SOLA's Thematic Curriculum
A beautiful illustration of the constellation Columba, from a 6th grade Astronomy block
Watercolor painting of a garden during a 5th grade Botany block.
A map of the Silk Road, created during an Asian History block
What are Thematic Academics?
Many educators recognize the deeper field of learning created from integrating, rather than isolating academic content areas. The wisdom of this approach echoes the systemic wisdom of nature, is rooted in ancient, classical education, and has been a unique feature of Waldorf schooling since its beginnings in the early 20th century.
A thematic lesson on the rock cycle, presented as part of a geology block.
Thematic Lessons invite students to dive deeply into a topic, and into a meaningful encounter with the passion, wisdom, and knowledge of their Thematic Lesson teacher. TL presentations are not derived from a textbook. Concepts and topics are introduced to students through direct experience of phenomena, or are presented using primary sources, stories, experiments, songs, poems, shared through the teacher’s unique, authentic voice, and ensouled understanding of the subject matter. In this way, thematics offer an opportunity for holistic understanding- inter-being between teacher, student and subject matter.
Thematic Lessons are offered in 1.5 - 2 hour class sessions each morning, after morning circle and land & animal chores. The extended lesson period provides the learning spaciousness within which patterns and meaning can organically emerge in the student's awareness. Topics are typically cross-disciplinary and content areas can include sciences, math, history, geography, social/cultural studies, language arts, and humanities. Themes change every 4-6 weeks, with a total of 7-9 themes covered during a programming year.
Beautiful chalkboard illustrations by the class teacher guide the students' thematic lesson work. In this mountain scene, the letter 'M' is playfully embedded in the landscape as it is introduced to 1st grade students
Student work and learning during TL blocks can be 'captured' in many ways. Work may be entered into Thematic Lesson book. These student-made journals are richly illustrated, and contain compositions, diagrams, timelines, maps, field guides and more. In grades 4-6, they become the student's resource for review before an end-of-block quiz, and in all grades they function as an archival record of the student's learning experience within each theme.
The letter 'H' is entered into a 1st grade lesson book, and illustrated with a house- notice the 'H' within the form of the house.
In the upper grades, TL learning can also expressed through student projects or presentations. Students may be asked to share their own wisdoms and experience of a topic by offering a presentation to their fellow students and teacher. In this way, students have the experience of 'teaching as learning'.
Depending on the thematic topic, theatrical reenactments, field trips, experiments, show-and-share style presentations, and observation of phenomena enrich and deepen the student’s understanding.