A Waldorf-Inspired Co-op for Grades 4 to 6: Plays, Maps, Botany Walks and the Greek Games

Older children in a Waldorf-inspired co-op often do best with projects that need a group. In grade 4 that might be a play from the Norse myths or a map of the neighborhood. Grade 5 brings plant study outdoors and a small pentathlon, and grade 6 a rock walk or a woodworking project. Children of this age can take real parts and lead some of the morning themselves. The main lesson, with its fractions, grammar and writing, stays at home.

Below is what changes around grade 4, the projects that suit each year, what stays at home, and how to give older children more independence.

What changes around grade 4

The Waldorf School of DuPage describes grade 4 children as having a growing sense of individuality and independence. The Alliance for Public Waldorf Education's grade 4 outline says that in both music and drama, children are now ready to take individual parts. The 9-year change describes what's happening underneath.

For a co-op, that means the morning built for 5-year-olds may start to feel thin. An older child may still love the circle, but they often want something that asks more of them. A co-op doesn't need to become a school for them. It needs to give them work that's real.

The three years in brief, from Marin Waldorf School's curriculum overview and the Alliance's outlines:

Grade	Stories and history	Science and geography	Handwork and crafts
4	Norse mythology, local history	Zoology, local geography and map making	Cross-stitch, embroidery, braiding
5	India, Persia, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece	Botany	Cable knitting, sock making
6	Rome and the Middle Ages	Geology, physics, astronomy	Sewn animals, woodworking

The guides to grade 4, grade 5 and grade 6 go through each year in full.

Grade 4: a play and a map

A play from the Norse myths

The Alliance's grade 4 outline lists a class play alongside the Norse myths. A play is hard to put on with one child and one parent, and a natural fit for a co-op. Choose one myth your families are telling at home, such as Thor's visit to the giants or the apples of Idun. A parent can write a short script, or the children can shape one from the story.

Rehearse a little each week for a block, with each child in a real speaking part. Make costumes in handwork time: a cloak, a helmet, a hammer. End with a performance for the younger children and the parents. Why Waldorf teaches the Norse myths has the stories most often told.

A map of where you meet

The Alliance's outline has grade 4 children making maps of the classroom, the school and the neighborhood, and finding the compass points from the sun. A co-op can do this for real:

1. Draw a bird's-eye plan of the room you meet in.
2. Walk the block around your meeting place, noting what's where.
3. Find north from the morning sun.
4. Draw the neighborhood together on one large sheet, each child taking a part.

Local geography and map making in grade 4 goes deeper.

Handwork

Cross-stitch, embroidery and braiding are on the Alliance's grade 4 list. Children can work on their own pieces while a parent reads the next part of a story aloud.

Grade 5: botany walks and the Greek games

Botany walks

Halton Waldorf School describes its grade 5 botany as learning about plants in the context of their environment. That makes it a subject for walking. Take the group to one place, such as a wood, a meadow or a pond edge, every week for a block. Children can notice what grows in the damp and what grows in the sun. They can find a moss, a fern, a flowering plant and a tree, and draw them back at the table. The grade 5 botany block shows how the block usually runs.

The Greek games

Many Waldorf schools end grade 5 with a pentathlon. Halton Waldorf School's students gather regionally for theirs in late May. Waldorf Publications describes grade 5 classes from several schools meeting at one host school. The children compete in teams named for Greek city-states such as Athens and Sparta. The events are the long jump, the javelin, the discus, wrestling and a relay, and the javelin has one award for distance and one for beautiful form.

A co-op can hold a small version in a park. Keep the events you can make safe, such as a long jump into sand, a relay and a soft javelin. Train for them across a few weeks, write a short verse to open the games, and let the parents judge grace as well as distance. Why Waldorf teaches Greek myths and the Olympics has the background, and the Waldorf schools that host a regional pentathlon may be worth asking about too.

Handwork

Marin lists cable knitting in grade 5 and Halton lists sock making. A parent who knits well can take the group through turning a heel over a few weeks.

Grade 6: rocks, Rome and real tools

The Alliance's grade 6 outline has Rome and the Middle Ages in history, mineralogy and geology in science, and projects and reports. It lists competitive games in movement, and in woodworking a spoon, a letter opener and a jointed toy.

For a co-op, that might be:

• A rock walk. Visit a quarry edge, a riverbed or a stony beach. Collect, sort and name what you find.
• Roman building. Build an arch from sugar cubes or clay blocks and find out why it stands.
• Woodworking. Carve a spoon over a block, with a parent who knows the tools.
• Team games. A proper game with rules, sides and a referee, now that the children are ready to compete.

You might end a block with each child giving a short report to the others, on a rock, a Roman road or a medieval craft.

More independence

Children in grades 4 to 6 can often do more than the co-op asks of them. Choose one or two to try:

• Give them a part of circle to lead, such as the verse or a clapping game.
• Let them tell the little ones' story, after practicing it at home.
• Give each a project that runs between meetings, with a little done at home each week.
• Pair them with a younger child for handwork.

What ages a co-op should include covers whether older children need their own group, and when.

What stays at home

A Waldorf school's main lesson runs about two hours a day on one subject for three or four weeks, as Davis Waldorf School describes. Fractions, decimals, grammar and writing need that steady daily work. A once-a-week co-op can't hold it, and each child is in a different place with it.

So the main lesson stays at home, along with the math practice and the main lesson book. The co-op project echoes the block: the Norse play during the Norse block, the botany walks while the families are on plants.

Starpath's Waldorf-inspired curriculum covers grades 1 to 3, with grade 4 being added, so it won't carry a family through grades 5 and 6 yet. Running a co-op on Starpath is free, and it keeps the group calendar, the jobs schedule and family details in one place.

A sample block for grades 4 to 6

Six meetings, one project, for a mixed group of 9 to 12 year olds:

Meeting	Project time
1	Tell the myth. Choose parts.
2	Read through the script. Start cloaks in handwork.
3	Rehearse scenes 1 and 2.
4	Rehearse scenes 3 and 4. Finish props.
5	Full run-through in costume.
6	Performance for the families, then a shared lunch.

Swap the play for a map, a set of botany walks or the Greek games, and keep the shape.

What to do this week

1. List the children in grades 4 to 6, and which blocks their families are on.
2. Choose one project for the next block, with a clear ending.
3. Name one parent to lead it for the whole block.
4. Tell the children what they're making. Let them help plan it.

If you're looking for a group with other children this age, the Waldorf Map lists Waldorf-inspired co-ops and schools near you.

For more ideas by age, with a table to copy, see Waldorf co-op class ideas.