Summer News ’14

WALDORF SCHOOL of Lexington

Looking Back at a Year both Familiar and Newby Robert Schiappacasse, School Director

While the unique rhythm of a Waldorf school year brings both continuity and familiarity to the lives of the students, each year marks new and exciting happenings through the students’ accomplishments and the faculty’s continued efforts to ensure a strong educational program.

The Eighth Grade Graduation is always a highlight of the school year for me. This event was punctuated by the lively presentations of this gifted and talented group of students. As family members, WSL faculty, alumni, and friends, we witnessed the fruition of their Waldorf schooling. It was especially poignant to see the deep respect and mutual affection between the students and Helena Niiva, who has taught most of them since first grade.

This year’s commencement speaker and Helena’s former student, Michael Botto ’06, recently graduated from Elon University where he majored in International Business, with a minor in Economics. He joined us from Washington D.C., where he lives and works, to speak to the graduates of his experience as a WSL student and to offer his perspective and advice on the path ahead through high school, college, and professional life. His lively, humorous, and insightful comments can best be appreciated by viewing them on our website at www.thewaldorfschool.org/alumni.

Class parent, Anne Kelly, spoke eloquently about a Waldorf parent’s journey, and reminded us all of how participation in this school community can be a life-changing experience for parents as well as students. I encourage you to read her speech on page 4.

Michaelmas PageantThe elementary faculty collaborated at the beginning of the school

year to enhance the celebration of Michaelmas. In addition to the Michaelmas game, the tale of St. George and the Dragon was enacted with each class presenting a portion of the story under colorful banners unfurled for this pageant in the field behind the school. The fifth graders were especially delighted to transform into the dreaded dragon.

This yearly festival falls shortly after the Autumn Equinox which marks a moment of balance between light and dark, after which the nights grow increasingly longer than the days. With the diminishing

In This EditionLooking back at a Year Both Familiar and New 1A Giving Community 3Focus on the Rose, Not the Thorns 4In the Loop: Alumna Profile 6Interning in Communications 8High Schools & Colleges of WSL Alumni 8 Parenthood at WSL 9Development of Language Arts 10Preschool: Foundations for Learning 12From Butterflies to Physics 14Board Transitions 16

Michael Botto, ’06 spoke to the Class of 2014 at their Graduation on June 14. To view his witty and insightful

speech, go to www.thewaldorfschool.org/alumni.

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Looking Back at a Year both Familiar and New (continued)

power of the sun the Michaelmas festival celebrates hope and courageous deeds in the face of darkness and fear. We encourage parents to join us on Thursday, October 2 for this meaningful festival.

Eighth Grade Independent ProjectsThis year’s eighth grade independent projects were especially

diverse, demonstrating a fascinating variety of interests among the students. Under the guidance of a mentor, students spent the school year learning about a chosen topic, culminating in an essay and oral presentation to students, parents, and faculty. This year, the themes included house design and building, script writing and performance, bird watching, robotics, photography, jujitsu, fashion and costume design, and violin making. I found it very enlivening to speak with the students about what they had done and what they had learned. They were passionate about their projects and shared their work with enthusiasm.

Student-Faculty Basketball Game This year, both the girls’ and the boys’ basketball teams finished

with winning records as a result of their hard work, tenacity, passion, and excellent teamwork. In the Student-Faculty/Staff games last March, the teams posted their highest scores ever. The girls’ team handily beat the faculty/staff while the boys’ team performed beyond all expectations, scoring just under 100 points, in a hard-fought contest. This game is an exciting coming-of-age experience, where we can witness and celebrate the energetic and skillful play of the girls’ and boys’ teams against the adults in the school community. Kudos to Athletic Director Ralph Brooks for a terrific job of creating and organizing this wonderful community event!

Foreign Language ProgramAs you will recall, WSL implemented a significant change to its

Foreign Language program beginning with the 2013-14 school year: seventh grade students choose to study either German or Spanish in their eighth grade year. The goal is to strengthen students’ writing, grammar, and conversation through intensive studies in their chosen language, in preparation for high school language curriculum.

So far, the results of the re-structured language program are positive. In the Spanish class of 14 students, five placed into Honors Spanish 2 and five students placed into Spanish 2. Three students will enter first year Spanish, and one will take Mandarin. In German, three students have placed into German 2, while two have placed into German 1. In addition, one student will take Latin in high school. All of the German students participated in an internationally-recognized German Language exam and three passed all requirements. In addition, these German language students won First Prize in the middle school division at the German Theatre Festival at Mount Holyoke College. Congratulations to Christa Clark and Magnolia Rios for successfully shepherding this new program through its first year!

From top to bottom: Fifth Graders prepare to perform the dragon’s role at Michaelmas; Caroline Dressler, ’14 presents the violin that she built for her eighth grade project; Third Graders perform the German play, Marktplatz/Marketplace; In a fast moving student-faculty game, one of the boys goes for a shot.

