Class 3 Complements
Click one below to learn more:
Form Drawing
HANDWORK
DiATONIC FLUTE
Needle felting & PRACTICAL ARTS: Animal Adaptations
Eurythmy
WOODWORKING
THEATRE & SPEECH
Cooking
WET-ON-WET WATERCOLOR PAINTING
World Languages: Spanish & German
Our class size is 14 students, allowing the teacher to get to know each student and creating a school-family environment during class.
Form Drawing with Ms. Packer
“A line is the serenity of a movement. A line, initiated by movement, becomes visible on paper and then continues to move further. When we see a line we are mentally guided by this movement, and we recognize the shape it forms. Thus, each drawn form is a retired movement. ” - PAUL VAN MEURS
In this weekly form drawing course (aimed at ages 7-9), we will work together, combining form and movement, to create gestures of beauty. Form drawing stimulates the imagination, and the students are encouraged to experiment with the forms after class, enjoying the process as they bring their imaginative and thinking forces to paper.
Since form drawing is related to action, we will accompany each class with rhythmic movement gestures to complement the forms.
The course outline is as follows:
rhythmical forms
separate forms drawn in a rhythm
dynamic forms
goal exercises
forms that evolve from separate elements
geometric forms
stacked forms
movement forms
Mirror forms
symmetry exercises
Metamorphosis forms
Handwork with Ms. Novosedlik
Handwork is a lifelong skill from which one can create beautiful and useful items while benefitting in deep and lasting ways. Creating beauty in perfectly imperfect handwork is a fundamental element of the Waldorf curriculum throughout the grades and informs our daily living in surprising and delightful ways.
Through practical and meaningful handwork activities, younger students develop strength and coordination in their hands and fingers. In addition, improved fine motor skills build healthy foundations in students for writing, drawing, maths and artistic work in grade school.
Learning to skillfully use their hands not only develops the child’s sense of self-reliance and confidence, but hand skills also awaken creative powers, promote a sense of reverence for craftsmanship, and instills respect for the creative artisans of the world.
Handwork is an important component of development which aids the child in acquiring the following benefits, traits and skills:
patience and perseverance to work on projects which require weeks to complete
expanded skill sets involving in-depth experimentation with techniques and materials over time
enlivening of the senses and nourishment for the soul through use of natural materials and colors
rhythmicity of repeated movements which creates calm for the nervous system as an antidote to anxiety and over-thinking
confidence and independence in creating beautiful and useful items
creating new neural pathways to the brain which strengthens the brain-body connection
problem-solving skills which builds future decision-making abilities
goal orientation based on understandable outcomes from immediate, step-by-step, tangible results
strengthening of soul forces - example: encouraging thinking in the dreamy child, feeling in the overly intellectual child, and activity in the weak-willed child
“The density of nerve endings in our fingertips is enormous. Their discrimination is almost as good as that of our eyes. If we don’t use our fingers in childhood and youth, we will become ‘finger-blind,’ and this rich network of nerves will be impoverished which represents a huge loss to the brain and thwarts the individual’s overall development.“ - Matti Bergstrom, Neurophysiologist
Handwork Projects
The class three students will be learning to crochet items such as dishcloths, candle holders, finger puppets and hats. The class four students will learn cross stitch and use it for Norse/Celtic applique in a few projects such as a pencil caseor glasses case, a sachet bag or a water bottle holder. They will also have the option of crocheting an animal totem stuffy.
Both class three and four students will create a circular weaving project, and will also have the choice to make other projects such as slippers, a water bottle holder or recorder bag, or a shopping bag. I try to give students as many opportunities to choose from a selection of projects when we are not creating a common project. Included in some of this year’s projects are the practicing of simple stitch work, embroidery and sewing.
Please note: Depending on the student, some projects may require greater assistance for your child to complete, so please be readily available while we are online together to support your child’s learning during class time each week.
Diatonic Flute with Ms. McGee
Playing a flute or recorder is not only fun and creative, it has many educational and health benefits as well. Engaging in breathwork is a very important part of singing and playing the flute/recorder. Breathing is essential in keeping the body regulated and oxygenated for optimal use of the body and brain. Learning to read musical notation creates and strengthens the neural pathways to the brain from sensory experience and paves the way for language acquisition and the understanding of math symbols and operations.
