A Spring Term Plan for a Waldorf-Inspired Co-op: Easter, Planting and May Day, Week by Week

A spring term for a Waldorf-inspired co-op can run about 12 weeks, from late February to late May, and follow a garden from seed to flower. The children sow grass in a dish before Easter and set dyed eggs in it. After Easter they plant outside, and the term ends with flower crowns and a maypole at May Day. Below is that term, week by week, for the northern hemisphere, with a note for families in the south.

Where this term sits

If your co-op kept Candlemas in February, this term picks up where the winter term plan left off, with the returning light. If this is your group's first term together, the first co-op term plan explains how to settle the rhythm in the first weeks. The same advice holds here: keep week 1 plain.

Spring is the season of the year when the children can be outside for longer again. Green Meadow Waldorf School describes the spring festivals around Passover and Easter as a time for "preparing the gardens, planting and tending to seedlings." That's the heart of this term.

The term at a glance

Easter moves each year, so check its date and slide the middle block to fit.

Week	Timing	Story	Hands	Festival
1	Late February	A seed wakes under the ground	Free painting in green and yellow	None
2	Early March	The seed story continues	Fill dishes with soil
3	March	The first shoots	Sow grass or wheat in a dish
4	Near the equinox	The birds come back	Make a small nest from wool and twigs	Spring equinox, if you keep it
5	Before Easter	The hen and her eggs	Wet-on-wet painting	Begin an egg tree
6	Easter week	An Easter story	Dye eggs, set them in the grass garden	Easter
7	After Easter	A spring story begins	Plant seeds outside, weather allowing	Break week, if you need one
8	April	The gardener's day	Weeding and watering
9	April	The bees and the blossom	Felt or paper flowers	Learn May songs
10	Late April	The story continues	Weave flower crowns
11	Near 1 May	The story ends	Crowns, ribbons	May Day
12	Late May	Retell the whole story	Look at what grew	Last morning, a picnic

Block 1 (weeks 1 to 4): the seed wakes

Week 1 is quiet. Begin the story of a seed asleep under the ground, and paint freely in green and yellow.

In weeks 2 and 3, the children fill shallow dishes with soil and sow grass or wheat. The Parenting Passageway, a Waldorf homeschooling blog, suggests Palm Sunday as a day to sow grass or wheat in a dish, or start a Lenten garden. A co-op can start a week or two earlier, so the grass has time to grow before Easter. Let each child water their dish at arrival, and keep a nature table beside them. The Waldorf nature table has ideas for dressing it for spring.

Week 4 turns to the birds. Tell a story of the birds coming back, and let the children make a small nest from wool and twigs for the nature table.

Block 2 (weeks 5 to 8): Easter and the garden

In week 5, bring a bare branch into the room and stand it in a pot. The Parenting Passageway describes families hanging blown and dyed eggs on an Easter tree, and says even a 4- or 5-year-old may be able to sew simple felt chicks for it. In a co-op, the older children can sew chicks and the younger ones can paint paper eggs.

Week 6 is Easter, or the nearest meeting. Dye eggs, and set them in the grass garden the children have grown. Tell a spring story of new life. If your families keep different faiths, ask them how they'd like to mark it. The Green Meadow article speaks of a spring festival "of growth and transformation" that falls around both Passover and Easter. The Easter page has recipes and crafts.

In weeks 7 and 8, go outside to plant. Bean, pea and sunflower seeds are big enough for small hands to hold. Check your last frost date before you sow, and if your meeting place has no ground, use large pots. Green Meadow describes its farm kindergarten watching eggs hatch in an incubator and caring for the chicks. If a farm near you welcomes visitors in spring, this is a good time to go. Say clearly that it's optional.

Block 3 (weeks 9 to 12): toward May Day

In weeks 9 and 10, learn the May songs in circle, and make flowers from felt or paper. Toward the end of week 10, weave crowns from fresh flowers, or from ribbon and wire if nothing is blooming yet.

Week 11 is May Day. Davis Waldorf School holds its May Faire on the first Saturday of May, where each class weaves a crown of flowers and the oldest children dance the maypole. It calls the festival "a joyful celebration of life". At Spring Garden Waldorf School, in Ohio, May Day includes song, dance and "service to our gardens and grounds". A co-op can hold all three in one morning: dance in a ring, sing the May songs, then weed and water together. The May Day page has the songs and the dance.

If you'd like to see a large May Day before you plan your own, some Waldorf schools open theirs to families. Hawthorne Valley School in New York holds a May Day celebration and spring fair with dancing, games and a plant sale. Look up the schools near you on the Waldorf Map, and check each school's own page for dates.

Week 12 is the last morning. Tell the whole story in one sitting, walk around what grew, and eat together outside.

Spending more time outside

Spring is when outdoor time can grow again. Add ten minutes a week if the weather allows, until most of the morning happens outside. The garden gives everyone something to do: the youngest carry watering cans, and the older ones dig, measure the rows and mark the plants. Outdoor time at a co-op covers boundaries, clothing and what the adults do. For a group spanning several ages, teaching mixed ages in a co-op shows how one story can carry different tasks.

If you're in the southern hemisphere

In Australia and New Zealand, spring runs from September to November, while Easter falls in autumn. Schools there handle this in different ways. Chrysalis Steiner School in New South Wales holds a spring festival "with colour and dancing", where children weave flower wreaths and dance around a maypole. Vera Hoffmann, writing for Waldorf Resources, notes that in the south the Christian festivals and the seasons "do not match" as closely as in the north. Settlers there kept the northern dates, she writes, regardless of the local seasons.

So choose one approach for your group and keep to it. You could run this plan from late August to November, with a spring festival in place of May Day, and keep Easter as a smaller autumn day on its own date. Or keep Easter in its calendar place and save the garden thread for your own spring. Either way, plant by your local seasons, not a northern calendar.

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

When the new year starts, the autumn term plan is written for a group in its second year.