Waldorf Academy

Spring/Summer Voice Newsletter- Fibonacci Sequence, Play Photos, Poetry, Dornach, Dr.Neufeld, Bilingualism and more

Jennifer Deathe — Wed, 16 May 2012 19:18:07 +0000

Read the Spring/Summer Issue of the Voice Newsletter

Contents of Newsletter:
Farewell from Peter Griffin
Igniting a Passion for the Golden Mean by Dean Husseini
The Magic of Wee Folk- Parent & Child by Elizabeth Palermo
What I learned Today – By Jeannine LeBouthillier
Photos of Plays
Becoming a Waldorf Teacher by Kate Meehan
Reflections of a Grade 8 Parent by Laura Edlund
Dornach- Waldorf Around the World -2 articles by Diana Miklos and Paula Rosa
Dr.Neufeld and Waldorf Education? By April Quan
Grade 8 Poetry -Provided by Sheila Anderson
Survey Update from Enrollment Committee
Developing Bilingualism by Hege Jakobsen-Lepri
Silent Auction
Farewells & CommunityNews

Maypole and Family Square Dance

Jennifer Deathe — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 16:32:19 +0000

Spring has returned.
The Earth is like a child that knows poems.
Rainer Maria Rilke

Waldorf Academy invites you to celebrate Spring on Saturday May 5th at our annual day of festivities that include a traditional maypole dance and picnic from 10-1pm at Hillcrest Park and a Family Square Dance at the school from 6pm- 8:30pm.

Maypole procession and dance is held rain or shine! (In the event of inclement weather, it may be shortened.)
The Maypole Festivities begin at 10 am. Please contact your teacher for further information regarding picnic and volunteer help for garland making and set up.

Later that day the Grade 3 class is hosting a square dance in the school gymnasium with a live band and caller; a stompin’ good time and family favourite. Entry to the square dance is $20 per family.

What is a Maypole Dance

The May Pole is a tall wooden pole with a circular top decorated with flowers and ribbons hanging down to the ground. As the time draws near for dancing, each child takes up a ribbon and stands at its farthest reach. To begin, it is tradition that each person greets their neighbor with a bow and then greets the May Pole. Then the dancing begins. Leah Salomaa,a celebrated performer here in Toronto will lead the dancing and music as well as the Faculty.

The children sing their May Day songs and walk, skip, skip/step, or weave around the May Pole creating a wonderful swirl of ribbon around the pole. They keep going around singing and dancing, watchful of their ribbon creation until the ribbons are wound as much as can be. Then they turn and begin again as the ribbons are unwound and hang long once more.

Once everyone has had a turn at dancing it is time for playing in the park and eating. A pot-luck lunch with a spring blessing usually follows the festival.

Waldorf Summer Camp, School Tours and more

Jennifer Deathe — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:03:28 +0000

School Tour 9:15-10:15 Registration Required
April 18th-Full
May 9th-space available

Experience a Waldorf summer camp.

Waldorf Academy Junior and Senior camp will provide an unforgettable summer experience. Each weekly theme is built upon encouraging self expression and creativity in a friendly, wholesome atmosphere. We strive to create a balanced program with plenty of time for freedom and movement along side opportunities to learn and create.

Junior campers will join an harmonious environment with a daily and weekly rhythm that includes singing, stories, creative activities, free play and outdoor exploration.

Senior Campers will enjoy a full day program that includes creating art, dramatic play, games and outdoor explorations. Each week will focus on in-depth art projects such as painting, sculpture, textiles and more.

Camp Coordinator: Laura Wingfelder
Laura has completed her Foundations Studies at the Rudolf Steiner Centre and in 2011 she graduated from the Teacher Education program. Laura currently works at Waldorf Academy in the Nursery and as well as the After School Program. She has experience with older and younger children and has worked in Waldorf camps. She is very excited about the camp program and the experience, energy and creativity of the camp counsellors.

