An Autumn Term Plan for a Waldorf-Inspired Co-op in Its Second Year, Week by Week

When a Waldorf-inspired co-op reaches its second autumn, the circle, the snack and the closing verse are familiar. So the term can follow one thread from start to finish. The sample below takes wheat from a seed tray to a loaf shared on the lantern walk, over 12 weeks. You sow around Michaelmas, thresh and grind at the harvest, and bake to share at Martinmas. It's an example to change, not a rule.

What changes in the second year

If this is your group's first term, start with a sample first term for a Waldorf-inspired co-op instead. It settles the rhythm and brings in Michaelmas, the harvest, Martinmas and the Advent spiral one by one. This plan assumes that rhythm is already in place.

The Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN) puts the reason for keeping it plainly: "Adults crave variety; young children crave repetition." Young children need a stable sequence in their day, their week and their year. So in a second year the morning stays exactly the same. What grows is the story running underneath it.

A year in, you may notice a few changes. Many of the children can follow a story that runs a whole term, with a new chapter each block. A 7-year-old who has sung the circle for a year can lead the line to the hand-washing. And the parents know each other, so planning is quicker and more of them can take a turn telling the story.

Why a farming thread

Grade 3 in a Waldorf school often has a farming block. Constantia Waldorf School describes planting, watering, weeding and harvesting as a way for children "to experience responsibility and witness the direct results of their efforts." A co-op isn't a grade 3 class, and your group may run from 4 to 10. But bread from seed to loaf works for every age in the room. The younger ones knead and carry, and the older ones grind, measure and write the recipe out. The Waldorf grade 3 farming block has more on the block itself, if you have a 9-year-old doing it at home.

Green Meadow Waldorf School, in New York, says it marks the autumn season with young children through songs, stories and "active participation in the tasks of harvesting and transforming the gardens and fields". That's the heart of this term: real work, done together, in the season it belongs to.

The term at a glance

For a group meeting once a week from mid-September to mid-December. Check where Michaelmas (29 September) and Martinmas (11 November) fall in your own weeks, and move the rows to fit.

Week	Thread	Story	Hands	Festival or event
1	Welcome back	The farmer wakes the field	Free painting	New families join. Nothing else.
2	The soil	The plowman and his horse	Fill seed trays with soil
3	The seed	The farmer sows, and the dragon stirs	Sow wheat in trays	Michaelmas: dragon bread
4	Courage in the field	The dragon is tamed	Paint the golden field
5	The harvest	Reaping and binding the sheaves	Harvest table from home	Harvest: each family brings one thing
6	Threshing	The threshers	Beat seed heads from a bought wheat sheaf, or rub wheat berries	Optional farm or mill visit
7	The mill	The miller and the millstones	Grind wheat in a hand mill	Begin lanterns
8	Butter	The dairy	Shake cream into butter in jars	Break week, if you need one
9	The baker	St Martin and the beggar	Bake small rolls to share	Martinmas lantern walk at dusk
10	The gift	A giving story of your own	Handwork gifts
11	Resting fields	The field sleeps under snow	Beeswax modeling
12	The shared loaf	The farmer's year, told whole	Bake one big loaf together	Last morning and a shared meal

Block 1 (weeks 1 to 4): the soil and the seed

Week 1 is for the new families. Your returning children will want to rush ahead, but a new 5-year-old is meeting the room, the adults and the songs for the first time. Pair each new child with a returning one. Sing the circle, begin the story of the farmer walking out to a field that has rested all summer, and paint freely. That's enough.

In weeks 2 and 3, the children fill seed trays with soil and sow wheat. Set the trays on a windowsill and look at them together each week. The youngest children will want to see whether anything has come up. The story reaches Michaelmas in week 3: a dragon stirs under the field, and someone small and brave has to face it. Bake the dragon bread from our Michaelmas page. Davis Waldorf School describes the Michaelmas picture as meeting challenges "with courage" and transforming "what is difficult", which is a good line to keep in mind while you shape your own story.

In week 4, the dragon is tamed and the field ripens. Paint it in wet-on-wet yellow and gold.

Block 2 (weeks 5 to 8): the harvest and the mill

Week 5 is the harvest. Ask each family to bring one thing from a garden, a market or a walk, and lay them on a cloth as a harvest table. The harvest festival page has a braided loaf if you want one.

Weeks 6 to 8 follow the grain. The story moves from the reapers to the threshers to the miller. At the table, the children rub wheat berries between their palms, blow away the chaff, then take turns at a hand mill until there's a small bowl of rough flour. Week 8 is butter: pour cream into small jars with tight lids, and let the children shake until it thickens. Older children can take turns timing it.

If a farm or a working mill is near, week 6 is a good time to go. Make it optional, say so in writing, and ask the farm about numbers and any cost well ahead.

Start the lanterns in week 7, so they're dry before Martinmas.

Block 3 (weeks 9 to 12): the baker and the gift

Week 9 brings the thread and the festival together. Tell the story of St Martin, who cut his cloak in two to share with a beggar in the cold. Davis Waldorf School describes Martinmas as a celebration of "the light and warmth shining inside each one of us." In the morning, bake small rolls with the children's own flour mixed into bought flour. Carry them on the lantern walk that evening and share them at the end. The Waldorf School of Tampa Bay holds its lantern walk on a November evening, with families carrying lights along a dark path together. The Martinmas page has the songs.

In weeks 10 and 11, the mornings grow quieter. The story turns to giving, then to the field resting under frost or snow. Handwork gifts and beeswax modeling suit these weeks.

Week 12 closes the thread. Tell the farmer's whole year again in one sitting, bake one big loaf together, and share it at a long table.

Jobs for returning children

Pick two or three, and rotate them weekly so everyone gets a turn:

• Setting the table for snack
• Carrying the seed trays to the window and back
• Leading the line to wash hands
• Holding the story candle, and snuffing it at the end
• Showing a new child where the aprons and painting boards are

These are small jobs, and that's the point. Keep them jobs of care, not of power over younger children. Teaching mixed ages in a Waldorf-inspired co-op has more on older children helping.

A house-building thread instead

If your group did farming last year, or has more 8- and 9-year-olds who've just done it at home, the same shape works with shelters. Block 1: the animals' homes (nests, burrows, the squirrel's store), with Michaelmas in the middle. Block 2: the people's homes, from a hut of branches to a house of stone, with a harvest table in week 5. Block 3: building one small shelter from sticks outside, then a Martinmas story about giving a stranger a place by the fire. The house building block has ideas for the stories.

Planning notes for a second year

• Read last year's notes first. If your group met after its first term, start from what you agreed then.
• Share the storytelling. Give each block's story to a different parent, and give them the whole story before week 1. Storytelling at a Waldorf-inspired co-op helps a parent who has never told one.
• Buy the whole term's materials at once. Wheat berries, a hand mill (or a borrowed one), cream and jars for the butter, flour, lantern supplies and beeswax.
• Put the lantern walk on the calendar in September. An evening at dusk needs early warning.

If you'd like the stories and crafts already laid out, Starpath gives a co-op a shared Waldorf-inspired program of main lesson blocks, stories, crafts and the festival year, with a group calendar. Running your co-op on it is free.

The terms that follow are in the winter term plan and the spring term plan.