A Walk Through the Grades Invitation

A Walk Through the Grades
 Whidbey Island Waldorf School
Thursday, May 27th

8:30 – 10:30 a.m

8:30 Gather in Lobby for Coffee & Program Overview
9:00 Grades’ Classroom visits begin in sequence
10:00 Gather for Q & A

For more information or to sign up for our tour of the Grades,
please contact our Enrollment Director, Sheila Weidendorf
(enrollment@whidby.com or 360-341-5686 x 12).
At Whidbey Island Waldorf School we meet the children
where they are, challenging them intellectually,
inspiring them creatively, and gently guiding them socially.
Whidbey Island Waldorf School
6335 Old Pietila Road
Clinton, WA 98236

and here is a web link to the flyer

http://www.wiws.org/docs/Walk%20Through%20the%20Grades%20Flyer.pdf

Music as Meaningful Work, Vegetables

On Wednesday, 9 middle school students and I performed songs on voice and guitar for our nursery students.  Some of our nursery children built a dance stage and created a new dance for each song.  Others played elsewhere in the room with their focus seeming to be there.

When the middle school students left, almost all of our nursery children gathered around their music stands and created an orchestra using pieces of wood and other play objects from our classroom.  The nursery children were engaged and focused in this re-creation.  This opportunity to imitate out of freedom real and purposeful work is an important part of what we provide in Waldorf Early Childhood education.  Over the years, and this year in particular, I have been exploring the ways in which being a musician or music teacher can be a meaningful occupation worthy of imitation by the young child; just as there is the archetype of the cobbler or baker or weaver, my vision of a traditional village includes the town musician (think of the Donkey from "The Bremen Town Musicians" or piano teacher--with all its joy and sternness).  J.S. Bach's father, for example, was a violinist who played in an orchestra twice a day every day in the town square in a village in what was to become Germany.  Without compelling students to take up formal music instruction too soon (avoiding another archetype, the child prodigy who burns out at a young age), I hope to permeate the children's surroundings with music, not so much that they become inspired to find their own musical gifts later (great though that is), but so that they grow up with the concept that joy and work and work with joy can coexist harmoniously.

Thank you for bringing vegetables and fruit all year.  More and more children eat a great deal of soup, bread, and rice.  As such, we do not need many pieces of fruit at all.  In recent weeks, we have had a great deal of apples and few vegetables come in; like the Union and Confederate armies, I have been making apple soup with the children.  While this has its merits, my hope is to allow children chances to taste and eat a variety of vegetables.  If possible, please concentrate on bringing vegetables for our snack for the remaining weeks of the school year.

Thank you,

William Geoffrey Dolde

In praise of space

Dear Families,

      Thank you for cleaning out the cubby area.  The sense of calm from the space created reminds me of one of my favorite articles from the Waldorf Early Childhood Association.  I have distributed "Chaos in Everyday Life:  On Cleaning and Caring Before," I know, but I find it inspiring to read it again.  I had the good fortune to hear the author, Linda Thomas, speak in 2004; 500 kindergarten and nursery teachers spent a weekend with intense focus, almost rapture, as she talked about vacuuming and scrubbing toilets.

     As I prepare to speak about Eckhart Tolle and Waldorf education on May 26, I think a lot about the word space, which is an important word or signpost for Tolle.  When we accept the present moment rather than worrying about stories of past or future, our presence helps recognize and create space and spaciousness.  I have already appreciated simplifying my environment and the environment in which young children play (there is such a thing as too many lovely, handmade, natural fiber Waldorf toys), but Tolle inspires me to explore further. 

     There was a spaciousness to the play of the children last week.  They are so comfortable in the woods and on our playground.  I feel a strong connection with them.  Because of this, I feel I can let them spread out a bit.  There was a lot of harmonious play last week with children in groups of 3 or 4; sometimes groups clashed or came into conflict, but the more usual gesture was one of groups of children imagining and exploring and building and role playing without worry or concern what other groups were doing.  They often seemed fully in the present moment rather, free from feat that a more fun game might be going on somewhere else in the woods or playground.



William Geoffrey Dolde

Ending Outside Tuesday and Wednesday

Because we will be watching the Mayfaire rehearsals, we will end class outside on Tuesday and Wednesday. 

Here are 2 clothing reminders:

The children are getting really competent in hanging up their own outdoor clothes.  Please, please do clear out your child's cubby this Wednesday.  When a child has many sets of clothes on her or his cubby, it can make it hard for her or him and even neighbors to find an empty hook to hang things.  I'll go out on a limb; I would rather have a clean cubby area in which children can feel really effective at caring for their things with the risk that we'll be caught without the right gear in the foul weather May and June can bring us than the alternative--having gear for all sorts of weather at school but having children feel unable to find their things and help themselves.

As we get warm and disrobe, please remember to save clothing with righting, cartoon characters, media images, and the like for non-school days.  Please also remember to save the temporary tattoos, nail polish, and the like for home as well.  The more we can simplify the clothing of our children in school, the more we can free their imaginations.

With warmth and light,

William Geoffrey Dolde

May and Rainpants

Dear Families,

     As some of you know, after May 1, children may wear outdoor clothes other than rain pants and boots if the weather allows it.  Because our 8:30 boat departs swiftly, I honor you for making the decision about how to dress your child.  We will have many visitors to our school for Mayfaire, and I encourage you to take home all or many of your child's extra clothes this weekend to

1)  free up cubby space for visitors
2)  make it more likely you'll know where boots or other gear are the Monday after Mayfaire
3)  give you a chance to restock your child's bag with clothes right for the season

That being said, we know that it can be cold and rainy in May; please don't pack away the winter gear quite yet.

On Tuesday at 11am and Wednesday at 11:45am, our children will watch the whole school Mayfaire rehearsal.  As I've written before, my idea is that our nursery children will feel inspired by observing their teacher in the role of music teacher.

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
 

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