Middle School
Mountain Song Community School adheres to the curriculum standards established by the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education
Sixth Grade
STRENGTH FROM STONES I’M GIVEN
Sixth grade marks the dawn of adolescence and the beginning of new challenges. Students experience a new level of intellectual consciousness as they enter the world of ideas, critical independent thinking, and judgment. The curriculum, as always, seeks to meet and foster these emerging capacities.
The middle school student is experiencing physical changes in their bodies that they often sense as disorganization. This is a meaningful time for the students to study the physics of that which they can experience clearly through phenomena: acoustics, optics, magnetism, heat, and electricity. They also study the physical body of the earth in geology and the surrounding expanse through astronomy.
Cause and effect thinking is very strong in the sixth grade student; it is here that the rise and fall of Rome is studied. The law and order has a strong appeal as does the consequences of excess. As this is the beginning of the teen years it is of value to highlight the ramifications of a society that went too far. Continuing through with a theme of law and order from Rome, mathematical laws are studied deeply and there is an introduction of economics and business math.
6TH GRADE HIGHLIGHTS
HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY
History of Western Civilization from Rome through the Middle Ages; Roman Mythology, Roman Empire, Fall of Rome, Rise of Christianity, Middle Ages, Arthurian legends and medieval tales, Rise of Islam, Medieval feudal systems, knights and chivalry, castle life, monastic life, Crusades, European Geography and Middle Eastern Geography
LANGUAGE ARTS
Grammar, outlines and expository, narrative and description writing, essays, reports, business writing, biographies and research, speech, ballads, class play
MATHEMATICS
Fluidity in math operations, fractions and decimals, business math, geometric rules and principles, precise construction of geometrical forms, mental math; philosophy of mathematics, ordered pairs, coordinate planes, geometrical terms, surface area and volume, place value, number relationships, operations on whole numbers and decimals, number theory, fraction operations, numerical expressions & patterns, introduction to functions, relations, equivalent expressions, data analysis, statistical averages and visual display of data
SCIENCE
Mineralogy, Geology, Astronomy, Physics, acoustics, light, color, heat, magnetism and static electricity; Cause and effect
FINE ARTS
Precise geometric and projective drawings, charcoal shadow drawing, portraits, calligraphy, watercolor and clay
HANDWORK
Knitting using four needles to make a pair of socks
GAMES AND MOVEMENT
Exercises for exactness, clarity of form, order and structure, Rod exercises, Team sports, Medieval games
MUSIC
Music theory, singing and recorder ensemble in three and four part harmony, Alto recorder, chants and songs from ancient Rome, Folk songs
SPANISH
Dramatic poetry, songs and dialogues; Grammar; Reading, vocabulary, cultural celebrations, plays
AGRICULTURE ARTS
Comparing and contrasting water use in Ancient Rome and modern Colorado; Patterns and art in nature; Indigenous environmental traditions
Seventh Grade
IN HEIGHTS OF WORLD WITHOUT
Looking outward while feeling inward the adolescent seventh grade student is living an emotional life filled with expressiveness and forcefulness. Questioning authority and challenging all that is, with their questions, the students seek to assert their independence and find their place among their peers. It is no accident that the Renaissance is a theme that underlies much of the Seventh grade curriculum. Adolescence often typifies a looking back in an attempt to understand what lies ahead. Harking back to an experience of the Renaissance ideals of truth and beauty can offer a healthy alternative to the sometimes critical attitudes of students of this age.
Seventh graders master the technicalities of vanishing points, converging lines, interpolation and extrapolation. They create the illusion of three-dimensional space, stressing artistic composition as well as mathematical accuracy. Our students foray into creative writing through prose and poetry incorporating the three states of soul, expressed as “Wish,” “Wonder” and “Surprise.” They study human physiology, concentrating on the human digestive system, respiratory, and circulatory systems.
Chemistry is taught in the seventh grade not only as a laboratory science, but as a means of extending the students moral vision to encompass the earth and all of humanity. The students are now of an age in which they have passionate feelings about a number of issues, with concern for the environment high on the list. It is important for them to realize that scientific knowledge will be of the greatest help in corroborating their strong opinions.
7TH GRADE HIGHLIGHTS
LANGUAGE ARTS
Grammar and composition; independent study and report writing, Creative writing and storytelling, expository and narrative writing; A complete theatrical production
HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY. Renaissance history beginning with the Late Middle Ages, Ancient Cultures of Africa, Asia, and the Meso-America and South America, the Renaissance Period and the Age of Exploration
MATHEMATICS. Algebra, geometry and geometric drawing; number conversion, rate problem; solving algebraic equations, equivalent expressions; simplifying expressions; measurement of area & perimeters, properties of angles; deductive reasoning and introduction to proofs, proving similarity and congruency, the Generalized Multiplication Principle, permutations and combinations, experiments, sample spaces, outcomes, events, assignment of probabilities, calculating probabilities of events, conditional probabilities and independence
SCIENCE Physiology including the digestive system, circulatory system, nutrition, self care, and dental hygiene; Chemistry including combustion, acids and bases, and the Lime Cycle; Physics including acoustics, optics, electricity, and magnets; Mechanics and simple machines
FINE ART Clay sculpting, watercolor painting, still-life drawing; Perspective drawing incorporating artistic composition and mathematical precision
MUSIC Intensive choral work, Duets, Baroque music, study of important composers
AGRICULTURAL ARTS. A science-focused year that begins using physics, botany, and biology to examine food and agriculture; Study of fungus, bacteria and invertebrates with hand on experiments, including making kombucha; The biology, production and cooking of mushrooms; Food writing
Eighth Grade
IN DEPTHS OF SOUL WITHIN
If one looks at the eight-year cycle of a student, it can be compared to the musical movement of notes through the scale. Using the octave as a metaphor, the curriculum of Eighth Grade recapitulates and enhances all that has come before, and yet like that eighth note in the musical scale, it stands as its own foundation for the next step forward in life. It is a big step forward and is thus appropriate that much of the year’s curriculum involves aspects of Revolution—through history, science and literature.
Additionally, each eighth grade student completes an individual Grade Eight Project, of their own design, which is presented to the school community.
8TH GRADE HIGHLIGHTS
HISTORY AND LANGUAGE ARTS Short stories, letters, Shakespeare; speech and drama; grammar, composition, creative writing; Independent study and report writing; the American, French, and Industrial Revolutions plus modern revolutions of the 20th century, United States History
MATHEMATICS Algebra and Geometry; the Pythagorean Theorem; Number Theory, irrational numbers, radicals and rational exponents; volume of cylinders, cones & spheres, function analysis and transformations, linear equations, scatter plots, correlation coefficient, line of best fit, linear modeling, mean, population, and expected value, statistical variance, binomial systems
SCIENCE AND GEOGRAPHY Human anatomy, physics, meteorology, introductory organic chemistry; world geography
FINE ARTS Painting, sculpture
HANDWORK Machine sewing, Woodwork
GAMES AND MOVEMENT Cooperative/physical
MUSIC Melodramatic ballads, a cappella, musical composition, performance
SPANISH
AGRICULTURAL ARTS. Indigenous history of corn and energy use, respectively, with a focus on building solutions toward industrial agriculture, food insecurity, and climate change.