2012 Summer Camp Schedule
JUNIOR CAMP (4-7 years: nursery to KG)

JUNE 18 – JULY 20

Week 1: June 18-22 Building a Playhouse
Week 2: June 25-29 Woodland Harvest
Week 3: July 3-6* Kite Making
Week 4: July 9-13 Moving Pictures
Week 5: July 16-20 Garden Gnomes

SENIOR CAMP (7-10 years: grades one to four)

JULY 2 – JULY 20

Week 1: July 3-6* Shelter Building
Week 2: July 9-13 The Air: Things that Fly, Whirl & Float
Week 3: July 16-20 Cooking with Summer’s Harvest

Note: Age groupings are subject to change based on enrollment.

Monday- Friday from 9am-4pm
(extended care available / half day option available for Junior Camp)
*July 3-6 is a four-day week: Tuesday – Friday

Fee: $325.00 per week ($260 per four day week)
5% discount if you register by May 13 5% discount if you register for all 5 weeks
To register or for more information please contact the front desk:
416-962-6447 info@waldorfacademy.org

Waldorf in the Press- The New York Times and Global News

Jennifer Deathe — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 05:26:59 +0000

Sunday NYTime’s Front Page
By now you have probably all heard about the front page story in this past Sunday’s New York Times featuring Waldorf Education as an interesting and positive difference to the electronics heavy – mainstream approach in education. Just in case, here is the link: NY Times Technology Can Wait

Please share this article with your parents, grandparents, colleagues and friends in your community.

Matt Richtel, the author of the NYTimes piece, is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who found Waldorf Education while investigating the cultural impact of technology. Matt has a blog – please do write to him, if you are so inclined. He is expecting, hoping to hear from the Waldorf Community: write to him here. Matt’s Blog

Waldorf Academy on Global News November 18th, The Slow Death of Cursive Writing

To view more articles and video clips on Waldorf education please go to the Links and Resources Page

Watch Our School Video, Listen to Waldorf 101 Lecture #5 On How Science Is Taught At Waldorf Academy

Jennifer Deathe — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 19:19:46 +0000

Waldorf 101 Lecture #5 How Science is taught in Waldorf Schools. Speaker: Robert Teuwen

Watch our School Video

Cultivating Creativity

Jennifer Deathe — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 14:38:11 +0000

Cultivating Your Child’s Creativity

Why is creativity so important in Waldorf education?

“If you’ve had the experience of binding a book, knitting a sock, or playing a recorder, then you feel that you can build a rocket ship or learn a software program you’ve never touched. It’s not bravado, just a quiet confidence. There is nothing you can’t do. Why couldn’t you? Why couldn’t anybody?” Peter Nitze, Waldorf and Harvard graduate Executive Vice President of Martek Biosciences Corp

Creativity is applied imagination. It is the seat of the intellect and the source of human ingenuity, invention and solutions. The Waldorf curriculum is designed to develop each child’s creativity, drawing out and nurturing each child’s uniqueness and gifts. At the same time, the Waldorf curriculum develops in each child a wide range of skills and confidence—for example, in analytical thinking, science, writing, public speaking, problem solving, dance, and hands-on design.

“The necessity of human ingenuity is undisputed….A recent IBM poll of 1,500 CEOs identified creativity as the No. 1 ‘leadership competency’ of the future. Yet it is not just about sustaining our nation’s economic growth.

All around us are matters of national and international importance that are crying out for creative solutions, from saving the Gulf of Mexico to bringing peace to Afghanistan to delivering health care. Such solutions emerge from a healthy marketplace of ideas, sustained by a populace constantly contributing original ideas and receptive to the ideas of others.” Newsweek, July 10, 2010

Discover the genius of the Waldorf Curriculum and why it is the best education for children today and tomorrow.

Why the tech wizards of Silicon Valley are choosing Waldorf education for their children

Focus on the Grade 4 curriculum: This is my place and time.

