The Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and Community Service in Grade 6/7

From Class Teacher Libby Case: For most of the school year, grades 6 and 7 have combined for their studies: chemistry, perspective drawing, creative writing, physiology, and our play, "The Little Mermaid." In the fall, the two groups separated for one block: the sixth graders studied the Rise and Fall of Rome, while the seventh graders studied The Age of Discovery.

This spring we are once again in our respective groups. The sixth graders are busy learning about the Middle Ages and preparing for the Medieval games that will take place on our campus on May 5. This is a wonderful event organized by Movement Teacher Jacqueline Gabe in conjunction with the Lake Champlain Waldorf School. Students will spend the day together participating in traditional knightly challenges: archery, axe and knife throwing, group challenges, and a quest. In preparation for this event, students have been busy during morning recess acting as squires to assigned teachers. This experience of service to another is designed to help them learn and understand the seven knightly virtues: courage, justice, mercy, generosity, faith, nobility, and hope. The culminating experience of this service will be the Knighting Ceremony, which will take place at the end of the Medieval games. All are welcome to attend this regal event, Friday, May 5,  9am to 2pm, with the Knighting Ceremony beginning at 2:15pm on the field.

The seventh graders, in turn, have been busy studying the Renaissance period. They began their studies with a look at the Italian Renaissance and the painting masters that arose from this period. Students not only studied the biographies of some of the great Renaissance artists, including Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael, but also some of their techniques with artist Laurie Demrow. As a culminating project, Ms. Demrow asked the students to select a portrait painted by one of the great masters of the period and had them reproduce this portrait using their own face as the model for the work. These works will be up in school, so come have look at the remarkable paintings they were able to create!

The full grade 6/7 class recently took part in a series of Community Service projects in our area. On Tuesday, April 11, the class split into three groups for the day to help out where they were needed.

• One group headed to Chelsea, VT, where they first visited with elders at the nursing home in town. Students played games and chatted with the residents for about an hour, and then headed across the street to the Chelsea Food Shelf where they spent the rest of the day unloading food, organizing boxes for pick up, and helping visitors to carry food out to their cars. 
• A second group headed to the home of community members Wolfgang and Louise who needed some extra hands packing and cleaning as they prepare to leave their home of seven years and head out on a two-month trip to visit friends and family around the US. Students vacuumed, sorted, and packed boxes, much to the joy and appreciation of the elderly couple who could not have done it without them!
• Our third group spent the day at the Good Samaritan Homeless Shelter in Barre, VT. There they baked for the residents of the shelter, cleaned the attic of accumulated clothing donations, and helped with yard work for spring cleanup.

Needless to say, the students gained an incredible amount from these projects. When asked the next day, “What was it you gained from this experience?” Students replied, “It felt really great to help someone else and know that it meant a lot to the people we helped.”

Grade One Prepares for First Class Play!

From Grade One Teacher Stasha Ginsburg: In Waldorf schools one highlight of the year is a play that emerges in each class from the curriculum. Every child in the class participates, uniting the class artistically and socially. Out of imaginative play, first grade students bring a fairy tale play. The class learns the whole play; not all children are ready to hold individualized parts or to stand facing an audience alone. Typical of first grade, groups of students step forward to enact various parts, then step back to join their class, speaking in chorus.

A play entertains, inspires, instructs, and transforms. Magic happens among the players and on stage as they work together, have fun, build confidence and express themselves creatively.

The first grade is currently learning the lines and songs for "The Brementown Musicians," a delightful Brother's Grimm fairy tale. In the story, a donkey, dog, cat and rooster have been rejected by their masters. Each laments that his or her end is near. "Woe am I, master says I'm bound to die. But, this won't be my last day!" The colorful band of outcasts come up with a lively solution to transform their worries and leave their troubles behind. How? By creating a new position, they will follow their dreams to become musicians in the town of Bremen. Freedom awaits!

The class will perform the play on April 12 and 13 for the Early Childhood children and the first grade families. They hope to put a smile on your face and a song in your heart. And, as Cat Stevens sang, "If you want to sing out, sing out, if you want to be free be free, for there's a million ways to be, you know that there are..."

Celebrating the Contributions of Women on International Women’s Day

“A Day Without A Woman” Became “A Day to Reflect on Women” at Orchard Valley

In honor of International Women’s Day and the worldwide “Day Without A Woman” events on March 8, Orchard Valley Waldorf School faculty transformed the curriculum to focus on women’s contributions in history throughout the classes.

