… children learn with their whole beings… they deeply inhabit the feeling world… and are engaged through imagination…
Class one marks the beginning of the ‘Class Teacher’ period. The class teacher will stay with the group of children from class one through to class eight.
The child of this age responds immediately to warm and vital people. This is because s/he experiences knowledge not as a defined ‘subject’ such as maths, but as a unity which is expressed in a person. So there is a natural attraction to adults who can tell stories, describe images in vivid living words and be present to the moment. These vibrant qualities inform the job of the classroom teacher.
In class one the children make the all important transition from kindergarten to school where formal learning begins. For many children this is the very first experience of sitting still at a desk. And it takes some getting used to!
Children in class one are immersed in a rhythmic, engaging and deeply nourishing life from the moment they enter the room until the time they leave. They are individually greeted each morning and bade farewell in the afternoon, often with a riddle or question to contemplate until their return next day.
Routines are established, desks are sat at, games are played, shapes are physically explored, numbers are sung and drawings are made. The outlook, architecture, routine and materials of the school create a rich, artistic sense for form and space. Encouraged to be themselves within the group, the children’s physical, feeling and imaginative lives are all supported and fed.
Through the telling of fairy tales the class one teacher conveys messages of beauty, goodness and truth to the children, enriching the child’s inner life.
Class work includes:
Introduction to letters, Introduction to numbers, Writing and word families, Introduction to the four maths processes, Traditional folk and fairy tales, Music – singing, recorder, Painting, Crafts, Nature studies, French or German, Eurythmy.