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Class 1: Mood of Wholeness

First graders, i.e. 6 to 7 year olds, are ready for academic exploration and are engaged in learning through movement, stories, and the arts.

The students and their Class Teacher begin a multi-year journey together. Teachers cultivate a spirit of respect and interest in learning that students will carry through the grade school years.

The fairy tale is a characteristic picture for the children in Class 1: here they listen to fairy tales from around the world on the one hand and stories of the natural and dreamtime world on the other. In essence the fairy story is a soul journey that speaks to the inner life of the child who instinctively understands the trials undergone by the hero or heroine. Listening to and retelling such stories is the foundation for literacy, numeracy and science main lessons throughout the year.

Main lessons
  • English; Mathematics; Science (Nature Studies)
English
  • Letters: Writing from drawing
  • Words/sentences: Reading from writing
Mathematics
  • Number qualities, that is the recognition of things in the world that correspond to that number:
    • one world, one me;
    • two – day/night, hot/cold, dark/light;
    • three – clover leaves, pine needles etc.
  • Counting: odds and evens
  • Introducing the four operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division through imaginative stories
  • Counting up to 100 and back from 100; aural/oral times tables
Chinese languages
  • Choice of Mandarin or Cantonese, using traditional Chinese characters
Nature Stories
  • Imaginative stories that portray aspects of Nature in general and the local environment in fairy tale form: teacher created and indigenous stories.
Other subjects
  • Form Drawing: Free hand straight & curved lines, vertical symmetry
  • Craft: Knitting
  • Painting/ Drawing
  • Games
  • Eurythmy
Music
  • Singing / Recorder: use of the Pentatonic scale
Drama
  • Class Play