Essential Waldorf

The Online Grade One Conference

Click here to Register for Grade 1

Lecture and Presentation Topics
Participants will receive links to all of these lecture/presentations on the first day of the conference, along with a Password that will enable them to access the conference contents for the 14 days that they choose. They may listen to or view them in any order and as often as they wish during the 14-day conference period. Topics in black are audio sessions; topics in teal include video or slideshow sessions. Topics are subject to change.

Lectures
[Most lectures are between 15 and 20 minutes long]

1. The First Grader 1
1.1 The Fourfold Human Being part 1: Although this may appear to be basic and familiar, it is always good to "play the scales" again and again to gain new insights into the human being. Overview of the physical, etheric, astral, and ego, with a special emphasis on the etheric body. [14:40]
1.2 The Fourfold Human Being part 2: The Etheric Body. Rhythm, regularity, and predictability are among the forces that nurture the etheric body. Health and memory, two pillars of Waldorf education. The "model body" and the "etheric umbilical cord." Heredity and individuality. [15:20]
1.3 The Fourfold Human Being part 3: Interplay of the etheric and astral bodies. The etheric umbilical cord, continued. The polarized nature of the etheric and astral bodies. The etheric body protects us -- from ourselves. The size and speed of the astral body. The inherently etheric nature of Grade One. [16:30]
1.4 The Fourfold Human Being part 4: Meeting the astral body in the First Grade Classroom. The astral body also brings beauty and movement, contrast and artistry to the classroom, but it easily oversteps its boundaries. The harmonizing capacities of the teacher's ego are needed to bring balance and maintain order as the child's higher bodies meet. The step from imitation to authority. [16:15]
1.5 The Four Temperaments part 1: Although an understanding of the Temperaments is one of Rudolf Steiner 's greatest gifts to teachers, it is often misunderstood and underutilized. The Golden Age of Temperament -- a lot shorter than you think! Etheric and astral forces, Temperament and personality. [15:30]
1.6 The Four Temperaments part 2: The work of the etheric body on the four elements of the human organism. The challenge of uniting spiritual intent and physical substance. The melancholic and choleric temperaments. [15:40]

2. The First Grader 2
1.7 The Four Temperaments part 3:   The morphology of the Temperaments. The physical appearance of the first grader is our best indication of his or her Temperament. We look at four bodily types. [18:30]
1.8 The Four Temperaments part 4: The distribution of the Temperaments in the contemporary classroom. How Temperaments serve as seed beds for future capacities. [16:45]
1.9 The Four Temperaments part 5: Meeting the melancholic child. [16:20]
1.10 The Four Temperaments part 6: Meeting the phlegmatic child. [16:00]
1.11 The Four Temperaments part 7: Meeting the sanguine child. [15:00]
1.12 The Four Temperaments part 8: Meeting the choleric child. [15:00]
1.13 Young Souls and Invisible Children: Two phenomena that may help to explain children who lie outside the temperamental spectrum. [14:30]

3. Working with Parents 1
1.14 Working with Parents part 1: The central importance of our parent work. The teacher's destiny with parents and children. The home visit. [14:30]
1.15 Working with Parents part 2: The New Teacher Reception. This lecture may be too late for many listeners! First impressions matter. The quality of refreshments as a signal to parents. The new teacher’s biography. Many colleagues are meeting you for the first time. Brevity as the soul of wit. [22:00]
1.16 Working with Parents part 3: The “Introduction to Grade One” gathering with parents. A good alternative to the “Back to School Picnic” that sometimes spins out of control. Saturday morning in September provides enough time to do some justice to the year to come. [14:15]
1.17 Working with Parents part 4: The Parent Evening. The threefold/fourfold structure of the evening. How many meetings during the year? Pay careful attention to time. The tyranny of parent announcements and how to contain them. [21:00]
1.18 Working with Parents part 5: The Parent Conference 1. Meeting with two (or more!) parents whenever possible. Focusing attention on the child. Different responses of mothers and fathers through the grades. [17:30]

4. Working with Parents 2
1.19 Working with Parents part 6: The Parent Conference 2. The structure of the meeting. Keeping it professional and protecting your time. [17:00]
1.20 Working with Parents part 7: The Written Report. The history of the narrative report from medieval times to the Computer Age. Are rubrics and check lists the report of the Future? [14:50]
1.21 Working with Parents part 8: A radical way to communicate with your parents, part one. [17:10]
1.22 Working with Parents part 9: A radical way to communicate with your parents, part two [15:40]

