Professional development for Waldorf teachers and home school parents. Read all about Summer Series 2026.

Taught remotely in real-time, this course offers you an invaluable opportunity to focus entirely on your upcoming sixth 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 sixth 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 sixth grade child in depth as they enter 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 sixth graders—and their teachers—as:

• The gesture of the sixth grade
• Topics in language arts, including writing fluency and comfort, writing mechanics, creative and expository writing, and increasing reading fluency
• Topics in math, including geometric drawing, business math, and practice classes
• Topics in world history, including Roman, African, Arab, and Islamic empires and the global Middle Ages
• Topics in geography
• Introduction to physics, astronomy, and earth science / geology
• Sixth grade assessment
• Parent work and colleagueship

These subjects will be supported by explorations in art, music, and movement, 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.

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 

Melanie Niemczura currently teaches grades five and six at River Valley Waldorf School. Melanie came to River Valley in 2009 as a Kindergarten teacher before moving on to the grades. After completing an eight year cycle and graduating the Class of 2022, she took on the role of pedagogical chair to dedicate her time to support the work of the faculty before returning to the classroom. Prior to joining the faculty at RVWS, Melanie taught at Northern Lights, a Waldorf-initiative school in Lake Placid, NY, and at the Monadnock Waldorf School. Melanie, who started as a Waldorf parent at Hawaii’s Malamalama Waldorf School, holds a BS in landscape architecture from Pennsylvania State University and completed her Waldorf teacher training through Antioch New England Graduate School in 2006. Her professional background includes permaculture training and organic farming, working on farms in Europe, Southeast Asia, and Hawaii, and her many interests include growing/cooking whole local foods, dancing, cycling, walking in nature, and continually learning about science.

Previous participants had this to say:

• I appreciated Melanie’s warmth, sincerity and range of experiences/knowledge as a classroom teacher. I valued her practical demonstrations for math, language arts, and other topics.
• I found the mixture of input from Melanie and all of the teachers to be extremely helpful. It was a great group of people that had various points of view that enriched the material that Melanie brought to us. The resources are vast and inclusive.
• Adrienne’s lessons were fantastic! Well planned and useful.
• I loved Katey. She is also very competent and offers so many resources on classroom, video, recordings, etc. So much to use all year long!
• The google classroom is an incredible resource.
• I would choose Sunbridge again because it has great professionals and offers me the possibility to learn online from across the ocean.

Your course also includes sessions in art with Adrienne Patrick and music with Katey Dolezal. Movement teacher TBA.