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My initiation into the culture of giving at WSL began my very first week with the kick-off of the Annual Giving Campaign, sharing cider and homemade apple cake with parents as they dropped off their children on a chilly October morning. I quickly discovered that this gesture was emblematic of the values held by the school community—nurturing, deliberate, thoughtful,

and full of kindness, not only for securing funds but also for sustaining community.

The Campaign’s apple theme was an obvious choice—the apple as self-sustaining, compact, and forward-giving. As the bushels of our progress became full from your gifts, in early March we exceeded the fund goal of $120K. Your generosity for the Campaign allows us to continue to meet the operating needs of the school that tuition does not cover.

Working with dedicated parents, faculty, alumni, and alumni parents, we envisioned and organized the Mendenhall Benefit Concert and Spring Celebration and Auction. Once again, I had the privilege to experience the generosity of the school community, which raised over $11K to benefit the music program at the concert, and, at the Celebration, an additional $30K for the general operating fund and $65K for a special appeal for student furniture. As I write this, we have raised 82% of the special appeal goal of $95K.

The Waldorf School of Lexington is a generous community and we are grateful, for the financial generosity as well as the considerable wealth of talent and time we receive on a daily basis. There’s not a mechanism in place (yet) to measure the volunteer hours of parents, alumni parents and alumni, and the additional faculty and staff hours that are “off the clock.” I continue to be in awe and full of gratitude for the daily commitment this community has for the children and for each program, event, and experience at the school.

In “A Culture of Giving,” John Bloom, Senior Director of Organizational Culture at Rudolf Steiner Foundation, eloquently describes community and how giving—specifically a culture of giving—defines it. “There is no community without gift and giving. The acts themselves may not be visible, they may not have names, they may elude materiality, and yet we depend on them for our very existence as givers and receivers.” Bloom goes on to reflect that money, in addition to warmth, recognition, love and care, are the “bearers of our deepest feelings, longings and needs.” Rooted in Rudolf Steiner’s insights into associative economics, Bloom notes that money is “the emblem of modern mysteries, meaningful through circulation, in movement that defines relationships, our values, our needs and priorities— that is our economic self.”

Thank you to the Development Committee and the Annual Giving Committee who continually nurture our culture of giving. And to the volunteers who planned events that facilitated and fulfilled it.

It is my goal that you feel fulfilled by the gifts you give to the school, that you know it is needed and being used wisely, and that it supports the expectations you have for WSL to continue educating children in the best possible way. This year, we hope to show you how your gifts make our school community stronger, how your support with time, talent, and treasure allows the children to flourish, and are key to our regeneration and sustainability.

I look forward to being in community with you in September!

A Giving Communityby Paula Antonevich, Development Director

There is no community without gift and giving. The acts themselves may not be visible, they may not have names, they may elude materiality, and yet we depend on them for our very existence as givers and receivers.

— John Bloom

Three generations—child, parent, and grandparent—come together at the annual Grandparents’ Tea, an annual event where WSL students can share their school and work with

grandparents and other relatives or friends.

Illustration by Raluca Buttner.

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Focus on the Rose, not the Thorns Excerpt from an address given to graduates by class parent, Anne Kelly

Congratulations, Class of 2014!

When I walked through the front door of this school with my son, Ollie, 12 years ago, I hoped this day would never come.

As your parents we are overwhelmed with pride at who you have become. Speechless really. We are humbled by what you have taught us, and we are so looking forward to cheering you on through the next round.

You may be having a medley of emotions today, but lest you feel a sense of loss as you prepare to leave your school for the last time, rest assured. You are now permanent members of the World Wide Waldorf Web…otherwise known as wwww.love. And, that is a web made up all the people in this room and beyond. It is a network that keeps on humming long after the internet has gone down…because it is a web of connections fueled not by an electrical grid but by the power of our collective commitment to all of you. You always have access; you need no password; your membership is for life.

Today it is perhaps impossible to fully appreciate all you have been given here…that’s okay…but it turns out that gratitude is vital. My hope is that you have sudden and unexpected bursts of gratitude that just pull the rug out from under you…in the years to come.

When you skillfully dance your first waltz and you hear, “Yum…pa pa,” Frau Clark’s voice in your mind.

When you are asked to make anything of your own two hands, and you realize your comfort with wood and fabric with a needle and

To class teacher, Helena Niiva

For every tear that you dried,

For every hand that you held,

For surrounding our children in warmth,

For the prayers you offered to their angels,

For the tears you shed on their behalf,

For your artistry, your wisdom, your music,

For celebrating their triumphs…and understanding their fears

For eight years…of receiving our children with love, educating them with reverence and, today, sending them forth in freedom.

We give you our deepest thanks.

