Waldorf Education Planning Resources You’ll Use Every Year

If you’re just getting started building your Waldorf resource library, you may be wondering which books will make the worthiest investment. What are the books Waldorf teachers turn to again and again? Well here’s a list of my favorite perennial Waldorf resources.

These are the books that teachers pull off their shelves and consult every year as a refresher. The content is not specific to a particular grade, but instead these books give teachers the large view picture — the wide angle view of Waldorf curriculum, child development and classroom management. They’re definitely worth the investment.

Waldorf Education Planning Resources

The Tasks and Content of the Steiner-Waldorf Curriculum by Kevin Avison and Martyn Rawson is my number one go-to resource when I begin planning the year. Then I turn to it again as I prepare each block. This book does such a fantastic job of outlining the curriculum — both vertically and horizontally — so it is really clear how all of the pieces of the curriculum fit together. There is also additional content that gives the authors’ thoughts about evaluation and assessment, classroom management and an overview of the Waldorf perspective of child development. It’s expensive, but if you buy just one book, make this one it.

School as a Journey by Torin Finser is another fantastic resource I always read during the summer before each year. This book tells the story of the author and his journey through the grades with his students. Through his real-world experience he does a great job of giving a picture of the curriculum and child development considerations for each year. I like this book so much that some years I have photocopied the chapter for the current grade and given it to parents to read.

 
I’m not one to usually recommend reading a lot of heavy Steiner to prepare for the school year, but The Kingdom of Childhood by Rudolf Steiner is a highly accessible read that is a good place to turn for some back-to-basics inspiration. Don’t be intimidated that it’s Steiner — you’ll enjoy it.

Teaching Children to Care by Ruth Sidney Charney is not a Waldorf resource at all, but it is my all time favorite book for inspiration about creating a positive, healthy, caring social atmosphere in the classroom. This book is super-practical, but also full of big guiding ideas. This was the first book I read in the Responsive Classroom series, and I can’t recommend it (and the rest of the series) enough. Another favorite in this series that would be particularly useful to read if you are about to start with a new class of students is The First Six Weeks of School.

Finally, one last book that I love for planning and general inspiration is A Handbook for Steiner-Waldorf Class Teachers by Kevin Avison. This one is not so much your traditional resource book for sitting down and reading through, but it is a book full of lists and charts that can be really useful to main lesson teachers. My favorite resource? The list of recall activity ideas — that alone is worth the price of the book.