The Use of the Blackboard in a Waldorf Classroom

Compiled by Janet Langley

The blackboard has many uses in a Waldorf classroom, including:

1. To display information: classes of the day - either depicted by a picture

(paint brush for painting) or by the word, date, etc.

2. Educational support: vocabulary and spelling words

3. Block theme picture (older grades): this one usually requires a bit of
time, reflects a major theme of the block and often stays up for the entire
block. (It could be used as an inspiration for the cover of the main lesson
book (MLBks).

4. Borders can reflect season or theme of the block. They can model
creative, artistic borders for use in MLBks.

5. First Grade memory picture: (works on developing long term visual and
sequential memory) start out with just some basic landscaping and then add
something new every day to the picture; have students take turns reviewing
each addition from last to first...this develops over the block. Sometimes I
would have the students draw the picture at the end- but this time from the
first thing I drew to the last. They were often some of their best pictures,
because they had lived with it for so long.

6. Maps (freehand starting in 4th and developing into gridded maps by the
time they drew the map of Greece at end of 5th) Use removable labels for
review...

7. Instructional: This includes writing/content and illustrations

Note: always make sure that what the students are looking at is beautiful-
they gaze at it all day long. (This includes the entire front of the room.)