This creative educational opportunity sprang from the faculty pondering the dilemma that the national “Day Without A Woman” strike would bring to the school and families. Instead of creating havoc like a strike would have, this opportunity enriched the students, filled the classes with deep learning, and brought the school together for a collective handwork project and assembly.

The children enjoyed stories of mothers, grandmothers, and important women in history during their main lesson period to start the day. They learned new songs, and learned about the Women’s Suffrage Movement in the United States and about Women’s Day in Russia—the birthplace of International Women’s Day.

The handwork project-a weaving on a hula hoop loom-was set up in the orchard and classes worked on it throughout the day. Teachers, staff and community members were all invited to weave finger-knitted strands into the loom, infusing it with the intentions they set for the project. The eighth grade class composed a heartfelt message to convey on the weaving—STEP FORWARD. These words will be woven into the piece.

The completed piece was presented to the school during the assembly. Handwork teacher Ms. Camilletti said to the students: "You made this, all of you. When we all work together we can create true beauty. [This weaving is in shades of red] because it is the color of the heart, which is really love—and that's what we do here."

A Heart-y Winter Fair Thank You!

 From Winter Fair coordinators Angie Barger and Karen Liebermann:

A warm hooray and humble "thank you" to the entire parent and faculty community at our three campuses for your efforts, kindness, and creativity at Winter Fair! It was a glorious day, bells jingling on white Percheron draft horses as they trotted through the campus pulling a sleigh filled with enchanted children and adults alike. The food was delicious, the musicians incredibly talented, and the halls were bedecked with pink sparkles and hearts!

A HUGE thank you to the sponsors of Winter Fair:
National Life Group
Hunger Mountain Coop
Vermont College of Fine Arts

An extra special thank you to the businesses who contributed to this event:
Birchgrove Bakery
Champlain Orchards
The Drawing Board
Hannaford
Muddy Creek Pottery
Patchwork Farm
Price Chopper
Red Hen Bakery
Shaw’s, and
Central Vermont High School Initiative

And a heartfelt thank you to the individual area coordinators for the events, decorations and food:
Christopher Steller - Pre-Fair Grocery Shopping
Matthew Sellers - Parking
Nancy Bruce - Laundering of Sheets & Tablecloths
Aja Jennings - School Store and Pocket Lady
Debbie Goodwin - Cake Game
Joe Astick - Musicians
Jenny Johnson - Paper Crafts
Heather Stearns - Clay Hearts
Mary Perchlik and Zoe - Button Making
Kate Camilletti - Donation of Buttons and Felting Area
Erin Malloy - Seed Ornaments
Tara Carpenter - Candle Dipping
Julie Brown - Book Sale
Peg Roche, Lindsay Miles, Stephanie Hoelscher, Liz Emmett - Puppet Show
Mark Gunkel - Bonfire
Erica Zimmerman, Linda Weyerts, Andy Hatch - Sleigh Rides
Jesse Conn - Crystal Cave Snow Queen
Stella Stevens, Meg Scherbatskoy, Paule Bezaire- Food Preparation
Jim Veneziano, Anne Carroll and Julie Atwood: Food Booth Coordination and Execution
Eme Scherbatskoy - Face Painting
Madelief Becherer - Grades Decorations
Jon Scherbatskoy -Herald
Bill Marcinkowski - Jack Frost

This annual event raises both funds and spirits for our strong and vibrant school community. Every effort from each parent and teacher, each cake baked for the cake game, each high schooler and 8th grader who helped set up, is an integral part of the beauty and delight of the Winter Fair. Our school has such a generous and loving community and this event is so special because of you! 

Grade Five Explores the Metric System

From Class Teacher Cathie Ely: The fifth grade just concluded an introductory block exploring the metric system. From our work in third grade, students are comfortable measuring volume, mass and distance using the U.S. Standard system for measurement. After a review of this work, we sprung forward to the metric system.

For this new way to measure, students rolled up their sleeves and put scientific equipment to good use. Using graduated cylinders, centrifuge tubes, syringes and pipets, students measured water in milliliters and liters. At home, students designed and built cardboard houses. Using centimeters and millimeters, they followed strict building codes that determined the height and width of their houses and the sizes of window and door openings.