Jennifer Deathe — Mon, 03 May 2010 01:22:37 +0000

This is my Place and Time.
The teacher of the fourth grade class increasingly experiences the children as emerging individuals with strong personalities and distinctive gifts and talents, as well as challenges.
* Focus on group activities draws the class together as a social whole: plays, movement lessons, games, stage performances and the “week in residence” at Black Creek Pioneer Village all support this end.
* Students need a great deal of form to meet school tasks, both academic and otherwise. Self-discipline and healthy work habits are developed at this age, often through spelling words and vocabulary lists in French or German.
* Increasing objectivity permeates the curriculum, such as the first overt science study: study of the self and observation of similarities, differences and relationships between the human being and animals. This study is extended through painting, modelling, play acting and poetry recitation.
* Geography study starts with the local area and its geographical characteristics. Learning to make maps of their classroom, school and neighborhood and discovering the directions of north, south, east and west as they are manifested by the movement of the sun and planets gives the children a sure way to find themselves in the here and now.
* The week-long experience conducting classes at the Black Creek Pioneer Village school is a highlight of the year as students attend daily, in costume. The experience extends to appropriate lunches (in baskets and Mason jars) and recess activities including stilt walking, skipping and marble playing.

Main Lesson Subjects

* Arithmetic (fractions), long division, advanced multiplication
* Reading, grammar, spelling, composition, dramatization
* Local geography and history
* Norse mythology and sagas
* Study of humans and animals
* Two class plays.

Skills Lessons

French and German grammar and reading, music classes continue with singing canons, singing rounds, and using harmonies. Instrumentally, the children continue recorder playing and playing the violin in a group, both of which now require reading from notation, eurythmy (a movement art), painting, embroidery, hand sewing and cross-stitch, physical education, form drawing.

Field Trips:
Fall: Black Creek Pioneer Village for one week.
Winter: Alpine, Nordic skiing, and skating.
Spring: Bike trips
June: End of year trip to Pinecrest Camp for 4 days.

A former student at the Alan Howard Waldorf School, as well as a recent recipient of a Rhodes scholarship. More than a coincidence?

Jennifer Deathe — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 03:23:47 +0000

AHWS/Waldorf Academy Alumna awarded Rhodes Scholarship. Bruce Nicol writes a few words about his daughter’s recent achievement.
“I can say a few words about what Rosanna might have taken with her from her time at the AHWS/Waldorf Academy, both is terms of her immersion in Waldorf Education, and the time she spent with her teachers.
The Rhodes Scholarship is awarded on four attributes: academic excellence, natural leadership
ability, athletic ability, and an instinctive desire to help the weak and downtrodden. There is an
obvious similarity to three-folded learning that is at the core of Waldorf education. When it comes to
test scores, class sizes, course content, grading, and so on, it is easy to compare Waldorf to public
schooling. The subtle but pervasive notion of engaging the whole child is easy to overlook. A
child who learns through the head heart and hands has a much greater chance to grow up to work and
live in a more integrated manner. Waldorf education is built on this foundation. In my view, this is the principle difference between Waldorf and public school teaching methods.” to read more please see the April 1st Voice.

GRADE EIGHT PROJECTS- a ‘coming-of-age-ceremony.’

Jennifer Deathe — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 16:58:04 +0000

The Grade Eight year at Waldorf Academy is highlighted by a series of very special initiations in which the students are challenged to step up to a specific task with both courage and creativity. These challenges include the Grade Eight Trip, the Grade Eight Play and most recently, the Grade Eight Projects.
The Grade Eight Projects are independent projects in which each student must follow three criteria: 1) Choose a topic for which you have a real passion. 2) Explore your topic in depth, including experientially. 3) Create a fully realized presentation for the community. Each presentation is 20 minutes long with an additional 10 minutes for questions from the audience. An authentic challenge indeed!
In the spirit of puberty rites that have been practiced in all cultures throughout history, these projects provide the students with the opportunity to courageously declare themselves publicly to a welcoming community. In a fashion, the projects serve as a modern ‘coming-of-age ceremony’, as do the Grade Eight Play and the Grade Eight Trip.

Recent events and link to London Times article.

Jennifer Deathe — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:08:17 +0000

“It is better to create than to learn! Creating is the essence of life. ” Julius Caesar 100 B.C. – 44 B.C.
Chalkboard drawing in the grade 6 class by Mr.Singh.

Why Waldorf? Enjoy an article written by Penny Marshall in the London Times Online called, Why British children are pushed too hard.