stimulates deeper learning.

Igniting a life-long love of learning. Over 90 years of experience confirm that a Waldorf education fosters self-directed, life-long learners who are socially and environmentally responsible.

Honoring the developing child. Our curriculum works with the capacities that unfold at each stage of child development, allowing children a joyful experience of the subject matter.

“The heart of the Steiner method is the belief that education is an art. Whether the subject is arithmetic or history or physics, the presentation must live – it must speak to the child’s experience. To educate the whole child, his heart and will must be reached, as well as his mind.”—Henry Barnes, Education as an Art

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Our Curriculum, Grades 1–8Awakening the child’s capacities through a curriculum based on child development

The picture of the human being is central to every study, thus rendering every subject, whether mathematics or music, history or botany, relevant and meaningful to the lives of students now. Subjects studied in this way do not become obsolete, but instead nurture strength and power within the students to carry into the future. Classroom surroundings and materials are wholesome and beautiful.

Careful integration of subject matter makes learning part of life. In the elementary years, care is taken not to specialize in any way. Thus arts are naturally a part of academics, music relates to physics and math, and physical education frequently reflects the history of any given year. An education experienced as an integrated whole leads children quite naturally to the anticipation that adult life is fulfilled only when it balances intellectual, cultural, artistic, physical, and social aspects.

Language ArtsWriting

Reading Spelling and Grammar Speech Formation/Class Plays

LiteratureResearch Skills

MathematicsArithmetic

Geometry Algebra

Natural SciencesNature Stories

Animal Studies Plant Studies Mineralogy

AstronomyMeteorology

Study of Oceans and Ocean floor

Human Sciences (Grades 7 & 8)Physiology and

Nutrition Anatomy

Physics (Grades 6, 7 & 8)

Chemistry (Grades 7 & 8) 

HistoryFolktales, Fables, Legends, MythologyAncient Cultures (India, Persia,

Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece, Rome)

Middle AgesRenaissanceAge of Revolutions into Modern

Times

GeographyHome Surroundings and Nature

Stories Farming House building Local Community Native Peoples California North America Western Hemisphere Europe Mideast Africa Asia Entire Earth as organism and as community

Fine ArtsForm drawing, Painting, Drawing,

Modeling

Practical ArtsHandwork — Knitting, Crochet, Hand

and Machine SewingWoodworkStonework

Foreign LanguageSpanishJapanese

MusicPentatonic FluteRecorderSingingInstrumental EnsembleBand/Orchestra

Movement/Physical EducationEurythmyGamesSports

Community Service

Social Skill-Building and Council Process

Outdoor Education

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We cannot predict what challenges the future will hold for our students, but we can foresee that they will need to be able to think creatively and independently, to work well with others, have sound moral judgments as well as a genuine and confident sense of self in relation to their community and their world.

Awakening Through Imagination and FeelingWaldorf schools recognize that imagination, the feeling-filled vehicle by which school-age children learn most effectively, is also a path of cognition which gives birth to both critical and creative thinking over time. Teachers revered as loving authorities by the children present a vigorous academic program as an exciting and fulfilling adventure of story, picture, and verbal image from which the concepts of knowledge are distilled. Students create their own books in which they record what they have learned in the two-hour daily main lesson, a concentrated period of study on a particular subject for several weeks running.

As the students mature, so too do the lessons, becoming more challenging and complex in both content and presentation. Two foreign languages, arts, choral and instrumental music, speech and recitation, physical activity, outdoor activities, practical activities, and excursions form the natural companions to, and logical extension of, the lesson content, while the seasonal rhythms of festivals and celebrations frame, in reverence and joy, the progression of the school year’s lessons and events.

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Main Lesson A distinguishing feature of Waldorf education is the main lesson—a two-hour block taught in the morning over a period of three to four weeks. Exploring one subject intensively through teacher presentation, movement, written and artistic projects, and review the next day allows for deep experience with each subject. The student’s own projects and illustrated notebooks filled with writings, drawings, diagrams, and calculations, stand not only as records of learning, but also as celebrations of accomplishment. The main lessons are complemented by year-long courses in math, language arts, foreign languages, practical arts, games/physical education, and music.

Class TeacherThe warm relationships that develop between teachers and students in our school are central to learning. Pasadena Waldorf teachers work with parents to support and develop this relationship in order to nurture each student’s enthusiasm for discovery.

Class teachers loop, or move through the grades with their classes, building a continuous and trusting relationship with their students, supporting the children’s growth and development. Through this longer-term commitment, teachers are able to develop a deep understanding of each child’s learning style and strengths, allowing students to fully engage in their learning.

