Lower School
Grade 1 - 8
Lower School Hours
Grade 1: 8:30am – 1:10pm M,T,W,F — 12:45pm early dismissal on Thursdays
Grade 2-6: 8:30am – 3:15pm M,T,W,F — 12:45pm early dismissal on Thursdays
Grade 7 & 8: 8:00am – 3:10pm M-F
*Student must turn 6 years old prior to June 1 of enrollment year in order to join Grade 1

The lower school curriculum is dynamic and diversified, offering humanities, mathematics, science and the arts. Mastery of the traditional academic disciplines is interwoven with artistic and practical activities to provide a dynamic and engaging educational experience for every student. Unique to Waldorf elementary school is the class teacher who ideally stays with a class from 1st through 8th grade.
The rhythm of the day starts with the work that requires intellectual focus and ends with activities that engage the body and hands. First, a two-hour Main Lesson period which focuses on one subject for 3-4 weeks. This uninterrupted time is led by the class teacher who addresses three areas of child development: social skills, academic capacities and aesthetic sensibility. Each student creates a record of main lesson work in books that are filled with compositions, observations, maps, diagrams and illustrations. These colorful main lesson books are carefully crafted with attention to detail and artistic presentation and become a unique expression of each child’s learning experiences.
A snack, recess, and shorter periods follow the main lesson with subjects such as foreign language, English and math, music, painting, handwork, gardening, crafts, physical education, eurythmy (a form of movement), and gardening/farming.
Grades 7-8 mark the beginning of an apprenticeship period of education which ends with 10th grade. During these years, students begin to develop the skills necessary for life-long self-education. School days begin 30 minutes earlier, with movement before the main lesson. Arts and crafts sessions four(4) afternoons each week, broken into four-week focus periods, provide an opportunity for students to imagine, design, execute, and review projects in drawing, painting, textiles, woodworking, farming, and metalworking.

Engaging Hands, Hearts, Head, and Land
Central to Waldorf Education is a recognition of and a respect for the unfolding individuality.
The Lower School curriculum is designed to meet the child’s specific developmental needs from the early years through adolescence. Through multi-disciplinary teaching methods such as the use of art, music, movement and recitation in all academic subjects, lesson work is made relevant, which deepens learning and retention.
By using various methods and by taking into account the individual child’s gifts and challenges of each child, Waldorf Education can support children and adolescents in a way that brings their gifts to fruition while, at the same time, helps them cope with their challenges.
In the grade school years, children are led to an exploration of meaning through awakening interest, enthusiasm and love for the subject at hand.
Curriculum
There are many elements in the Waldorf education curriculum — all designed with a multi-sensory approach in mind and a goal to meet the child at every developmental stage.
MAIN LESSON: The Main Lesson is a 3 to 4-week, intensive focus on one academic subject for around two hours in the beginning of their day. Teachers engage students in these two hours using lecture, movement, art, music, recitation, lab work and more to make learning academic subjects relevant and engaging.
Special Subjects and Topics:
Foreign Language (Spanish) • Farming • Eurythmy (movement) • Physical Education • Handwork • Drawing Painting • Music
Field Trips: Waldorf education emphasizes experiential learning, and field trips are an essential part of their curriculum. Each grade level takes specific field trips that align with the developmental stage of the students and the subjects they are studying. These trips are designed to deepen their learning through real-world experiences.
Learn more about the importance of Summerfield's field trips and where our students go.
View Class Detail by Grade (available on desktop view only)
Grade 1 (Age 6-7)
As children greet their teacher for the first handshake, an eight-year journey begins through childhood and into adolescence. This journey is a time when gaining knowledge of the world must be experienced with one’s whole being, a time when truths clothed in imagination nourish the child’s soul and become seeds for free, independent thinking. The elements of the core curriculum are as follows:
FOCUS: Transition to formal learning, nurturing a love for stories and letters.
MAIN LESSONS: Fairy tales, introduction to letters (through pictures and stories), numbers, form drawing, nature studies.
SKILLS: Writing, reading, basic arithmetic, artistic expression.
DRAWING: Weekly drawing lessons use images from the fairy tales to teach techniques for drawing basic shapes such as people, houses, trees, etc., using block crayons to draw from out of the color. Lines become color limits, and the blending of colors is a major theme.
PAINTING: The class works mainly with primary colors, experiencing the living quality of each color and its relationship to the others.
MUSIC: Daily children sing in the pentatonic mood of the fifth and play pentatonic flutes.
HANDWORK: The first grade begins the year by creating their own knitting needles through sanding, waxing and polishing. Students learn how to knit and are introduced to the basic skills of casting on and off. They knit squares and learn to shape them into animals by sewing, stuffing, adding tails, ears, etc. Their creativity and powers of decision are being developed for more complicated tasks in later years.
Field Trip: Simple nature walks and farm visits to connect with the natural world.
Field Trips
The “WHY” behind field trips and what the significance of the location and learning is for each Lower School grade.
Waldorf Education emphasizes experiential learning, and field trips are an essential part of their curriculum. Each grade level takes specific field trips that align with the developmental stage of the students and the subjects they are studying. These trips are designed to deepen their learning through real-world experiences. These trips provide hands-on learning, foster independence, and strengthen the class community. The structure is intentional, supporting both academic subjects and students' social-emotional development at each stage.
Lower School
1st & 2nd Grade: Simple nature walks and farm visits to connect with the natural world.
3rd Grade: Trips to farms or homesteads, reinforcing their study of farming, shelters, and practical life skills.
4th Grade: Local geography trips, often including visits to rivers, mountains, or historical sites.
5th Grade: A "Greek Olympics" event, supporting their studies of Ancient Greece and physical education.
6th Grade: Geology field trips, medieval history tours, and physics-related excursions.
7th Grade: Renaissance-inspired trips, such as visits to museums and historical sites.
8th Grade: A culminating trip, often including outdoor adventures, cultural experiences, or service-learning projects
A glimpse into our Lower School








