Course Descriptions
These courses are required for our year-round students, but open to the public on a full or partial day basis. While providing prime opportunities for personal renewal and professional development, course completion receives credit towards Foundation Studies, Teacher Ed. and EC programs.
History Through Music with Eric G. Müller*
In this course, we endeavor to uncover the “primal” beginnings of music, after which we will move through the respective eras right up to the 21st century, keeping global perspectives in mind throughout. The spiritual underpinnings of music from around the world and their underlying lawfulness will be examined. Definitive examples will be highlighted as representative expressions of their location and time period. This course reflects the fascinating development of human consciousness through music. Examples from each era will be played – both live and recorded, including collaboration with course participants. Indications will be given how the thematic content relates to the Waldorf curriculum, with emphasis on the History through Music block in 11th grade.
Nature Observation Painting/Drawing with Martina Angela Müller*
This course is a deep immersion in nature, using the gateway of observation, color theory, mood, and different techniques to create drawings and paintings that deepen our perception and bring us news from the world around us. We will hear the gurgling brook while we study and draw trees, grasses, different swathes of landscape, decipher color combinations, learn how to draw and paint water and how to use dark, light and texture to create foreground, middle ground and background. We will mostly work with pastels, charcoal and pencils and occasionally watercolor. If weather does not permit work outside, we will bring nature to the classroom and continue our studies indoors. Detailed instruction will be given before embarking on any exercise and nature herself will guide us through our artistic processes. We will draw and paint with the heart first then analyze and improve things with the head later in the process. We all benefit from developing keen observational skills to assess developmental, social, and environmental situations.
Clay Sculpture with Patrick Stolfo*
The central theme for most participants will be the modeling of the human head, while early childhood students will have the opportunity to shape an infant or child’s head. The open studio atmosphere also allows for additional or alternative themes. The contours of the human head manifest the cosmic dome of the spirit, character of the soul, and noble anatomy. Using the coiling technique as a basis for construction, we will proceed from the whole to the parts by building up hollow forms that can be shaped from both the interior and exterior. Completion comes with the addition of essential and expressive details. No previous experience is required.
Eurythmy [for all] with Lynne Stolfo*
Experiencing the 12 Signs of the Zodiac – qualities, consonants, and gestures.
Singing and Playing the Lyre in the Mood of the 5th with Diane Barnes
The Mood of the Fifth Course this year will be a real hands-on class. Steiner’s description of the importance of music in intervals of the fifth for children under the age of 9, as described in the collection of Steiner’s lectures titled “The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone” will be referred to, followed by voice/singing work, and learning to play the kinderharp. Gradually the voice and kinderharp will be worked together, and several songs in the Mood of the Fifth will be shared. As a culmination of the work, each student will write a short song for children, written, played, and sung in the Mood of the Fifth. A goal is to engender confidence in the teachers.
Early Childhood Festivals with Andree Ward*
In this course, we bring an overview of the Festival Life in the Kindergarten – the essential elements and practical details. We will create a Summer Solstice nature table with simple needle felting projects, such as butterflies, birds, and fish. And perhaps an elemental Bee-ing will come to join the fun!
*Click to read faculty biographies.
Schedule
Summer Week Schedule | June 18 – 23
SUNDAY
3-4 pm: Meet and Greet | Registration | School Campus Tours
4-5:30 pm: Orientation/Introductions and Keynote Talk on History through Music by Eric Muller
DAILY – Monday through Friday
8:20 am – Arrival and announcements
8:30 am – History through Music
10 am – Break
10:30 am – Nature Observation Painting/Drawing OR Clay Sculpture (choose one art for the week)
12:15 pm – Lunch
1-2:00 pm – Eurythmy for everyone
2:05-5:10 pm – Nature Observation Painting/Drawing OR Clay Sculpture [participants continue their projects from their morning art elective, or opt to attend one or both EC related electives described below]
2:05-3:35 pm – Singing and Playing the Lyre in the Mood of the 5th with Diane Barnes [an open elective, but required for current EC students]
3:40-5:10 pm – Early Childhood Festivals with Andree Ward [an open elective, but required for current EC students]
Friday afternoon, June 25 class times will be rearranged to allow for: Approx – 3:15 pm Review of the Week and the Arts; 4:15 pm 2020-21 Closing Ceremony
Evenings: Open Art Studios and possible evening presentation and/or social event TBA
