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Teacher leading a lesson on math and geometry at Nevada Sage Waldorf School, engaging students with interactive and visual teaching methods in a vibrant classroom.

Elementary School

Welcome to the Waldorf Elementary School!

The Journey Begins

The first years of formal schooling are crucial. It’s where we lay a solid foundation for learning that will resonate through a child’s life. We establish these foundations in our elementary school with a curriculum that’s rich, diverse, and engaging. It’s a curriculum that evolves based on the developmental needs of each student as they grow from wide-eyed, playful first graders into confident, practical fifth graders.

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Through every developmental stage in every grade, our goal is to help students find meaning through timeless stories and first-hand experiences rather than memorization of facts and test preparation. Our students are actively engaged through rotating blocks of main lessons that weave in music, art, drama, and handwork projects, along with Spanish, gardening, athletics, and plenty of time outdoors.

Students at Nevada Sage Waldorf School performing on wooden flutes during an event, highlighting music, creativity, and immersive experiential learning.

Elementary Overview

At Nevada Sage Waldorf School, the elementary curriculum nurtures the intellectual, emotional, and creative development of each child through an integrated approach to education. Students engage in hands-on learning across academic subjects, while also participating in music, art, physical education, and practical arts. Teachers bring lessons to life through vivid imagery and interactive activities, fostering curiosity and deeper connections to the material.

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We utilize a block approach, allowing students to explore core subjects- such as math, science, language arts, history, and geography- intensively over several weeks. This immersive method encourages a profound understanding and retention of concepts. Our daily schedule balances focused academic work with time in nature and generous recess, ensuring that homework remains age-appropriate and helps maintain strong connections to family life.

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The teacher stays with the same class from 1st grade through 8th grade allowing for deeper connections that enhance learning and support each child’s confidence and social-emotional development. Alongside academic subjects, students explore a rich curriculum including foreign language, instrumental music, handwork, woodworking, watercolor painting, drama, and physical education. This broad curriculum nurtures a lifelong enthusiasm for learning.

Key Highlights of our
Elementary School Program

Waldorf education is unique in the way that children are taught. The teachers bring learning alive to cultivate students’ curiosity and to engage them both intellectually and emotionally.

Math

The Waldorf math curriculum includes basic arithmetic, fractions, decimals, percentages, graphing, ratios, business math, geometry, pre-algebra and algebra. In the early grades, children first encounter the world of numbers through stories, musical rhythms, artistic activities, and math worksheets, before gaining skills in abstract reasoning in the upper grades. Benefits: Waldorf students attain a strong number sense which enables them to understand, relate, and connect numbers. Students with a strong number sense think fluently about numbers and have confidence to be flexible and creative in their approach to solving problems.

Humanities

Our humanities curriculum draws on rich and diverse cultural sources, with a progression from fairy tales, fables and legends, and Old Testament stories in the early grades to the studying of Norse mythology and the ancient cultures of India, Persia, Egypt and Greece. By the end of 8th grade, students have journeyed through Roman and Medieval history, the Renaissance, the Reformation, the age of Exploration, the Industrial Revolution and up to the present. Benefits: Our humanities curriculum expands our students’ knowledge of cultures and helps them understand what binds us together and what differentiates us from one another. The most fundamental and essential advantages of our humanities education enable students to increase proficiency and skills in reading, writing, and critical thinking.

Music & Performing Arts

Music infuses the daily life of our school and is emphasized for its power to create and nourish a sense of community. Students have the opportunity to experience music in many ways including singing, learning the flute, recorder, and a stringed instrument (violin, viola or cello), as well as performing during assemblies and concerts. We begin with the building blocks of music appreciation by taking advantage of the natural physicality of young children as they experience tone, beat, and rhythm with their bodies. Benefits: Music instruction is a direct contributor to academic success. Music activates both the left and right brain at the same time which increases memory, language skills, executive functioning, and social-emotional capacities.

Physical Education

Spatial awareness, strength and coordination, healthy social interaction, and a joy in movement are the goals of classes in movement and spatial dynamics. These activities focus on teamwork rather than competition. Benefits: Students gain enhanced mind-body connection, social sensitivity, and a heightened awareness of each other’s place in the group. Our program lays the foundation for improved life-long health and well-being.

Science

Zoology, botany, mineralogy, astronomy, chemistry, environmental studies, anatomy, physiology, nutrition and basic physics are all covered in the grade school science curriculum. Students are immersed in the scientific method of observation, measurement, experimentation, and testing and modifying hypotheses. In the early grades, students begin their science exploration with nature stories and experiencing the outdoors which fosters a sense of wonder and curiosity. Benefits 42% of Waldorf high school graduates go on to major in science and math. Our science program helps students develop logical reasoning and analytical thinking by providing the opportunity to experience scientific phenomena in meaningful ways through the arts and experiments, and hands-on activities.

Foreign Language

Our foreign language program begins in first grade and provides a window through which the students experience the world. Spanish is taught through songs, games, speaking, and writing. Benefits: Students develop an understanding and appreciation for other cultures, as well as build language, listening, and memory skills.

Visual Arts

Artistic activity is an integral part of the Waldorf curriculum, and every artistic assignment has an academic and developmental component. For example, knitting is a fun method to engage children in math skills while developing concentration and memory. Every student learns to knit, crochet, cross stitch, embroider and sew (by hand and machine). Students have many opportunities for creative expression through watercolor painting, drawing, modeling with clay and working with wood. Benefits: Our visual arts program supports students’ brain development while teaching patience, perseverance, and emotional awareness and regulation. Students expand their creative capacities, develop better hand-eye coordination, and fine motor skills.

Special Subjects

Arts, Handwork, Movement & Music - While our school is not an art school, art is brought into every subject. The arts are woven into just about every minute of every day in every grade, from early childhood all the way through middle school. The simple, single color watercolor studies in pre-kindergarten and kindergarten lead into more intricate line and form drawings as students progress through the grades.

Playhouse and climbing structure in the outdoor play area at Nevada Sage Waldorf School, providing a creative and fun environment for children to explore and play.
Program Info

CURRICULUM | 1st Grade

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Art: Form Drawing, Painting, Beeswax Modeling, Crayon Drawing

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Language Arts: Consonants and vowels

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Literature and History: Fairy tales

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Science and Nature: Stories personifying elements of nature

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Mathematics: Four Processes – addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, multiples and other math facts

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Subject Classes:

  • Handwork: learning to knit

  • Music: singing, the recorder

  • Foreign Language: Spanish

  • Movement & Games

  • Drama and Speech: Class Play

Students at Nevada Sage Waldorf School exploring nature during an outdoor field trip, fostering envi
Classroom scene at Nevada Sage Waldorf School with students engaged in a creative lesson, emphasizin
Outdoor playhouse and climbing area at Nevada Sage Waldorf School, providing a space for imaginative
Young student observing a jar of pond life during a science lesson at Nevada Sage Waldorf School, pr
Teacher guiding a student at Nevada Sage Waldorf School in using a hand-crank tool, encouraging prac
Smiling student sitting on hay bales during a Nevada Sage Waldorf School activity, showcasing joyful
Students participating in an outdoor dramatic performance at Nevada Sage Waldorf School, fostering c
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