— Anne Kelly

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Parent Anne Kelly is a public interest environmental lawyer with experience at the state and federal levels. She has

taught environmental law at Boston College and Tufts University. Anne is the Director of Public Policy for Ceres, an

environmental non-profit in Boston.

thread, and the memory of the skillful patience of Ms. Aluia and Mr. Freeburg washes over you.

When you coach your first team of youngsters, and you picture a grown man in a long white toga with a wreath in his hair telling you to work hard and do your best. When your young team loses with their dignity intact and you cheer them on boundlessly, you can say, I have become the essence of Mr. Brooks.

When you easily make your way through a Spanish-speaking country and Senora Rios’ voice is whispering to you.

When a big A appears on your high school math test because you showed your work, you know Ms. Faber was right. Or, when you write your first love letter and the person falls in love with you instantly as a result, and Ms. Curtis and all those who taught you to compose your thoughts in writing appear in your mind’s eye.

Or, when you find yourself cleaning up someone else’s mess, quietly without complaint, and it occurs to you that Mr. Menz did that every day here, caring for your school like it was his own home.

When the band you’ve formed includes strings and a wind section as well as guitars has put out its third or fourth CD, you are invited back to a gig, while on tour—right here—at 739 Mass. Ave. for the graduation of the class of 2024. You come back to the place where music was exquisitely woven into every day of learning and see Ms. Bartell and Mr. Eastburn humming along to your latest hit, with all of your music teachers smiling.

When you take your firstborn toddler into the woods and they drop an inchworm in your hand, may you think back to the early childhood angels who ushered you into gnome valley and accepted with a sense of wonder whatever slimy little something you put in their palm.

And, when you are handed a paint brush and asked to create a thing of beauty, may you remember where Ms. Niiva’s artistic vision took you over the years.

On any given day, may you see in yourself the grace of Ms. Zehavi, the sheer kindness of Ms. Cody, the generousity of Ms. Steiner, and the ever-present, whole-hearted graciousness of the entire Waldorf School staff…including our masterful cooks.

And at these moments, say thank you…come back…it is never too late.

Now your teachers and parents didn’t always get it right. We have made mistakes, but that was almost by design. If we had been perfect, how would you have learned to forgive us, yourselves, each other when things didn’t work out.

You basically have a choice, symbolized by the rose that marked the beginning and ending of your Waldorf education. You can choose to regret that the rose you received had thorns on their stems, or you can choose to be grateful that the stem of thorns had a beautiful rose on top. I suggest the latter.

Finally, you gave us two key lessons in your seventh and eighth grade plays: that true love always transcends physical appearance, and that your dream, carefully nurtured, will carry you over the highest mountain. And needless to say, given your talents and imagination, there is no mountain high enough to keep you from reaching your dreams or from being the change you want to see in the world.

Back in first grade, Ms. Niiva gave us parents a phrase from her native Finland, which was used by farmers in the mountains when they needed to call for help. The word is “Joiku.” It has been our call. When Joiku-group messages went out, we cooked, baked, painted sets, wrote checks, made costumes, coached, mentored, held sick children on whale watches, reinvented traditional notions of yard sales and cafes, planted a garden and cared for our children’s teacher and each others’ children in so many way.

I am delighted to say that though this is graduation day the Joiku-group will live on. Although we won’t be writing about a child’s lost rainpants, it may be that one of our children has lost hope, needs a connection, has fallen in love, is having a reunion, getting married. In some ways the next 80 years of our Joiku community will be more important than the last eight.

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In the Loop Alumni News

For Andrea Lieberherr Douglass, ’92, her life journey to this point has come full circle both personally and professionally. Her two children are enrolled in the Nursery and Parent-Child programs and Andrea now participates in school life as a parent. For the past few years, she has given her considerable musical talent to performing in the Mendenhall Benefit Concert and often played at school for other events. She has taught violin and flute in the after school music program since 2007. Andrea’s musicianship has taken her down another circular route as she prepares her dissertation for a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology on the folk music of the Appenzeller region in Switzerland at Boston University. Andrea’s grandparents lived in this region and she spent many summers as a child and young adult absorbing the culture and language of her father’s childhood.

Andrea’s parents moved from Switzerland in 1977, and Andrea was born in 1978 in Switzerland during a short hiatus from the family’s permanent move to the U.S. Her father Karl Lieberherr is a professor of Computer Science at Northeastern University and her mother, Ruth, is an award-winning artist who has exhibited internationally as well as in the U.S. Her sister Eva, ’95, currently lives in Switzerland and is an Environmental Policy Analyst. After graduating from Winchester High School in 1996, Andrea studied chemistry and music performance at Northeastern University.

Her class teacher, Mary Ann Wells, first turned her on to chemistry. Andrea loved the exploratory nature of the classroom experiments at WSL. They were introduced as an opportunity to discover something new and the students did not always know what was going to happen, including experiencing minor explosions. Ms. Wells inspired them to discover for themselves using the phenomenological approach to science.

