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Movement Education and Games Curriculum
Just as Waldorf schools honor the natural unfolding of the developing human being in determining
the academic curriculum, Movement Education springs from this same understanding. In a
culture where organized team sports hold such high status, children can sometimes think of movement
only in those terms. The Movement Education curriculum tries to give children basic coordination
and movement skills that will help them if and when they decide to play organized sports.
Depending on the grade, children will play games, do relay races, or learn dances that serve to
develop skills that may also be beneficial for a conventional sport.
Not only does a movement class provide the opportunity for children to play games and have fun,
it also works with their social interaction: their activity teaches them to play with each other
before they play against each other, to acknowledge each other, to play safely, and to gain an
appreciation for all kinds of movement. Movement Education enables students to move fully,
know who they are, and enter into a more healthy relationship with the world and its requirements.
In the early years, kindergarten teachers introduce movement through imitation of daily activities,
circle games, singing and imaginative play. Movement in kindergarten is crucial for establishing
social and communication skills as well as laying the ground for cognition.
In grades one through five, movement education is taught through various games to help develop
an enhanced awareness of personal space, with clearly defined boundaries. Physical activity is
emphasized through games using imagery, story, rhythm and imitation. In the fifth grade there is a
focus on beauty and form and in the spring the fifth graders participate in the Greek Games, a
gathering of fifth grade classes from several regional Waldorf schools.
In grades six, seven, and eight more conventional sports are introduced into the physical education
curriculum. Only now can the children have a real respect for the law of rules and understand
how a team works together. At the same time, they are developing their own self-discipline and
competitive nature. They aspire to a finer exactness, technique, timing and spirit of the law, as
they also become more aware of the world.
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