What Is Waldorf Chalkboard Drawing, and How Do I Do It at Home?

Waldorf chalkboard drawing is a picture in colored chalk that the class teacher draws by hand to open a main lesson block. In grade 1 it might be the castle from the fairy tale, in grade 3 a farm in autumn, in grade 4 the great ash tree of the Norse myths. It stays up while the block lasts, and children often draw their own version in their main lesson book. At home you need a board or a sheet of black paper, soft colored chalk and about an hour. You lay the chalk flat to cover the big shapes, blend it with your fingers, then add a few details on top.

What is Waldorf chalkboard drawing?

Walk into a Waldorf grades classroom and the chalkboard is often the first thing you see. Whatcom Hills Waldorf School describes its board drawings as usually "the first thing your eye will settle on" when you come in. Instead of a list of the day's tasks, there's a picture, like a frog by a well or a ship at sea under the moon.

The teacher draws it by hand in colored chalk. Living Traditional Arts, which collects Waldorf blackboard drawings, notes that teachers "often devote hours" to them, and that their range runs from "first grade castles, frogs and princes" to eighth grade scenes from Renaissance history. The picture belongs to the current block. City of Lakes Waldorf School describes the early grades drawings as storytelling images that grow over weeks, with new parts added as the story goes on. In the upper grades they carry more content, like maps or a skeleton for anatomy.

In a homeschool, the chalkboard drawing does the same job. It's the picture on the wall when you start a new block, and it tells your child that something new has begun.

Why do Waldorf teachers draw on the board?

Waldorf teaching leans on pictures before concepts, especially for younger children. The chalkboard drawing is one of the ways a teacher gives them that picture.

Living Traditional Arts says the drawings "create mood and atmosphere in the classroom" and help children enter their lessons imaginatively. Da Vinci Waldorf School calls the board a place for children "to rest their eyes during a story" as they listen. Waldorfish, a Waldorf art teaching site, adds that the drawing can become a memory picture that helps children hold on to the lesson.

There's a quieter reason too. Children see that the picture was made by a person, slowly and with care. City of Lakes Waldorf School describes this as modeling "care, creativity, and intention." For a homeschooled child, that person is you. Your drawing doesn't need to be skilled for this to work.

The board also feeds the main lesson book. Whatcom Hills notes that children use the board drawings when making their own main lesson book pages. They don't copy line for line. A 6-year-old looks at your castle and draws their own.

How often do you change it?

Usually once per block. Living Traditional Arts puts it simply: "At the end of the block the drawing comes down." With main lesson blocks of 3 to 4 weeks, that means about one drawing a month.

Some teachers keep a drawing alive during the block. Da Vinci Waldorf School describes a first grade board where one new animal appeared in the scene each day. At home you could add a small figure each morning of a story block: the fox on Monday, the crow on Tuesday. Your child will look for it.

Rubbing the drawing out at the end is part of it. Da Vinci notes that teachers use the erasing to show children that "nothing lasts forever," balanced by the excitement of a new picture to come. Take a photo first if you want to keep it.

What you need

A board. A wall-mounted chalkboard is lovely but not required. A board about 60 by 90 cm (2 by 3 feet) is plenty for one or two children. Living Traditional Arts notes that some teachers draw on portable boards or black paper instead, and a large sheet of black paper taped to the wall works well at home. If an old board has gone too smooth for chalk to grip, a fresh coat of chalkboard paint brings the tooth back.

Soft colored chalk. Hard school chalk gives thin, scratchy lines. Artist blackboard chalk is softer and more deeply colored. Paper Scissors Stone describes Prang Ambrite, a chalk many Waldorf teachers use, as colors that "blend and burnish easily with less dust." Mercurius sells a pastel blackboard chalk made for this kind of drawing. Either will do.

White chalk. For highlights, and for mixing soft tints over other colors.

A damp cloth and a dry one. The damp one wipes the board clean before you start. The dry one fixes mistakes.

If you're setting up your whole year, the Waldorf homeschool supplies list has the rest.

How to do a chalkboard drawing, step by step

Sophia Montefiore, an artist who demonstrates blackboard drawing for Mercurius Australia, works in an order that suits beginners. This is a version of it.

1. Choose one picture. Pick the single image from the story or block that you'd most like your child to carry. One tree, not a forest. One castle, not a kingdom.
2. Sketch lightly. With a pale chalk, mark where the big shapes go. Montefiore looks at the shapes in between things too, which helps her see the form plainly.
3. Block in the color. Snap a stick in half and lay it flat against the board. Cover the sky and the big shapes in broad strokes.
4. Blend with your fingers. Montefiore blends her first layers with her fingers, which "helps to fill out the texture of the blackboard." You'll get soft color with no gaps.
5. Work from back to front. Waldorfish's photo tutorial of a ship at night builds the sky first, then the islands, then the water, then the ship. Layer the next colors over the blend.
6. Add light and shadow. Ask where the light is coming from. Put white where it falls and a darker color on the other side.
7. Add a few details with the tip. The edge of the chalk gives fine lines: a window, a bird, reeds at the water's edge. Montefiore blends away outlines, so shapes come from color rather than a line around them.
8. Stop early. A simple drawing reads better from across the room than a busy one.

Plan an hour for your first one. Draw it the evening before a block starts, so it's waiting when your child comes to the table.

For a longer guide, look for Chalkboard Drawing by Paul van Meurs (Mercurius, 2015). He taught in Waldorf classrooms for 22 years, and the book has step-by-step examples for classes 1 to 6.

Chalkboard drawing ideas by grade

Draw from the story or the block you're about to teach. A few ideas:

In grade 1, draw a fairy tale scene, like the frog by the well. For letters, draw the picture a letter grows from, like the M made of two mountains. The grade 1 letters guide shows how. During a form drawing block, draw the day's form large and in color.

In grade 2, a fox and a crow suit the fables, and a saint with a wolf suits the saints' stories. In grade 3, try a field being ploughed or Noah's ark on the water. In grade 4, the ash tree Yggdrasil from the Norse myths, or a map of your own area.

Through the year, give each festival its own scene: a lantern walk at Martinmas, the dragon at Michaelmas. The festivals calendar can help you plan them.

For story ideas that suit each age, see Waldorf fairy tales and storytelling. The grade 1 curriculum guide lays out the blocks of the first year, and each one gives you a drawing.

When it doesn't look how you hoped

Almost every parent's first chalkboard drawing disappoints them. Art of Homeschooling's drawing teacher says it's "not a complicated process": get the shape and color up quickly, then blend and add simple gestures. That's a relief, because it means it's practice rather than talent.

A few things that help:

• Blend more. Most flat-looking drawings need a second layer of color over the first blend.
• Use fewer colors. Three or four colors plus white is plenty.
• Make it bigger. Small drawings look fussy. Fill the board.
• Keep the old ones. A photo of each block's drawing shows you how far you've come by spring.

Your child won't judge it the way you do. What they see is that you made them a picture for the new block.

Where to begin

Pick the story or block you'll start next. The evening before, spend an hour on one picture from it, in soft chalk on a board or black paper. Leave it up until the block ends. If your next block is grade 1 form drawing, the free Form Drawing guide from Starpath sets out how the first days go. If you're still choosing a program, the best Waldorf homeschool curriculum for grade 1 compares the options.