2024 - 2025 Class 1 Main Lesson

in order to begin Class 1 in the Fall, the student must have turned 6 by May 1st of that year.

Class 1 maximum class size is 14 students, allowing the teacher to connect with and get to know each student individually. All Lotus & Ivy classes are live and interactive, fostering connection and community with teachers and classmates.

The 6 Year-Old

Children entering first grade are moving from the “willing stage” (birth to age 7) to the “feeling stage” (ages 7 to 14). In the preschool and kindergarten years, the emphasis is on children using their hands (being will-driven). They learn best through imitation.

As the child enters first grade, they enter a new stage of development when we introduce academic subjects for the first time. Although they are studying academic material, teaching the material in imaginative ways through storytelling and the arts brings the content alive for them. They learn best through their feelings during this stage. They are not yet ready for “head-y” explanations, which comes in the third stage, the “thinking stage”.

True to our intentions, our classes provide plenty of opportunities for artistic and creative work.

Our Class 1 is developmentally appropriate, using various Waldorf-inspired curricula as selected by the teacher. In this year, the children get their first formal experiences of forms, sounds, and sequencing of letters and numerals by using pictures, rhymes, and stories. The Class 1 stories through which the lessons are brought to the students are a mix of fairy tales, Indigenous stories, and original stories by the teacher. The students learn to read through lots of practice involving movement, verses, drawing, and writing.

Form Drawing

Form Drawing is a uniquely Waldorf subject. Very simply described, the children do their best to reproduce a line form demonstrated for them by the teacher. Forms progress through the year, from the straight and curved lines of the first lesson, through many combinations and variations of straight and curved lines, to the symmetrical forms of late First Grade. The first “block” of lessons in First Grade is dedicated to Form Drawing, but we will continue to practice our forms throughout the year.

Form Drawing is an excellent way to start the year, as it lays the foundation for good posture, pencil grip, and paying attention to the teacher. Form Drawing leads the child gently into the capacity to work with two-dimensional space while finding and maintaining a standing, upright, physical balance. Eye-hand coordination and fine motor control are also key here. Each form drawing proceeds from the action in a story told by the teacher, and the children are encouraged to walk or run the form outside of class—and preferably outside of their house!

Language ARts

There is much to be learned in Class 1, and the curriculum is very rich. Class 1 work in Language Arts is focused on learning all letters (capital and lowercase), then blends, then moving into short word families. They begin by reading memorized text using phonemic awareness to track words, as we bring in high frequency (sight) words and phonics rules. The students move to writing phonetically accurate words and simple sentences, and we practice basic syllabication, grade level vocabulary, and basic capitalization and punctuation.

Lots of movement, games, and artistic activities are brought into the learning. Children around the age of 7 should have the concentration to build their own vivid inner pictures when being told a story. Through such imagery, they will continue learning in the following years.

It is generally a big deal when the children copy a longer poem in the second half of the year. Children in Class 1 learn to write by first copying the teacher, then perhaps copying a poem or two to accompany a drawing. They then begin to read their own writing with pride.

Math

In first grade, we start with whole numbers and make sure children are fully grounded in operations with whole numbers before proceeding to working with partial numbers in later years [decimal and/or common fractions]. The entire process takes three years, beginning with the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) in first grade; more practice with the four operations with larger numbers and introducing regrouping in Second Grade; and long multiplication and division in Third Grade.

One of our Class 1 teachers, Ms. Vivian Jones-Schmidt’s shares with us her approach to teaching all four operations of arithmetic in Class 1. Please click the link to understand more about our deep and nurturing approach to mathematics in the early years. Our Approach to Math — Lotus & Ivy (lotusandivy.com)

In our three math Main Lessons, students are introduced to such concepts writing numbers, rhythmical and skip counting forward and backward by 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, and 10s, Roman numerals, introduction to all four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), using tools such as manipulatives or drawings to model problems, and solving simple word exercises with numbers.

Students become comfortable in counting up to and backward from 100 through ongoing practice, and math games and movement activities contribute to the lessons.

Lotus & Ivy’s Main Lessons and homework, when completed, fulfill a complete year homeschool requirement for language arts, science, and social studies. While we offer three math Main Lessons in Class 1, for a complete math curriculum, we recommend that families register for our Math & Language Arts Skills Class for Class 1. Math & Language Arts Skills Class provides ongoing math practice, twice a week, year-round in addition to language arts practice as well as extra form drawing and painting. When Main Lesson class is doing a math Main Lesson block, Math & Language Arts Skills Class will cover language arts skills during that time. For more information about our Math & Language Arts Skills Class, click here.

COGNITIVE FOUNDATION

According to an article published by the Waldorf Research Institute entitled Waldorf Education is Developmentally Appropriate – What Exactly Does this Mean?, “recent MRI equipment has illuminated the fact that in young children, artistic work, full body playing, and sensory stimulation all light up the whole brain. Focused academic work, on the other hand, only lights up small parts of the brain. That ‘lighting’ up points to the development of neurons, making the child’s brain replete with neurons which end up looking, at their best, like a gorgeous, mature tree crown. Once myelinated, these neurons communicate for clear thinking, flexible problem solving, executive function, and creativity.”  (https://www.waldorflibrary.org/articles/1249-waldorf-education-is-developmentally-appropriate-what-exactly-does-this-mean)

At Lotus & Ivy, we recognize the advantage of delaying academics until first grade when a child is developmentally ready for formal academics. Children entering Class 1 must be carefully assessed as to whether they are ready to embark on this journey. We provide families with a comprehensive “Readiness Checklist” to help with this decision. It is important to ask if the child is ready to learn to write, and later read, and do arithmetic without thwarting other parts of their development. Too often, children begin academic work while their growth forces are still being used for physical and social development; and they should not be thwarted for cognitive tasks just yet. Rushing this process can only hurt brain development. Students who begin academic work a year or two later than their conventional peers need not worry about “being behind”. They have allowed their growth forces to mature to the fullest potential before taking from them to put towards academics. Hence, they are actually ahead, and will quickly catch up to where their peers are academic-wise.

Complement Classes

Lotus & Ivy also offers Complement Classes in addition to our Main Lesson and Math & Language Arts Skills Class. Our Complements for this age include Spanish, German, pentatonic flute, woodwork, hand-sewing, wet-on-wet watercolor painting, healing sound & movement (eurythmy), and handwork. Students meet once or twice a week with their teacher for these Complement Classes. Families may enroll in as many Complement classes as they like.

Students may enroll in Lotus & Ivy Main Lesson Classes, Math & Language Arts Skills Class, or Complement Classes or any combination of the three. Lotus & Ivy recommends that students take all three offerings for the most comprehensive experience, providing hands-on and experiential learning at its best.

EXPECTATIONS

Our teachers send home assignments for the week for students to work on outside of class time. Class 1 students can expect to spend 1-2 hours outside of class time on assignments each week.

For more information on what the Grown-up’s role is with Lotus & Ivy, please click here.

Our live and interactive classes are recorded and can be watched later for students who miss a class. The recordings are not sold or shared with anyone outside of the class.

SCREEN TIME: HARMFUL OR HEALTHY?

We have carefully considered screen time for all of our classes to ensure the screen time is interactive, not passive or one-sided. Our teachers, along with other health & education experts, have for many years encouraged parents to avoid screens for children because, when the screen time is one-sided, like with television and video games, it is harmful to the child’s brain. Live and interactive online classes make good use of technology and allow us to bring this whole-child education to a much larger audience by ensuring that screen time is two-sided and teachers may respond in real-time to the child.