Renewal In-Person Third Grade
Week 1 — In Person June 28 – Friday, July 3, 2026 Wilton, NH REGISTER NOW Teaching Third Grade: Grounding the Child in Work, World, and Community In-Person with Kris Ritz Third grade is a deeply formative year, marked by an inner shift as children begin to experience themselves more consciously in relationship to the world around them. As their sense of self strengthens, students seek reassurance, purpose, and connection through meaningful work, clear structure, and lived experience. This year invites children to engage more fully with the earth, their community, and the rhythms of daily life. Through practical activity, rich storytelling, and hands-on learning, third graders explore essential human experiences—building, cultivating, cooking, and caring for the land. These studies provide both emotional grounding and intellectual engagement, helping children develop confidence, responsibility, and a growing sense of stewardship. Academic work is strengthened through purposeful application, as language arts, mathematics, and artistic processes are woven into lived experience. This Renewal Course offers inspiration, pedagogical insight, and practical tools for teachers preparing to meet the third-grade year with clarity, warmth, and developmental understanding. Participants will engage deeply with the essential elements of third-grade teaching, including: Story and Human Experience Working with stories from the Hebrew Bible, Native American traditions, and other cultural narratives that speak to humanity’s relationship with the earth, work, and community. Practical Work and Experiential Learning Gardening, farming studies, cooking, building, and local crafts that ground learning in purposeful activity and foster responsibility, resilience, and connection to the natural world. Movement, Rhythm, and Daily Lesson Life Establishing supportive daily rhythms through movement, practice work, storytelling, and bookwork that bring structure, reassurance, and balance to the school day. Artistic Practice Form drawing, painting, color blending, and other artistic processes that support integration, expression, and cognitive and emotional development. Curriculum Foundations Language arts, mathematics, and social studies presented through developmentally appropriate frameworks that connect academic content to lived experience. Music and Singing Developmentally aligned songs, rhythms, and musical activities that strengthen class community, support emotional life, and enliven daily classroom practice. Classroom Life and Social-Emotional Learning Creating a classroom culture that fosters belonging, cooperation, and trust as children navigate growing independence and social awareness. Teacher Practice and Planning Guidance for year planning, block sequencing, classroom organization, parent communication, and sustaining oneself in the work of teaching. Additional Course Offerings — In-Person (Grades 1–5) This course also includes Eurythmy with Alexandra Spadea, offering developmentally appropriate movement experiences that support embodiment, balance, and learning readiness across the grades. Participants will also engage in Teaching Music and Singing with Meg O’Dell, providing practical and inspiring approaches to cultivating a rich musical life in the classroom, as well as Artistic Engagement with Narsingh Khalsa, offering immersive artistic experiences that strengthen teaching practice, creativity, and inner renewal. By the end of the course, teachers leave with renewed confidence, practical resources, and inspired clarity to guide students through this grounding and transformative year—supporting connection, responsibility, and a deepened relationship to the world. Kris Ritz joined the Emerson Waldorf School community in 2008. Currently, she is enjoying the hearty and robust students of the upper grades and all that is unfolding in the various blocks of study presented. Before returning to North Carolina, she was a class teacher at the Austin Waldorf School and spent a year at Plowshare Farm, an anthroposophical life-sharing community. Born in Upstate New York, Kris graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism. During a career in advertising, she discovered Waldorf education, returned to school, and earned a Waldorf certificate and Master’s degree from Antioch New England Graduate School. Whether supporting the efforts of the students in the classroom or working with third grade teachers as it relates to the curriculum and the developmental threshold of the 9-/10-year change, Kris is inspired by the questions, answers, and “Ahas!” that unfold while working and learning together in community. Kris Ritz Each Renewal Course, Grades 1–8, Includes: Eurythmy with Alexandra Spadea — Offering developmentally appropriate movement experiences that support embodiment, balance, and learning readiness across the grades. Teaching Music and Singing with Meg O’Dell – Practical approaches to cultivate musical life, rhythm, and singing in the classroom. Artistic Engagement with Narsingh Khalsa – Guided artistic practice in drawing, painting, form work, and creative exercises to inspire teaching and inner life development. These offerings provide teachers with practical tools, inspiration, and experiential learning to integrate the arts, rhythm, creativity, and science into classroom practice while supporting their own professional and personal growth. Alexandra Spadea grew up in a Waldorf school in Germany, where her lifelong love of eurythmy began. She trained at the Elena Zuccoli School in Dornach, Switzerland, and graduated from Eurythmy Spring Valley, NY, in 1994 under the directorship of Dorothea Mier. Alexandra taught high school eurythmy at Green Meadow Waldorf School (1994–2000) and has been a member of the Rudolf Steiner School, NYC community since 2009, teaching grades 7–12 and serving as a class advisor. She earned her postgraduate B.A. in Eurythmy Pedagogy in 2015–16. Alexandra Spadea Meg O’Dell loves helping people access their innate capacity for wellness, vitality, and connection. She does this as a somatic coach, supporting individuals and couples in growth, transformation, and healing, and also as a music teacher and vocal mentor. She teaches music at The Bay School, a Waldorf school on the coast of Maine, and leads a large intergenerational all-comers chorus called Misty Mountain Singers. Meg serves as faculty for Antioch University’s Waldorf Teacher Training and CfA’s Waldorf High School Teacher Education Programs. She is a regular instructor for CfA’s the Renewal Courses and introductory Explorations program, and she has taught with LifeWays North America. She received her M.Ed. from Antioch University New England in 2008. Her great joys include spending time with her growing children and visiting the small, misty mountain that rises out of the sea near their home. Meg O’Dell Narsingh Khalsa is a Waldorf educator and artist with a degree in