Establishing a whole-body experience of elements of music such as beat and rhythm affects the mind/body systems profoundly, bringing order and ensuring optimal functioning of our organs, our thoughts, our emotional life. It is well-known that music learning enhances skill acquisition in every other subject area of student learning. Singing and playing the flute/recorder also creates an inner vibration in the body that stimulates warmth, heart connection, empathy and creativity. Self-expression through the arts, especially through singing and making music provides students with creative ways to think and be as they shape their self-identity. Each class will be individualized for the experience of the group. For example, If one child already reads music, they will receive additional challenges while the rest of the class learns music notation.
Learning to play the Choroi Diatonic flute is a long tradition in Waldorf Schools and age-appropriate for children of 9-10 years old. The class will sing, play songs, invent new songs and learn symbols for each note to begin understanding musical notation. Whole-body movement exercises along with playing rhythm sticks, use of bean bags, and creative expression in color will be some of the ways in which we will engage in our learning of the music. No previous experience in musical instruction is necessary.
(The Diatonic Flute is also called a soprano flute or C flute.) We will be playing the instrument with Choroi fingering tuned to 440 Hz (Important information to have when ordering!) We have many musical adventures ahead as we learn basic music skills and how to play the flute!
Needle Felting & Practical Arts: Animal Adaptations with Ms. Ljubic
Needle felting is a process of using barbed needles to interlace wool fibers into tightly packed material. In this process we take loose wool and shape it into creative 2D (painting with wool) or 3D (sculpting) projects. Drawing inspiration in the animal world and seasonal festivals. The simplicity of forming an entirely new art project from stippling with needle, makes needle felting an easy and relaxing craft. However, felting needles are very sharp, therefore finger protectors and staying present are needed. Projects can vary in their size and time complexity- commitment.
Learners will also be encouraged to look into possibilities of materials around us and find new ideas to give things a second chance. May it be practical repurposing, remodeling into imaginative structures, or bringing items to life in the form of puppets and props to tell a story. Remaking creations spark imagination and problem solving abilities while opening a broader view with thoughts of responsibility and sense of care for our environment.
Needle felting is performed on foam working surfaces, so that needles don't break while hitting hard surfaces. We will be creating with natural wool fiber, and additional materials like pipe cleaners and felt sheets.
Felting kits for Lotus & Ivy students may be ordered directly from Ms. Ljubic so that the student has everything needed for the class. Once registered for Practical Arts, send us an email at lotusandivypracticalarts@gmail.com to order your kit. Please be sure to order your kits early. Allow for delayed shipping times. (Photos of the kit are pictured above.)
Eurythmy with Ms. Novosedlik
At the core of our humanity is the deep and irrevocable need to harmonize our inner world and connect to our authentic soul self in order to express that unique self in the world. Understanding ourselves as threefold human beings involves approaching all of our learning and growing through the lens of the body/soul/spirit continuum that we are. This is the focus of Waldorf education in an effort to grow whole and free-thinking humans.
Whole body movement modalities and processes focused on establishing a strong connection between brain and body, soul and mind are increasingly in demand as we understand more about how the human being lives into balance, wholeness and health. To this end, our Healing Sound & Movement (HSM) course explores how sound (vibration) and movement create balance and harmony on all levels within the human being as we work with universal rhythms and cosmic music and draw these into our human experience.
In this course we will draw upon sound and movement practices found in Eurythmy, Paneurythmy, brain sensory and reflex integration, free-form movement, Yoga, Qi Gong, circle dance and other body-based (somatic) movement processes. We will be sounding with the voice through song, verse, storytelling and authentic sound as the inspiration for expressive movement. Themes and content for this program will be drawn in part from the individual class curriculum of each grade level.
As grown-ups participate in this course with the children, the many benefits of informed somatic movement and sound processes will serve to bring balance, healing, joy and beauty to family life in ways which create wholeness and togetherness both inwardly and between each member. Join us as we strengthen our inner and outer family connection and support the growth of healthy, whole human beings! This can be our gift to the healing of the world.
Theatre & Speech with Ms. Rezzelle
In our weekly drama class, students will explore the power of storytelling through drama. In class we learn how to bring characters to life through characterization, movement, and voice. Steiner-inspired speech exercises will provide a backdrop to work on speech concepts such as articulation, diction*, prosody (expressiveness of speech), and flow.
Lotus & Ivy’s Speech Arts & Drama classes draw on Rudolf Steiner’s dramatic gestures to enhance the students’ connection to the spoken word. We explore a world of incredible richness, depth, and beauty in one of the common places – our speech. These practices improve students’ conversational speech, performance arts, English and grammar education, and it can be therapeutic.
