Greetings!
Many parents feel they have a strong sense of what it is like to be a student in a Waldorf kindergarten classroom: a beautiful space full of songs, puppet plays, toys made from natural materials, imaginative free play, time outside, and the smell of beeswax, soup, and bread. But when it comes to the grade school, parents' sense of the student experience might be a little more fuzzy.
This month we are bringing back one of our most popular admissions events, the Middle School Morning. This is a wonderful opportunity not only for parents who are considering a Waldorf education for their children, but for anyone interested in knowing more about the Waldorf grade school, including current parents and grandparents. On March 10, seasoned HVWS teacher Marleen De Grande will present a sample 8th grade geometry lesson. Guests will join our current 8th graders and experience the beauty of math. Pre-registration is required and you can sign up on our
website. Q&A and light refreshments will follow.
Parents of little ones will want to mark their calendars for our final puppet show of the year later this month,
Briar Rose, on March 28; and everyone should mark their calendars for our 8th Grade Project Presentations on April 3!
Warmly,
Christina Dixcy
Communications Director and Office Manager
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Thank you for your support! Housatonic Valley Waldorf School is a non-profit 501c3.
Your contribution is potentially tax- deductible.
Tax ID # 061310057
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- March 13: No School (Staff Development Day with the Center for Racial Justice in Education)
- March 19 and 20: Early Dismissal (Parent-Teacher Conferences)
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Tuesday, March 10; 8:20 -10:30 am
Become a middle schooler for a morning and join us for a lesson on Platonic solids. You will quickly understand the beauty and complexity of our curriculum and will have no doubt about your child’s preparedness for high school. Marleen De Grande — HVWS veteran of 23 years — will be your teacher. Refreshments and Q&A to follow.
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Saturday, March 28; 10:00 am
The Puppetry Committee will perform
Briar Rose.
The puppet show in the Waldorf tradition features hand-sewn puppets, sumptuous plant-dyed silks, and a simple, age-appropriate performance style suited to young children’s attention spans and level of awareness. A peaceful and enchanted mood prevails. Our puppet shows are appropriate for 3-8-year-olds.
Puppet shows are free, however the Puppetry Committee will happily accept a goodwill offering to support Women for Women International, an organization helping women survivors of war rebuild their lives:
http://www.WomenforWomen.org.
The puppet show will run approximately 20 minutes. Families interested in touring our Early Childhood campus immediately following the performance should register online.
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8th Grade Project Presentations: Save the Date!
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Friday, April 3; 7:00 pm
Atrium, Compass Hall
The 8th graders will present the culmination of their months-long research projects. Don’t miss this lively and entertaining presentation!
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Spring Benefit: Save the Date!
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Saturday, May 9
Warrup's Farm, Redding, CT
Save the date for our annual Spring Benefit! We are excited that this year our Spring Benefit will be held at Warrup’s Farm in Redding, CT.
The theme of this year’s event is a Centennial Barn Dinner and Dance, where our guests will dance the night away to bluegrass music played by Union Rail Band. The celebration will include a delicious meal catered by La Zingara Ristorante, silent and live auctions, games, and (weather permitting) we will cap the night off with an open community jam (BYO instrument) around a bonfire.
In order to maintain our commitment to the ongoing improvements of our school and programs, we hope to raise $45,000 at the Spring Benefit this year. We are confident that we will achieve this with our generous sponsors and donors. Raffle and Event Tickets will be on sale soon!
With any questions, please contact Carrie Donat, Development and Volunteer Coordinator at 203-364-1113 x106.
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Classes on Thursday and Friday mornings are for children ages 12 to 36 months and their caregivers.
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INTRODUCING...
Programa "Morning Glories"
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Los miércoles en la mañana, las clases son en español. Este programa ofrece clases para padres con hijos de 12 a 36 meses.
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Summer Camp Registration is Open!
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Summer Camp will run from June 22 to August 14.
Offering two groups — Explorers for 3- to 8-year-olds and Artists for 9- to 14-year-olds — HVWS Summer Camp is the perfect place for natural and exciting summer fun! Led by caring and talented educators, HVWS Summer Camp invites children to enjoy the summer through participating in a variety of activities.
Our Explorers will play with water and mud; participate in group games; enjoy organic gardening, cooking and snacks; and make arts and crafts related to the theme of the week using natural materials such as wool, beeswax, silk, wood, etc. We follow a simple daily rhythm that provides the campers with a sense of trust and ease while they explore nature, make new friends, and learn new skills.
Our Artists are more capable of challenging themselves physically and socially. Our goal is to provide opportunities that meet our older campers developmentally in a safe, natural environment. Our Artists will learn specific skills such as theater improvisation, shelter and vehicle building, wilderness survival, musical instrument construction and playing, archery, and circus arts.