Through the Northeastern University co-op system, Andrea had the opportunity to work in a few environmental chemistry labs, including the Swiss Federal Lab for Material Testing and Research, and came to realize that she was more inspired by music performance than the repetitive nature of working in a chemistry lab.

The path to Andrea’s current research was influenced by her master’s degree studies at the California Institute of Arts (CalArts)

Alumna Profile: Andrea Douglass, Class of 1992After graduating from Belmont High School, Andrea studied chemistry and musc performance at Northeastern University from which she graduated in 2000 with a bachelors degree. She continued her music studies in Los Angeles at the California Institute of Art where she received her masters. Andrea is currently completing her dissertation for a PhD in ethnomusicology at Boston University. She both teaches and performs on flute and violin.

I remember all the details of my classes at the Waldorf school—they’re totally ingrained in my conscious—but I can’t recall all the rote memorization required in high school. I think of Waldorf education as embodied learning. Your whole body is learning as you carefully observe the world around you.

A future WSL graduate? Andrea’s son enjoys the alpine views in the fields behind their house in the Alps. The farmers make feed for the winter from the wild alpine grasses.

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Alumna Profile: Andrea Douglass, Class of 1992

in Los Angeles which has a strong program in ethnic music. It was at CalArts that Andrea met her husband, Anthony Douglass, who was studying African music and dance.

After graduating and teaching music performance at an LA charter school, Renaissance Arts Academy, Andrea came to value the need for balance as a music teacher who works during the day and teaches instrument lessons after school. It left little time for family life, so she and Anthony decided to move back to New England to be close to family and study for a PhD in ethnomusicology at BU, which would create the opportunity to teach at the college level.

During Andrea’s visits to her grandparents in Toggenburg, Switzerland, she became familiar with and increasingly fascinated by Appenzeller music, which coincidentally has experienced a resurgence in popularity in Switzerland. In 2012 Andrea and Anthony lived in Switzerland from January to August with their two children where she pursued her research at the Zentrum für Appenzellische Volksmusik (Center for Appenzeller Folk Music) located in the Gonten, Appenzeller Innerrhoden. While there Andrea interviewed performers as well as researched the history and evolution of the instruments and style of music.

In its latest evolution, Appenzeller has come to represent “Swissness,” which is a movement begun in Switzerland in the 1990s to promote its unique characteristics both economically and culturally. Young people are learning to play the music, and wearing the traditional dress, Trachten—like the German Dirndl—is part of the performance.

As Andrea finishes her dissertation, she is looking forward to once again having the time to teach and perform music. When asked to reflect on her education here at the Waldorf School of Lexington, Andrea shared the following:

“When I graduated in 8th grade, I was so excited about high school because I thought that now I would learn something “real.” But after graduating with a masters degree, I realized that I could remember all the details of my classes at the Waldorf school—they’re totally ingrained in my conscious—but I can’t recall all the rote memorization required in high school. I think of Waldorf education as embodied learning. Your whole body is learning as you carefully observe the world around you.”

Bringing the cows up to alpine pastures for the summer.

Members of ensemble Quartett Laseyer at Hof Weissbad

Editor’s Note: Stay tuned for In the Loop onlineWe look forward to sharing with you some of the sights and sounds of Appenzeller music as well as a sample of Andrea playing at the 42nd Holiday Fair with Leah Bartell, Gabriel Solomon, and her husband, Anthony Douglass. You will find this in the inaugural edition of In the Loop, a new web-magazine, about alumni of the Waldorf School of Lexington. It will go live in September and will include more articles about other alumni with whom we have reconnected this past year.

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This past spring, I was pleased to have an intern in the Communications Office, alumna Sarah Schnebly, ’07. Sarah is a junior at Kenyon College, studying English and Film so she was a perfect fit for communications work. Her first experience with film editing came about through her eighth grade project—a short film that she wrote, directed and in which she starred. For her project mentor she worked with a former staff member, Julia van Daam, who filmed and produced the May Day video on the school’s website as well as the special appeal video shown at the celebration of our 40th anniversary.

Sarah came to WSL as a kindergartener and continued through eighth grade with class teacher Mrs. van den Broek. She then attended the Cambridge School of Weston for high school, where she continued to pursue her love of theatre and acted in eight plays throughout her time there. Sarah revisited fairytales, a theme from her Waldorf childhood, for her high school Capstone project that included a Jungian analysis and illustration of fairytales. For the past few summers between college semesters, Sarah has dabbled in the world of Communications and enjoyed the opportunities to write and, this year, to edit film.

Thanks to Sarah’s assistance, we were able to share video of the Eighth Grade Musical with eighth grade families as well as eurythmy, orchestra, and choral performances. Sarah researched and wrote articles about fellow alumni and contributed to some of the content in these pages. Her insider’s knowledge of Waldorf education and the school greatly benefited her work and I appreciated the time that she spent in support of communications at WSL.