By working with familiar themes and stories inspired from their Main Lesson classes and the classics, students will learn core acting skills that will help them bring the stories and characters to life. Despite being online, ensemble-building will be a crucial component of this course. Theatre games and choral work will build our group together through laughter and imagination! No experience necessary.
Our class will meet weekly for 18 weeks (except during school-wide breaks) and will culminate with a presentation of skills through monologues, choral speech, and scene work.
*Please note, this does not take the place of specialized Speech Pathology courses. This will aid students in these areas.
Wet-on-Wet Watercolor Painting with Ms. Gemignani
In this watercolor class, students from Grades 3 and 4 will combine to hear stories which offer nourishment in their stage of human development; stories that offer soothing grounding in a time of intense inner change.
These stories will come to life as we paint an image together each week. Students will learn to honor their inner artist with words of encouragement, kindness and love as we work our way through meeting each of our 6 colors. Carmine Red, Vermillion, Golden Yellow, Lemon Yellow, Ultramarine Blue, and Prussian Blue. These vibrant colors mix together beautifully to create a rainbow of beautiful hues.
We will use special liquid watercolor pigments and watercolor paper. Supplies include: Set of 6 colors (mentioned above), watercolor paper, watercolor brush, apron, jars, painting board, sponge, and a rag/cloth.
I am delighted to be on this artistic journey with you and your children!
Cooking with Ms. Smith
Encouraging children to help prepare healthy meals for their families is an excellent way to teach them essential life skills. They gain a deeper understanding of the effort and time required to create tasty dishes and develop a stronger connection to the ingredients they use. This connection often makes children more open to trying foods with new flavors and textures. By expanding their palate, they can develop healthy eating habits that benefit them for life. By encouraging independence and instilling competence, children will gain the confidence to make any recipe they discover and adapt recipes to suit their tastes. The sense of accomplishment that comes from feeding loved ones can also lead to self-confidence in other areas of life.
Anticipated Recipe List:
(Recipes are subject to change according to dietary restrictions and accommodations needed within the class.)
Fruit leather and mint tea
Mediterranean Quinoa Salad
Pickled Garden Veggies
Vegetable Soup
Viking Flat Bread and Blueberry Jam
Cheesy Broccoli and Rice Casserole
Italian Ice
Garlicky Green Beans and Honey Glazed Carrots
Pumpkin Bread
Salad made with home-grown greens (beet, carrot, garlic) and
Homemade Dressing
French Toast
Cranberry Sauce and Baked Acorn Squash
Harvest Granola
Potato Latkes
Flourless Chocolate Chip Brownies
Sweet Potato Casserole
Rosemary Focaccia Bread
Design Your Own Baked Pasta
Throughout the semester, the variety of recipes will reinforce technical skills, encourage innovative use of ingredients, and support interest in food culture. However, this class is about more than preparing tasty dishes.
Cooking offers hands-on experience with measuring, counting, fractions, tracking time, and temperature. For students in third grade and up, multiplication and division skills are needed to scale a recipe up or down. For students in fifth grade and up, additional math practice can come from calculating the cost of making a recipe vs. the price of a take-out version of a similar dish.
Following the step-by-step process-focused instructions of a recipe improves reading comprehension and shows that reading has practical benefits.
As foods are prepared, abstract concepts such as chemical reactions become relevant and understandable to children.
Cooking requires problem-solving and resilience to find solutions when a recipe does not come together as planned.
Many recipes we will prepare utilize basic ingredients that the student may already have in their pantry, demonstrating that home-cooked meals are manageable and can be fast and straightforward to prepare.
The kitchen is an excellent place for children to engage their senses experientially. They can knead, toss, pour, smell, chop, feel, and taste foods, all while having fun and learning without even realizing it.
Students will be encouraged to flavor dishes with herbs and spices and challenged to try their own variations, customizing recipes to suit their flavor and dietary preferences.
Cooking can teach children responsibility as they learn specific tasks to contribute to meal preparation and cleanup.
Acquiring ingredients from the grocery store, farmer’s market, or even harvesting their own herbs, fruits, and vegetables helps children understand where the ingredients that make up their favorite meals are sourced. Purchasing fresh, locally grown ingredients supports farmers in your area. For the Cooking 3/4 class: Students will be encouraged to visit a farmer’s market or pick-your-own farm to choose local seasonal ingredients.
Making a grocery list before shopping helps a child learn about planning and making informed choices about healthy foods. Choosing whole-food ingredients reduces packaging waste and instills the values of environmental consciousness.