Finally, to bring all three units together, students created beautiful decimeter cubes out of stiff cardstock. Once lined with a plastic produce bag, we were amazed to discover that the decimeter cube could hold one liter of water and weighed one kilogram.

Students were left feeling that the metric system is a much easier system to utilize, especially with their new understanding of decimals. Questions were raised, "Why donʼt we switch?" Their thoughts and answers were very interesting. The first person to say "NO" to the metric system was Thomas Jefferson because he thought it was "too French." Do you know the three countries in the world that have NOT completely switched to the metric system?

[Answers: Myanmar - aka Burma (S.E. Asia), Liberia (W. Africa) and the United States.]

Handwork: Learning How To DO

Why do Waldorf schools include Handwork in the curriculum? According to Handwork Teacher Kate Camilletti, "It's not just so the students know how to knit, it's so they know how to DO." Handwork is about learning how to meet a challenge (moving needles, gaining rhythm, following and creating patterns) and to move through it. Beyond gaining specific skills, students learn to use their hands to create something beautiful and practical from start to finish, helping them acquire the ability to persevere.

The progression of handwork lessons begins with knitting and crocheting and progresses to hand sewing, felting, embroidery, and carving soapstone molds for pewter casting. The handwork class circles back to knitting and crocheting with variations and increasing skill development (for instance, kittens in first grade, socks on four needles in fifth grade), and specific projects vary by class. Handwork begins with knitting because it awakens, enlivens, and strengthens so many different parts of the human being, including building neural pathways from the brain to the tips of the fingers. Childhood is the time to build these pathways, which will serve them throughout their lives.

Grade Six Squire Duties Begin Soon!

From Movement Teacher Jacqueline Gabe:
In connection with the sixth grade curriculum study of the Middle Ages, every year the sixth grade students are each assigned to an adult "knight" who provides them with opportunities to be of service to others. Students are asked to visit their knight once a day for six to twelve weeks and offer their service. Students learn about the seven knightly virtues--courage, justice, mercy, generosity, nobility, hope and faith--and are asked to uphold these qualities while performing their acts of service. Some squires take up cleaning duties, others work with younger children, and still others take on the repair and upkeep of the grounds or tools. 

During Medieval times, squires served under an elder, proving their capacity and building skill through on-going, dedicated work before being knighted; so, too, the OVWS students take up squire duties in preparation for the Medieval Games and their Knighting Ceremony.

In early May, sixth grade students from Lake Champlain Waldorf School will join our sixth grade students for a full day of rigorous games, challenges, and events with a Medieval flair such as knife throwing, archery, and a quest. The day culminates in the Knighting Ceremony, a truly moving, right-of-passage ceremony for the squire who worked in earnestness and with perseverance.

Following some of the ancient ceremonial protocol, each student comes forward and kneels before an elder and is recognized by his or her knight for their service with their community as witness. The knight speaks on their behalf, stating what the squire has done to be ready for knighthood. Recognizing children for their striving at an age that can be confusing and tender for the child is of great benefit, and indeed, similar rituals are taken up by other cultures and religions.

This year's Knighting Ceremony will be held on Friday, May 5, in the afternoon. All are welcome to attend!  

Care Group and Social Harmony Committees Join to Support the School Community and Student Needs

We're excited to announce the joining of the Care Group and Social Harmony committees into one, called Care Committee. Its mission is to support the school community to strive to interact with one another in a non-violent communication environment, while also supporting students' individual social/emotional and academic needs. Our intent is to maintain the good work achieved in the past by both committees while expanding it thoroughly. In an effort to support our students effectively, we intend to work closely with teachers and families to develop and sustain a supportive and warm-hearted environment for students.   
 
Care Committee feels strongly that each child should have the opportunity to learn on a three-fold level--involving head, heart and hands--in a supportive environment. At times, when a student needs space to regain the ability to learn, s/he may be asked to leave the room. Stemming from a desire to shift from a "punitive" experience, and in response to our commitment to providing a supportive environment for all, the "study room" is now in existence. This space will provide a nurturing environment for the child to process feelings and needs, at an age-appropriate level, with an adult, under the guidance of the Social Harmony curriculum. It is our hope that through healthy modeling of empathy, we can provide the ideal environment to support the development of this skill in students. Individual teachers have signed up to be the adult a child processes with. As a result of his/her work in the study room, it is our goal that students can re-enter the classroom with clarity about classroom expectations and targeted positive behaviors he/she will demonstrate. 
 
