Form Drawing With a Co-op Group: Walk It, Draw It on the Board, Then on Paper

To teach form drawing to a co-op group, start with the whole body. The children walk the form on the floor in a line, trace it on each other's backs and draw it huge in the air with a whole arm. Then an adult draws it once on the board, in silence, and the children take turns to try it beside hers. Last, everyone draws it large on paper. The story and the walking are shared by all ages. On the page, each child draws the version that suits their stage.

If form drawing is new to you, what is form drawing explains the practice, and the grade 1 form drawing sequence walks through the first forms one by one. Here, the question is what changes when there are eight children in a church hall instead of one at the kitchen table.

Why form drawing suits a group

Form drawing is movement first and a drawing second. Beverly Amico wrote about it for Davis Waldorf School. She calls it "more about process than product." She also describes children taken outside "to trace patterns with their feet in the dirt or their hands in the air." That part is hard to do alone at home and easy with a group. A form walked by a line of eight children, one behind the other, is something a child can see as well as feel.

A group also slows the drawing down. Steiner, describing the first lesson of grade 1, suggested calling the children to the board "one by one." He said it would then happen "as slowly as possible." In a co-op, the waiting and watching are part of the lesson.

Walking the form

Start with a short story that holds the form. Amico writes that form drawing ideally doesn't begin with "And now we do form drawing," but with a story. The river that bends around the stone. The rabbit's path through the snow. Two or three sentences are enough.

Then move. Lavender's Blue Homeschool suggests children "walk the form, skip or stomp it." It also suggests making the form with a jump rope or tracing it "on each other's backs." Pick two or three of these for your group:

• Walk it in a line. Mark it out with masking tape indoors, chalk outside, or a long jump rope. The adult leads and the children follow, one behind the other. Walk it slowly, then once more humming.
• Step it outside. On dirt or sand, the children drag a foot or a stick along the form.
• Trace it on a back. In pairs, one child draws the form slowly on the other's back with a finger, then they swap. Ask first, and let a child who doesn't want to be touched trace it on their own hand instead.
• Draw it in the air. Everyone stands in a ring and draws it huge, with a whole arm, eyes following the hand.

For a running form or a wave, walking works well. For a spiral, walk in from the outside and back out. For a knot form with older children, Amico describes shaping it first in yarn, which she notes is hard to control, before anyone draws.

The board

Once everyone has moved, gather the children where they can all see the board. A wall chalkboard, a portable chalkboard on an easel or a long sheet of paper taped to the wall all work. Draw the form once, slowly, from start to finish, without talking. Amico describes the teacher drawing on the chalkboard "while modeling the focus, precision and slowness" the form needs.

Then call the children up one at a time to draw it beside yours. The others watch. It takes a while with a big group, so keep it to one try each. Afterward, follow Steiner's lead and let the children say what they drew, rather than telling them.

If you have a parent who likes to draw, Waldorf chalkboard drawing has more on working with colored chalk. A form on the board doesn't need to be a picture, though. One clear line is enough.

On paper

Now everyone sits at the table with large sheets of plain paper and block crayons. Each child draws the form several times, big, filling the page. Amico describes this step on "large sheets of paper or their own slates," with the teacher's role switching to observation. That's the adult's job here too: watch, sit beside a child who's stuck, and say little.

Main lesson books can stay at home. The co-op sheet is the practice, and each family can have their child draw the form into their own book later that week, the way it fits into their block. A co-op for grades 1 to 3 covers what to share at co-op and what to keep at home.

Children at different stages

A co-op rarely has one grade. The story and the walking are shared. The page is where the ages part.

Schools order the forms a little differently. Waldorfish describes running forms in grade 2, mirror forms in grade 3 and knots and woven forms in grade 4. Many families and schools bring mirror forms in grade 2 instead, as the grade 2 symmetry guide describes. Follow whatever your families are doing at home.

Child	On the floor	On the page
Under 7	Walk it with the group	Free drawing with a crayon, no form asked for
Grade 1	Walk it, step it, air-draw it	The straight line and the curve, then running forms
Grades 2 and 3	Walk it, then walk the mirror half	The same form mirrored across a line
Grade 4	Walk it, shape it in yarn	The form woven over and under, as in braided and knot forms

So on a morning with a story about a stream, the first graders draw a wave running across the page. The third graders draw the wave and its mirror image below a line. A fourth grader might braid two waves together. Everyone walked the same stream on the floor.

Older children can help, too. A grade 4 child can lead the line on the floor, or draw the form on the board for the younger ones.

When a form goes wrong

It will. A wave climbs as it goes, a spiral runs off the edge. In a group, a child may notice their neighbor's is neater. Don't correct at the table, and don't hold anyone's page up as an example. Amico writes that form drawing often gives children practice in "resilience, and perseverance," because the result isn't what they expected.

What helps: show the form once more on the board, let the child walk it again, and give them a fresh sheet. If the whole group finds a form hard, go back to a simpler one next week.

A session plan to copy

Change it to suit your group and your hall.

1. Story: 2 or 3 sentences that hold the form.
2. Walk it in a line, twice, once humming.
3. Trace it on backs in pairs, or in the air in a ring.
4. The adult draws the form on the board while everyone watches.
5. Children come up one at a time to draw it beside yours.
6. Large paper and block crayons: each child draws their version several times.
7. Tidy up. Families take the sheet home for the main lesson book.

Supplies:

• Masking tape or chalk
• A jump rope or long yarn
• A board or paper for the wall
• Block crayons and large plain paper
• Colored pencils for the older children

Getting started

Pick one form for your next co-op day, the one most of your first graders are drawing at home. Write a two-sentence story for it. Tape it on the floor before the children arrive, and walk it with them before anyone picks up a crayon.

Looking for families nearby to draw with? The Waldorf Map lists co-ops and schools by area.