At Green Meadow Waldorf School, education is not limited to classroom experiences.  By introducing experiential activities that build upon the lessons and bring learning to life, our students gain a fuller and more enriching understanding of their subjects.  The following are a few examples of Green Meadow curriculum in action:

In the High School

 
In the Lower School 

Second Grade Martinmas Walk

Second grade students, shedding the fairy tale dreaminess of first grade, are now beginning to become more aware of themselves and others.  Legends and stories of valiant heroes and noble, upright people address this emerging awareness by presenting the best and worst examples of human characteristics. One story the children discover is about the life of Saint Martin, who shared his cloak with a cold and lonely man on a dark and stormy night. Saint Martin’s example of compassion provides the basis for a special late autumn second grade experience.  After hosting a coat drive to collect warm clothing for those in need, the students set out on an evening trek.  Singing and walking through the woods, each with a lantern made in class, the children experience bringing their own light into the darkness, as Saint Martin did so long ago.

Third Grade House-building

As children approach their ninth birthday, they gain a new awareness of themselves as being fully "on the earth" for the first time in their lives. This developmental stage sets the theme for the third grade curriculum. Learning how people all over the world build dwellings in their own special places on the earth meets the children just as they are finding a home in the world for themselves. Each year, the third graders choose a dwelling to build together on the school's campus.  Sometimes, this will be a simple but beautiful sukkah. Reminiscent of the types of huts that were built by the ancient Israelites during their 40 years of wandering in the desert after the exodus from Egypt, sukkahs dovetail with the students' learning about Old Testament stories of expulsion from the Garden of Eden and the making of one's own way in the world. Planting their own feet on the ground and ready to become stewards of the earth, Green Meadow third graders spend time each week over the course of the year at the Fellowship Community farm adjacent to campus, learning how to grow food and care for animals. Their curriculum culminates with a memorable five-day trip in the spring to the Hawthorne Valley Farm, where they put their newly learned farming skills to work and share their first experience together of being away from home and family.

Fourth Grade Geography

Having learned how to farm and build on the earth in the third grade, fourth graders are now eager to explore their physical surroundings.  The curriculum this year includes a year-long theme of local geography.  The culmination of this study is a trip to North/South Lake in the Catskills.  Here, the students share their first experience of sleeping in tents, cooking meals outdoors and exploring the mountains as a class.  From the high Catskill cliffs, they are able to gaze down onto the Hudson River; after having studied its rich history over the course of the year, they now have a new-found first-hand knowledge of its geography.

Fifth Grade Pentathlon

Fifth grade students have reached a particularly harmonious stage in their lives. Their intellectual, social and physical selves are neatly balanced, and they are ready and eager for new challenges. The fifth graders' own "Golden Age" neatly meshes with their study of the history and culture of the ancient Greeks. In their physical education curriculum, the students learn the five events of the classical Greek pentathlon: javelin throw, discus throw, long jump, wrestling and running. In May, the class travels to Massachusetts to participate in a Greek Olympiad held in competition with fifth grade students from several other Waldorf schools in the region. Appropriate opening songs or poems from each class are followed by the pentathlon events, as the students demonstrate the skills they have been practicing class. The Olympiad culminates with the awarding of medals and laurel wreaths for outstanding individual achievements. 

Seventh Grade Explorations

Seventh grade is a year of of venturing into the unknown and discovering and exploring the self.  The children are introduced to the first principles of chemistry by studying the lime process and discovering the exciting and sometimes dangerous nature of fire, acids, bases and salts.  After getting to know various substances and how each one reacts to fire, the students build a brick kiln in the ground to experience first-hand the wonders of chemical science. As part of their curriculum of European exploration and the history and culture of the Middle Ages, many seventh grade classes choose to expand upon the theme of emerging consciousness by embarking upon a process of knighthood themselves.  After undergoing much personal reflection and performing tasks of community service, they find a teacher-sponsor, design a personal motto and shield, and participate in a class knighting ceremony.

Class Trips

At a time when virtual reality can be experienced at the push of a button, taking children outdoors for real experiences of living and learning is more important than ever before.  At Green Meadow, teachers know that real experiences of nature are an essential part of a child’s education.  From the fifth through the eighth grades, our class trips offer students a variety of opportunities to acquire confidence-building outdoor skills and share adventures in nature together. These trips include activities such as camping, canoeing, white water rafting, star gazing, learning survival skills and more! These journeys offer invaluable lessons to the students, both as individuals and as a group, and are eagerly anticipated by all our students.

To learn more about our programs, please contact the Admissions Office.