Sarah will spend her junior year abroad in England at the University of Exeter and I wish her well on her adventures.

Interning for Communications by Carol Damm, Communications Director

Alexis Ask Cambridge School of Weston

Michelle Beaudette Lexington HS

Oliver Cotran Lexington HS

Madalin Dixon Lexington HS

Lelia Doe Eagle Hill School

Caroline Dressler Arlington HS

Maggie Flynn Lincoln Sudbury HS

Lucas Freeburg Arlington Catholic School

Owen Graham-O’Regan Lexington HS

Giulia Haible Arlington HS

Natalie Krieg Cambridge Rindge & Latin School

Isadora Loftus Cambridge School of Weston

Alvaro Mendoza Lexington HS

Ethan Piani-Hohmann Waldorf HS of Massachusetts Bay

Milo Rossi Minuteman Technical HS

Henry Sieber Cambridge School of Weston

Pascal Uehlinger Sekundarschule Würenlos, Switzerland

Kenan Varney Arlington HS

Anna Warren Lexington HS

Ryan Welsh Bishop Guertin HS

Max Zawel Weston HS

Class of 2014 Off to High School

Best Wishes to the Class of 2010The class of 2010 will be attending a diverse group of colleges and

universities. We congratulate these excellent students and wish them all the best in their studies and further endeavors.

Sarah Schnebly, ‘07 at Kenyon College.

Boston University

Emerson College

George Washington University

Hobart College

Ithaca College

Mount Holyoke

New York University

North Essex Community College

Quinnipiac University

Randolph College

Skidmore College

Syracuse Univeristy

University of Michigan

University of Chicago

University of Massaschusetts, Amherst

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In my capacity as Communications Director and as a former parent at three Waldorf schools (including WSL), I have always been moved by the generosity of spirit and support from the parent community. I have asked Jeff Ask to share with us what it meant for him to be a parent at WSL. Jeff has been involved from the board to the basketball court. His youngest child graduated this year and his eldest daughter graduated two years ago, so Jeff joins the ranks of alumni parents this year.

My family found the school, 15 years ago, somewhat by accident, which is not that unusual for the Waldorf School of Lexington. A friend recommended that we look at the early childhood program at WSL and we went mostly to find age-appropriate activities to do with our children. My wife and I were pleasantly surprised by the truly wonderful early childhood teachers. Each one educated us on what to expect of our children in terms of their social skills, capacity to learn at their age, and behavior. We began to feel a partnership with the teachers as we discussed options and strategies for healthy growth in our children. We continued this partnership with nearly all of the teachers throughout our children’s years at WSL.

Being a parent at the Waldorf School is unique in that you have an amazing amount of access to the teachers. They were always present and available for conversations. We enjoyed the opportunities to support our child’s class and class teacher from helping with class plays, building and painting play sets, chaperoning nature walks, field trips, and fundraisers. I was lucky to have the bandwidth to participate so actively. I got to know the other children in my daughters’ classes, and it was a privilege to watch them grow.

Equally important, parents support each other at WSL. I have had hundreds, maybe even thousands of hours of conversations with other parents, discussing everything that life brings to us. I found that we are mostly like-minded, and it is comforting to be able to discuss our issues without judgment.

We care for each other’s children. We celebrate together. The warmth of this school greets you in the halls when you see parents embrace each other and gather in the café or behind the building after school. It is a community of people I am going to sorely miss.

Parenthood at WSLby Jeff Ask, P ’12, ’14

Coach Jeff Ask addresses the girls basketball team at the Faculty-Student basketball game.

We care for each other’s children. We celebrate together. The warmth of this school greets you in the halls when you see parents embrace each other and gather in the café or behind the building after school.

Parent Community AssociationThe PCA will meet again this year the first Monday

of each month except in September and December. The meeting time and place alternates between morning in the chorus room and evening in the handwork room. You can find out what days they meet and where at http://www.thewaldorfschool.org/pca.

Every parent is considered a member of the PCA. Becoming an active member by coming to the meetings or assisting with PCA events is a great way to get to know the broader school, beyond the walls of a particular classroom.

Some of the events sponsored by the PCA are:

Back to School Picnic, September 4Lecture by author Ronald Morrish, September (date to be determined) International Potluck, September 28 Waldorf Boutique, Holiday Fair, December 6

Be sure to read the weekly bulletin for other events, such as additional lectures organized by the Parent Education Committee and the social and family events organized by the Dads’ Connection.

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The language arts are inherently entwined throughout the Waldorf curriculum, from the Early Childhood years of oral storytelling all the way through to the more critical approach to literature in eighth grade. What makes this curriculum so different from the mainstream, however, is that many of the methods used to bring language arts do so in an implicit way, and most importantly, in an imaginative one. Students develop a strong sense of the imaginative aspect of language before they are introduced to the more technical skills of reading and writing, saving explicit lessons until a time when it is in line with their natural intellectual development.

