Introducing A WALDORF DIARY
This class teacher’s memoir shows how to craft engaging lessons, develop a topic and set creative tasks. Reducing preparation time, doubt, anxiety and stress, its examples also want to inspire teachers to adapt its England-based content to their own cultural setting.
It is not prescriptive and shows one possible way among many, so use A WALDORF DIARY as you would use one of many cookery books. As a beginner you will be reassured by its step-by-step guidance as you gain experience and confidence. As an experienced cook you will be glad of a time-saving resource and know how to adapt its recipes to your needs. And as a seasoned chef you may be looking for new ways of presenting your repertoire.
A WALDORF DIARY is structured in seven yearly sections, each one containing Main Lesson chapters of about one month each. These Main Lesson chapters are a sequence of lesson plans, one page for each day, and follow the same format with a list of instructions and observations, explanatory comments, recommendations or classroom conversations.
The lesson plans are supplemented with a wide variety of illustrative examples: blackboard drawings, stories, presentation notes, worksheets, templates, recommended materials, sample letters to the parents, examples of bookwork, projects, artwork and seasonal crafts.
Each Main Lesson guide comes with a free chapter of songs, poems, verses and exercises for the start of the day. This free chapter includes mentoring comments and music scores, and it attributes the material’s sources, as far as they are known.
To find out if this comprehensive guide is the right resource for you, you can download the entire first chapter for free:
Each one of A WALDORF DIARY‘s Main Lesson chapters …
- models an example of what Waldorf teaching is and what it can achieve
- gives authentic insights into a Waldorf classroom
- illustrates how learning through an artistic approach works
- helps non-artistic educators to present topics in an artistic way
- shows how the artistic practices of early years evolve in the Middle School
- assists new teachers and home educators with examples of best practice
- charts a continuous stream of purposeful lesson content through seven years
- models an age-appropriate approach, inspired by Rudolf Steiner’s indications
- provides a detailed plan of each Main Lesson’s core content with suitable materials
- frees up valuable hours for adapting this content to the requirements of your group
- shows how a Main Lesson can be begun, developed and rounded off in limited time
- provides the solid general foundation on which to build an individual approach
- presents tried-and-tested traditional content alongside successful new ideas
- features stories and well-researched topic summaries as handy presentation notes
- demonstrates how the children’s soul forces are trained incrementally, day by day
- shows how their horizon is widened in an unpressured, unhurried and enjoyable way
In summary, this guide assists class teachers and home educators with editable daily lesson plans, presentation notes, mentoring comments and examples of work. Its chapters are currently being formatted for digital publication and released in turn. To be notified of such releases, subscribe here:
Check the progress of publication at the schedule, read testimonials and download your free chapter. For prices and details of available chapters, visit the shop page:
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Comments are welcome, so don’t hesitate to share experiences, questions and feedback below.
Hello Fabienne, I am really happy with your ‘Waldorf Diary’ for Class 4! I was wondering: you mention children writing and drawing in their Diary when they arrive. What do you mean by Diary in this context? Thanks in advance for your answer!
Dear Lucine, how delightful to learn that you are enjoying my work! I gave my group a blank book at the start of Class 3, explained the concept of a diary and let them write short entries that were then illustrated. This informal diary work was done off and on throughout the years: at the start of the morning in certain Main Lessons, when covering subject lessons, or as extra work for those who finished a task ahead of time. Everyone did diary work at their own speed and level of skill, and the outcome was never marked, assessed or discussed. But it gave me valuable insights into the current state of a child´s mind – for example at the death of a beloved pet, which alerted me to the need for special consideration that week, promptly relayed to our subject teachers. The children liked to look back on their previous entries from year to year, sharing memories while noticing and commenting on their visible progress in handwriting, spelling and syntax. And the parents found it a precious record of their child´s inner life across their time in the Lower School.
I am looking to see if there are other grade levels that will be coming out for the diary publications as well as pricing for these materials
Hi Brianne, thank you for your interest. My guide comprises the 70 topics I taught in seven years – no more and no less. You will find prices and other details at the SHOP page. To be notified when the next chapter is published, please hop on my email list under SUBSCRIBE.