Lower and Middle School
Lower School (Grades 1 - 5)
Beginning with a warm greeting every morning, grade school students develop deep and loving relationships with their teachers that are nurtured over time. Grade teachers travel with their students through the grades, while subject teachers also teach across all grades, developing close relationships with the children.
The students are deeply immersed for the first part of each day in two-to-three week blocks of learning called Main Lesson. Following the developmental guidelines of the Waldorf curriculum, every subject is enlivened through poetry, song, drama, movement, drawing, painting and experiences in the natural environment.
Lower School Curriculum
Mathematics: From the introduction of numbers, all four arithmetic operations, and form drawing through increasing complexity and application of skills in measurement, fractions, decimals, number patterns, and freehand geometric drawings.
Language Arts: From introduction of letters through proficiency in reading, writing and grammar, stories from fairy tales to legends, fables, and Old Testament, Norse, ancient Indian Persian, Babylonian and Greek mythologies.
History: From home surroundings to local history, California and American history, and many ancient cultures through Alexander the Great.
Geography: From nature stories in the garden to local geography, California geography and that of North America.
Natural Science: From experiences in the natural world to gardening, farming, shelter building and the study of animals and plants.
World Languages: Starting in Grade 1, students learn both Mandarin and Spanish languages, arts, and culture.
Middle School (Grades 6 - 8)
As students arrive on the cusp of adolescence, the rigorous PWS Middle School program challenges their emerging thinking, reasoning, and inquiry. On an ever-deepening base of foundational skills, students explore the world. Continuing artistic work in diverse fields of fine, practical, and performing arts hones the powers of perception and develops skillfulness in the context of a rigorous practice. Pasadena Waldorf Middle School students also have opportunities to experience themselves within the context of a wider social group during curricular and extracurricular activities that bring together the whole the Middle School.
Grades 7 and 8 also focus on preparing our students for the promotion to Pasadena Waldorf High School.
Middle School Curriculum
History: From Rome, through the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, Age of Enlightenment, revolutions, industrialization, and into modern times students trace the development of Western civilization to the present.
English: Foundational skills in vocabulary, grammar, composition, and writing of reference papers are developed. Elements of poetry and figurative language, including ballads, sonnets, epics, Chaucer and Shakespeare, short stories, modern American and British novels and plays are explored.
Geometry: Geometric drawing with instruments, plane geometry, solid geometry, and Platonic solids.
Mathematics: Percents, ratio, proportion, areas, formulas, algebra from the simple equation through quadratics, powers and roots, binary system, inequalities, numerical trigonometry, probability, logic and problem-solving.
Geography: Western Hemisphere and the poles, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, oceans and winds of the world, world economic geography.
Natural Sciences: Mineralogy, geology, astronomy, meteorology, human physiology and anatomy.
Physics: Optics, acoustics, heat, electricity, magnetism, hydraulics, mechanics.
Special Subjects in Lower and Middle School
Each student participates in a wide and enriching range of subjects in addition to the regular academic curriculum. Lessons in movement, color, music, language and aesthetics help students grow into well-rounded and capable human beings. Educating the hands through craft lessons in both hard and soft media over many years helps students see their own potential as learners, workers and creators. When students know that their hands can fashion yarn into clothing or a block of wood into a stool, that they can join with others to realize an instrumental or choral work, or that they can shape sounds and words, at first foreign, into meaningful communication in a foreign language, they stand well-poised to use their hearts, minds and hands to transform the world.
The following special subject classes are integrated into the school day for students in the lower school:
World Languages: All students study both Mandarin and Spanish through eighth grade
Music: Musical exploration, singing, notation, instrumental studies in both stringed and wind instruments. Middle School band, orchestra and chorus
Visual Arts: Painting, drawing, and modeling with both beeswax and clay
Performing Arts: Class plays and musicals
Mindful Movement: Accompanied by music and the spoken word, students practice movement and concentration to develop and refine their spatial and social awareness. Students work on individual exercises to enhance balance and control, and they move as a group, creating living pictures of geometrical patterns.
Manual Arts: Handwork (hand sewing, knitting, crochet, cross-stitch and machine sewing), woodwork, and practical crafts
Gardening: Soil care and seeds, garden planning, seasonal cycles and planting, harvesting and utilizing garden produce
Physical Education and Games: Cooperative outdoor movement games in the early grades, physical challenges and team sports in the middle school years
Athletics at PWS
Athletics as part of a child’s physical well-being are an integral part of the Waldorf curriculum and experience. These team sports are available to all students in Middle School and High School. The after-school sports program fosters the development of healthy young bodies and good sportsmanship, always recognizing the students’ primary obligation to their school work and to their contributions as citizens of the school community. All students have the opportunity to learn sportsmanship, develop their athleticism, and have fun. Home games are often a community event, with enthusiastic parents and other students cheering our team!
Pasadena Waldorf School is an official member of the Foothill Sports League, with our school competing against private and independent schools throughout the region. Current teams include boys’ volleyball, basketball, and soccer, and girls’ volleyball, basketball, and soccer.
PWS is pleased to welcome student-athletes (homeschool or other eligible school) to join our Middle School teams. Please visit the PWS Athletics page for more information.