Foundations in language arts begin even before elementary school with the stories and poems that students hear daily from their nursery and kindergarten teachers, immersing them in the world of imaginative language, stimulating early language development, and promoting literacy and social-emotional skills. Hearing stories aloud—both told by a teacher during main lesson or read from a book during a story time—continue throughout the elementary years. This month, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued its first-ever policy statement focused on literacy promotion, calling for pediatricians to advise all parents about the benefits of reading aloud. “Reading with young children is a joyful way to...stimulate early language development,” says Dr. Pamela High, a pediatrician and professor at Brown University’s Alpert Medical School.

Language arts become more specifically about skills in first grade, when the students are introduced to the alphabet in Main Lesson, letter by letter. Each letter is accompanied by a colorful story, and each letter is drawn using shapes and characters from the story. Students copy short alliterative poems from the board into their main lesson books, deciphering letters as they listen and copy. Form drawing, which focuses on the differences between straight and curved lines in repeating patterns, helps students build up handwriting skills in the first and second grades. Cursive handwriting is developed in second grade.

Students copy longer and longer summaries of main lesson stories off the blackboard throughout elementary school—eventually, in fourth and fifth grade, they will begin to follow the example set in earlier years and write their own summaries, early precursors to essay writing. Students are also learning reading throughout these years; our Reading Specialist teaches spelling and reading using the Orton-Gillingham method, second through fifth grade, additionally working with students who need extra support. Second grade students are always thrilled about their weekly library periods and time spent with their seventh grade reading buddies.

In Focus

The Development of Language Arts Through the Gradesby Megan Curtis, Middle School English Skills Teacher

An eighth grader passes on the love of reading to a second grader.

B stands for Bear. A chalkboard drawing in first grade depicting a story that introduces the letter B to students.

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It is difficult to completely separate language arts skills in the Waldorf curriculum from the social studies curriculum (including mythology, history, geography, and in fact, even science blocks) as it occurs through the grades. Students begin writing short research reports in fourth grade related to their animal block. Students’ reading material is related to curriculum topics, so their book reports in the elementary grades can be related to the stories they hear their teacher tell in class, giving a full and imaginative picture of topics through the language arts.

Imagination even goes hand in hand with grammar lessons that begin in the fourth grade. Each part of speech is personified into a character, giving life to the subject. Even the Greek and Latin roots they learn from the fifth grade onwards can be related imaginatively to their studies of Ancient Greece and Rome in fifth and sixth grade.

In the middle school, language arts in the Main Lesson blocks are supplemented with a year-long English Skills class, taught by a specialist, Megan Curtis. Sixth graders receive instruction in a structured, explicit experience of language arts, with more abstract grammar concepts through the middle school years and structured essay writing. Grammar and mechanical skills are practiced through creative writing as well as the more traditional worksheets, as students continue writing research papers and creative projects for their Main Lesson blocks.

Seventh and eighth grades usher in a new era when students are beginning to awaken their more abstract intellect. They review the stories they have learned through the years from a new perspective—and they are writing their own, building tension toward a climax and eventual resolution. Beginning in seventh and continued throughout eighth grade, students read short stories and novels in their English Skills classes with an appreciation of the more complex ways they can ask how and why those stories were written. Their essays question what the theme of a book might be, or what certain objects in a story might symbolize. They learn to apply analytical and critical thinking skills toward the literature they read as well as toward historical and current events through the essays they write.

In addition, in both Main Lesson and English Skills classes, students read biographies and write biographical reports, which helps to broaden their horizons beyond their own experiences of the world. Research topics for both classes are always related to main lesson blocks: renaissance figures in seventh grade, or events from twentieth century history in eighth grade. Expectations in these years include well-cited sources and bibliographies. Students are introduced to research skills both at the library and online, and they learn keyboarding and word processing skills. By the time they graduate, they have crossed all the same core curriculum landmarks as their mainstream peers, despite having taken a slightly different path,

and have arrived at the same destination. They are capable, thoughtful readers and writers, ready to move on to high school, and most importantly, they have maintained a healthy curiosity for the world around them, a flair for storytelling, and an ear for the poetic.

The Waldorf curriculum may begin explicitly teaching reading and writing at a later age than mainstream education, but it grounds students in a deep appreciation for language and creativity. This approach to language arts develops skills at a natural pace so that when asked to think critically at a later age, they are able to more deeply grasp, with empathy and an imaginative twist, any subject that comes their way.

Source:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/24/parents-read-to-children_n_5522762.html

Seventh graders work on their essays in English Skills class with teacher Megan Curtis.

Middle school students are introduced to research skills both at the library and online, and they learn keyboarding and word processing skills. By the time they graduate, they have crossed all the same core curriculum landmarks as their mainstream peers...despite having taken a slightly different path.

