Innovative Teaching: Morning Main Lesson

How the school day begins in a Waldorf School

Mornings at Marin Waldorf School always begin in the same way: The old iron bell rings, classroom doors open, and teachers step outside to greet each of their students with a handshake. Then a hush falls over the school as main lesson begins.

What Is Main Lesson?

Main lesson is an intensive two-hour class that starts every school day for students in grades 1 to 8. The most in-depth class of the day, main lesson is taught first thing the morning, when children are most receptive, alert, and able to concentrate on complex topics. Every teacher has their own approach to main lesson, which may begin with a song or a verse, stretches, or a morning warmup outside. Then it’s time to dive into review, new content, book work, reading, and hands-on projects.

One Block at a Time

One aspect of main lesson that makes it particularly effective is that teachers present new material in blocks. This means that the whole class focuses on a single subject in the curriculum for a “block” of two to four weeks, allowing students to develop a thorough understanding before moving on to the next topic. At any given time on the Marin Waldorf School campus, 2nd graders might tackling word problems in a math block while 4th graders study Norse mythology and 8th graders delve into human anatomy.

Block teaching allows the students to explore subjects in depth and cultivates a deeper understanding by providing the time to incorporate additional multi-sensory modes of learning about the subject, including outdoor activities, hands-on science experiments, art, movement, and group projects.

Core subjects such as language arts, math, music, and visual art are always integrated into the block, allowing them to be practiced regularly and taught in context, a more engaging approach for most students. For example, in the 5th grade botany block, students delve into the world of plants through instruction in the botanical life cycle, observation and schematic illustration, and hands-on and experiential work in the school garden or hiking in the open space.

There Are No Textbooks in Our Classrooms

While every classroom has its own library and reading spaces, you won’t find any textbooks at Marin Waldorf School. With the teacher’s guidance, students create their own “textbooks,” with illustrations and summaries of the material presented in class. These are known as main lesson books.

Below, you can see two examples of main lesson book pages from blocks on the Struggle for Rights (8th grade) and Patters in Math (2nd grade).

The creation of a main lesson book is one of the ways Waldorf teachers incorporate art, creativity, and meaning into every lesson, encouraging recollection and a personal connection to the material. In a Waldorf school, children don’t reference textbooks to remember their lessons, but their own handmade work.

Why Do We Teach This Way?

We teach in blocks because it allows students to engage more deeply with and truly understand the material they are studying. The positive outcomes of block teaching and longer, more immersive lesson times were noted at Masconomet Regional High School, where faculty worked with researchers at Harvard University to conduct a pilot study of these teaching methods. Their results showed that "students were better known by their teachers, were responded to with more care, did more writing, pursued issues in greater depth, enjoyed their classes more, felt more challenged, and gained deeper understandings."