Week 2 — Online
July 6 - Friday, July 10, 2026
From your own chosen location
Preparing for Third Grade
Online with Kris Ritz
Third grade is a pivotal year in a child’s development, marked by the profound transition often called the nine-year change. During this time, children awaken to a new sense of individuality and experience themselves as separate from the world around them. This realization can feel unsettling, yet with thoughtful guidance and the grounding structure of the Waldorf curriculum, students find reassurance, purpose, and renewed connection as they step into this next stage of growth.
The third-grade curriculum meets this developmental moment with depth, practicality, and meaning. Through stories, hands-on work, and engagement with the natural and human-made world, children are supported in building trust, responsibility, and a sense of belonging within their community.
Why Third Grade Is So Significant
At this age, children begin to relate more consciously to their surroundings and to the people who shape their daily lives. They develop a growing sense of stewardship for the land and for one another. The curriculum responds through practical, embodied experiences—gardening, cooking, building, farming studies, and local crafts—that anchor learning in real work and lived experience.
These activities are not simply “projects,” but essential support for the child’s emotional life, helping them feel grounded, capable, and connected during this important transition.
What This Course Covers
This course invites teachers to explore the deeper purpose behind each third-grade curriculum block by continually asking: Why is this study essential at this moment in the child’s development?
Curricular Blocks
Study of stories from the Hebrew Bible, Native American traditions, and other foundational narratives that speak to humanity’s relationship with the world.
Daily Lesson Rhythm
Movement, practice work, bookwork, storytelling, and review that create stability and support for children experiencing inner change.
Practical Work and Projects
Ideas for gardening, building, cooking, farming studies, and other hands-on activities that foster connection to the earth and community life.
Artistic Exploration
Form drawing, color blending, and artistic processes that support emotional balance, imagination, and cognitive growth.
Developmental Understanding
Deeper study of the nine-year change, humanity’s archetypal stories, farming, and the child’s evolving relationship to the natural world.
What You’ll Take Away
- A rich collection of stories, songs, verses, and practical activities to bring third grade alive
- Electronic resource to support teaching throughout the year
- Insightful conversations and shared reflection with fellow educators for inspiration and encouragement
Who Should Attend
This course is ideal for classroom teachers, homeschooling parents, online educators, and anyone preparing to teach third grade within a Waldorf-inspired framework. Whether you are new to Waldorf education or deepening your pedagogical practice, this course offers meaningful guidance, practical tools, and community support.
Third grade is often called the “verb year,” as children become active participants in their learning and in the life of their community. This course will prepare you to meet the developmental needs of your students with confidence, clarity, and compassion.
Additional Course Offerings
This course also includes Teaching Music and Singing with Meg O’Dell, offering developmentally appropriate ways to cultivate rhythm, song, and musical life that support the child’s emotional and physical grounding, as well as Artistic Engagement with Narsingh Khalsa, providing rich artistic experiences that strengthen teaching practice, creative confidence, and inner renewal.
Join us as we explore the heart of third grade—building not only lessons, but a meaningful, steady, and inspiring year for your students.
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.
Included with all Online Renewal Courses:
Music and Singing
with Meg O’Dell
Leading Artistic Engagement
with Narsingh Khalsa
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.
Narsingh Khalsa is a Waldorf educator and artist with a degree in Education from Prescott College and teacher training from Sunbridge Institute. Currently teaching a combined 2nd and 3rd grade class at the Waldorf School of Princeton, Narsingh brings 18 years of experience teaching fine arts to students from 1st through 12th grade. Passionate about creativity, she enjoys making children’s books, developing Waldorf curriculum for homeschoolers and teachers, and engaging in handwork. Outside the classroom, Narsingh loves hiking, yoga, and exploring the beauty of nature.
Community Gatherings Online
For all Renewal Participants, Monday, July 6 – Friday, July 10, 2026, 11:30-12:30 ET.
Daily Keynote
with Sarah Nelson and Rubeena Sandhu
Principles Into Practice: A five-part keynote series designed to bridge the depth of Waldorf pedagogy with the realities of daily teaching, leading, and learning. Each morning will also include Community Singing with Meg O’Dell, inviting us to begin the day together in song—strengthening connection, enlivening our hearts, and creating a shared rhythm that carries us into the learning.