"The small child is a being of will and imitation. He identifies himself with each gesture, intonation, mood, and thought of his environment, making these his own in his play. Let us make ourselves worthy of his imitation." -R. Steiner
"All young children, no matter what their gifts, are artists at heart. When the inner artist is touched, the child's creative energies and mental capacities unfold easily, drawing the child into deeper study." -R. Steiner |
Programs
 We offer Grades One through Eight, Kindergarten, Nursery and Parent-Child Classes. The Early Childhood classes, as well as Grades One, Two and Three are held at our Presidio Campus. Grades Four through Eight attend the River Bend Campus on River Road in the Binghampton Rural Historic Landscape District. In addition to beautifully appointed classrooms, we have engaging outdoor play areas and gardens for both the Early Childhood and Grades children.
Parent-Child Classes at the Presidio Campus:
Parent/Child classes are offered at the Tucson Waldorf School to serve families with infants and toddlers. Playgroup classes are a fun way to connect with other parents and to share the joys (and challenges) of parenting our very young children. Classes are taught once a week in eight-week sessions. The parent/infant classes are ninety minutes long and the parent/child classes are two hours long. The classes are structured to be peaceful and relaxing, and the environment is carefully arranged for creative play. All classes are facilitated by an experienced Waldorf teacher. Each class includes playtime, discussion, observation, snack, singing, circle and lap games. Seasonal crafts and stories are also part of the curriculum. Waldorf ideas and other relevant parenting topics are brought by the facilitator to share, or discussion topics may come out of the parents' questions.
Please call the Presidio Campus office at 325-5514 for class times and detailed registration information.
Parent-Child Class Application
Nursery Program at the Presidio Campus:
Marigold Garden:
Our Nursery Program is designed as an environment where the young child is surrounded by warmth, tenderness and love. The rhythmic order of daily, weekly and seasonal activities gives children a sense of security. The children's need for both movement and rest determines the arrangement of daily events and activities. Our nursery class is smaller than the kindergarten classes and a is led by a full-time experienced and dedicated Waldorf-trained teacher and full-time assistant. We offer two, three and five-day nursery programs.
Mixed-Age Kindergartens at the Presidio Campus:
Star Garden, Red Rose Garden and Sun Garden:
Our early childhood program is designed to nurture creativity and imagination in our children. Each class is led by an experienced and dedicated Waldorf-trained teacher. We believe that creative, flexible thinking is born of the childhood experience of imaginative play. There are many years to be a serious student, and few in which one can truly play. The protection of childhood is one of our main values. Our kindergarten classes have a maximum of eighteen children with a full-time teacher and full-time assistant. We offer a five-day kindergarten program.
In Waldorf schools, the mixed-age nursery and mixes-age kindergarten allow children in contemporary smaller families to experience the social learning opportunity of helping younger children or being helped by older children. This sets a tone and establishes the example of cooperation that is evident on the play yard.
Our nursery and kindergarten classes, true to Waldorf Education, are beautiful and homelike, full of soft colors and playthings of natural materials. Activities such as painting, free play, circle games, and story time fall into a predictable weekly rhythm. The natural rhythms of the year are also honored through story, circle time, and verse. Our Waldorf Kindergarten centers on beauty and reverence: beauty in our surroundings, beauty in our speech, reverence for our selves, reverence for our surroundings and others.
The preschool years are of great importance in laying the foundation for healthy adult creativity and intelligence. Today, nearly one thousand Waldorf Schools around the world promote true self-discipline, sound development, and solid learning through the head, heart and hands approach, striving to offer the right stimulus at the right time and to help each child's abilities to fully unfold. The curriculum, begun in 1919, is a successful model for holistic education.
In the first seven years, the child seeks to see the world as a place of goodness. These early years are a period of joy and exuberance during which the child will absorb and imitate everything he or she sees, and during which the learning will flow through the movements of the child. Therefore, the teacher seeks to lead the work of the class in a kind, conscious, loving manner that is worthy of imitation and the child learns by doing.
