Program Requirements

Grades children are expected to be at school 5 days a week from 8:20am to 3:30pm. 
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Our First Grade program requires children should have turned six by September 1st.

​We enroll children for our 1-5 Grades program throughout the year based on space and acceptance into our program through an interview and observation. Applications submitted should be accompanied by a teacher recommendation form.

Download our Grades Packet for information about our program.

Unique Aspects of our Grades Program

Class teachers accompany a class for seven consecutive years and teach all core subjects. The close relationship that develops between the class teacher and students benefit the child's growing confidence and self-esteem. 

Academic work each day in the grades begins with a 2-hour Main Lesson that addresses core subjects in great depth. Blocks last three to four weeks to provide time for students to fully digest and assimilate the material. Children do not receive homework until Grade 4 and do not participate in testing. Children are rather assessed by their teachers and parents through a series of observations and conferences throughout the year. Each child's personal growth and development is looked at, while considering the whole child - emotionally, cognitively, creatively, physically, mentally, instead of just academically.

Rather than standardized textbooks, students create written and illustrated Main Lesson Books from their teachers' presentations and blackboard drawings. This creative process enables them to "own" their learning and allows the children to experience a subject on a far deeper, richer level than the intellectual one. The opportunity for children to create their own lesson books allows children to connect to their environment on a personal level, giving them a better chance to later retain the information they have learned. Each page of each lesson book is accompanied by a student's drawing, making the lesson book as creative as it is academic.

Between the ages 7 and 14 children learn most naturally through beauty. That's why stories and art are used as teaching vehicles. The stories chosen for language arts and history blocks match closely the developmental stage of the children. For example, stories of saints & heroes and fables appeal to the developing sense of right and wrong of second-graders.

At Bayou Village School we aim to create an environment that respects the natural stages of childhood, generates a joy for learning that lasts a lifetime, that is creative, experiential and artistic. Our teachers strive to educate the whole child-the heart, the hands as well as the head. We are committed to developing capacities as well as skills so that our students will become self-aware, compassionate individuals with a sense of responsibility for the earth and the greater community.

Curriculum Overview

Primary Grades 1-3
Pictorial introduction to the alphabet, writing, reading, spelling, poetry, and drama begins in First Grade. Folk and fairy tales, fables, legends, Old Testament stories. Numbers, basic mathematical processes of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Nature stories, house building, and gardening.

Middle Grades 4-6
Writing, reading, spelling, grammar, poetry, and drama. Norse myths, history and stories of ancient civilizations (Rom, Greece, India). Review of the four mathematical processes, fractions, percentage, and geometry. Local and world geography, comparative zoology, botany, and elementary physics.

Upper Grades 7-8
Creative writing, reading, spelling, grammar, poetry, and drama. Medieval history, Renaissance, world exploration, American history, and biography. Mathematics, geography, physics, basic chemistry, astronomy, and physiology.

Specialty Subjects

Handwork
Knitting, crochet, sewing, cross-stitch, basic weaving, toy making, and woodworking

​Music
First and Second Grade: Singing, pentatonic flute, and recorder.
Third and Fourth Grade: Singing and violin.

​Foreign language 
Our Grades students are currently studying Spanish. In the future we will introduce a second foreign language.

Art
Watercolor painting, form drawing, beeswax and clay modeling, perspective drawing.

Movement
Eurythmy, group games; team sports for the older grades.

Meet The Teachers

​Karina Hall
Grade 1 
​Karina has a master’s degree in Music Therapy from Sam Houston State University, a Bachelor’s Degree in Music from the University of St. Thomas and is currently working on her Waldorf Teacher certification through the Sophia Institute. She is also a board-certified Neurologic Music Therapist. She has a love for music and helping others which have grown to want to facilitate learning in more subjects. Karina specializes in Special Education and has worked in a school setting for 8 years. She has also worked with adults with special needs in the Best Buddies program and Easter Seals of Greater Houston. She has presented on evidence-based ways to use music in the classroom for two exhibits at the Health Museum of Houston. Karina believes in multi-sensory, hands-on, creative, and practical learning, which is what drew her to Waldorf Education for her son, and soon after, herself! She recently attended a training on “Dynamic Movement Across the Grades” through Sunbridge Institute and is excited to work on her Waldorf Teacher certification.
Outside of work, Karina enjoys playing piano, art, calligraphy, cooking, languages, travel, dancing, movies, and spending time with her family.