5. Preparation and the Morning Lesson
1.23 Preparation part 1: The Waldorf File Cabinet. Making a relationship to the entire curriculum for grades one through eight. Living “etherically” into the curriculum to live into the big picture. The importance of summer reading. [22:00]
1.24 Preparation part 2: A preparation shopping list. Penetrate the classroom space. The stress of moving to a new community and becoming the new first grade teacher. [21:10]
1.25 Preparation part 3: The color of your room. Lazure or flat paint? The blackboard. Chairs and desks. The moveable classroom. Cubbies. Choreographing furniture movement in the classroom. [18:30]
1.26 Preparation part 4: Art supplies. Beeswax crayons, block and stick. Primary colors. Black. Main Lesson books. Onion skin. Mercurius. [17:30]
1.27 The Morning Lesson part 1: Pre-Morning Lesson time is all-important. Appropriate games and a wakeful adult supervising. Lining up at the door. Handshaking 101. [21:30]
1.28 The Morning Lesson part 2: Where do children sit? [18:45]
1.29 The Morning Lesson part 3: Candle? Verse? Roll Call? The Circle and Its Challenges. The “threefold” structure of the Morning Lesson. [17:50]
Poems, Songs, and Games Instructional Video with Raine Springer, Part 1 [22:20]
Poems, Songs, and Games Instructional Video with Raine Springer, Part 2 [24:40]

6. The Morning Lesson & Blocks
1.29a The Rest of the Day part 1: Transitioning from one class to another. Working with the specialist teacher. [20:35]
1.29b The Rest of the Day part 2: Luchtime and its challenges. [18:30]
1.30 Block Rotation part 1: The Gradalis Curriculum. “Breathing” through the year. The influence of the seasons (or the lack of them) on the class. How the class changes from Michaelmas to Christmas to Easter. [18:10]
1.31 Block Rotation part 2: The Festivals of the year and their pedagogical correlatives. The week as a microcosmic school year. Thinking through the order of blocks. [17:00]
Recitation Instructional Video [29:30]

Drawing with Block Crayons: An Instructional Video [41:30]

The Beeswax Challenge: A Comparison of Stockmar & Filana Crayons [41:00]

7. Form Drawing
1.32 Form Drawing part 1: Explaining Form Drawing to parents. Reading readiness. [19:15]
1.33 Form Drawing part 2: Form Drawing, signature of the etheric body. Form and memory. [14:20]
Form Drawing Instructional Video 1 [37:15]

Form Drawing Instructional Video 2 [39:30]
Form Drawing 1: Student Work Slideshow [21:00]
Form Drawing 2: Student Work Slideshow [17:25]

8. Teaching Arithmetic
1.34 Arithmetic part 1: Reading/Writing and Arithmetic -- diametric opposites. List of reasonable expectations in arithmetic for the first grade. Bringing spirit to the earth. The “Qualities of Numbers.” [19:40]
1.35 Arithmetic part 2: Counting and skip-counting. The multiplication tables. “Windows of opportunity” for arithmetic/math topics. Working with children who struggle. [15:30]
1.36 Arithmetic part 3: Manipulatives. The pedagogical power of bags filled with stones. [17:40]
1.37 Arithmetic part 4: The Four Operations. Anthropomorphic approaches. [16:40]
Teaching Arithmetic Instructional Video
Arithmetic 1: Student Work Slideshow [14:40]
Arithmetic 2: Student Work Slideshow [9:45]

9. Storytelling 1
1.38 Storytelling part 1: The centrality of the teacher’s word and speech in first grade and in the Waldorf School altogether. The importance of the teachers grammar as a model for the children. Correcting children's grammar. The kinds of stories that we will be telling in first grade. [14:25]
1.39 Storytelling part 2: Stories that introduce materials and tools to children. English-speaking teachers: watch your sentimentality! Introducing beeswax crayons. [21:15]
1.40 Storytelling part 3: Imbuing found objects with meaning. The Philosophy of Freedom. Reconciling the percept and the concept and the told of the class teacher. [22:10]
1.41 Storytelling part 4: Pedagogical therapeutic stories. Not a clear line between nature and Pedagogical stories. All children carry the answers to their own questions. [18:10]
1.42 Storytelling part 5: More about “pedagogical stories.” Where can you find inspiration? The child’s inner nature and the child's angel. Stories by Tolstoy and Albert Steffen. The teacher’s relationship to nature. [16:00]

