Spring is here! You are invited to join us on Wednesday, May 1st to celebrate May Day. Join us from 12:00 p.m.- 2 p.m.at the Sportsman’s Club (property adjacent to the school).

Watch this video to experience a taste of this upcoming festival.

Bring a picnic lunch and a blanket or chairs. Spend the afternoon with us welcoming spring as our younger children dance and weave maypole ribbons while our older children play music. The schedule for the day is as follows:

12:00: Picnic lunch. Bring a blanket and picnic for your family
12:45: May Day Opening. Community circle with verse
Students perform Maypole Dances
Garden Blessing
1:50: Closing verse and dismissal

We would love to see you there! Please register if you plan to join us.
Register Now! 

Last week our sixth graders traveled to the Cincinnati Waldorf School to participate with 5 other schools in the inter-Waldorf School Medieval Games. This is a hands on experience of sixth grade curriculum, which studies Medieval history in depth.

Class Six children will study the rise and fall of Rome and the affect Greek and Roman culture had on European civilization up through the Middle Ages.

As the host of this year’s games, Cincinnati Waldorf says:”As students engage with these historic eras, they experience the shift from the Ancients’ poetic consciousness to the Medieval search for truth and development of modern scientific concepts, paralleling change in the sixth grade student. This study culminates in a two-day, Medieval Games beginning with a Medieval Feast featuring bards, musicians, food and live presentations by each sixth grade class.”

The competition includes sport such as jousting, archery, moat jumping, and tug-of-war.  Here are some pictures from this year’s games!

The Games Begin!

A zip line over the ravine.

The Dungeon Escape Competition.

As Waldorf parents, you know the value of screen-limited living. Now, help spread the word and encourage the people you know and love to take part in Screen Free Week this upcoming Monday, 4/29 through Sunday 5/5.

Screen Free Week is organized by The Campaign for a Commercial Free Childhood.

Here are some great resources for screen free week, including articles, books, links, reports and fact sheets about the influence of screen time on children.

And screen free week is not just for the kids. Stop checking that smart phone first thing in the morning and leave Facebook and Twitter alone in the evening and at lunchtime. You can do it. Turn Off  media and turn On Life!

So proud of all our students who share their many talents at Assembly. Here’s a wonderful video of Eighth graders, Patrick and Jackson, performing Haydn at our March Spring Garden Assembly. Great performance gentlemen!

A picture is worth a thousand words! Enjoy our school through images. Follow us on Pinterest to see pictures of everyday life at Spring Garden.  http://pinterest.com/sgwaldorf/

In the discussion on Class Six curriculum, we are pulling information from Waldorf Curriculum.com and also from Eugene Swartz at Millennial Child.

For History, Class Six children will study the rise and fall of Rome and the affect Greek and Roman culture had on European civilization up through the Middle Ages. Swartz says, “[These studies are] appropriate for the sixth grader [who] now stands like an ancient Roman, solidly on the earth, and craves facts and their relationship to one another. Now we study history in relation to space and will make a time line to show events unfolding in chronological order.”

Language arts tie into Roman times with the study of grammar and its roots in the ancient Roman language Latin. The students will also expand their world by studying World Geography and Foreign Language and culture. Singing and Orchestra, Handwork, Woodworking, Eurhythmy, Painting and Sports also continue to enrich and mold the daily curriculum for Class Six.

According to Swartz, Physics becomes the “introduction to laboratory science, and therefore provides a different experience from the natural science/natural history [studies from earlier grades]. No longer is it sufficient for the children to “take my word” about natural phenomena — now they must see it, feel it, and hear it for themselves!”

But Natural Sciences are still studied in the form Astronomy and Mineralogy. In this regard Swartz says: “’Natural Science’ divides in two in the sixth grade. Astronomy will draw our attention to heaven, and, as a counterbalance to such imaginative soaring, Mineralogy will draw us into the earth’s depths to view its many marvels. The skills that the sixth graders develop [in geometry] with compass and straight edge will be put to use again as we depict the arcs and circles that describe the paths of the stars in different quadrants of the sky.”

Geometry takes literal form through geometrical drawings with great focus on “neatness and accuracy.” A picture is worth a thousand words! Here is a beautiful example of the study of geometry in Class Six.

To see more of these inspiring images of Grade 6 work, visit this page on Pinterest. 

And finally, in addition to Geometry, Class Six students, as Swartz says, “…will begin reviewing the arithmetical concepts of earlier grades and honing … skills in the four operations, fractions, decimals and simple formula (area and perimeter of regular figures).”

To learn more about the curriculum of Class Six at Spring Garden Waldorf, please visit the primary source of this article and speak with our Admissions Director who can get you in touch with Spring Garden’s Class Six teacher.