Great care is taken in planning and providing an entry into school life that fosters wonder, joy, and possibility as the early foundations for a life-long love of learning. The Waldorf preschool/kindergarten experience is meant to enliven the imagination and lovingly guide each child toward an understanding of the world and to plant the seeds for a successful school and adult life.
The early childhood day includes: Dance and Movement • Painting • Hand-crafts • Puppetry • Singing • Story-time • Outdoor activities • Cooperative and creative play
Sample Kindergarten Schedule
Welcome, Outside Play (Gardening, Wood Work, Obstacle Courses, Creative Play, etc.)
8:30a. - 9:45am
Transition to Inside
9:45am - 10:00am
Bathroom, Snack Set-up
10:00am
Circle Activities (Developmental Movement, Music, Rhythm)
10:20am
Snack
10:45am
Clean-up ; Rest
11:00am - 11:15am
Inside Play (Painting, Baking, Coloring, Modeling, Crafts, Imaginitive Play, etc.)
11:15am - 12:10pm
Clean-up
12:10pm
Story Telling
12:15pm
Dismissal 12:30pm
Grades Program:
Grades One, Two and Three attend the Presidio Campus, Grades Four through Eight attend the River Bend Campus:
The uniqueness of the Waldorf curriculum lies primarily in how and when the children are taught, rather than in what is taught. In presenting the material, first comes the encounter; then encounter becomes experience; and out of experience the concept is crystallized. Perception, feeling, idea: three steps in a genuine learning process that prepares the intellect for the abstract and conceptual thinking which will become possible later, in adolescence.
Waldorf schools are organized to make the relationship between student and teacher as fruitful as possible. In the elementary grades, this is accomplished by the unique Class Teacher/Main Lesson system. Each morning the children spend the first period of the day - the two-hour main lesson - with their Class Teacher. Rather than using textbooks, the children create their own books, called Main Lesson Books. (LInk to Gallery of Waldorf Main Lesson Work.)
During this morning time when young minds are freshest, they will intensively study a block from one of the core subjects such as mathematics, language arts, history or science. In this way the rhythm of the day begins with work which requires the most attention, and each academic subject can receive special focus during the course of the year.
The teacher has time to enter each subject in depth and to approach it in a variety of ways; time to enliven each topic with poetry, painting, modeling, and drama. Thus, intellectual learning is always combined with artistic, rhythmical, and practical work. After about a month, when one topic has been fully explored, a new Main lesson block is introduced.
Subjects that require regular repetition in shorter lessons (foreign languages, for example) occupy the later part of the morning. Afternoons are devoted to activities that are more social in nature: games and sports, painting, handwork, and gardening.
There is a wonderful coordination and harmony of subject material throughout the curriculum. What is being taken up in each Main Lesson block appears in subtle ways in the activities of the afternoon. The challenges of handwork and the fine arts are treated not as separate, unimportant "options" but as vital parts of a complete education.
Two great rhythms work concurrently in the Waldorf grade school: the daily rhythm of lessons, and the rhythm of seasonal festivals celebrated throughout the year. The student of this age (seven to fourteen) needs the ordering quality of rhythmic activity in order to develop the security and confidence necessary for academic achievement and self-disciplined work habits.
The close relationship established between a class and its teacher in the main academic subjects is balanced by other lessons taught by specialists. Specialty subjects such as foreign languages, music, eurythmy, handwork, and movement are taught by teachers with the necessary specialized skills, and those teachers are called "Specialty-Subject teachers." This arrangement of a Main Lesson teacher who follows the children as they progress through the grades and a variety of Specialty Subject teachers creates an ideal learning environment for the children. The children benefit greatly from their close relationship to their main Grades teacher and also have the opportunity to learn from the varied group of Specialty Subject teachers.
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