10. Storytelling 2
1.43 Storytelling part 6: The Brothers Grimm and their Fairy Tales. The quest for the “Folk Soul” in folklore. The origin of the tales. Scholarship, controversy, and dogma surrounding the tales. [25:00]
1.44 Storytelling part 7: Twenty representative fairy tales. [15:20]
1.45 Storytelling part 8: Bruno Bettelheim. Fairy Tales - the Grimms’ and Disney versions. The death of fairy tale telling and the birth of the Tolkien saga. [20:10]
1.46 Storytelling part 9: The archetypal nature of the true fairy tale. The drama of the fourfold human being. The remains of Lemuria and Atlantis in the struggle of good and evil. [22:45]
1.47 Storytelling part 10: Telling a fairy tale to your class. Awakening the power of memory. The story review as the “heart of the heart of grade one.” [24:55]
Grade One Storytelling Part 1: Instructional Video [39:00]

Grade One Storytelling Part 2: Instructional Video [32:20]

Something from Nothing: Waldorf Storytelling [7:30]

11. Writing and Reading
1.48 Writing to Reading part 1: Forewarned is forearmed: the teaching of literacy will likely be the most embattled part of your primary school years. Presenting Waldorf methodology to parents. Drawing support from mainstream sources. [26:10]
1:49 Writing to Reading part 2: Pressure will come from colleagues and administrators as well. What did Rudolf Steiner have to say about reading and writing? [21:33]
1.50 Writing to Reading part 3: The question of early intervention concerning first grade grade reading. Reading specialists in Waldorf schools and training centers. [18:30]
1.51 Writing to Reading part 4: From story to picture to letter. [18:40]
1.52 Writing to Reading part 5: How many letters may be introduced in a block? Children who teach themselves to read. “Upper case” and “lower case” letters in first grade. [17:20]
1.53 Writing to Reading part 6: Understanding children with “reading difficulties.” Reversing letters. Letters that dance. [17:35]
1.54 Writing to Reading part 7: The first experiences in reading. [15:50]
From Picture to Letter, an Instructional Video
Writing to Reading 1: Student Work Slideshow [22:15]
Writing to Reading 2: Student Work Slideshow [13:20]
Teaching Writing in the Waldorf School, a YouTube video
Teaching Reading in the Waldorf School, a YouTube video

12. The Path of the Teacher
1.55 The Teacher’s Path part 1: Care and nurture of the physical and etheric bodies of the teacher. Health and memory. [17:30]
1.56 The Teacher’s Path part 2: Care and nurture of the teacher’s astral body 1. The life of relationships in and around the school. [19:45]
1.57 The Teacher’s Path part 3: Care and nurture of the teacher’s astral body 2. The life of relationships in the family. [13:00]
1.58 The Teacher’s Path part 4: The work of the Ego. The inner life of the teacher. [17:40]

13. Painting with Patience
"Wet-on-wet painting" has become the dominant watercolor method in the Waldorf grade school. In this video, Eugene expresses strong reservations about the appropriateness of this method for children, and presents an alternative approach. He lays out the materials needed and demonstrates the method in step-by-step films that are the first of their kind. Please view the film Patience with Patience first. It serves as a foundation for the film Painting with Patience in the Primary School.

Painting with Patience Instructional Video [40:00]

Painting with Patience in the Primary Grades Instructional Video part 1 [54:15]

Slideshows and Instructional Videos
(Also listed above with the relevant lectures)

Grade One Slideshows in Mandarin
These short slideshows of student work were created to help instruct the growing numbers of teachers and parents working in Chinese Waldorf schools.They present basic introductions to first grade skill sets.