Throughout the grade school, children are also taught by subject teachers in languages, vocal and instrumental music, eurythmy/movement, outdoor games, handwork, and woodworking.

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Waldorf Education is...

Taking HeartIn the Waldorf student’s noticeable ability to find his or her own identity with self-assurance and security

In the school’s earnest endeavor to meet the earth’s and society’s future problems with innovative solutions.

In the impressive ability of Waldorf students to step towards the future with confidence and to bring a heightened measure of humanity to situations they encounter.

Taking Care To provide a lovely natural environment of trees and lawns for recreation and gardening.

To provide moments in the school experience to pause in wonder, to celebrate festivals, and to give to others.

To teach practical skills to all children, from basic crafts to first aid, to community service.

To teach the children to take responsibility for their materials and learning space as well as for their bodies and the environment.

Taking TimeTo learn by allowing the bulk of the academic material to be presented during the two-hour morning main lesson.

For concentrated blocks of study of at least three weeks to fully immerse the children in that subject.

For children to progress gradually in skill areas without pressure to meet testing norms yearly.

To form lasting relationships with the class teacher who remains with the class for a continuing period of years.

To work with parents to increase their understanding of Waldorf education.

To ensure adequate conferences and meetings to help parents and teachers work together to understand the child.

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Physical EducationPhysical education through movement, games, and athletics is an integral part of the Waldorf curriculum. In the early grades, students participate in non-competitive games that cultivate awareness of social space and imagination. Starting in fifth grade, our students gather with peers from other Waldorf schools for Olympics, Medieval Games, and track and field events. Beginning in middle school, our students compete against other area independent schools in flag football, basketball, volleyball, and track.

Outdoor EducationThe outdoor education program provides transformative experiences for many students. The campus itself provides even the youngest children the opportunity to experience the wonders of “backyard” play. Beyond the campus, Grades 1-3 hike in local canyons, walk to the local library, or visit gardens in the Altadena neighborhood. Grades 4 and 5 venture farther afield on beach overnight camping excursions, trips to the California missions, the Central Coast, and Sequoia. Grades 6, 7, and 8 outings involve more strenuous hiking, ropes course, rock climbing, kayaking, snorkeling, and river rafting.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”—Margaret Mead

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The Pasadena Waldorf School offers two-day, three-day and five-day Early Childhood programs for children three-years and three months old to six. We also offer a Parent-Child Program for children starting at age 10 months.

Parent-Child ProgramStarts at age 10 months

PreschoolStarts at age 3 years 3 months

KindergartenStarts at age 4 years 9 months

Awakening Through Active ImitationYoung children learn constantly, but not consciously. They absorb their learning from all that is around them and all that they do. That is why the Waldorf school takes great care to provide an environment for the Early Childhood program that is filled with harmonious sense impressions, natural objects, and plenty of healthy open-air creative play and work. Surrounded by trees, flowers, the garden, hay bales, soil, and water, the children dig, pump, run, swing, rake, hoe, and chatter merrily, learning abundantly through their busy doing.

The pre-academic curriculum consists of practical and artistic activities guided by teachers who are worthy of the devoted imitation the children give. This innocent experiential learning, derived from simple domestic activities of home and village life, carried by the sure rhythms of day, week, and season, forms the basis for later academic learning, and for the more immediate development of social skills. It fosters in the children the experience that the world of humankind and nature is beneficent and good.

Activities include: singing, circle games, finger plays, fairy tales orally presented through story, baking, cooking, sewing, planting, watercolor painting, beeswax modeling, simple building, artistic movement, puppet plays, indoor and outdoor play, reverent mealtime, and nap time.

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www.pasadenawaldorf.org

Discover Waldorf EducationWaldorf education is based on educator and philosopher Rudolf Steiner’s (1861-1925) research on child development. The Waldorf approach recognizes the simple insight that children learn in distinctly different ways at different stages of their development. Waldorf teachers are dedicated to teaching in ways that profoundly meet the needs of the developing human being, and the curriculum fosters an unfolding of the student’s natural capacities. In classrooms filled with light and life, Waldorf students learn traditional academic subjects through distinctive and time-tested teaching methods that serve their intellectual, physical, emotional, and spiritual development. Engaging the hands, heart, and mind cultivates inner enthusiasm for learning.

Part of a worldwide educational movement that began over 90 years ago, Pasadena Waldorf School is a leading independent school in the San Gabriel Valley, helping families raise well-balanced, multifaceted young people since 1979.

parent-child • early childhood • elementary school • high school209 East Mariposa Street, Altadena CA 91001

Phone: 626-794-9564www.pasadenawaldorf.org

Pasadena Waldorf School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, religion, political affiliation, handicapping conditions, or sex in its educational programs or employment.