Friday, March 26, 2010

Tuesday is last day of School, other notes

Tuesday is Our Last Day of School Before the Break
    Wednesday is a faculty in-service day.  At the end of each week's newsletter, our red ribbon calendar provides an effective way to keep track of school closings.
     School will be closed all the following week.

No vegetables needed next week
     With no school Wednesday, we will not be making soup.

Sunday Bread
      I want our Spring Festival from last Friday to resonate.  As such, I do not plan an additional Easter festival for our nursery children on Tuesday--it can be something to look forward to as our children move into kindergarten and the grades.
      Because we have been enjoying the puppet show of "Sunday Bread," I will add nuts and raisins to a small amount of the bread we prepare Monday (to eat Tuesday) to give us a sense of celebration and closure.

Conference Times
     I will send a separate document to let you sign up on-line for conference.  I thank you for your flexibility.  It will work best for me to offer evening conferences.  I will be willing to offer phone conferences if that makes it easier for you; please leave the best number to reach you when you sign up.  If you prefer a daytime conference, we will be able to set up a conference after I return in April.
     Again, we ask nursery families to attend either a fall or spring parent & teacher conference.  I am quite willing to offer a second conference if you want to check in.

No William the first days after break
     I will not be in school the first 3 days after the break.  Lynne and Shair will guide the class.

With Warmth and Light,

William Dolde
 

Monday, March 22, 2010

Eurythmy and Soup and Seeds and Sunday Bread

Eurythmy Performance
Tomorrow, Tuesday, our kindergartens and grades classes will walk to Thomas Berry Hall to watch a Eurythmy performance of "The Devil and the Three Golden Hairs."  It starts right away at 9am.  In my experience, the walk and amount of sitting and crowd are too much for the nursery class as a whole.  You may wish to bring your child (come with time to walk) or attend the performance yourself.  If you bring your child with you, we will welcome your child into our nursery group when you return from the performance.

Take Some Soup
On Wednesday, I will jar up and place any leftover soup from our nursery snack on the ledge outside the classroom (where you pick up mittens in the morning).  I will try to make this a regular practice on soup days when there is not a parent & child class or festival later in the week.  If you have jars with lids that you were planning to recycle, feel free to bring them to me for this purpose.  I know some of you miss soup from your parent & child days (or never were in parent & child to enjoy the soup), and this offering seems the right thing to do.  I apologize that there will probably not be 12 extra jars, so I leave it to you to decide what is the right thing to do.

This seems related, but I do not intend it to be.  While some families seem to be bringing many soup vegetables on Monday (thank you), the overall supply of vegetables seems to be lighter this week.  If you have a chance to bring some tomorrow, wonderful.

There are many extra seeds and peat pots from Friday's festival.  Feel free to take one or several home.  I especially encourage you to sprout some to give away to neighbors or relatives or friends.

As you know, I am a proponent of simplicity and consistency with young children.  Our nursery children seem to be drinking up with delight the simple puppet show I have been presenting for the past month of a baker who dreams of dough rising on the roof to see the world, tells the dough she'll help it see the world, and makes Sunday bread with nuts and raisins red to share throughout the village.  Many children have been reenacting this puppet show during play time.  Even as some children become a bit silly during my actually telling, the intensity and reverence with which the children recreate the puppet show themselves grows and grows.  When I was a less experienced teacher, I would have worried and wanted to switch puppet shows or stories, thinking the children were "bored" and I needed to give them variety to engage them so I wouldn't have discipline problems.  Wise mentors told me that it was especially the jumpy children who needed the repetition for at least a month.  My opinion has shifted quite a bit; while "spring fever" does exist and I create order when needed, I find the movement also bristles with the children's bubbling forth of the story within themselves.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Brrrrrr!

Dear Families,

Our Spring Festival is tomorrow.  As some of you may remember, it was rather chilly last year during this festival.  Because I have a puppet show set up inside the Butterfly classroom, it will not work to have early birds play inside the classroom (and as you may remember, once we get beyond 8 pairs of parents and children, the classroom feels too small).  It would be good for you to have a plan (especially for parents with grades children they are dropping off early) of a way to keep warm until 9am.

I intend to have warm soup, warm rice, bread with and without butter, water, and warm tea available at 9am.  We will eat first and dance later after it has warmed up.  Worry not, however, if you arrive at 9:30am just in time for the puppet show--I will leave the food out for you and your child, and you are welcome to have a picnic after we return from our walk at about 10am while others dance, play, and help tidy up.