Songs and Games Instructional Video 1 [22:20]

Songs and Games Instructional Video 2 [24:40]

Songs and Games Instructional Video 3 [60:00]

Recitation Instructional Video [29:30]

Form Drawing Instructional Video 1 [37:15]

Form Drawing Instructional Video 2 [39:30]

Form Drawing 1: Student Work Slideshow [21:00]

Form Drawing 2: Student Work Slideshow [17:20]

Teaching Arithmetic Instructional Video

Arithmetic 1: Student Work Slideshow [14:40]

Arithmetic 2: Student Work Slideshow [9:45]

Storytelling Instructional Video

Something from Nothing: Waldorf Storytelling [7:30]

Drawing with Block Crayons: An Instructional Video [41:30]

Crayon Drawing with Children, a short video [12:15]

Painting with Patience Instructional Video [40:00]

Painting with Patience in the Primary Grades Instructional Video part 1 [54:15]

Painting with Patience in the Primary Grades Instructional Video part 2 [43:00]

Writing to Reading 1: Student Work Slideshow [22:15]

Writing to Reading 2: Student Work Slideshow [13:20]

Teaching Writing in the Waldorf School, a YouTube video [10:00]

Teaching Reading in the Waldorf School, a YouTube video [10:00]

Resources and PDFs
Click on the links to view or download these helpful materials.

First Grade Block Rotation
Descriptions of the rationale underlying the subjects.

Classroom Colors: Indications by Rudolf Steiner
A Diagram developed by the architect Rex Raab (in English)

First Grade Class Play:
“The Nixie of the Mill Pond”

Verses for the Lower Grades
Poems for the Primary Grades by Eugene Schwartz.

The Cry for Myth
Introduction to “Why the Setting Sun Turns Red”

The Solitary Swan
A story from “Why the Setting Sun Turns Red”

What Happened to a Blade of Grass
A story from “Why the Setting Sun Turns Red”

The Moth’s Story
A story from “Why the Setting Sun Turns Red”

Hanukkah and Advent: An Essay by Eugene Schwartz

Help from the Hierarchies
A lecture by Eugene Schwartz

The Hierarchies, a Guide for the Perplexed
A chart that may be helpful in understanding the nature of the Elohim/Spirits of Form.

Additional Lectures
Many of Eugene Schwartz’s lectures on Waldorf education
and Anthroposophy may be downloaded from the
millennialchild.com website.

The first First Grade
Download a rare and classic photo, taken in Stuttgart, Germany, in September, 1919.

Considering Waldorf
This documentary film about Waldorf education contains some wonderful footage of first graders
at the Waldorf School of Lexington, MA. The sequences appear from 0:15 to 0:33 and are
interspersed with an interview with Torin Finser from 30:00 to 35:00.

The “Model Body” by Broder von Laue, M.D.
The only in-depth study of this important aspect of child development. In German, with an abstract in English.

Playing Steiner Says by Stephan Sagarin
An outspoken and humorous look at the shaky foundation on which so much of Waldorf tradition is based.

Research about Homework
Although homework may not be an issue in your school at your grade level, it looms right around the corner.
Here are links to cutting edge research about the value of homework.

Rudolf Steiner Course Excerpts
If you wish to go more deeply into some of the themes addressed in the Grade One lectures, we invite you to
listen to some lectures given by Eugene Schwartz in his course, Rudolf Steiner: The Man, The Age, The Path.

The Nature of the Human Being
We look at the “fourfold” and “sevenfold” constitution of the human being as described and examined by Rudolf Steiner in myriad books and lectures. This group of lectures can serve as a foundation for exploring all of the other sections of this course.
SC01 The Physical Body [14:45]
SC02 The Etheric Body [16:19]
SC03 The Astral Body [14:44]
SC04 The Human Ego [19:55]
SC05 The Sentient Soul [20:49]
SC06 The Mind Soul [11:12]
SC07 The Consciousness Soul [13:44]
SC08 The Spirit Self [22:48]
SC09 Life Spirit and Spirit Man [18:48]

The Spiritual Hierarchies
Although the Hierarchies are a mainstay of Christian theology and iconography, Steiner spoke of them
as active in all world religions. His expansive picture of the activities of the hierarchical beings portrays
their intimate and dynamic relationship to human life and evolution.
SC10 The Third Hierarchy – The Angels, part 1 [16:17]
SC11 The Third Hierarchy – The Angels, part 2 [15:47]
SC12 The Third Hierarchy – Archangels & Archai [15:01]
SC13 The Second Hierarchy – Spirits of Form, Movement, & Wisdom [18:28]
SC14 The First Hierarchy – Thrones, Cherubim, & Seraphim, part 1 [17:21]
SC15 The First Hierarchy, part 2 [14:11]
SC16 The First Hierarchy, part 3 [15:06]