Home/school communication is paramount for student success. When a child is asked to leave the room and redirected to the study room to process, parents will receive an email from the office informing them of the situation in hopes that the student will be able to process what happened at home as well.  
 
The Social Harmony curriculum, based on the work of Kim John Payne and Non Violent Communication (NVC), was established at OVWS under the expertise of Jane & Julia Martin. Its scope includes workshops with students, workshop with parents, 8th grade training, and conflict resolution. The Care Committee is in the process of restarting the workshops with great enthusiasm and will be eager to find volunteers interested in this work. Grade 1, 2/3, 4 and 5 have already had a first Social Harmony workshop on an age-appropriate topic, such as Telling vs. Tattle Telling, Verbal bullying vs. Kidding Around, or Bystanders vs. Upstanders. For the next couple of weeks, we have Social Pulse workshops planned for grades 6, 7 and 8, as well as an 8th grade training for our special Social Harmony Teen Support force.

For more information about the Social Harmony program, please contact Paule at the Main Office.

The Winter Spiral Journey: Bringing forth personal and collective light at the darkest time of the year

From Music Teacher Emma Back: 
On December 1st, Grades 1-4 will walk the Winter Spiral, guided by their 5th grade angels. We will gather as a community to honor the darkness and welcome back the light.

The dark time of year is a time of being receptive, still, and listening to our inner truth.
Vermont offers the perfect winter environment to work with these qualities. The cold and the snow support us in pausing, slowing down, surrendering and reflecting. But, if our full lives prevent us from finding the time for self-reflection and reverence, we can lean on our Waldorf community to provide us with opportunities to experience spiritual wonder, spaciousness, and beauty. In creating this time for ourselves, we can take a necessary pause to connect a bit more deeply to each other and our own truth. We can be filled up with the light our children offer, to support us through the dark days and busy time of the holidays.
 
We gather at dusk. Soft, pure voices penetrate the cold twilight air. The large spiral of dark evergreen boughs (collected by the children during the day) lay in contrast to the snowy ground. At the center of the spiral stands a tall candle, a single glowing light. The children, dressed in white, walk the labyrinth one by one, as the faculty and parents sing. The "angels" (5th graders) bring each child to the entrance, offering a gentle encouraging hand to begin their journey. Watch them as they walk their path: Some dance lightly on their toes, eager to reach the light as quickly as possible. Some walk slowly, with reverence, perhaps overwhelmed a bit by the solemn task of carefully lighting their candle and finding the perfect place to lay it to rest. As we watch them, we see this is how they move in the world: each with her own dance, each his own song.
 
By the end of the evening, the entire spiral is filled with light and every child has made this journey: going ever inward to touch the soul light, and returning having gathered this light, grown it and brought it forth in our community.
 
As we enter the holiday season, there will still be dark days ahead. But with reverence, guided by the seed of our personal truth, our "lit flame," we can navigate them with poise, purity, and ease. We can see where we must accept the darker days and learn from them, always keeping our inner light aflame. We can be joyful as we face any challenge. We can know that each of us carries the gift of light.
 

OVWS Annual Meeting - A Note from the Board

Thanks to everyone who came to the annual meeting on Friday evening (10/28)! 
It was a lovely evening that began with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for our new spaces on the Grace Farm campus: the Grades Building renovation and the new Farm and Forest Program. To celebrate all that our school offers, parents, faculty, and friends of the school gathered in the new 6th/7th grade classroom to recall moments of magic we have experienced at Orchard Valley. We recorded those moments on beautifully hand-painted apples, then strung them up in the yurt, where we enjoyed a potluck dinner. We voted to approve the nomination of two new members of the Board of Trustees! Welcome to Andy Hatch and Brian Doyle. Their bios will be posted to the Board of Trustees page on the website soon.
 
After dinner, the Board gave an update of accomplishments that came out of the ideas generated by our community at last year’s Annual Meeting:

* We renovated the grades building to create larger classrooms, space for educational support, a quieter, calmer hallway, an efficient main office, a dedicated woodworking room, and an indoor space for movement, music, and performances.

* We opened the Farm and Forest program--the first full-time outdoor kindergarten in the state! This is just a first step in developing our land to support outdoor education for children of all ages.