Preparing recipes from other countries allows children to experience new flavors and textures. This exposure to diverse cuisines opens a child’s mind to different cultures, offers a geography lesson, and promotes awareness, understanding, and appreciation of culinary traditions and practices worldwide. For the Cooking 5-8 class: Each week, students will be encouraged to research two new facts about the recipe’s country of origin to share with the class.
Cooking allows children to learn more about their own heritage and family traditions through treasured recipes passed down through the generations.
Woodworking with Ms. deLeca
Teaching children to make useful and beautiful things with their hands is a fundamental element of the Waldorf curriculum from kindergarten throughout the grades. Younger students develop strength and coordination in their hands and fingers through practical and meaningful activities like woodwork. In addition, improved fine motor skills foundationally prepare students for writing, drawing, and artistic work in grade school.
Learning to skillfully use their hands not only develops the child's sense of self-reliance and confidence, but hand skills also awaken creative powers, promote a sense of reverence for craftsmanship, and instill respect for the makers of the world.
Additionally, woodwork helps the child acquire the following traits and skills:
● Patience and perseverance are developed with projects that take days or weeks to complete, allowing the child to extend their learning through in-depth experimentation with tools, techniques, and materials over time.
● Working with hands strengthens forces (behaviors) that are weak. For example, it encourages thinking in the dreamy child, feeling in the overly intellectual child, and stimulates activity in the weak-willed child.
● Working with hands builds the capacity to solve unexpected problems. Students learn to notice mistakes and figure out ways to correct them.
● Working responsibly with real tools requires attention to detail, which builds concentration and focus.
Rudolf Steiner explains that the development of adult qualities, such as sound judgment and balanced thinking, depends far more on whether the child has learned to use his hands and fingers in practical ways than exercising logical thinking in later life.
Swedish neurophysiologist Matti Bergstrom says, "The density of nerve endings in our fingertips is enormous. Their discrimination is almost as good as that of our eyes. If we don't use our fingers in childhood and youth, we will become 'finger-blind,' and this rich network of nerves will be impoverished, which represents a huge loss to the brain and thwarts the individual's overall development."
To paraphrase Waldorf woodwork teacher, Bernard Graves, motor activity evolves into skill when the child responds sensitively to the nature of the materials and the correct use of tools. Likewise, willpower is transformed into a beautiful form when working artistically with design, color, and shape. And when these two aspects are combined in work, the child has a sense of fulfillment and true purpose in their efforts. Work, which might otherwise be an insignificant act, is raised to the status of a virtue.
Woodwork is active, hands-on learning at its best, offering a completely different set of sensory experiences to captivate a young student's interest. The smell and feel of wood, working with real tools, and the sounds of hammering, sawing, and sanding—these experiences offer the child's hands and mind opportunities to imaginatively create, solve real problems, and use strength and coordination to complete a finished piece. Woodworking's practical, repetitive nature teaches patience in subtle but very effective ways. Once the child realizes that they can't move to the next step until the previous has been completed, they'll slowly begin to learn to be more patient as the importance of the process emerges. Through the building of "will forces," woodworking is incredibly empowering for all children, especially those who struggle with the notion of things being "too hard" to accomplish. Woodworking teaches grit and determination.
Woodworking teacher Peter Moorhouse (The Importance of Woodwork in Early Childhood Education) explains, "Mathematical thinking is developed, scientific knowledge is gained, technological understanding is developed through working with tools, and children become engineers as they construct. Woodwork is exceptional for developing children's creative and critical thinking skills. As children tinker and experiment with the possibilities of wood and tools, they then go on to express ideas and resolve their work. But woodwork is not just about what children make—it is all about the changes within the child. Woodwork significantly impacts children's self-esteem and confidence, and it develops a sense of agency—that 'can-do' mindset."
Once the child is immersed in woodwork, grownups will likely observe high levels of engagement, deep focus and concentration, and increased persistence and perseverance when faced with challenging tasks. In addition, because each project takes time and effort to produce, woodwork offers an antidote to our fast-paced, immediate gratification society by providing hands-on learning experiences that require patience.
Adults may wonder: "How can younger children safely use real tools, such as saws, drills, and hammers?" Woodwork becomes a low-risk activity when basic safety measures are implemented, and appropriate tools are introduced and monitored responsibly. We will cover the safe use of tools, and each project will build upon the previous, both in skills learned and tool usage. Some tools require more significant assistance and supervision for your child to use safely, so please be readily available to support your child's learning during woodwork class time.