All cultures throughout history have participated in rituals that reflect the rhythms of nature or mark significant transitions for individuals or groups. In Waldorf schools around the world, rhythm – daily, weekly, yearly – permeates school life. The purpose of these celebrations at the School is to feed the child’s soul and unite the community.
At the Sevilla Girasol Waldorf International School we celebrate the archetypal professions and the Carnival in the month of February, enjoying a beautiful day all together.
In the Early Childhood, boys and girls have the opportunity to practice different traditional crafts, coexisting with exquisite pizza makers who made a delicious pizza with natural ingredients, shoemakers who carefully clean and polish the shoes and boots, gardeners who plant in our beautiful garden plants, hairdressers doing beautiful hairstyles, etc…. We enjoy a large part of the day outdoors since the sun usually accompanies us at this time of year.
The pedagogical meaning of this celebration is to bring children closer to various crafts through imitation and highlight the value of doing things with their hands, participating in a process of artisanal creation in which they can experience for themselves the importance of their work for others.
In primary school we celebrate Carnival and each group dresses up with the theme that their course is working on through the stories woven through the curriculum:
- The first grade is transformed into a universe of fairies and gnomes.
- The students of the second grade become a forest full of animals or saints.
- In the third grade, as a continuation of the study of the different trades, the students come as blacksmiths, bakers, ice cream sellers, shepherds… bringing different tools and supplies from their profession.
- In the fourth grade they enter the world of Norse mythology and come dressed as Vikings.
- In the fifth grade they come dressed up as somebody from an ancient civilization
- In the sixth grade they dress like the ancient Romans.
Creating this atmosphere allows the boys and girls to deepen their work from the classroom, by living through their own experience what is developing around them. It is important that for this day they create their own costumes, thus working on creativity and sustainability.
It is a beautiful day of coexistence that the children fondly keep in their memories.