With hope for warmth and light and acceptance for rain and cold,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

More details for Wednesday

Dear Nursery Parents,

A)  I have put an article on "The Child Study" in your parent folders to give a preview for our (brief) discussion on Wednesday.

B)  For the next few Wednesdays, our middle schoolers will not be visiting the nursery children (because of their play and other reasons).  Plan on picking up your children inside as you do on Mondays and Tuesdays.

C)  I forgot a couple of topics for Wednesday; we will have to breeze through them, so feel free to stop me on Wednesday.  I am reprising the other topics, too.

1)  Your thoughts on home visits.
2)  Your thoughts on the morning ritual and our expeditious departure to the teepee.
3)  Looking toward the Auction, April 24 (it would be great if a parent or parents could lead this part).
4)  Checking in with strategies that have worked other than determining who "had it first!"
5)  Brief introduction to Child Study at Waldorf Schools  -- why, when, what might be different with an early childhood child study.
6)  Your thoughts about next year, the transition to kindergarten, the 4 and 5 day options, and looking forward, your thoughts on how my nursery class might evolve.
7)  Your thoughts on start time--does it work for me to be outside at 8:15am?  Would it be better for me to come out at 8:30?


Thanks,


William

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Birthday songs available

Dear Nursery Families,

     At www.williamdolde.com, I have uploaded solo recordings of all the birthday songs I have composed so far this year (and will of course update it with our two June birthday songs at the end of the school year).  My goal is for you to be able to listen to or download your child's song or songs for every child in the class for free.  There is also a link for a pdf for all the sheet music I have composed thus far.

      My long term goal (maybe not be in this year or the next) is to become so proficient at multi-track recording that I will give you free access to longer versions of the songs with guitar and/or cello and/or bass along with the violin.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

p.s.  I have posted Kim Payne's Compassionate Response meditation outside the classroom; we practiced this during my talk on conflict in January.  There are also CDs in the Kathrine Dickerson library which record Kim describing the process himself.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Meeting, Wednesday, March 17, 5 to 6pm

Dear Butterfly Nursery Families,

      While I intend to leave space for discussion and your topics at our meeting this Wednesday, here are subjects I'd like to touch upon.

1)  Your thoughts on home visits.
2)  Your thoughts on the morning ritual and our expeditious departure to the teepee.
3)  Looking toward the Auction, April 24 (it would be great if a parent or parents could lead this part).
4)  Checking in with strategies that have worked other than determining who "had it first!"
5)  Brief introduction to Child Study at Waldorf Schools  -- why, when, what might be different with an early childhood child study.

I know you have given some thought to topics 1, 3, and 4.  Please prepare reactions, if you have any, about how our morning transition is going.  To my mind, the clarity of the bell and the pretend boat leaving for the woods helps our children feel secure; this is also a shift from some of the flexibility I have offered parents in the past, so I want to check in.  I am definitely keeping this form for the remainder of this year, but your feedback will help me plan for future years.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Monday, March 8, 2010

William's Summer Program

Dear Families,

     I have received several inquiries about my summer program, and it seems best to provide you information sooner rather than later.  Visit this link to find more details about my 8 week, 3 day, mixed age summer program at the Whidbey Island Waldorf School

    In the interest of fairness, I will let you know that this is an independent program renting space from the school.  Please consider it as you would any other summer program on Whidbey Island.

Thanks,

William Dolde

Friday, March 5, 2010

Spring Festival, Friday, March 19, 9 to 10:30am

Please consider attending our Butterfly, Rosebud, and Dewdrop Spring Festival.  Please invite friends as well.


Location:  Outside the Butterfly Classroom and in the woods nearby, Whidbey Island Waldorf School.
Invited Guests:  In addition to current Butterfly, Rosebud, and Dewdrop children and parents, friends, and grandparents, we invite all families with young children to attend.
This is mainly an outdoor festival.  Be prepared for the weather.


Brief Synopsis  This festival provides an imaginative picture of how seasons change to reflect the way young children experience the changing seasons as a vivid drama.   After a puppet show, we will walk to meet Mother Earth, Father Sun, Brother Wind, and Sister Rain; these friendly characters may even give us gifts. After the walk, we will return to the playground for snacks, play, and conversation. If weather permits, I will end our festival with fiddle tunes and dancing outside.

