Elementary School

In the elementary school years, children learn best when academics are conveyed through painting, drama, music, storytelling, and other hands-on experiences that stir their emotions. In first through fifth grade, The Denver Waldorf School curriculum weaves a sense of beauty throughout each school day.

SCHEDULE A LOWER GRADES TOUR

Daily Rhythms

The Waldorf curriculum has an intentional rhythm that enhances balanced learning. Each day follows a familiar cadence — the morning includes a two-hour main lesson wheres students take time to record insights as art, words, and other creative elements, followed by a chance to relax, play, and process through recess. During the rest of the morning, students dive into special subjects, such as music and world languages, while the afternoon brings more physical activity with movement or practical arts.

Bringing Learning to Life

The curriculum is thoughtfully considered to bring intellectual challenges, blended with experiential opportunities and artistic exploration. From letters through stories to mathematics through movement, academic foundations are laid through joy filled learning that engages students and allows exploration of concepts at a deeper level.

The Class Teacher

Our main class teachers in the elementary school take a class from 1st grade through 4th grade. A middle school loop then begins with a new main class teacher for 5th through 8th grade. This “looping” method fosters a strong class relationship, an improved understanding of each student’s unique learning styles, and a strong partnership with families throughout the educational journey.

Meet our Lower Grades teachers

Block Learning

The Waldorf curriculum is organized around the block schedule. Mornings begin with an engaging two hour main lesson period, during which one subject is the focus. These focused lessons allow students to dive deeply into academic studies in a lively, captivating way.

Reverse Textbook Learning

Students create their own main lesson books, creating a record of the academic facts integrated with art, poetry, and other creative elements. The creation of the main lesson book develops the executive function capacities required for self-directed learning.

Step Inside Our School

From our Early Childhood Education to the lively halls of our high school, the Waldorf experience takes a hand-on approach to education. We are founded on Rudolf Steiner’s humanitarian curriculum, a robust and dynamic program taught throughout the world for more than 100 years. Learn more about our curriculum, community, and culture with an in-person tour of our school.

Schedule an In-Person Tour

First Grade

Time to work, play, and rest

First grade is a child’s introduction to the collective being of a class. We nurture a deep reverence for the earth, compassion for classmates, and a healthy respect for every living thing. 

From knitting to numbers, fairy tales to falling leaves, we help first graders discover the wonders of our world and understand the rhythm of life. This year is the beginning of a multi-year relationship with their teacher.

CuriosityMovementRhythmCommunity

Language Arts

  • Fairy tales and folktales
  • Indigenous people’s stories
  • Nature stories
  • Upper and lowercase letters
  • Writing sentences, stories, and poems
  • Reading beginner texts

Social Studies

  • Festival celebrations
  • Multicultural folktales

Science

  • Nature walks and observations
  • Outdoor education

Math

  • Quality of numbers
  • Introduction to addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division
  • Mental math and form drawing

Spanish Language

  • Spanish games, stories, songs
  • Vocabulary of colors, animals, numbers
  • Basic greetings and phrases
  • Latin American cultural traditions

Visual Arts

  • Wet-on-wet watercolor painting
  • Beeswax modeling
  • Crayon drawing

Practical Arts

  • Handwork (knitting)
  • Seasonal crafting

Theater

  • Re-enactment of fairy tales
  • Class play
  • Assembly performances

Music

  • Pentatonic flutes
  • Lyres
  • Singing

Athletics and Movement

  • Folk dance
  • Outdoor recesses (two per day)
  • Games and movement
  • Sensory integration movement work incorporated into daily main lesson

Field Trips and Community Service

First Grade In-Depth

Interested in learning more about our first grade curriculum? Complete the form and we'll email you our in-depth first grade brochure that offers expanded information on The Denver Waldorf education.

Second Grade

Awareness of others and ourselves

Building on a foundation of security and creativity, second graders move toward self-awareness and the subjective world of feeling. Mind-body integration thoughtfully prepares students for traditional academic topics. When students feel the lesson, they internalize it. Reading and writing are the crescendo of the year.

WonderJoyCompassionTendernessSorrow

Language Arts

  • Multicultural stories and fables of saints or heroic figures
  • Introduction to grammar
  • Writing stories and compositions
  • Recitation of poetry
  • Group and individual reading
  • Cursive writing

Social Studies

  • Festival celebrations
  • Legends of saintly and heroic people from many cultures
  • Stories from indigenous peoples

Science

  • Nature study and seasonal observation
  • Outdoor education

Math

  • The four arithmetic processes
  • Place value
  • Patterns in numbers
  • Regrouping
  • Mental math
  • Math games and form drawing

Spanish Language

  • Pronunciation through games, verses, and poems
  • Vocabulary of greetings, commands, parts of the body, clothing & seasons
  • South American cultural traditions and geography

Visual Arts

  • Wet-on-wet watercolor painting
  • Beeswax modeling
  • Crayon drawing
  • Form drawing

Practical Arts

  • Handwork (crocheting and knitting)
  • Seasonal crafting

Theater

  • Re-enactment of fables and legends
  • Class play
  • Assembly performances

Music

  • Pentatonic flutes
  • Lyres
  • Singing

Athletics and Movement

  • Outdoor recesses (two per day)
  • Folk dance
  • Games and movement
  • Daily exercises to develop fine and gross motor skills

Field Trips and Community Service

Second Grade In-Depth

Interested in learning more about our first grade curriculum? Complete the form and we'll email you our in-depth first grade brochure that offers expanded information on The Denver Waldorf education.