In the High School

Class Trips

Curricular trips enrich Green Meadow High School students’ experiences of the course material and often become the vehicles for deeper understanding and treasured social experiences. As part of the ninth grade Moby Dick Novel block, the freshman class takes an overnight trip to historic Mystic Seaport, where they bunk on the safely moored Joseph Conrad, try their hands at harpoon flinging and test their courage by climbing the rigging. Their American History block comes when alive when the students go on two walking tours of Manhattan to view the sites they have been learning about, while their Art History block takes them to at least one New York City museum. Every other year, the tenth grade makes a pilgrimage to the Dodge Poetry Festival in New Jersey, where they encounter a world-class gathering of international poets. In the festival’s off years, teachers find good alternatives through poetry events in Manhattan.

As part of the eleventh grade Parzival block, juniors spend a week in Kimberton, PA at three Camphill villages for children and adults with special needs, while the eleventh grade Botany block in the spring usually includes a local expedition.  At the beginning of the twelfth grade, seniors undertake a week-long study of zoology at Hermit Island on the coast of Maine, exploring the tide pools and their inhabitants, writing essays inspired by their surroundings as well as by the work of Rachel Carson, and bonding around the campfire at night as they begin their last year together.  Their Architecture block always includes field trips to New York City to study and sketch the buildings they have been studying. 

During the year, advisors may also plan a short non-curricular trip for a class, such as a ski trip or a jaunt to Cape Cod.  Twelfth graders and their advisors plan and raise funds all year towards a last voyage together in the spring. 

Clubs and Committees

Green Meadow High School offers its students the chance to get involved in a variety of hands-on, extracurricular activities. Among the opportunities offered are: Student Council; Drama Club; Model U.N.; Drug and Alcohol Task Force; Robotics Club; Burning Bush Literary Journal; Go Green Team; High School Week Planning Committee; and Yearbook.

Community Service 

The Student Initiative Group in the high school is composed of students who are dedicated to helping others, whether locally through getting the recycling program going on campus, to collecting food for the local pantry, or globally through raising money for Waldorf students in other countries or helping with relief efforts and philanthropic endeavors. The group is open to any interested students.

All students in grades nine through twelve are required to perform five hours a year of local (in-school) community service. This may involve such tasks as office or maintenance work on campus, helping at the Fall Fair or giving tours at Open Houses. In addition, the freshman class advisors typically arrange community service experiences for their class to undertake together outside Green Meadow; such projects have included painting the homes of low-income citizens in the area and working at cleaning-up the Hudson River. Sophomores and juniors are required to complete fifteen outside community service hours during the year at places and in areas of their choosing. Helping to feed and clothe the homeless through Midnight Run and to provide food and shelter for them through Helping Hands are popular ways of fulfilling this requirement; our students also volunteer at local daycare centers, in hospitals and at local soup kitchens and food pantries. Although seniors are not required to fulfill community service hours beyond the five in-house, many of them end up with extra hours by the time they graduate.

High School Week

Once a year, the high school suspends regular classes after main lesson to explore a particular theme through participating in workshops, hearing guest speakers and taking field trips. In previous years students have investigated topics such as the role of media in our lives, environmental issues and an exploration of the American dream.

A dedicated team of seniors and juniors, along with faculty advisors, collaborates early in the year to plan the week. In addition to anticipating the break from routine and the variety of experience, the students from the four grades look forward to mingling socially through the elective workshops and field trips. 

Senior Internships

Seniors in good standing may apply for a three week off-campus internship in the spring semester. Students are expected to have a meaningful learning and working experience that spans full days, five days a week. They are required to find the internship themselves, arrange for an on-site supervisor and keep a daily journal describing their experiences and reflecting on them. Their supervisor signs an agreement at the beginning of the period, and completes an evaluation at the conclusion of the internship to fully document the process. In recent years, our senior internship experiences have included working for a newspaper office; training to become a doula; assisting a veterinarian; working at a photography studio; assisting a chief banking economist; learning French pastry skills, training as a media assistant; working at Lincoln Center; farming organically in Hawaii; working in a gymnastics school; and helping at a research lab. Students who do not arrange an independent internship continue with classes on campus and volunteer in local daycare centers.   

Senior Projects

At the end of eleventh grade, students are asked to choose an area of interest they would like to pursue in depth with the guidance of a mentor. After working in their chosen area through a portion of the twelfth grade year, students present their work to the entire high school in the spring. Projects are evaluated and given evaluations of Pass, Fail, Pass with reservations, or Pass with distinction. Senior projects are a natural culmination of a Green Meadow education, providing an opportunity for twelfth graders to develop a sense of themselves as individuals, able to explore and express on their own a private interest or aim.

Areas of Senior Project exploration have included writing; research; performing arts; applied arts and crafts; and applied science.  The array of projects is always rich, and the presentations are one of the highlights of the high school year.

My Waldorf education has been a layered gift that I continue to unravel, explore and understand. I have the utmost appreciation and gratitude for the essential and rare experience and knowledge I have received from the community both in and outside of the classroom.
~ Arielle Mendelsohn, Class of 2003