SCHOOL NEWS
Farm and Forest Summer Camp in the News!
Check out these great photos from a day in Pioneer Days camp!
Times Argus photographer Jeb Wallace-Brodeur visited our East Montpelier campus last week to photograph Farm & Forest Summer Camp! A few wonderful photos were featured in the Saturday, August 27 issue of the paper, and all of the photos can be seen at Jeb's Times Argus online Orchard Valley album.
OVWS 5th Graders at the Pentathlon!
Exciting video footage of the Pentathlon at LCWS!
OVWS Fifth Graders Compete at the Pentathlon at Lake Champlain Waldorf School! Check out the Seven Days video below to see the fun!
This event marks the culmination of the Fifth Grade's study of Ancient Greece. Their learning is all-inclusive as they take up the historical teachings in main lesson through stories, written compositions, drawings and creative expression, and then learn and practice skills in five of the Olympic activities: wrestling, discus, javelin, running, and long jump in Movement Education.
The fantastic culmination, a mini-Olympics with students from Waldorf schools in VT, NY and NH, was held May 26 & 27.
Remember when...
Celebrating our 8th graders.
We are so proud of our graduating 8th graders! It is amazing to see how much they have grown since this photo was taken. We sure will miss their shining faces on campus once this school year comes to a close, but they are posed and ready to go forth with the resilience, determination, and passion that we have come to know--and love--them for. Come and celebrate these wonderful young people under the tent on Saturday, June 11th, from 2-4!
Spring Gala!
Our Second Annual Spring Gala and Silent Auction is coming up on May 22nd!
SUNDAY, MAY 22, 5-8PM AT THE VERMONT COLLEGE OF FINE ARTS’ GALLERY, MONTPELIER
Wonderful entertainment, food and drinks are on the menu for this adults-only event. And a fantastic array of Auction items will be filling the tables!
Tickets available online through May 20th, or at the door.
Next Open House: Saturday, April 30th!
OPEN HOUSE ~ Saturday, April 30 ~ 10 am to 12:30 pm
Following on the heels of our wonderful Open House in March, our next one will be April 30. Please help spread the word!
Campus tours and time to ask questions of faculty, staff, and parents.
Children are welcome, with two walks through the fields and forest at 11am and noon and ongoing guided art activities.
- 10:30am – Grades walk-through, including a sample lesson.
- 11:15am - Guided walk
- 11:30am – Early Childhood classroom visits to speak with teachers and parents and learn about our programs, including Farm and Forest, Little Lambs childcare, and Montpelier Child’s Garden.
- 12:00am - Guided walk
Contact Morgan Irons with any questions!
Donate to our Silent Auction!
Our Second Annual Spring Gala and Silent Auction is coming up!
Sunday, May 22, 5-8pm at the Vermont College of Fine Arts’ Gallery, Montpelier
Wonderful entertainment, food and drinks are on the menu for this adults-only event. And a fantastic array of Auction items will be filling the tables!
Donations to our Auction make it the wonderful event it is. You can Donate Here. Thank you!
10th Annual Pie Breakfast (Saturday, May 7th)!
Join in the fun and visit with friends and neighbors at our delectable Sweet ‘N Savory Pie Breakfast!
8:30am to 12 noon (unless we run out of pie earlier, so be sure to come early!)
Location: Trinity United Methodist Church, 137 Main Street, Montpelier (right next to the Kellogg-Hubbard Library)
$8 per person; $30 per family; children under 5 free
Two Summer Programs at Orchard Valley!
Two Summer Programs for 2016!
New Farm and Forest Program and Summer Play Days at the Child’s Garden in Montpelier
We’re excited to announce that OVWS will have two summer programs this year:
* Farm and Forest Summer Camp at our East Montpelier campus
* Summer Play Days at the Child’s Garden in Montpelier
Woodworking as a Medium for Self-Discovery
Seated in a circle on the braided rug on the floor in the Maple Tree Kindergarten class, 17 children watch as Heinz works with one child on his woodworking project. The children are making buttons from moosewood (called that because moose love to rub their antlers on these trees – a fact the children love, Heinz says) and they are rapt as they watch the hand drill spinning round, waiting for their turn.
Heinz Rathmann has been teaching woodworking for 21 years now, and this is his fourth year at OVWS. He works with grades 4-8 as well as the Kindergarten. This is the second project for the Kindergarteners; with the first, the children learned how to hit nails into a beautiful round of birch, striking the nails strong and true. Then they wound colorful string around the pattern of nails for a lovely piece that resembles a web.
Heinz says the value of woodworking is similar regardless of the children’s ages. They learn how to move with the tool, something that is as important for the Kindergartener as it is for the 8th grader. When this work is positively expressed, Heinz says, it forms a healthy dance as the work and the movement flow with the tool. They also learn “patience and perseverance, and to strive for the best they can do,” he adds, something that comes forth during the physical act of creating an object.
The seventh graders are working on three-legged stools now during their woodworking guild. They are working with pine, and each stool seat is a work of art unique to the student creating it.
Heinz says that all of the students learn something in the process: Some start with creativity and learn patience; others may start with a greater level of patience and learn to express their creativity through working with the wood. And they always learn about themselves during the process.
For Heinz, that’s the wonderful part. “I love to see them grow and learn about themselves.”
Announcing Our New Outdoor Education Program! OVWS Farm and Forest
Announcing Our New Outdoor Education Program! OVWS Farm and Forest
The orchards and forested landscape of our campus have been a source of inspiration, playful adventure, exploration, and learning for all of us since Orchard Valley began. Now we are proud to launch our first program dedicated to outdoor education, starting in June 2016.
There will be three sessions of theme-based summer camps for children ages 4-11 starting in June and ending in August. In the fall our outdoor program continues for young children ages 4-7 years.
An outdoor classroom during the school year allows children to move, play and discover core principles in science through “hands on” nature-based activities. Children can help build fires, prepare food, find wild edible plants and work in the school gardens as an integral part of the day. Traditional skills in social dynamics and language arts are developed through oral story telling, skits, role-play, puppet shows, games and songs. The themes for each week reflect the wonder of the changing seasons, woodland crafts, folk lore, Native American culture, and knowledge of our local natural environment.
Many Waldorf schools in North and South America have been exploring ways to integrate best practices in outdoor and environmental place-based education with traditional Waldorf Education. This impulse began decades ago with the European “Forest Kindergarten” model in Copenhagen, Denmark. Forest Kindergartens have recently opened at The Hartsbrook School in Massachucets, the Saratoga Springs Waldorf School in New York, and the Waldorf School in Carbondale, Denver.
Stay tuned for more details about these new programs in upcoming Apple Core issues. Registration information will also be available soon–contact Morgan Irons, Enrollment Director.
~ Linda Weyerts, Pedagogical Chair