In first grade, children are gloriously ripe for structured academic learning. The seven-year old is ready to formally build on the foundations for literacy and numeracy nurtured in the Kindergarten. These foundations serve as critical supports for lifelong learning and robust, confident thinking. In first grade, literacy begins with a love of language. Students are immersed in a rich vocabulary and vivid imagery through the practice of oral storytelling.

Uppercase letters are introduced in a way that brings joy to children – through pictograms or movements that evoke the letter’s essence, and students learn to read by writing and playing with the sounds of language.

The development of a “sense of number” (numeracy) is critical for using arithmetic and understanding mathematics. Much time is spent building this scaffolding which is necessary for all future work in mathematics.The strength of Windsong’s curriculum lies in its attention to foundations and capacities. Daily artistic activities allow children to take hold of all they have learned during the school day, movement in every lesson serves to build up children’s mental pathways for learning, and a breathing rhythm to the school day allows children to settle into their work.

Each year the curriculum changes to meet children where they are developmentally, and in first grade the fairy tales serve as the leitmotif for the year. Windsong educators work with the child’s changing consciousness, guiding growth according to developmental unfolding, rather than directing growth from the outside according to outcome-based mandates.

In first grade, students still naturally feel themselves very much part of the group. In second grade, students begin to loosen up from the group a bit – they start to feel themselves more as individuals. They are ready to try out “standing on their own two feet”, and they experience this as a new sense of freedom. Though up to now, children have been living with parental and cultural group ethics, this new flirtation with freedom ushers in the possibility of conscious moral development. Second graders are experimenting with freedom, and begin to develop a moral code. This means they are often very naughty! Trickster tales and Aesop’s fables reflect this naughtiness, and serve as a common thread throughout the year.

Separation from the group brings with it the experience of duality. This is addressed in the curriculum with a focus on polarities – me and you, up and down, mine and not mine, fast and slow, ad infinitum. In a year of duality, the polar opposite of the fables must be brought as well, and consequently stories of heroes and saints also form a theme for the year.

Students continue working with the four processes, addition and subtraction, and multiplication and division. Place value is taught this year and students continue to memorize math facts such as the multiplication and division tables. Cursive writing is often introduced and students begin working more explicitly with phonics and the mechanics of reading.

At some point in the third or fourth grade year, students will realize that childhood is ending. This is often referred to as the “9-year change”. The story that most perfectly meets the inner experience of this realization is the story of Adam and Eve’s expulsion from the Garden of Eden.

Freedom has a new feel to it in the third grade. The thrill of naughtiness has worn off and the full import of freedom begins to take hold of the soul – freedom and independence are understood to be linked. The gravity of this situation does not escape the child, and they seem heavier day by day.

Supporting a child’s confidence in his or her ability to become independent is the gesture of the Third-Grade year. This is done through helping children develop practical skills, learning about human vocations and how people make a way for themselves in the world and experiencing the world with many curriculum-based field trips.

Fifth graders have gained a measure of self-assurance with the accumulation of experience and academic skills. Little do they know that they stand at the fulcrum point between childhood and adulthood, and the coming onset of adolescence will bring more opportunities to grow through the struggle of major life transitions. Fifth grade students study the Greek myths, and often reenact the Pentathlon as part of their studies. To get a feel for fifth grade, imagine a student preparing to (beautifully) throw a javelin – fifth grade would be the moment when the arm has withdrawn in preparation for launching (into puberty, in this case).

Students study the world with the capacity for objectivity that emerged in fourth grade. This year botany is a major block of study, and students practice observing the world with focus. The world around can be viewed anew as students discover previously hidden properties of plants.

Geography expands outward as students study North American geography. Decimals and percentages are introduced to complement the fifth grader’s knowledge of fractions. Students also begin to study geometry and combine aesthetics and math to create freehand geometric forms.

The clumsiness of sixth and seventh grade students is legendary. In the sixth-grade, students contend with the physical, cognitive and emotional changes brought about by puberty. The physical clumsiness caused by physical changes is mirrored by cognitive and emotional clumsiness. Social clumsiness also abounds, and is one reason why students in middle school can have a “bad reputation”.

Sixth grade students often shock parents and teachers with the development of what seems an un-nuanced “black and white” moral code. Sixth graders, in many ways, are beginners all over again. For beginners, structure and rules are welcomed supports. Students often begin to play organized sports in P.E. class, and during recess tend toward games with clear and absolute rules.

Rome, with its system of laws and imposition of authority, mirrors the sixth grader’s desire for order. Geography continues to expand outward with studies of Africa and Europe.

Students continue to practice scientific observation with the study of minerals and geology. As sixth graders feel themselves grow more dense and “earthbound” day by day, the study of earth and its properties resonates with their reality. To complement this study, astronomy is brought, as well.

Physics is an exciting course of study in the sixth-grade year, as students have the cognitive capacity to work with abstractions and the laws of cause and effect appeal to their desire for order and consequence. Business math and geometry comprise the mathematics curriculum.