Developmental Signatures - Waldorf Research Institute

in building his organs, are now available to the child, not only as creative forces, but
also as forces for thinking. Through working with his hands, the child can connect
with the natural process of becoming. Art opens the door to creativity.
Form drawing is introduced and developed during the first four years of
school in a structured artistic approach. The child learns to make precise drawings
of regular forms, at first simple ones developed from the polarity of straight and
curved lines; then more difficult and challenging forms, increasing step-by-step.
The sense of form is challenged in most differentiated ways through lines which
cross in regular intervals, mirror each other or even invert. By going through
the complex process of form drawing and the discovery of new and ever-new
inventions of forms, the child gains a power of orientation which can lead to a
sense of certitude that reaches far into his thought processes and his sense of self.
At the same time he becomes intuitively aware of the formative forces and the
laws of form which constitute the world.
Eurythmy is an art form that moves and vitalizes the whole being. Children
experience in this class how they can integrate into the movement of body and
limbs all the faculties of soul and spirit acquired so far, following objective laws.
For example, the forms that a child creates in form drawing with paper and
pencil, initially as mere imitation and increasingly freer and more creative, can be
experienced in eurythmy with the whole being. The child learns about the various
qualities of physical space. These qualities of movement in eurythmy are connected
with the experience of the musical elements of tone, melody, and harmony, and
also with the powerful expression found in the elements of speech: vowels and
consonants, syntax and poetic imagery.
14.
Beginning lessons in mathematics in the Waldorf elementary school are based
on rhythmically structured movement processes. Counting is learned by speaking
in chorus, accompanied by rhythmic stomping, clapping, skipping and jumping
in unison. For example, the path to the times tables emerges when every second or
third number is emphasized, again accompanied by a certain movement sequence