open house

a night at Davis Waldorf School

my chalk drawing of a Canadian national park

Mrs. Kost, our strings teacher, leads an ensemble

Davis Waldorf School welcomed families of current students and the outer community to experience the spirit of Waldorf at our annual Open House. Each grade and teacher showcased the curriculum in  their classrooms. While parents invariably start at their own students' classrooms, families are encouraged to begin in the early childhood and work their way up the grades. The progression of how the curriculum meets the developing child becomes artfully and thoughtfully demonstrated.

The early childhood classrooms, softly lit, swathed in hand-dyed silks, the smell of fresh-baked bread in the oven, resemble your favorite aunt's home, with welcoming rugs, pine furniture, and nature's toys of branches, pine cones, and felted wool. Guests will sense that these spaces were designed to embrace the young child in a warm, loving hug.

The lower grades' classrooms begin to show signs of academic work - the core language mechanics of the alphabet and phonics, and math skills introduced through stories, imagery, creativity, and demonstrations by the teacher. Chalkboards are filled with drawings and meticulously rendered lettering and numbering. Students' main lesson pages show how the curriculum is artistically and lovingly delivered. 

In the upper grades, guests will sense that the classroom spaces begin to support a more academic rigor as the students take on ancient civilizations, Buddhism, the Roman Empire, the Renaissance, and the Revolutionary War. Written work and higher level artistic techniques and mediums are showcased.

In the eighth grade classroom, the breadth of our curriculum was on display: a full-sized skeleton and main lesson pages with pen-and-ink cross-hatching for human anatomy, pajamas sewn with a machine in handwork, stools from woodwork, main lesson pages resembling newspaper headlines from the Industrial Revolution, chalk drawings from art class, our strings ensemble performed a couple of pieces, picketing signs with "Women's Right to Vote!" for our eighth grade play.

Our Open House allowed families to walk the journey that our students make each and every day at Davis Waldorf School.