What goes on a Waldorf main lesson book page? Layout ideas by grade
Most pages are a picture and a few words, framed by a border. In grade 1 that's a large block crayon drawing from the story with a letter or one sentence facing it. Grade 2 adds headings, columns and guide stripes for writing. By grade 3 the writing fills more of the page, and in grade 4 there are summaries, maps and careful drawings. Each block opens with a title page.
Most main lesson book pages are a picture and a few words, framed by a border. In grade 1 your child draws a large picture from the story in block crayon, with a letter, a number or one sentence on the page facing it. In grade 2 the pages gain headings, columns and guide stripes for writing. By grade 3 the writing fills more of the page, and in grade 4 there are summaries, maps and careful drawings of animals. Each block opens with a title page that your child fills in slowly, a little at a time.
If you're new to main lesson books, what are main lesson books explains what they are and how many you'll need. Below are the page layouts themselves, grade by grade.
What goes on a main lesson book page?
Nearly every page holds the same three things.
A picture. From the story, the walk, the math lesson. In the early grades it's large, often a whole page.
Words. Only a few at first. In grade 1 or 2, Art of Homeschooling says the words might be "just a letter and then a sentence or title." They grow into paragraphs later.
A frame. A border, a heading, a line of color at the top. Waldorfish calls a strong border "a wonderful way to frame the page."
Everything that goes into the book has been practiced first. Oak Meadow suggests scrap paper for practising letters, numbers and spelling, and keeping the main lesson book for final work. It also asks children to "take the time to decorate the borders of the pages, add detail to drawings, and use the whole page."
The easiest way to teach all this is to make your own page first. Oak Meadow suggests you model it in a main lesson book of your own, so your child has something to follow. If you'd like to draw your model on a board, Waldorf chalkboard drawing shows how.
How do you make a title page?
Leave the first page free when you open a new book. The title page is one picture that stands for the whole block, with the block's name written large. It doesn't need to be finished on day one. Your child can come back to it across the block, and it makes a good job for a morning when they finish early.
A few title pages from Starpath's own block guides, to give you the idea. For grade 1 math, King Counting in his robes, with Queen Equals beside him holding her arms out straight like an equals sign. For grade 2 fables, a fox looking up at a bunch of grapes, with the word Fables across it. For a grade 2 block on time, a large circle cut into four, with morning, midday, evening and night in the quarters.
In grade 3, a measurement book can open with the outline of a ruler traced onto the page and the words Linear Measurement, with small measuring drawings added round the edge as the block goes on. A money book can open with the word Money in large letters and coin rubbings around it. Lay a coin under the page and rub over it with a crayon.
Grade 1 main lesson book ideas
In grade 1 the drawing takes most of the time, and the words are few. The simplest layout is the double page: the picture on one side, the words on the other. Art of Homeschooling describes the same rhythm, with the picture on one side of the spread and the summary on the other.
Letter pages. In the alphabet guide, the bear from the story goes on one page in block crayon, with its tall straight back and two round curves. On the facing page your child writes a large capital B in a strong color, straight back first, then the two bumps. The letter comes out of the picture. How Waldorf teaches letters walks through a full letter from story to page.
Number pages. Lightly shade the whole page in one stick crayon color. Draw a large 1 in the middle. In each corner, show another way to write 1: one dot like a dice, a Roman numeral I and a tally mark.
Nature pages. After a walk, draw what you saw on the left-hand page, in its real colors. On the right, write one sentence your child has said out loud, such as "I saw the big tree with a brown bird in it", sounding it out together.
Form drawing pages. One form per page, drawn large. The grade 1 form drawing sequence has the forms in order.
Use block crayons for the pictures and stick crayons for letters and forms. Oak Meadow suggests crayons for writing in kindergarten and grade 1 because they "glide easily across the page." Block crayons or stick crayons covers which crayon does which job. The grade 1 curriculum guide lists the blocks these pages come from.
Grade 2 main lesson book ideas
Grade 2 pages start to have a structure. A common pattern is a block crayon border with a heading at the top, then the page divided up for the work.
Guide stripes for writing. One grade 2 teacher at A Waldorf Journey drew stripes across the writing page with the wide side of a block crayon. Yellow is the sky, green the earth and blue the water. Tall capitals reach up into the sky, and the tails of lowercase y and g "dip into the water."
Columns and sections. For a grammar or math page, divide the page with a block crayon into columns or sections. A trickster tales page might have three columns: words with X at the start, in the middle and at the end. A rounding page might have Number, Rounded to 10 and Rounded to 100.
Picture and table side by side. In the grade 2 times tables guide, each table gets a double page with a border on each side. The left page holds the star-shaped pattern the table makes around a circle of 10 points. The right page holds the table written out neatly. Waldorf times tables explains where the patterns come from.
Story pages. A fable or saint's story still gets a full picture, now with two or three sentences under it or facing it.
See the grade 2 curriculum guide for the blocks in order.
Grade 3 main lesson book ideas
In grade 3 there's more writing, and the page has to hold it.
Guide lines in two colors. A Waldorf Journey's teacher moved from the sky, earth and water stripes to lines in two alternating light colors, pale green and yellow, down the whole page. The lines are faint enough to write over.
Lists and tables with a small drawing. Present tense and past tense verbs in two columns, or a heading like Natural Fibres with a short list under it. A drawing sits at the top or the side, smaller than in grade 1, because the words need the room.
Story pages that fill the spread. A Hebrew creation story title page might have the sea along the bottom and green land above it. A pale sun sits on one side and a silver moon on the other, with birds in the sky and a whale in the sea.