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Waldorf education seeks to nurture and develop engaged and well-rounded individuals with a respect for the natural world. This quest does not begin in first grade, but with the period of a child’s life from birth to seven years of age called early childhood. In a world where public education brings the stress of standardized testing into the classrooms of their pupils at increasingly young ages, Waldorf provides a safe and warm environment for their children where young minds can build their imagination. This opportunity to develop their creativity will prove a great gift that students will bring into their later academic and professional pursuits.

Researchers from the Alliance for Childhood found that the unprecedented amount of academic work and test preparation found in public kindergarten curricula crowded out essential time for play with detrimental effects to these students later on. Their findings emphasized both the importance of unscripted playtime as well as more structured playful learning to build a foundation for academic learning. In free play, children learn how to interact with one another and form schemas for different social situations that are necessary for healthy integration into the adult world. Children who have delayed formally learning math and literacy skills quickly come up to speed in these areas within the first couple years of academic study starting in first grade. Delaying and often neglecting the opportunity for self-initiated play robs children of a crucial stage in their development that will help them throughout their lifetime.

Kindergarten teacher, Wendy Margo, recently completed her tenth year of teaching at the Waldorf School of Lexington (WSL). She currently teaches the Evergreen kindergarten with assistant Lily-Rakia Chandler. For the Evergreen kindergarteners, the day begins with free time as Wendy greets children at the door and Lily-Rakia does something purposeful, such as kneading dough or chopping vegetables. The kindergarteners are free to join Lily-Rakia, or engage in their own tasks, playing creatively with the open-ended toys in the room or drawing with crayons at the table. The group then comes together for morning song before moving on to the activity of the day, which could be drawing, painting, cooking, or some sort of craft. After a snack, the kindergarteners sit quietly for story time, before they move on to outdoor free play where children grow their motor skills and engage their bodies with the outside world. The consistency in this daily rhythm gives children a sense of safety in the space, which allows them to inquisitively interact with every aspect of their environment, including socializing with peers.

“In a Waldorf School, we respect the developmental needs of children” Wendy Margo explains. “In the early years, the most

Preschool: Foundation for Learningby Sarah Schnebly, ’07

The Parent-Child program creates a space for parents to discuss their child’s development while the teachers offer guidance and support. The children are just having fun.

Nursery children from several years back explore the natural world around them.

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important thing is that their bodies are developing at a rapid rate. So we allow them to climb and jump and engage in physical activity because preparation for first grade is actually movement. Coloring, finger knitting and other crafts that use the hand help develop a child’s fine motor system.” This fine motor system will become crucial when the children learn to write, work through math problems on paper and draw at a more advanced level.

While kindergarteners learn to be in their bodies through movement and play, opportunities to explore numeracy, literacy, and even natural laws abound in the Waldorf kindergarten classroom. Early reading begins with recognizing the symbols assigned to each child and understanding that, when written on paper, that symbol stands for the name of one of their fellow kindergarteners. Different toys, such as the tub full of beans, give children the chance to count and sort. During free time, a play stand and some strips of knitted yarn have become a complex lever system during free play. “Boredom is a wonderful thing in early childhood,” Wendy imparts, “because once they have come to a place of being stuck with what they already know, they are motivated to then try something new and creative.” These innovative skills will follow the children through their lives and prove invaluable in their education and in their careers.

At WSL, kindergarten marks the last stage of early childhood education before first grade. One of the tasks for Wendy and her fellow teachers, therefore, is to discern whether each child has reached the point where they are developmentally ready for first grade. Children who have arrived at the physical markers of readiness, such as the ability to cross the midline of their body, begin to show an interest in concrete facts like knowing which day of the week it is or exactly how old they are a given date. Waldorf Education does not force factual learning onto young children, but allows them time to grow into a place of innate curiosity with the world and all it has to teach them. When these children enter into first grade, they are eager to engage in and absorb the more structured academic teaching presented to them. This enthusiasm for learning will ensure a deep connection to the material they encounter throughout their academic careers.

Raising a well-balanced, curious and creative individual who deeply loves and engages with the world around them begins with fostering these traits in early childhood.

SourcesHoward, Susan. “Essentials of Waldorf Early Childhood Education. WECAN.” Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America.

Miller, Edward, and Joan Almon.“Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School.” College Park, MD: Alliance for Childhood, 2009.

Ms. Lily-Rakia kneads bread dough with an eager assistant.

Kindergarteners create their own space to explore by building a shelter with colorful silks

and playstands.

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In the younger grades, scientific learning is not reserved for a single part of the day or year, but is woven throughout the curriculum and the daily schedule. In first grade, science appears on their nature walks, in the verses and movements of main lesson, as part of their numeracy learning, during painting and even in their free play at recess.