Kimberly Bowman
​Grade 2
Kimi Bowman was born in El Paso, Texas and developed a passion for learning through nature and the arts at a very young age. She has been an Art teacher since 2012 in Cy-Fair and Tomball Isd, teaching kids how to find and listen to their inner voice, and express it creatively through their heads, hands and heart. Balancing and cherishing those 3 together is what she believes education can and should do. The importance that the Waldorf philosophy of education places on this, along with the priority it places on social and emotional learning has made her so excited to begin her journey here at Bayou Village. Kimi got her bachelors degree from U of H in Liberal Studies, with a focus in Art, Art History, and Literature, and then went on to get a Masters In Art and Design Education from Vermont College of Fine Arts. This past summer she attended an intensive course at Sunbridge Institute on teaching Waldorf 2nd grade. In her spare time, she loves doing yoga, making art, and playing with her animals and family. 

Bharathi Gunasekaran
Grade 3 and 4
​Bharathi started her journey at Bayou Village School as a Nursery Assistant in the Sunflower Garden Classroom in 2015. Growing up in different countries, she developed a passion for travel and values the learning that comes from connecting with people from different backgrounds and cultures. Her career in education started in 2008 as she sought for opportunities in social work in India, her home country, which resulted in a year of teaching life-skills training and English to marginalized youth. This experience informed the decisions she made since. She believes that the most important social change starts within and in how we educate our children. This led her to Waldorf Education and in finding our school when she moved back to Houston. 

Bharathi has served as a volunteer with Americorps and has taken on roles in various non-profits in Texas, Chicago, and India, working with inner-city children as an educator as well as with the most marginalized population in the community as a Community Organizer. Bharathi has completed her Grades Waldorf Education program and continues to expand and share her knowledge of the grades program with attending intensive courses during the school year and summer.

​In her spare time, she enjoys practicing yoga, cooking, learning new languages, and exploring the city, and the world with her family. Bharathi is also a certified yoga instructor. 

Tracey Garcia
Español, Art and Games
Ms. García has a bachelor’s degree in studio art from Loyola University New Orleans. She has over 14 years working and volunteering with children, 11 of those as a teacher. She started at Bayou Village School in 2017 as a mixed kinder assistant and is currently on her fourth year as our Español, Games and art teacher. She loves being silly with her students, traveling and anything/everything related to arts & culture. 

Dominika Dancewicz
Violin Instructor
Dominika Dancewicz came to the United States after completing her Master's Degree in Violin Performance at the Krakow Music Academy in Poland. She also received Master’s Degree from Rice University Shepherd School of Music in Houston, and Artist Diploma from Denver University Lamont School of Music in Denver, Colorado. Her main teachers in the United States were Kenneth Goldsmith and Yumi Hwang-Williams. She is currently the adjunct Professor of Violin at the University of St. Thomas in Houston. Her students have repeatedly won placements in the Region and All State Orchestras, as well as in Houston Youth Symphony. She successfully prepares her advanced students for college auditions. She is particularly proud of having provided quality violin lessons to Houston's under-served communities through Houston Youth Symphony Melody Program between 2009-2019.​

Marine Kojanyan
Eurythmy Teacher
​Rhythm lies at the core of Eurythmy and the study of Eurythmy helps the child understand and
experience in a positive way this basic component of life. Rhythm is not just an insistent musical
beat, rhythm is a predictable harmonious recurring pattern that is a signature of life and health.