Empty space. If the writing ends halfway down, A Waldorf Journey's teacher asks her students "to fill the bottom half of the page with a drawing that aligns with the story." It's a good use of a gap, though a little white space is fine too.
Colored pencils and a graphite pencil join the crayons this year. The grade 3 curriculum guide has the full list of blocks.
Grade 4 main lesson book ideas
Grade 4 pages look more grown-up, and writing moves to pencil. A Waldorf Journey's teacher uses a one-line colored pencil border. She slips a sheet of printed lines behind the page, so the lines show through without being drawn in.
Summaries after a story. In a Norse myths block, your child writes a short summary of the story, draws a scene, or does a grammar exercise drawn from it.
Fraction pages. A circle cut into quarters with one quarter colored, a strip folded into eighths, a number line from 0 to 1. The fraction goes underneath, with a sentence your child has said first. Waldorf fractions shows the lessons behind the pages.
Animal pages. A careful drawing of each animal in colored pencil or block crayon, with a few lines your child writes. One opening page idea: draw around your child's hand, so the lion's paw and the cow's hoof can sit on the pages after it.
The grade 4 curriculum guide covers the year.
How to plan a page with your child
- Practise first. Letters, words and the tricky part of the drawing go on scrap paper.
- Make your own page. Draw it in your book or on a board while your child watches.
- Frame the page. Border and heading or title, in a light color.
- Picture and words. Either can come first. Keeping the same order through the block helps your child plan the space.
- Look together. Ask your child what they like about their page before you say anything.
One page a day is plenty. The main lesson block guide shows where bookwork fits in the morning, and the grade 1 curriculum comparison shows how different programs guide the pages.
Related reading
Sources
- A Waldorf Journey: How to Create a Waldorf Main Lesson Page
- Oak Meadow: Using Waldorf Main Lesson Books
- Art of Homeschooling: Recording the Learning in a Main Lesson Book
- Waldorfish: What Are Waldorf Main Lesson Books Used For?
- Starpath Learning: Grade 1 Alphabet guide
- Starpath Learning: Grade 2 Maths Magic guide
- Starpath Learning: Grade 3 Money guide
Frequently asked questions
+What do you put in a Waldorf main lesson book?
Your child's own record of the block: a picture from each story or lesson, the words that go with it, and a title page at the front. In grade 1 the words are a letter, a number or one sentence. By grade 4 they're summaries, grammar work and labelled drawings. Practice and mistakes go on scrap paper first, so the book holds finished work.
+Should my child draw a border on every page?
Many families do, and a simple border helps a young child see where the page begins and ends. Keep it simple on writing pages. One line in block crayon or colored pencil is plenty. Save patterned borders for title pages or for a child who has finished early and wants more to do.
+What goes on a main lesson book title page?
A picture that stands for the whole block and its name in large letters. A spider and a turtle for trickster tales, a scale for a weight block, coin rubbings for money. Leave the first page free when you start a new book, and let your child add to the title page across the block.
+How do I stop my child's writing sloping down the page?
Give them guide lines they can see. Some teachers draw faint stripes across the page with the side of a light block crayon, and the child writes on the stripes. In grade 4 some teachers slip a sheet of printed lines behind the page so they show through. Ruling lines in pencil for a young child works too.
+What if there's empty space at the bottom of the page?
Your child can fill it with a small drawing from the same story or lesson. Leaving it blank is fine too, especially in grade 1. As your child plans pages ahead, they'll get better at judging how much space the words will take.
+Do main lesson book pages have to look like the ones online?
No. The pages you see online are often a teacher's model or a child's best page. Your child's pages record where they are now, so compare them with their own pages from last month, not with anyone else's.
Related questions
What Are Main Lesson Books in Waldorf Education?
A main lesson book is the book a Waldorf child makes by hand for each main lesson block. It starts blank, and the child fills it with their own writing and drawings about what they learned. A year of 8 to 12 blocks fills about that many books. By grade 8 a Waldorf student has a shelf of main lesson books, and many keep them for life.
Read answerWhat Is a Main Lesson Block in Waldorf Education?
A main lesson block is a stretch of 2 to 4 weeks when the child studies one subject in the morning main lesson, usually 1 to 2 hours a day (often 60 to 90 minutes in grade 1), before moving to the next. Each day follows the same shape: review, new content, practice and time in the main lesson book. A school year holds about 8 to 12 blocks.
Read answerHow Does Waldorf Teach Letters in Grade 1?
In Waldorf grade 1, each letter grows out of a picture from a story. You tell a fairy tale one day. The next day your child recalls it, draws the scene and finds the letter inside the drawing: a B in the bear, an M in the mountain. Capital consonants come first, vowels are met through feeling, lowercase follows later, and writing comes before reading.
Read answerWhat Is Waldorf Chalkboard Drawing, and How Do I Do It at Home?
Waldorf chalkboard drawing is a colored chalk picture the teacher draws by hand to open a main lesson: a fairy tale castle in grade 1, a farm in grade 3. It stays up through the block. At home you need a board or black paper, soft colored chalk, and an hour. Block in color with the side of the chalk, blend with your fingers, then add a few details.
Read answerHow to Teach Times Tables the Waldorf Way
Waldorf children learn times tables through rhythm and movement first: counting in 2s, 3s and 4s while stepping, clapping and tossing beanbags. Then they see each table as a pattern on a circle of 10 points, and write it out in the main lesson book. Grade 2 is often the year of many tables, practised a few minutes every day.
Read answerLooking for a Waldorf school, kindergarten or parent-and-child group near you? Find one on the Waldorf Map.