elementary school
At Marin Waldorf School, a child's education in academic subjects includes hands-on learning through music, painting, sculpture, movement and woodworking. Grades 1-4 is a time for children to understand the relationship between themselves and the world around them. Providing space and encouragement through this developmental stage enables the child to become stable, balanced and self-sufficient.
1st Grade
In 1st grade, students build foundational skills in numeracy, math, writing, and literacy while also learning to be good citizens of their classroom and school community.
Language Arts & Literacy: Fairy tales and children’s stories from around the world; listening, auditory memory, and comprehension skills; reciting verses and poetry; learning to identify and write letters and construct simple sentences with proper punctuation and cases.
Math: The four processes (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), simple number programs, Arabic and Roman numerals, skip counting, and pattern recognition. Read more about our multisensory approach to math here.
World languages: Spanish and Mandarin
Arts, Crafts, and Music: Watercolor, form drawing, knitting, bee’s wax modeling, recorder, choir, theater and performance, pentatonic flutes
Movement: Collaborative games
2nd Grade
Confident at school and comfortable with their classmates, 2nd graders are eager learners, ready to build on the skills and capacities they developed in 1st grade.
Language Arts & Literacy: Fables, legends, and stories of heroic individuals from around the world; recall, sequencing, and memorization skills; identifying complex consonant and vowel teams, identify parts of speech; writing more complex sentences and compositions.
Math: Mental math and the times tables; the four processes (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division); multi-digit multiplication and long division.
World languages: Spanish and Mandarin
Arts, Crafts, and Music: Watercolor, form drawing, crochet, choir, theater and performance, pentatonic flute, bee’s wax modeling
Movement: Collaborative games
3rd Grade
The study of practical arts like farming, gardening, shelter-building, and cooking are the heart of the 3rd grade curriculum.
Language Arts & Literacy: Compositions, self-editing, complex complex phonemes, sight words; Native American tales and Old Testament stories; spelling and vocabulary
Math: Telling time; measurements, weight, and volume; money; double-digit multiplication and word problems
World languages: Spanish and Mandarin
Arts, Crafts, and Music: Watercolor, form drawing, embroidery, bee’s wax modeling, recorder, singing in rounds and canons, choir, theater and performance
Movement: Collaborative games
Outdoor education: 3rd grade farm trip to Three Springs Farm
4th Grade
By 4th grade, our students are capable and enthusiastic learners, ready to dive into more complex math, science, language arts, and history.
Language Arts & Literacy: Tenses, syntax, and comparative adjectives; handwriting, punctuation, and paragraphing; Norse mythology, independent compositions; research reports,
Math: Fractions (adding, subtracting, multiplying, dividing); working with mixed numbers
Social Studies: local geography and indigenous history
World languages: Spanish and Mandarin
Arts, Crafts, and Music: Stringed instrument (violin, viola, cello), watercolor, form drawing, cross-stitch, recorder, singing in rounds and canons, choir, theater and performance,
Movement: Collaborative games
Outdoor education: Overnight field trip