Seventh Grade
A Year of Exploration, Expression, and New Perspectives
Seventh graders often feel a growing need to test boundaries, express their own opinions, and assert greater independence. This can be a time of questioning, challenging conventions, and seeking a deeper understanding of the world and their place in it. Our curriculum meets students at this developmental stage through discovery-based learning that channels their curiosity and emerging autonomy.
Across all subjects, we explore themes that mirror the energy and awakening of early adolescence. A central focus is the Renaissance—a time of bold ideas, artistic breakthroughs, and remarkable scientific discovery. This period in history offers a powerful parallel to the seventh grader’s expanding worldview and burgeoning sense of possibility
Seventh Grade Curriculum
Core Academic Subjects
Your seventh grader will learn:
- Language Arts: Creative writing and composition, grammar, speech and drama
- Literature: Classics, biographies, creative writing and poetry
- Mathematics: Geometry, negative numbers, powers, roots, pre-algebra
- Science: Physics, chemistry, human physiology and nutrition
- History: The Renaissance and The Reformation, The Age of Encounter
- Geography: African geography
Specialty Subjects
Subject classes are an important aspect of Waldorf education in grades 1-8, providing unique opportunities for holistic learning and the cultivation of various skills. Seventh grade subject classes include:
- Art: Painting, clay modeling, charcoal and perspective drawing
- Choir: Curriculum description coming soon
- Cyber Civics: Information literacy, privacy, copyright
- Handwork: Hand sewing and embroidering a bag for a first grade buddy
- Physical Education: Circus arts including juggling, balance skills, acrobatics and gymnastics and team sports including volleyball, soccer, and basketball.
- Spanish: Each student compiles a portfolio that showcases their understanding of grammar, phonetics, vocabulary and culture
- String Ensemble: Greater leadership is asked of students as more demanding music draws direct and indirect threads to the classroom curriculum; understanding of musical architecture, history, context, call for justice and awareness; shifting beyond the neck positions, two octave scales and arpeggios; integration of vibrato
- Woodwork: Curriculum description coming soon
Outdoor Experiences
Starting in 5th grade, students typically take two class trips per year; one in the fall and one in the spring. The purpose of class trips and outdoor education is to deepen the curriculum and broaden the students’ educational experiences.
Overnight trips provide students with a unique opportunity to bond as a group, and foster a deeper connection with the natural world. Our trips are designed to promote teamwork and self-reliance, and to cultivate environmental stewardship and community through time together and hands-on experiences.
Festivals and Events
Our students enjoy a lively calendar of festivals and events throughout the school year that celebrate the rhythm of the seasons, honor one another’s cultures and traditions, and strengthen our community.
Learn more
Camp Menogyn: A Wilderness Experience
Our 7th graders have the opportunity to experience one of America’s most beautiful and remote places – the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCA) – together as a class. Click below to read one teacher’s reflections on this unforgettable trip.
Year-by-Year Curriculum
Every aspect of our curriculum is carefully designed to match your child’s stages of development. Browse through our year-by-year curriculum to see how we evolve to meet the needs of your child over time.
Sample Daily Schedule
- Handwork
- Main Lesson
- Snack & Recess
- Ensemble
- Lunch & Recess
- Math
- Spanish
- Closing
High School and Beyond
“Among the students coming to our high school from over 115 grade schools, those from CLWS often stand out in the crowd.”
–Enrollment Director of an Independent High School in Minneapolis
Area high schools tell us that our graduates are more than prepared for the challenges of high school and bring an ability to engage with teachers in a true give-and-take format that is unprecedented among their peers.
“To know how much there is to know is the beginning of learning to live.”
- Dorothy West
Meet Our Teachers
Jeremy Anderson
Woodworking Teacher
Neela Bettaglio
Educational Support Teacher
Maya Dunn
Movement and Games Teacher
Timothy Frantzich
Seventh Grade Co-Teacher
Johanna Garcia
Pedagogical Chair and Cyber Civics Teacher
Liz Kelley
Handwork Teacher
Alicia Kuri Alamillo
Spanish Teacher (Grades 5-8)
Rebecca Merblum
Ensemble Teacher
Kier Zimmerman
Seventh Grade Co-Teacher
