Class 7 Complements
Click one below to learn more:
PAINTING & DRAWING
Cooking
Experienced UKuLELE
THEATRE & SPEECH
WORLD LANGUAGES: SPANISH & GERMAN
Our Class 7 size is 14 students, allowing the teacher to get to know each student and creating a class community environment during class.
Painting & Drawing
SEMESTER 1 WITH MR. GAY & SEMESTER 2 WITH MS. JONES-SCHMIDT
This is a year-long class (2 semester) for 7th and 8th grade students. Black and white drawings of natural objects and still life; landscape color perspective paintings; perspective drawing; and architecture will be central to this class.
Students who are 13 & 14 can feel unsure and misunderstood in their changing physical bodies. Artistic work can help them stand more confidently and easily in the world. Practicing accuracy in perception and thinking will help the student form a clear relationship with the world around them and their own mental abilities.
SEMESTER 1 WITH MR. GAY
In this semester, we will further explore object drawing, with a strong focus on observation, moving from black and white into full color. The lessons will start with simple skills exercises to develop drawing skills and we will then work tasks set. Learning to observe precisely is key to good object drawing. We will practice using everyday household objects that will become the focus of drawing, honing in our skills of line, shading, light and darkness. We will use only black and white and then move into colour.
Each student will learn how to use a pencil, line weights, intensity etc and look at how, when using color pencils, we can layer colours to give deeper and more vibrant colours.
Once we have mastered some of these skills we will explore the same observation using paints, particularly aspects of veil painting so they can learn how to combine colours. and how thin transparent layers can bring a vibrancy to their work.
This semester will consist of lessons where the teacher leads the students through a piece of work and also work they create freely by themselves.
SEMESTER 2 WITH MS. JONES-SCHMIDT
This class will focus on landscape painting in various media. We’ll incorporate what the students have learned in previous classes regarding perspective, shading, color, and form. Periodically, I’ll introduce the work of a particular artist. We’ll discuss that person’s technique and think about adapting it for our own work.
Waldorf students work with watercolors from Kindergarten on. The early grades focus on color study, leading to veil painting in older classes. In this class, we'll work with the subtleties and gradations of color possible when using tubed, rather than liquid, watercolors.
Pastel paintings encourage the student to build up forms and create depth by adding layers of color. The results can be paintings that practically sparkle with rich color.
Acrylics provide yet another approach to liquid paints. These paints are created from a plastic base and dry very quickly, so any “mistake” can be easily corrected. Acrylic paints were not available until the mid-20th century. Now, many artists prefer them to oil paints.
We will end the year with paper-cut collages. These are not paintings, but they offer yet another approach to color and form [as well as fine motor challenges!].
In each block, the teacher will model proper brush technique and color mixing possibilities as well as providing an image to serve as a model. Students will be encouraged to "make the painting their own" by adding or deleting elements from the model, or by choosing their own models.
The course will focus on the period of history from 1800 - 1950. We’ll explore various media and take a brief look at the work of some of the major visual artists of this time period.
Cooking
Encouraging children to help prepare healthy meals for their families is an excellent way to teach them essential life skills. They gain a deeper understanding of the effort and time required to create tasty dishes and develop a stronger connection to the ingredients they use. This connection often makes children more open to trying foods with new flavors and textures. By expanding their palate, they can develop healthy eating habits that benefit them for life. By encouraging independence and instilling competence, children will gain the confidence to make any recipe they discover and adapt recipes to suit their tastes. The sense of accomplishment that comes from feeding loved ones can also lead to self-confidence in other areas of life.
Anticipated Recipe List:
(Recipes are subject to change according to dietary restrictions and accommodations needed within the class.)
Moroccan Couscous with roasted vegetables- Morocco
Apple strudel- Germany
Stuffed Grape leaves- Lebanon
Design Your Own Tacos- Mexico
Challah Bread- Israel
Moist Healthy Chocolate Cake- Ukraine
Swedish Pancakes- Sweden
Pita and Hummus- Egypt
Khichdi/Indian Fried Rice- India
Brigadeiros/Brazilian Fudge Balls- Brazil
Gyoza Dumplings- Japan
Pumpkin pie- North America
Quiche Lorraine- France
Cranberry Hootycreeks Jar Cookies for gift-giving- USA
Pasta al Limone- Italy
Belokranjska Pogača/Traditional Slovenian Bread- Slovenia
Hungarian Chicken Paprikash with Dumplings- Hungary
Chicken Noodle Soup
Throughout the semester, the variety of recipes will reinforce technical skills, encourage innovative use of ingredients, and support interest in food culture. However, this class is about more than preparing tasty dishes.
Cooking offers hands-on experience with measuring, counting, fractions, tracking time, and temperature. For students in third grade and up, multiplication and division skills are needed to scale a recipe up or down. For students in fifth grade and up, additional math practice can come from calculating the cost of making a recipe vs. the price of a take-out version of a similar dish.
Following the step-by-step process-focused instructions of a recipe improves reading comprehension and shows that reading has practical benefits.
As foods are prepared, abstract concepts such as chemical reactions become relevant and understandable to children.
