Professional development for Waldorf teachers and home school parents. Read all about Summer Series 2025.

Taught remotely in real-time, this course offers you an invaluable opportunity to focus entirely on your upcoming fifth grade school year in five days brimming with presentations, discussions, and practical activities.

Under the guidance of an experienced class teacher, you’ll discover ways to enliven your teaching and learn how to approach the blocks so that they may meet the fifth grader in a meaningful and lively way. With the insights of anthroposophy, gleaned through a discussion of child development focusing on your class’s age group, you will get to know the fifth grade child in depth as they stand on the balancing point between childhood and adolescence.

Along with time and space to consider and hone your skills in such practical matters as main lesson books, block planning, projects and activities, and classroom management, your course will include such key topics for fifth graders—and their teachers—as:

• Topics in language arts, including paragraph writing and class plays
• Fifth grade approach to ancient cultures, including Greek history and mythology
• Topics in math: fractions to decimal fractions
• Teaching free-hand geometry
• Fifth grade approach to botany
• Fifth grade approach to country/continental geography of North America
• Pentathlon
• Fifth grade assessments
• Parent work and colleagueship

These subjects will be supported by explorations in music, art, and eurythmy, giving you practical tools to take into your school year. In addition, you’ll gain many valuable opportunities for building connections among a community of parallel colleagues from across the country to carry with you throughout your teaching. And participation in an anthroposophical study undertaken in common with all Grades participants will help enable you to build bridges between colleagues and parents once you return to your school.

Grade-specific resource materials useful for your year, including poems, songs, stories, and main lesson book ideas, will be provided to you electronically.

NOTE: This course is taught with the expectation that you have a foundational background in Waldorf education.

Lead Instructor

Lisa Hitch teaches grade five at Duncan, British Columbia’s Sunrise Waldorf School, where she has been a class teacher since 2010 and is also grades chair. She is grateful to be teaching and learning on traditional Hul’q’umi’num territory in the Quw’utsun Valley. Originally from Victoria, British Columbia, Lisa began her Waldorf journey when her own (now grown) children started their schooling at Washington Waldorf School, and has been on a continual learning path in this direction ever since. A teacher in many different environments since 1990, Lisa was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence in STEM in 2018 and is currently AWSNA’s BC regional representative. She holds a bachelor of education and a BFA in theatre performance, and attained her Waldorf teacher certification from the West Coast Institute. Lisa enjoys playing music with her family, planning her garden, hiking with her partner and dog, and learning more how to live in balance and harmony with the Earth.

Recent Summer Series Grade Five participants had this to say:

• To be honest, it was great.
• I feel confident going into this year.
• This course was just what I needed!
• The teachers were well prepared and provided great content, and the sharing on Google Classroom for the next year is amazing in being able to have access to this content and resources.
• I was informed way beyond my expectations and loved the inclusion of participant sharing and connecting. I really feel ready to plan my year and also come away with so many resources to refer back to and people to connect with. Wonderful!
• Meggan Gill’s offerings around the subject of DEIJB work was phenomenal.
• It was wonderful to connect with other Waldorf teachers teaching the same grade without having the expense of traveling to be in person.

Your course also includes sessions in art with Adrienne Patrick, music with Katey Dolezal, and eurythmy with Alexandra Spadea.

Schedule

This course takes place June 29-July 4 in a synchronous online classroom. ALL TIMES LISTED ARE EASTERN (NY) TIME ZONE.

NOTE: Classes will take place on July 1 (Canada Day) and July 4 (US Independence Day).

Sunday evening
6:15 pm-6:25 pm: Log-in for technical check-in and attendance
6:30 pm-8:15 pm: First session

Monday – Thursday
9:45 am-9:55 am: Log-in for technical check-in and attendance
Sessions run from 10:00 am through 4:45-5:00 pm, with time for breaks and lunch

Friday
9:45 am-9:55 am: Log-in for technical check-in and attendance
Sessions run from 10:00 am through 1:30 pm, with a mid-morning break

Note: Most sessions are required in order to receive a certificate of attendance. Others, such as Q&A sessions with your lead instructor and studio time with your art and music instructors, are optional. You should be prepared to work on course-related assignments outside of your regularly scheduled instructional sessions (including some that may be assigned in advance). Complete schedules will be sent two weeks before your course start date, along with a list of materials you will need to procure for use during your course.

Cost 
$645 includes all resource materials, yearlong access to your Grade Five Google Classroom, and a $55 non-refundable registration fee.

25% discount for:

• Students currently enrolled in a Sunbridge teacher education program
• Sunbridge program graduates
• Payments made in Canadian dollars

Accounts must be in good standing and discounts may not be combined. Qualification for discounts will be verified by Sunbridge staff.  

REGISTER

Questions?
Please contact Barbara Vitale, admissions and summer coordinator, at [email protected] or 845-425-0055 x20

Sunbridge reserves the right to make faculty substitutions when necessary. See registration form for refund policy.