* We opened our Little Lambs Early Care Center--meeting a need for high quality daycare in central Vermont.

* We hired a full-time Enrollment and Outreach Director to help us fill these programs and hold our new families as they integrate into our community.

In the long run, these new programs will help ensure robust, healthy first grade classes, which will in turn help the growth of our grades school. However, these new initiatives required a great leap--a necessary leap--to launch our school into its next phase of growth and sustainability. They are an investment, and we knew we would face 1-2 years of financial challenges as we wait for them to take root and bear fruit.
 
The Board has been working diligently to address the current financial hardship facing Orchard Valley. Some initiatives the Board and Development Committee are working on include: fundraising for the renovations, the launching of our regularly scheduled Annual Fund which is a part of our budget aimed at supporting our teacher salaries; an initiative to increase enrollment across all programs in the coming year, with the ambitious goal of having 15-20 new families join our school; and the introduction of a Special Gifts Campaign to raise $100,000, which comes with a remarkable $50,000 matching gift that has just been pledged to inspire our community to raise the other $50,000.
 
We hope all of you will be inspired by the work we have accomplished over the past year, and we ask you to join us in our development and planning efforts.
 
Sincerely,
The Board of Trustees

"In Partnership:" The Parent-Teacher Relationship

Outside, the sunflowers at the Child's Garden hang low with heavy, dark heads. Petals still golden, curl at the edges. Children pluck them to put into pots of soup and bowls of salad at their restaurant underneath the bare, sheltering branches of the lilacs and honeysuckle. Inside the classroom hangs a felt and fabric sunflower. This sunflower hardly displays the perfection of the natural world. Its lettering, "Child's Garden," is somewhat a-kilter, the petals a bit floppy. Even over time its colors never fade. Like nature's sunflower, however, this sunflower speaks of growth and transformation. Just as magical as the burnished disk of the sunflower drying to show its meaty seeds, the interior Child's Garden sunflower holds the wishes and hopes of parents for the children.
 
Teachers at our school speak about the parent-teacher relationship in different ways, because we each are unique in personality, temperament, and biography. Early childhood teachers may talk about building the bridge between school and home. We share with parents verses to greet the morning, bless our meals, and shepherd to sweet slumber. We may sign our letters, "in partnership," to signify that children - and their individual child - will thrive most deeply when surrounded by the loving embrace of teacher and parent together.
 
Our Child's Garden sunflower tells this story. We want the same for the children, our children. We want them to "create strong friendships." We want to create for them a world that is good, beautiful, and true. Our children then will be free for "cheerful discovery," "love and laughter," and "infinite joy." With parent and teacher "in partnership" and striving to be models of imitation, our children then develop their capacities for empathy, kindness, and compassion.
 
Bless the sunflower. Bless our work together, on behalf of our children. ~ Child's Garden Director and Lead Teacher Stephanie Hoelscher
 

Welcome To Our New First Grade - "Older and Wiser Already!"

From Stasha Ginsburg, First Grade Teacher: It was very exciting to be back in school, reunited with old friends and starting first grade. Our week was christened in the mist, surrounded by faculty, friends and family, as we gathered together to form our first circle of the year during the Rose Ceremony. We then heard our first story, about a King, a Rooster and an Artist, and through it we learned about the gifts of practice. 

We started off our week with Form Drawing and began practicing straight lines and curves. One child asked, "Why must we draw a straight line and a curve?" So we looked at the letters on the board in our daily schedule and discovered that they are made up of straight lines and curves. "Oh! Now I understand why we are doing this!" We also found straight lines and curves everywhere around us--in nature, in our bodies, and in our room.

During our main lesson stories, we have been following the adventures of a group of children, who have wandered into 'the magic woods.' The children must create shapes together in the woods in order to unlock secret passageways, receive treasures from nature spirits, and journey further on the quests. These stories are fueling our imaginations, circle time activities, and our main lesson form drawing work periods. Like the children in our stories, we too are learning to make simple and complex shapes individually and together in our circle, as well as on the blackboard and page. The stories feed our work and play and vice versa. 
 
The students have been exuberant in their work, art, and play and are truly ready to be in first grade. Our work together has just begun, yet several of the children expressed that after a day or two of first grade, they feel much, much older and "at least 100 years wiser!"