Cooking requires problem-solving and resilience to find solutions when a recipe does not come together as planned.
Many recipes we will prepare utilize basic ingredients that the student may already have in their pantry, demonstrating that home-cooked meals are manageable and can be fast and straightforward to prepare.
The kitchen is an excellent place for children to engage their senses experientially. They can knead, toss, pour, smell, chop, feel, and taste foods, all while having fun and learning without even realizing it.
Students will be encouraged to flavor dishes with herbs and spices and challenged to try their own variations, customizing recipes to suit their flavor and dietary preferences.
Cooking can teach children responsibility as they learn specific tasks to contribute to meal preparation and cleanup.
Acquiring ingredients from the grocery store, farmer’s market, or even harvesting their own herbs, fruits, and vegetables helps children understand where the ingredients that make up their favorite meals are sourced. Purchasing fresh, locally grown ingredients supports farmers in your area. For the Cooking 3/4 class: Students will be encouraged to visit a farmer’s market or pick- your-own farm to choose local seasonal ingredients.
Making a grocery list before shopping helps a child learn about planning and making informed choices about healthy foods. Choosing whole-food ingredients reduces packaging waste and instills the values of environmental consciousness.
Preparing recipes from other countries allows children to experience new flavors and textures. This exposure to diverse cuisines opens a child’s mind to different cultures, offers a geography lesson, and promotes awareness, understanding, and appreciation of culinary traditions and practices worldwide. For the Cooking 5-8 class: Each week, students will be encouraged to research two new facts about the recipe’s country of origin to share with the class.
Cooking allows children to learn more about their own heritage and family traditions through treasured recipes passed down through the generations.
Theatre & Speech
In our weekly drama class, students will explore the power of storytelling through drama. In class we learn how to bring characters to life through characterization, movement, and voice. Steiner-inspired speech exercises will provide a backdrop to work on speech concepts such as articulation, diction*, prosody (expressiveness of speech), and flow.
By working with familiar themes and stories inspired from their Main Lesson classes and the classics, students will learn core acting skills that will help them bring the stories and characters to life. Despite being online, ensemble-building will be a crucial component of this course. Theatre games and choral work will build our group together through laughter and imagination! No experience necessary.
LOTUS AND IVY DRAMA SCOPE AND SEQUENCE THROUGH THE GRADES
K-1 Creative Drama and Voice:
In creative drama, our students learn foundational acting skills. We focus on using our bodies expressly and representationally to act out different animals, people, and emotions that we feel. We use charming seasonal stories to act out, explore, and create different production elements to bring the story to life at home and online together such as puppets, masks, and simple scarf-based costumes and sets.
Grade 2-3 Theatre and Speech:
In Creative Storytelling and Drama, we pick up where we left off in Creative Drama, but focusing on how we use our voices and imagination to tell stories, poems, and speak with people in our everyday lives. Storytelling focal points include finding levels in our voices to show different levels of emotional states, using our imagination to turn abstract objects into other objects, and most importantly having fun!
Grade 4-5 Theatre and Speech:
Fourth and 5th Graders will continue their knowledge of theatre training by focusing on character building in this course. We will still explore the foundational acting “tool kit” of voice, body, and imagination, but we will focus more on how our bodies can reflect a character, how our voices can reflect that all on the Zoom screen! This class will work on a play to be presented at the end of the semester.
Grade 6-8 Theatre and Speech:
Improvisation, Scene Study, Physical Theatre, oh my! Our middle school Theatre and Speech class is all about using our whole-selves to create theatre magic! We will be exploring physical theatre techniques such as pantomime, improv skills through improvisation games and scene, and character work within scene study. This “all-round” class offers a great introduction to performing to students who have never taken a theatre class before and skills practice to those who are involved with local theatres or have taken a Lotus and Ivy Theatre and Speech class in the past.
Through Creative Dramatics, students will practice speech concepts such as visualization and articulation, while working with others and harnessing their imaginative skills.
Our class will meet weekly for 18 weeks (except during school-wide breaks) and will culminate with a demonstration meeting in which families and siblings are invited.
*Please note, this does not take the place of specialized Speech Pathology courses. This will aid students in these areas.
Experienced Ukulele
This class is for children who have previous experience with the ukulele (whether it was class with me previously or taught by another teacher). It is important for children who join this class to be able to play and identify basic chords (C, G, Am, F, A, D, G7) and strum as they sing (which is a really big step!).
Students entering this group should be comfortable with the “island strum” (DDU UDU) and able to transition between at least 6–8 chords with relative ease. Placement is based on experience rather than age, and students in grades 4–9 are welcome.
In this class, we will build on existing skills by exploring a wider range of chords, including bar chords and more complex shapes, as well as playing in multiple keys. Students will work with varied rhythm patterns, strengthen their timing, and develop greater fluency in chord transitions.
The focus remains on making music together, with increasing opportunities for student leadership, musical choice, and creative expression. Students may begin to explore harmony, dynamics, and more nuanced playing, as well as the possibility of informal performance.
This class supports students in moving from foundational playing into a more confident, expressive, and independent musical relationship with the ukulele.