The Summer Camp day runs from 9 AM to 3 PM. We provide an organic, allergen-free, non-GMO snack and campers bring their own lunch daily. The cost per week is $260 when you register before June 1st and $275 per week thereafter.
If you have questions, please e-mail our Camp Director, Marcela Perez, at
camp@waldorfct.org.
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Winter and Spring After-School Classes
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Registration is now open for our next round of After-School classes for grade school students (and adults). Check out our website to learn more and register for:
- Karate (2nd-8th grade),
- Theater (5th-8th grade),
- Circus Arts (3rd-8th grade)!
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by Lilah Rose Poston and Chloe Amdhauer (7th Grade)
Climate Change
Climate change, climate change
It brings strange nasty things
Rising sea levels
And hurricane rings.
Melting permafrost
and cracking Earth’s atmosphere
bringing the death to many animal species.
The end is near
So try to be careful
And watch your carbon footprint
Stop your polluting and stop your earth ruining
Climate change, climate change.
Gloomy Weather
Snow, snow
It comes in great squalls
Big blizzard winds
Which causes no school
And many snowballs
Rain, rain
It can be a slight drizzle
Which can make your brain fizzle
Clouds, clouds
They are all different
Cumulus, cirrus, and stratus
They block out the sun
And rain on your head
They are fully without a bum.
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Thank you to
Chris Washington for making woodworking tables and to
Jennifer Chapman for setting up the Clay Room for woodworking classes.
Thank you to the
7th Grade for all their work making the Talent Show happen! And thank you to the performers and audience for coming out and making the class fundraiser a success.
Thank you to
Mabbott Seidel Build for providing wood for our middle school woodworking class.
Thank you to the
Bluebell Class for a gift of two lovely wheelbarrows for the early childhood program.
Thank you to all of the
parents who cook for faculty meetings and also those who spontaneously drop treats off in the Admin Cottage!!
Thank you to
Dale Tucker,
Lisa Buckley, and
ClareAnn James for driving the middle school to the Yale Art Museum where the classes visited the African art collection.
Thank you to
Jeff Parker for donating paper products to the school.
Thank you to
Keith Bigham for making extra shelves for the Morning Glories program and
Jesse Goode for restoring the cubby bench and repairing the children’s kitchen’s refrigerator door.
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Waldorf Alum Networking Platform
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- be a part of a continental network and community
- mentor younger alums in your field
- seek out work or internships with a Waldorf alum
- hire other Waldorf alums to work with you on a project or within a company or organization
- attend a regional Waldorf alum event or party
- find "long lost" friends and reconnect
- meet new Waldorf alums in your area
- follow the Waldorf alum news and be inspired by what your fellow Waldorf alums are doing in the world!
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Seeking Submissions from Alumni!
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HVWS alumni are amazing people doing amazing things!
The Association of Waldorf Schools of North American (AWSNA) is launching its Waldorf Alum Connect Spotlight campaign in January and is seeking published news about alums. The aim of this campaign is to spread the word about the amazing work that our Waldorf alums are undertaking as scientists, artists, teachers, engineers, musicians, advisors, entrepreneurs and more.
We are seeking published news articles, personal websites and published research about what our alum are doing out in the wide world.
Please consider nominating yourself or someone you know
here!
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HVWS Fleece Jackets are Here!
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Click for a
PDF Order Form. Orders may be shipped to your home or picked up from Tiger Sports in Ridgefield.
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Third Grade Play:
Noah and the Flood
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Middle School Play:
Crusader, Muslim, and Jew
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KQED, Mindshift, December 8, 2019
Screenagers, Tech Talk Tuesday, February 24, 2020
1000 Hours Outside, March 6, 2019
New York Times, January 6, 2020
Psychology Today, September 22, 2019
NBC News, February 8, 2020
green child magazine, January 14, 2020
Independent, January 10, 2020
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, January 23, 2020
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Alumni gathered in January 2019 to reflect on their experiences at the Housatonic Valley Waldorf School. This video of the event was filmed and edited by Henry James who graduated from 8th grade at HVWS in 2017.
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As part of the worldwide Waldorf 100 celebrations we are recording our voices and sharing our stories through The Waldorf Chronicles, an archive project. Waldorf schools and teacher training institutes in North America are adding interviews to the StoryCorps Archive, the largest collection of human voices ever gathered.
If you would like to be interviewed for the Waldorf Chronicles please e-mail Christina Dixcy at cdixcy@waldorfct.org. You can read sample questions on
The Waldorf Chronicles' page.
Interviews:
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To provide a lasting education that cultivates resilient and creative human beings who are capable of free thinking, confident action, and deep connections with others and the world.
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Housatonic Valley Waldorf School | 203-364-1113 | office@waldorfct.org|
waldorfct.org
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