One childhood. Live it fully.
Beyond the classroom, life at WSA moves to the rhythm of the seasons: festivals and lantern light, gardens and woods, music and handwork, and friendships that last for years. This is childhood lived fully, not rushed through.
The school year turns through a cycle of seasonal festivals the whole community shares. They give children a felt sense of time, beauty, and belonging, and a rhythm they carry for life.
The rhythm of the year
Our Festivals
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Rose Ceremony
On the first morning of each school year, our eighth graders welcome the new first graders with a rose. It is a simple, moving picture of community: the oldest students caring for the youngest, and a whole school beginning again together.
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Michaelmas
As summer gives way to autumn, Michaelmas celebrates courage and the harvest. Through story, song, and shared work, children take heart for the year ahead and the challenges it will bring.
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Lantern Walk
On a dark November evening, children carry lanterns they have made by hand, walking together as small points of light in the gathering dusk. It is a quiet reminder that each of us carries a light to share.
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Winter Spiral
In the stillness of December, each child walks a spiral of evergreens, carrying a candle to the center to kindle its flame. One by one the lights appear, a beautiful picture of the warmth that grows within us in the darkest season.
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May Day
When spring is in full bloom, the whole school gathers for flowers, song, and the winding ribbons of the maypole. May Day is pure joy, a celebration of renewal, community, and the delight of being outdoors together.
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Commencement
At the close of the year, our eighth graders celebrate Commencement, the culmination of a journey many have shared since first grade. It is a moment of pride and tenderness, honoring all they have become and sending them forth ready for what comes next.
The world as a classroom
As they grow, students take on class trips and overnight adventures that connect their learning to the wider world and draw a class closer together. The journey culminates in the eighth grade's week-long capstone trip to Puerto Rico, a milestone students remember for life.
Arts, music, and creativity
Singing, instruments, painting, handwork, woodwork, and theater are part of every day at WSA, not a special occasion. Children grow up making things with their hands and their voices: performing class plays, joining ensembles, and discovering what they can create.
Games, movement, and sport
Movement runs through the whole curriculum, from the earliest grades onward, because coordination, confidence, and teamwork are built the same way everything else is built here: by doing. In grades one through five, movement is taught through games rich in imagery, story, and rhythm, developing body awareness, personal space, and the joy of moving together.
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The Grade 5 Greek Olympiad
Movement education culminates for fifth graders in the Greek Olympiad, a pentathlon shared with fifth grade classes from Waldorf schools across the region, and one of the most memorable experiences of a WSA childhood. For months, students train in the five original Olympic events: discus, javelin, wrestling, relay, and long jump. Then, beginning with the lighting of the Olympic torch, city-states named Corinth, Thebes, Athens, and Sparta compete in the ancient spirit, and a closing ceremony honors the special contribution of every athlete. Fifth graders study ancient Greece all year; at the Olympiad, they live it.
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Sport in the middle grades
In grades six through eight, conventional sports enter the physical education curriculum, arriving exactly when students are ready to respect the law of rules, work as a team, and pursue technique, timing, and the spirit of the game. After-school athletics give students even more ways to move and play, with offerings that change by season.
Questions about athletics? Contact Lisa Novak, Extended Day and Athletics Director, at lnovak@waldorfatlanta.org.
Outside, every day
Children are outdoors every day on our wooded campus, more than six acres in the heart of Decatur. They play in the Glade, walk the trails, and work in the garden, planting flowers, caring for chickens, and tending the compost, forming a lasting connection to the natural world.
Our gardening program is growing, too. A current school effort is expanding the garden so even more children can learn, in the spirit of the project, that learning to grow food grows children.
A community of families
None of this happens without the families who make WSA what it is. Parents run the Holiday Fair, fill the workshops, and refresh the classrooms on work days, and many find their closest friendships here.
Come see a day for yourself
The rhythm of this place is best felt in person. Come walk the trails, watch a lesson, and experience it yourself.
Contact our Enrollment Director, Stacey Alston at enrollment@waldorfatlanta.org for more information about the student life at The Waldorf School of Atlanta.