Why a Festival?  There are a number of good books about festivals in the Kathrine Dickerson Memorial Library (in the lobby of our school). Here also is an article written by an experienced kindergarten teacher from Santa Cruz Steve Spitalny about festivals. Although Steve is writing for teachers in this article, he helps us as parents as well simplify and clarify our thinking about marking the seasons of the year to support our children.  Festivals can be seeds of renewal, to help children adults frame the year.


Music  While there may be more songs, here are lyrics to two songs we will sing often.


While the children often find the festival more magical and nourishing if they can have the experience without explanation beforehand, this more detailed description for adults will prepare to help if needed (please do not share with children).

9 to 9:30am  Children and parents come to the playground outside the Butterfly classroom.  Bread and butter, water, and herbal tea will be available in the shelter.  Children play and/or eat.

9:40am I will lead you into the Butterfly Classroom and will present a puppet show (children can keep shoes and coats on; we are going right back outside).

9:50am  William will lead us into the woods to the teepee (the walk is 200 yards at the most).  There, Mother Earth will silently greet us.  She will present William with a fiber pot and plant cosmos seeds into the pot.   Ideally, Mother Earth will present a pot and seeds to each child.  If there are many children, and the waiting seems too stressful, William (and other parents) will help.  It is nice, however, if things do not feel rushed.  Some children, of course, may be intimated by Mother Earth, so a parent could receive the gift for the child.  Be prepared to help your child carry the pot.  We will have extra potting soil and seeds at the end of the walk if, as is possible, your child's pot spills.  We thank Mother Earth.

9:55am (or so) We walk a few more yards to another clearing in the wood.  There Sister Rain will greet us and water each pot.  We thank Sister Rain.

10am (or so)  We walk farther.  Father Sun greets us.  He ties a spring crown around William's head.  Next it is ideal if Father Sun ties a spring crown on each child's head.  If there are a lot of children, William and parents can help Father Sun.  Again, it is nice if we avoid a sense of hurry.  Some children, of course, will not feel comfortable with a stranger putting on a crown; parents are welcome to help their own child with their crown.  We thank Father Sun.

10:05am (or so) Back at the playground, Brother Wind greets us and presents us with a large spring cloth for dancing.  We thank Brother Wind.  Unless it is bitterly cold, William will play the fiddle as parents and children dance with the large cloth from Brother Wind.

10:15am Children play some more, children and parents eat more snack.  Each child is welcome to take home a pot.  There will be extra in case one is misplaced or spilled.  This particular cosmos (which you can plant outside after 6 weeks or so) is supposed to help attract butterflies. to remind you of your time in the Butterfly Room.  Each child is welcome to take a crown home.  If you enroll in the spring session of parent and child classes (beginning ), please bring the crown to class.  We will decorate the crowns with wool roving and embroidery for May Day.  

10:30am  Children and parents depart.  Beginning at 10:45am or sooner, elementary children come outside for recess, and it will be good to leave them space.

Please call 341-5686 or contact wdolde at gmail.com with any questions.


With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Looking toward Grandparents' Day, Friday, March 12

Dear Nursery Families,

     Expect a note from the early childhood teachers this weekend or early next week about grandparents' day in early childhood next Friday.  We will not conduct class as usual (and of course our nursery children do not normally attend).  Children from our parent & child classes through kindergarten will be invited to attend a mixed age grandparent & child morning from 9 to 10:15am; we will use 1, 2, or 3 classrooms depending on how many early childhood grandparent & child couples or trios or quartets rsvp.  Expect more details.

Do also save the date for our Butterfly, Rosebud, Dewdrop, and Community Spring Festival on Friday, March 19, from 9 to 10:30am.  It is an outdoor festival for parent (and grandparents and friends) and child; siblings are welcome.  Expect more details here, too.

     On another note, I have observed in the variety of play this week that has been a pleasure and miracle to watch (continuing the trend) that when conflicts do arise (as they always do, but really pretty infrequently in our group of 12), children are moving pretty quickly to solutions or ways to make the situation fluid and flexible.  I don't know if this is because I have a bias and am looking at this because I assigned you homework to avoid figuring out who had things first, or because our work at home is paying off, or because our intention to do this work gives the children confidence to work things out themselves.  I will look forward to hearing your observations on March 17.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde