What Are Waldorf Kindergarten Activities?
Today was our fifth day, Friday, September 4, 2026, of Waldorf-inspired kindergarten with my four-year-old triplet nephews, and our day looked a little different than usual. We typically meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but since I had Friday off this week, I invited my sister-in-law and the children over for an extra day together. We kept some of the familiar elements of our kindergarten rhythm, but shortened our schedule and allowed more time for free play.
We began our morning with play before heading into the kitchen for some practical work. Our first project was preparing raw wool for wet felting. Before we can turn the wool into felted balls, it needs to be cleaned and carded. The children carefully picked through the raw wool, removing all the little bits of debris before using small bamboo carding brushes to prepare the fibers.
I had originally intended to purchase traditional wool carders, but these smaller brushes ended up being such a happy mistake. They are lightweight and easy for little hands to manage, and the children took to the work beautifully. I was so impressed by how carefully they cleaned and carded their wool. We saved the prepared wool for another project later in the week.
I'm also learning quite a bit about how our environment needs to change to better accommodate young children. We've been doing much of our work at the kitchen counter, but the bar stools are simply too high. Their feet are dangling, and the counter isn't at an appropriate working height for them. I'd like to add child-sized tables where they can sit with their feet firmly on the floor and comfortably engage in their work.
After cleaning up the wool, we moved on to our cooking project for the day: homemade pizza using the dough the children prepared the day before. Each child received a piece of parchment paper, a little flour, and their own portion of dough. They flattened the dough with their hands before adding sauce and toppings.
These simple experiences give me such an interesting opportunity to observe the children. One child is incredibly generous with his toppings, another carefully distributes everything all the way to the edges and wants it perfectly even, while another uses just a little of each ingredient. Through ordinary tasks like making pizza, I'm beginning to see glimpses of their individual personalities and temperaments. As an educator, these observations are incredibly insightful.
And then, of course, came the clean-up.
The children are doing such a wonderful job learning to participate in the entire process—not just making and creating, but sweeping, mopping, wiping the counters, and putting everything away. We certainly make a big mess with each project, but that's part of the work. This is real life, and caring for our environment is just as much a part of the lesson as cooking or crafting.
While the pizzas baked and cooled, the children had some decaf cold brew coffee that I had made earlier with my 11-year-old nephew. Once everything was ready, each child received the pizza they had made, and we all enjoyed our snack together.
Normally, we end our kindergarten day by gathering for The Hedgehog Leaves Home. I read a few pages at a time and use simple props to accompany the story. Because this was an extra and abbreviated Friday session, we skipped our story and ended instead with some free play.
And, surprisingly, we actually finished on time!
I've scheduled two hours, twice a week, for our kindergarten days, but I'm quickly discovering that two hours isn't always enough for everything I want to do. Cooking, handwork, cleaning, stories, and free play all take time: especially when we're allowing the children to truly participate rather than rushing through the work.
It was another lovely day together and another reminder that Waldorf-inspired kindergarten at home doesn't need to be complicated. So much of it is simply inviting children into the meaningful work of everyday life: preparing food, working with natural materials, caring for their environment, playing freely, and giving them the time and space to do these things themselves.
Oh! And by the way, plastic toys are not Waldorf at all! We have had Legos in our family for decades both the regular and Duplo blocks.
