Current seventh grade class revisiting the pyramid
Waldorf education lays the foundation for each individual to experience the internalization of mathematical thinking. Like all Waldorf curricula math lessons are carefully planned to meet the needs of the developing child. Math lessons are brought through many subjects and modalities, while mindfully educating and experiencing math through the hands, heart and head. Waldorf math education involves movement, music, rhythm, art, form drawing, language, creativity, curiosity and wonder, creating a truly multi-sensory approach to mathematics. As a result, Waldorf students acquire a deep mathematical understanding that they carry throughout their lives.
Below is a brief overview of how math progresses through the grades.
Math Through the Grades
The rhythm of the day, of nursery rhymes and poems, and the social considerations of how many friends need a place setting or a swing are all integral parts of the youngest child’s day in a Waldorf early childhood classroom.
Grade 1 – The story of King Plus, Queen Minus, Magician Multiply and Doctor Divide
In first grade, students learn that numbers exist everywhere in the world, especially in nature. Through this holistic approach to learning math, the special significance of the number one is discovered (as in one universe, one human being) and students explore the numbers that are found within each being (each person has two eyes and two ears, four limbs, and so on). In this way, the mystery of numbers is introduced and is further explored through the grades. In first grade, the four math processes are taught simultaneously because they reinforce each other (multiplication is fast addition, division is fast subtraction) and while learning math facts we begin to develop a general number sense which is so important for subsequent work in mathematics.
Grade 2 – Counting star for the four table
In third grade, practical math activities such as measuring, understanding the calendar, and furthering comfort with the four mathematical operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) are the bulk of the math program.
In fourth grade, working with fractions is a perfect topic because the children are experiencing an “existential fragmentation” of their world as they begin to separate from their parents and the journey toward puberty begins.
Grade 4 – The fraction tree
In fifth grade, comfort with decimals as additional expressions of fractions is a central math theme.
Sixth grade is a time to deepen the math learned thus far, and be introduced to the concepts of business math and more formal geometry lessons.
In seventh grade, learning about ratios (relationships of one number to another) complements the child’s experience of working through relationships between themselves and the world. During the seventh grade year, we continue with geometry studies and add formal algebra into the curriculum (although algebraic thinking has been part of the math work through all of the grades).
The culminating year, eighth grade, is dedicated to deepening the algebra work, geometry of solids, and might also include work with number bases and loci, among other math topics.
Along the way, math terminology and general concepts are also taught through the languages of German and Spanish, and all of the math work is beautifully complemented by many handwork activities and eurhythmy designed to bring mathematical understanding into the will.
By Dianne McGaunn, 8th Grade Math Teacher and Math Mentor