Many of the verses recited in first grade reinforce the order of the natural world, including poems about the earth beneath their feet, the air around them, the stars in the sky, as well as the seasonal changes of the plants and animals. Recess allows for a more immersive understanding of how changes in season affect living organisms. In the fall, children rake leaves from their play area and wheel them down to the compost in the gardens. Winter allows children to experience the properties of ice, snow and sleet as they play outside. First graders observe flowers beginning to grow, bud and bloom, birds building nests, and numerous other creatures that reappear in their play area during springtime. This past year’s first grade watched the transformation of a butterfly as it emerged from its cocoon.

Painting offers another venue through which children can develop the observational and experimental skills crucial to any scientific endeavor. First graders fill the page with yellow then add Prussian blue to the still wet yellow pigment. The children observe as the paints mix and create green. In this way, children learn and experience the properties of colors. This exercise both encourages scientific thinking and also parallels experiments the students will encounter in their studies of optics and physics in Middle School.

As the first graders learn the numbers and their properties, they link each number with something in the physical world. In their

First graders watch in anticipation the first flight of the butterfly that they observed emerge from its cocoon while they cared for it in their classroom. From Butterflies to Physics

by Sarah Schnebly, ’07

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main lesson books, a drawing of the sun accompanies the number one, while the number six lies opposite a drawing of the hexagonal cells of honeycomb. Understanding the connections between numeric values and the shapes and quantities, shapes and patterns found in nature will aid children enormously as they continue to study biology.

At WSL the lessons of science occur throughout the day. The logarithmic spiral form, for instance, appears to the first graders in a variety of areas across the curriculum. During the main lesson block they recite a verse that begins: “Let us make a little visit to the curly house of snail,” as they walk in a spiral formation. While on a nature walk the teacher may point out a fern and have the children observe the same spiral shape of the snail found in a plant. In painting, the spiral will appear once again as the children recreate the fern with watercolors.

As first grade teacher, Lauren Smith, explains, “This experiential understanding of the physical world and the ability to observe patterns in nature creates a strong foundation for more classical scientific learning the children will encounter in the later grades.”

This integration of science within the main lesson curriculum continues through second grade and develops more formally in third grade when students study animal husbandry and farming, in fourth grade with zoology, and in fifth grade with botany. By the middle school years, they have honed their observational skills and become adept at describing and portraying the phenomenon that they observe in their main lesson books and science notebooks. Students’ studies in biology, chemistry, geology, and physics build on the experiential foundation that is put in place by the class teacher in the early grades.

For a detailed description of the sciences by grade, refer to the Grades Overview at: http://www.thewaldorfschool.org/grades.

Upcoming first grade class teacher, Jeanette Voss, prepared a physics experiment with her previous seventh grade class

(Class of 2013) using the mobile laboratory.

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Save These DatesSchool warming September 2

Michaelmas October 2

Grandparents’ Tea November 26 followed by the Thanksgiving Assembly

Holiday Fair December 6

Mendenhall Benefit Concert March 6 at Follen Church

May Day May 1

Fifth Grade Pentathlon May 8

Spring Celebration May 9

Eighth Grade Graduation June 13

Contributors Accredited by Shannon Ames, Paula Antonevich, Megan Curtis, Sarah Schnebly ’07, Robert Schiappacasse

Photo CreditsBetsy Peck, Vito Aluia

EditorCarol Damm, Communications Director, communications@thewaldorfschool.org

© 2014 Waldorf School of Lexington. Reproduction of content without express permission is prohibited.

Board Transitionsby Shannon Ames, Board President

As new Board President, I am pleased to announce four new members to the Board. After reviewing an incredibly rich list of nominees, the following community members have been elected to serve on the Board and began their three-year term July 1:

Toshi Amanuma Jindrich Liska Brian Kydd Stacey Zawel

We welcome their perspectives and broad skill set to the team. A full list of the Board members can be found on our website.

On behalf of the Board, we would also like to extend sincere gratitude to the following trustees who ended their term with the Board. Their perspectives, skills, enthusiasm, and downright hard work have been instrumental to the Board and we will miss them. We thank them for the countless hours they have donated to the school in their position on the Board.

Christine Alaimo Juleby Hirsch Susan Cody Mia Moran Jonathan Green

I also thank Keith Hartt, who has been the Board president for the past two years. Keith worked tirelessly to move the board toward strategy and efficiency, and we are better for it. Gratefully, Keith will serve one more year on the Board, providing knowledge and insight for the transition to a new Officers’ team.

On behalf of the Board, I want to invite all parents to attend an All School Meeting on Monday, October 20. We are replacing our annual open Board meeting with a broader, more inclusive format. The Board and Staff will present on the “state of the school” and lead an inclusive discussion around strategic initiatives. All parents are welcome. I hope you will be able to join us.

Join the Board of Trustees for an

All School MeetingMonday, October 20, 7-9 p.m.

All parents, staff, and faculty are welcome.

Outgoing Board President, Keith Hartt, enjoys the Annual Spring Celebration with his wife, Ann Wiedie.