Morning Circle activities centre children in themselves: mind, body and soul. Wholehearted recitation in chorus feeds their imagination through poetry’s word-pictures. Acting out a poem’s characters together engages the class in moral activity, and miming actions with purposeful gestures naturally trains dramatic expression. Singing songs about the seasons, and topics that range from practical to spiritual, fills the soul with harmony.
All this puts young children inwardly in touch with the world. At their Age of Imitation, they learn about the world by absorbing and imitating what adults present. This process of learning by immersion is most effective in an atmosphere of reliable mutual sympathy. At school, it rests on the children’s love for their teacher, and on his or her knowledgeable and respectful leadership.
In the first three school years, a Morning Circle follows the Waldorf school day’s meditative beginning. This time of guided movement prepares the children’s heart and mind for the following period of sitting calmly at their desk. Their need for inner and outer movement having been met, they can now work with mental focus.
Morning Circle Requirements
Above all, the Morning Circle trains clear speech, tuneful singing and a sense of rhythm from the very first day. Balancing and skipping, social awareness and teamwork, mental maths and spelling exercises may be integrated at times, together with items that arise from the Main Lesson topic or the current situation.
Notably, Waldorf Education is unique in giving speech formation and recitation, music, movement and drama equal importance to academic subjects. And that is why Waldorf class teachers must have sufficient training in these fields.
Waldorf alumni who become class teachers are well prepared. They absorbed the artistic nuances of recitation, singing, music and Eurythmy early on, at an age when these bypass the intellect and become second nature – just like learning to speak a foreign language with the proper accent. In teacher training, these dormant skills can be revived with little effort.
By contrast, trainee Waldorf teachers with a mainstream background usually need extra tuition and continuous personal development to reach the required standard. All this takes time.
Necessary Skills
Indeed, Waldorf class teaching is a highly demanding profession. Much can be learnt ‘on the job’ – but not the language-, movement- and musical arts. And because these arts touch, move and influence a child’s soul directly, so do any blunders.
From the very first day of Class 1, Waldorf teachers apply a wide range of skills. They read music, play the recorder, use Eurythmy’s ensouled gestures with their recitation and singing during the first years – and all this is just as important as knowing the particulars of literacy and numeracy. They are sensitive to poetry’s rhyme schemes and rhythms, enunciate clearly, recite with feeling, move harmoniously and sing well.
On the other hand, if a teacher were to mangle the Morning Verse daily, he or she would be doing actual harm to the class. Jerky movements and an inability to sing would likewise disqualify a candidate from this demanding role that is so much more than a regular job.
General Aim and Purpose
Especially in the first three classes, reciting and singing to meaningful movements must model the human being at its well-rounded best. As the children imitate their teacher’s gestures and echo his or her voice, they initially absorb, and then reflect the lighthearted enjoyment and humour, the gratitude and reverence, the sincerity, devotion and harmony they are shown.
Our Morning Circle calls up such positive emotions every day. It develops and enriches the children’s inner life with rhymes, rhythms and harmonies that are health-giving sustenance for mind and soul. In doing so, it builds on a way of adult-child communication that has always been part of human culture.
“There are many good reasons for using music and rhymes with young children. The first and most important reason is that most children and adults enjoy it enormously. If we need more justification than that then it provides excellent speech practice and voice control – some children who have speech difficulties actually find it easier to sing than to talk.
Although many rhymes and songs are simple in content they increase vocabulary, and the repeated patterns of sequences and words and rhythm are good memory exercises. The ritual of taking turns and conforming to the ‘rules’, and the communication there can be in sharing an experience which crosses both age and cultural gaps, are useful factors in social development. (…)
This helps to create a group identity and also enables children to get to know others and be known. The new songs and poems children take home are a valuable link between home and group (…)”
from Elizabeth Matterson’s preface to This Little Puffin (1969)
Cultural Awareness
Importantly, your Morning Circle immerses the class daily in their culture’s local, artistic and spiritual quality. It ought to go without saying that you apply tact in your choices and select only items that cannot be deemed offensive from any cultural perspective.
Weeding out chaff from wholesome fare, as a class teacher you play a part in keeping alive and passing on what is best in your region’s poetic treasury. And by introducing songs and poems from other nations, you help to raise children as true citizens of the world; aiming to instil openness to all cultures and their achievements.
Composing a Morning Circle
In the first year, a Morning Circle programme should take around 40 minutes. Its sequence of songs, verses, poems, speech exercises and activities is composed with several cornerstones in mind:
- seasonal nature awareness, at times linked to a religious festival
- the Main Lesson topic
- the needs of the group
- the training of age-appropriate skills
- social awareness and mindful teamwork
This well-considered sequence moves through contemplative and exuberant moods in a breathing rhythm that helps to strengthen the life-processes of the children’s entire organism. Such a programme is usually linked to the duration of a Main Lesson block, but items are dropped and new ones added as seems fitting.
Repetition Builds Confidence
Young children love the repetition of familiar and enjoyable things. In fast-moving times, the faithfully repeated sequence of the daily Morning Circle meets their need for a predictability that gives comfort and security. Its meaningful and continuous artistic flow focuses the children. It entertains and unites the group and gives no cause for wilful disturbance.
Finally: The teacher’s enjoyment of his or her Morning Circle is essential in transmitting this joy to the class.
The chapters of A WALDORF DIARY include a matching Morning Circle with musical scores and explanatory footnotes. By exchanging its English poems, verses, songs, games and exercises with corresponding ones from the folk treasury of your culture, you can adapt them easily without losing its rhythm and stream of purpose. These sample pages show their practical layout:
These Morning Circle programmes can also be used to teach English as a foreign language. They immerse children in sounds and expressions in an age-appropriate way that meets their need to absorb language through imitation and meaningful movement.
Comments are welcome, so don’t hesitate to share experiences, questions and feedback below.
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What a wonderful insight!
Thank you, Terri, I’m pleased you found it helpful.