Third Grade

Finding oneself through direct experience

Between ages nine and ten, children experience a significant change in consciousness. They awake to a greater sense of identity and learn the impermanence of life and death. They seek real and practical knowledge (how to build a house or tend to an animal) and work to protect their own inner space. Along with traditional academic progress, our curriculum includes story interpretation, recitation, form drawing, stage performance, learning the recorder, and the introduction to playing a string instrument.

Testing limitsExperiential learningAsserting oneselfFinding one’s place

Language Arts

  • Hebrew legends
  • Grammar and spelling
  • Writing stories and composition
  • Recitation of poetry
  • Reading aloud

Social Studies

  • Festival celebrations
  • Ancient Hebrew culture
  • Shelters

Science

  • Farming
  • Gardening
  • Nature observation
  • Cooking and preserving food

Math

  • Measurement (liquid, dry, linear, weight, time)
  • Money
  • Long multiplication and long division

Spanish Language

  • Vocabulary of feelings, families, holidays, foods, and home
  • Practice of pronunciation through cultural songs
  • Cultural focus on Spanish-speaking countries in the Caribbean

Visual Arts

  • Wet-on-wet watercolor painting
  • Beeswax and clay modeling
  • Crayon/colored pencil drawing
  • Form drawing

Practical Arts

  • Handwork (weaving, plant-dyeing, knitting, crocheting)
  • Shelter building
  • Cooking and canning
  • Seasonal crafting

Theater

  • Re-enactment of stories
  • Class play
  • Assembly performances

Music

  • Recorder
  • Singing
  • Strings

Athletics and Movement

  • Outdoor recesses (two per day)
  • Folk dance
  • Games and movement
  • Daily rhythm/coordination exercises

Field Trips, Overnight Trip, and Community Service

Third Grade In-Depth

Interested in learning more about our first grade curriculum? Complete the form and we'll email you our in-depth first grade brochure that offers expanded information on The Denver Waldorf education.

Fourth Grade

I have arrived!

Although still deep in the heart of childhood, fourth graders gain intellectual ground, realizing they are an individual among many — and must appreciate differences. Along with traditional academia, they study map drawings, mythology, calligraphy, clay modeling, speech work, and reading music. Main lesson books become radiant with vast compositions of self-directed artwork.

Self-awarenessSteadinessSeparatenessIndividuality

Language Arts

  • Norse mythology
  • Native culture
  • Grammar
  • Writing (including with fountain pen)
  • Recitation of poetry

Social Studies

  • Festival celebrations
  • Nordic culture
  • Colorado geography and history
  • Native American practical life
  • Map-making

Science

  • Zoology: “Human Being and Animal”
  • Nature walks and observations
  • Outdoor education

Math

  • Fractions
  • Multiple digit long multiplication and division

Spanish Language

  • Read aloud short stories
  • Vocabulary of counting, time, seasons, directions
  • Cultural focus on Mexico and Mexican influence in Colorado

Visual Arts

  • Wet-on-wet watercolor painting
  • Clay modeling
  • Crayon/colored pencil drawing
  • Form drawing (weaving patterns, Celtic knots)

Practical Arts

  • Handwork (cross-stitch, embroidery)
  • Seasonal crafting

Theater

  • Re-enactment of stories
  • Class play
  • Assembly performances

Music

  • Recorders
  • Singing rounds and choral music
  • Strings

Athletics and Movement

  • Outdoor recesses (two per day)
  • Folk dance
  • Games and movement
  • Daily rhythm/coordination exercises

Curriculum Project on Topic of Interest

  • Animal project

Fourth Grade In-Depth

Interested in learning more about our first grade curriculum? Complete the form and we'll email you our in-depth first grade brochure that offers expanded information on The Denver Waldorf education.

Fifth Grade

The heart of childhood

Fifth grade is the golden year – a nod to ideal physiology (symmetry, heartbeat-to-breath rhythm, sense refinement) and the golden age of Greece, when mythology recedes and democracy, logic, and philosophy arise. Fifth graders penetrate the world outside themselves with openness, enthusiasm, flexibility, and harmony. They learn the Greek alphabet, take field trips to nurture the seasonal rhythm of life, and gain independence in language arts by creating their own compositions.

OpennessEnthusiasmFlexibilityHarmony

Language Arts

  • Ancient Indian, Persian, Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Greek culture and myths
  • Literature
  • Grammar and writing
  • Recitation of poetry

Social Studies

  • Festival celebrations
  • Land and culture of ancient India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece
  • Greek history
  • North American geography

Science

  • Botany

Math

  • Decimals
  • Complex fraction problems
  • Freehand geometry
  • Ratios and proportions

Spanish Language

  • Gender and plurality of nouns and adjectives
  • Verb conjugation
  • Conversational skills
  • Cultural focus on Mexico and Central America, and the Aztecs

Visual Arts

  • Wet-on-wet watercolor painting
  • Clay modeling
  • Colored-pencil drawing

Practical Arts

  • Knitting in the round on four needles to potentially make mittens, hats, and socks
  • Seasonal crafting
  • Woodworking

Theater

  • Re-enactment of stories
  • Class play
  • Assembly performances

Music

  • Recorders
  • Singing
  • Strings ensemble
  • Woodwinds and brass

Athletics and Movement

  • Outdoor recesses (two per day)
  • Folk dance
  • Physical education
  • Daily rhythm/coordination exercises
  • Pentathlon training

Class Trip and Community Service

Curriculum Project on Topic of Interest

  • Research, written report, artistic project, and community presentation

Fifth Grade In-Depth

Interested in learning more about our first grade curriculum? Complete the form and we'll email you our in-depth first grade brochure that offers expanded information on The Denver Waldorf education.