Waldorf Recitation: Which Poems and Verses Children Learn by Grade

Waldorf children speak poems together every morning, and they learn them by ear, not from a page. In grade 1 the poems are short and seasonal: the wind, the moon, the first snow, plus a tongue twister or two. Grade 2 brings longer rhyming poems. In grade 3 the poems often follow the farming and building year. By grade 4 children speak strong alliterative verse to go with the Norse myths, and some say a poem alone. At home, you can use old poems that are free to copy. Rossetti, Stevenson, Longfellow and Shakespeare cover grades 1 to 4 between them.

What does recitation look like in a Waldorf class?

Picture the start of a grade 1 morning. The children stand. The candle is lit and they say the morning verse together. Then the teacher begins a poem about the autumn wind, and the class follows, arms swaying for the trees. After that comes a tongue twister, slow and then a little faster, and everyone laughs when it goes wrong.

That's recitation. Halton Waldorf School in Ontario describes a daily recitation of poems, tongue twisters and songs in grade 1, chosen for the season or for the story the class is hearing. The Alabama Waldorf School describes the same thing across the grades. Children memorize and recite poems and verses in their morning warm-up. In the younger grades, they speak the verses with movements.

Nobody hands out a sheet. The teacher speaks, and the children join in.

Why do Waldorf children recite poems?

A few reasons come up again and again.

It trains the ear. Kavita Desai teaches English at a Waldorf school in Freiburg. She writes that children pick up new words in context, from the stories, poems, rhymes and songs they hear and speak. They don't need to understand every word the first time. They feel the mood of the poem first, and the meaning follows.

It prepares for reading. Rhyme and rhythm help children hear the sounds inside words. A 2011 study of 3-year-olds found that children taught nursery rhymes for ten weeks scored higher on rhyme awareness than children who weren't. The same paper summarizes older research linking early rhyme knowledge with later reading and spelling. That fits the Waldorf order of things, where children speak and write before they read, as the reading article explains.

It builds a class, or a family. Speaking in unison asks you to breathe together and listen to each other. The Alabama school's writers see poetry as a way to build community and emotional resilience, as well as literacy.

It gives each child a verse of their own. Many Waldorf class teachers write a birthday verse for each child. Heinz Müller taught for 42 years at a Steiner school in Hamburg. He describes the child speaking their verse in front of the class, usually once a week, for the whole year. Steiner asked the teachers at the first Waldorf school to write these themselves.

How do you teach a poem at home?

This is the part to do, and it takes about 5 minutes a day.

1. Choose one poem for 2 to 4 weeks. Short is fine. Eight lines is plenty for a first grader.
2. Learn it yourself first. Say it aloud on a walk or while you wash up. Your child will copy your pace, so find a calm one.
3. Say it, and let your child join. For the first few days, just say the whole poem at the same point in your morning circle. Many children start joining in on the rhymes before you've asked them to.
4. Add a movement for each line. Desai demonstrates the gestures while she speaks and has children repeat, and she keeps the wording exactly the same every time. Fingers for falling rain, arms bowed for trees, a stamp for a giant.
5. Speak it together, then let your child lead. By week 2, try going quiet on a line and see who fills it.
6. Write it down last. Once the poem is known, your child can copy it into the main lesson book with a picture. Halton's grade 1 children read back the verses they have written. It's often their first real reading.

Add a tongue twister on the side. "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers" is old and free to use. Say it slowly and clearly first, and only speed up when every sound is there.

Which poems suit each grade?

The poems below are old enough to be in the public domain almost everywhere, so you can copy them out, print them and speak them freely. The lines quoted are from the original books on Project Gutenberg.

Grade 1: short nature poems and rhymes

Grade 1 poems are short, rhyme strongly and follow the season. Nursery rhymes and counting rhymes belong here too. Halton's grade 1 children also learn a short choral play by heart from a fairy tale, which is a good step from poem to story. The grade 1 curriculum guide shows where recitation sits in the whole year, and the grade 1 curriculum comparison compares the programs you can use for that year.

Christina Rossetti's "Who has seen the wind?" from Sing-Song (1872) is 8 lines long and just right. It begins:

Who has seen the wind? Neither I nor you: But when the leaves hang trembling The wind is passing thro'.

Robert Louis Stevenson's "My Shadow" (1885) suits a first grader too. Take it outside on a sunny morning and let your child find their own shadow. It opens:

I have a little shadow that goes in and out with me, And what can be the use of him is more than I can see.

Grade 2: longer poems with a beat

In grade 2, many children can hold a longer poem, and they enjoy a strong beat. Stevenson's "Windy Nights" gallops along like the horseman in it:

Whenever the moon and stars are set, Whenever the wind is high,

Rossetti's color poem from Sing-Song, "What is pink? a rose is pink / By the fountain's brink", goes through the colors one by one and pairs well with wet-on-wet painting. Grade 2 is also a year of fables and saints' stories, and a short verse about the season or the day's story can close the main lesson.

Grade 3: work, the farm and the year

Grade 3 is the year of farming, building and the old trades. Longfellow's "The Village Blacksmith" (1840) fits the work of the year well:

Under a spreading chestnut-tree The village smithy stands;

It's long, so learn a verse or two at a time across a block such as Farming and Occupations. Desai describes her grade 3 class acting out Shakespeare's winter song from Love's Labour's Lost, "When icicles hang by the wall", with props and parts. It's a lovely one for a cold month, with a new picture in each line.

Grade 4: alliteration, riddles and a solo turn

For grade 4, Halton lists riddles, speech exercises, alliterative verses and longer narrative verse. Children now recite both as a group and one by one. This is the year of the Norse myths, and alliterative verse repeats the first sounds of words rather than rhyming at the end.

Longfellow's "The Challenge of Thor" from Tales of a Wayside Inn (1863) is short and loud, and many 9 and 10 year olds love saying it:

I am the God Thor, I am the War God, I am the Thunderer!

Let your child stamp the beat as they speak it. Starpath's grade 4 Norse Creation block asks children to read their own writing aloud with expression, and a poem like this is good practice for that. For a solo turn, choose a poem your child already knows well. Let them stand and say it to one listener at the end of the week. Many families use a birthday verse here, a few lines you write or choose just for them.

What if my child won't join in?

That's common, especially in the first week. Many children listen for days before they speak. Keep saying the poem, the same way, at the same time, without asking your child to perform. Hand movements often come before words. A younger sibling who can't yet read will often learn the poem first, just from hearing it.

If your child mumbles or rushes, slow yourself down. Say the endings of words clearly. Children copy the voice they hear. Eurythmy works on the same thing through movement, and there's more on that in eurythmy at home.

Where to start this week

Pick one poem from the list for your child's grade. Learn it yourself tonight. Tomorrow morning, after the verse, say it once with a movement for each line, and say it again every morning this week. Add "Peter Piper" on Friday. By the end of the month your child will likely know the poem by heart, and you'll have a line or two of it stuck in your head too.