Programs
2024-2025 School YearEarly Childhood
Young children learn through imitation and play. Our teachers model respect and reverence in their interactions with your child. Our play-based curriculum is substantiated by research from the American Academy of Pediatrics that states play is integral for a healthy childhood, and necessary for social and intellectual development when formal academics begin in the grade school.
Children attending the Early Childhood program at the Waldorf School of Bend are prepared for future academic challenges as they engage their will through meaningful, practical activities and develop language through story, song, and verse. By the time he or she enters first grade, your child is ready and eager to experience the intellectual rigors of the grades curriculum.
Our early childhood teachers help your little one to feel secure, protected, and confident—grounded in the consistency of our daily, weekly, and seasonal rhythms and activities. Through daily outdoor free play and creative exploration, we aspire to cultivate a love of—and respect for—our natural world.
Grades 1-5
The WSB grade school offers a classical education that is rich in hands-on, artistic learning. The curriculum is truly interdisciplinary, as students explore and draw connections across math, science, language arts, and the humanities.
Core subjects are designed in blocks of three to four weeks called “Main Lessons,” enabling the students to focus intensively on one subject at a time, such as Ancient Civilizations or Zoology. In our screen-free, media-free environment, students creatively design and make their own “Main Lesson Books” that allow them to experience agency over their own learning.
Our full range of academic subjects are further enhanced and supported by the arts, including singing, musical instrument playing, watercolor painting, beeswax and clay modeling, dramatic plays, physical movement and cooperative games, gardening, cooking, and practical arts, such as woodworking, knitting, crocheting, and sewing. Cognitive and educational research supports that elementary age children better retain information presented artistically.
This challenging, vibrant curriculum allows our students to learn in their own innate styles, and to build upon their own emerging capabilities.
Junior High 6-8
Our upper grades liberal arts curriculum prepares your child for the academic rigors of high school and college by providing a challenging scope and depth of subjects that include: mathematics (pre-algebra, algebra, geometry), the sciences (astronomy, geology, physics, chemistry), history (Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, Middle Ages, Renaissance, Modern American History), language arts, geography, social studies and the fine, performing, and practical arts.
Because our Waldorf curriculum is experiential and interdisciplinary, students spend considerable time building solid foundations and capacities in critical and cooperative thinking. They are able to do so by actively engaging in the classroom, in the lab, on the playing field, on stage, and in our natural environment.
Subjects are taught in concert, not isolation, to further demonstrate the interconnectedness of the disciplines presented. Approaching a subject from a variety of perspectives provides our students with a multi-faceted understanding of complex issues and a more global approach to real world applications and concepts.
Subjects are taught in block rotations, with specialty classes, field trips, and lab classes supporting and deepening learning. Our students do not just memorize subjects, but experience and fully engage with the material. Your upper grade student at WSB is prepared for high school as a confident, compassionate, resilient, and well-rounded individual with a capacity for creative, flexible, independent thought.
Tours
Feel free to call us directly at 541-330-8841 or schedule a tour online here.
We have ongoing enrollment based on availability throughout the school year!
Extended Care
The Waldorf School of Bend offers a range of programs to support parents and their children. These include:
- After school care
- Summer camps
- Winter and Spring break camps
- After school music lessons
After School Care
Waldorf School of Bends’ After School Program is available for all ages every school day until 5:00pm. Children will have snack, indoor and outdoor play, arts, crafts, and gardening as well as time for homework for older children.
Summer & Break Camps
Cultivate a deep connection of nature through exciting, unique and challenging adventures each week. Our staff of energetic, creative and loving teachers are excited to provide fun experiences where children are encouraged to learn, grow and develop skills for school and life.