Sixth grade is the gateway to pre-adolescence. The curriculum offers firm academic grounding in math, composition, and science, along with memorable depictions of cultural cause and effect: Arthurian legend and the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, medieval society and the Crusades. Students begin to structure and participate in scientific experiments on light, heat, magnetism and electricity while the study of mathematics incorporates business math and the principles of economics.
As middle schoolers, students in the sixth grade join either the Strings Orchestra or the Recorder Ensemble and participate in the Middle School Choir; experiences that enrich the school year through multiple musical performances.
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Strings & Recorders
| | Geology & Astronomy
| | Light, Sound & Motion
| | Main Lessons
| | Class Teacher
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Elizabeth Roosevelt grew up in Selma, Alabama and attended boarding school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She received her B.A. in German from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee and her Waldorf teaching certificate from the Irish Steiner Waldorf Association in County Clare, Ireland. After teaching kindergarten for two years in Ireland, she moved to Atlanta with her husband, Ben, who is a Waldorf high school teacher at Academe of the Oaks. Elizabeth has also taught Grade Four at Linden Corner Waldorf School in Nashville, Tennessee. She has directed an extended day program, taught theatrical games and movement, and volunteered in public schools and community programs for elementary school children. Before taking this class in the first grade, Elizabeth spent a year assisting in the school's 5-day kindergarten. Elizabeth enjoys reading, writing, music, travel, and the arts.
Grade Six Pedagogical Overview
The twelfth year is the gateway to pre-adolescence and idealism, and although the sixth grader is increasingly able to experience internal logic, their sense impressions can often be clouded by emotion and whimsy. Throughout this year, students are encouraged to develop strong powers of observation, and precision and accuracy in their thinking. As they awaken to the intricacies of human thought and action, they readily embrace the biographies of individuals from ancient Rome and the Middle Ages.
In order to ground students in the surrounding world while fostering their fascination with the unknown, sixth graders are provided with their first formal study of natural phenomena. Mineralogy, geography, and physics lessons provide opportunity for in-depth encounters with the physical world while strengthening powers of sense-observation. In addition to being grounded by the lawfulness of the earth, students are also encouraged to develop expansiveness in their imaginative thinking. Astronomy draws students towards the heavens and provides opportunities for them to explore the mysteries of the cosmos. In an effort to recreate the experience of early astronomers, Astronomy is taught exclusively through observation of the unaided eye.
