In the 4th Grade block on the Gold Rush, Ms. Malon asked students to imagine themselves as children traveling on a wagon train following overland routes to California, arriving in the city of San Francisco, and heading for the hills of the Gold Country.
In a series of recordings and assignments, Ms. Malon describes the challenges of life as a pioneer, from sandstorms to prairie fires, as well as the daily lives of miners and merchants in the towns where gold had been discovered. Though Ms. Malon’s storytelling, students imagined sandstorms and prairie fires on the Great Plains or the breakfast a miner might eat before digging spending the day digging gold, while also learning about the way the Gold Rush changed the West.
In response, students filled their main lesson book pages with a first-person diary of their experiences as they traveled to California and drawings of scenes their journey.
They also drew maps, created newspaper stories, and wrote letters about their travels with thoughtful embellishments, describing the sights, sounds, smells, and experiences of the pioneers.
Congratulations to our soon-to-be 5th Graders on their beautiful work!
Our Hollyhock kindergarten teacher, Nicole, weaves a new story into her morning circle each week, drawing in the children’s attention as they say good morning to each other and learn new songs and full-body movements to accompany the tale.
Since our campus close in March, Nicole has shared a morning circle with Hollyhock families every week. In this charming circle, she leads the children on a visit to the farm with her assistant teacher Jennifer. This circle includes two songs in French, which a kindergartner can pick up and repeat easily, even if they don’t understand the language!
In addition to building a warm classroom community each morning, the morning circle is a time for kindergartners to learn by listening and repeating, to develop balance and motor skills by following the teacher’s movements, and to use their imaginations in stories and songs. In some circles, Nicole introduces tongue twisters, bean bag tossing, and partner games.
Families can listen to this circle at home and make up their own movements as the children greet the little chickens and farmers.
This week, 2nd Graders demonstrated their creativity, as well as their understanding of parts of the English language, by composing and illustrating haiku poems that describe the world around them. Below, our 2nd Grade teacher Ms. Martin shares her lesson, as well as some samples of student work.
Dear second grade children,
In these past few weeks, you have learned about naming words (nouns), doing words (verbs) and describing words (adjectives) and have seen how they work together to make a sentence. Now, in writing a haiku, you are using these parts of a sentence , and also your senses! What do you see, taste, feel, hear? Remember, a haiku is a short poem that captures a moment in time. It is a small window into a moment or an experience. We have heard many stories of saints and sages in these past few weeks!
Do you think Francis of Assisi observed nature? Remember how he communicated with the birds and the wolf of Gubbio? Odelia did not have her eyesight from the time she was born until she was a young woman, and yet she knew of the ways of nature. She felt the wind on her cheeks and could feel the flowers growing in a way most of us are not familiar with. Do you remember that Kee-ten (the Native American author, Mourning Dove) had to learn as a child to listen to the river, the wind and all of nature which was trying to speak to her?
When we sit still to listen and see the tiny creatures of the earth, or the twinkling stars on an early morning, or the intricate, colorful wings of a butterfly, we too are listening to nature! What is it trying to teach us? What moment in time would you like to share?
In order to write your haiku you must:
Choose a topic
Sit, listen, observe
What would you like to share? Count the syllables. A haiku is 3 lines, with the first and last line being 5 syllables and the middle line being 7 syllables.
Write your haiku!
Here is the haiku I wrote, inspired by the fawns I saw in front of our classroom.
Two fawns in tall grass. Spotted, brown and white they lay, Curious and calm
The most famous haiku poem of the most famous haiku poet in Japan. 古池や 蛙飛び込む 水の音 The old pond A frog leaps in. Sound of the water.
The syllables are different in Japan than they are in English!
Thank you, children, for doing your best work in writing your Haikus. I look forward to seeing what you have created.
Anyone who has the good fortune of meeting Carolyn Binford knows she is a ray of sunshine: kind, patient, always impeccably dressed, and a beautiful musician who has brought her craft to our choir and eurythmy programs. During her 20 years at Marin Waldorf School, Carolyn has accompanied countless eurythmy classes, provided music at hundreds of class plays and special events, become a reliable member of our faculty salad squad, and helped middle school students perfect their piano playing as an after-school piano teacher.
This year, Ms. Binford is retiring from MWS and we can already feel her absence!
“Her good will and receptivity has made that the intimate work between me as the Eurythmy teacher and her as the musician rich and filled with light for the students. It’s not easy for a pianist to play pieces over and over so the students can practice and learn their parts. Mrs Binford has given her whole heart ever and again selflessly and joyously for the Eurythmy program to grow. I am deeply thankful for her as a colleague and as a friend. May the wind be always at you back, Ms Binford!”
Juan Carlos Lancelloti, Eurythmy Teacher
We asked Ms. Binford to share a little bit about her 20 years at Marin Waldorf School. Read on to hear how she became our school’s pianist, what she knew about eurythmy before she took the job, and what she’ll miss most about MWS.
Tell us a bit about your history at our school. How long have you been at Marin Waldorf School as a pianist and parent? My daughter Catherine joined the MWS Hollyhocks when she was 6 years old. She is 27 now! My son Ben (24 years old) joined the Hollyhocks the following year. Catherine moved into the First Grade class with teacher Frances Santaguida. During Catherine’s First Grade year, a pianist was needed to fill in for the Winter Assembly because of a conflict their current pianist had. At the end of that school year of 2000, our Eurythmy teacher, Barbara Newman, asked if I would like the position of Piano Accompanist. I said “Yes!” with trepidation because I was terrible at sight-reading music. I spent most of that summer practicing all of her Eurythmy pieces so that I could “get them down.” Needless to say, my sight reading has improved over these last twenty years with experience and a few tricks learned along the way! Pablo Rodriguez joined the faculty as Choir Director that same year.
Describe your typical week. In a typical week, I have 15 classes to play for, 14 Eurythmy classes and 1 Choir class. And no, I had never seen a Eurythmy class before I began accompanying the classes that fall!
In addition to the classes, I play for assemblies, class plays and musicals, the faculty Shepherd’s Play (I may know the lines by heart) and May Faire dance rehearsals. A typical day involves arriving early to receive lesson plans from the Eurythmy teacher and play through some of the pieces to help with choreography.
How many Eurythmy teachers have you worked with during your time at MWS? Through the years, I have had the pleasure of playing for 5 Eurythmy teachers. I have learned to love the collaboration between my music and movement. Through the wooden flooring in the Eurythmy Room, you can not only hear the stepping, skipping, and stomping but you can also feel the vibration. Students can fly by as if they are playing along with me. It is a partnership and one that I have thoroughly enjoyed! Every class, every group of students is unique even after 20 years!
Every class, every group of students is unique even after 20 years!
What will you miss most? One of the highlights for me has been the musical collaborations with many of the class plays. Rehearsals were during main lessons over several weeks. Being part of these class performances was the icing on the cake!
Where are you off to now? Within this new chapter of my life, I’m looking forward to working on more of the classical piano repertoire and continuing to teach piano lessons in the After School Music Program. Beyond that, I’m not exactly sure what the future holds, but I’m looking forward to it!
I will miss being a part of the inside of the Waldorf classroom on a daily basis, hearing beautiful poetry, songs, being part of the choir, watching the students grow, change and meet new challenges. I feel blessed to have been a part of this school in this capacity for so long!
The 3rd Grade shelter project is a highlight of the year, a venue for cultural studies, creativity, and building for our students. Below, please enjoy the wonderful description of this year’s project by third grade teachers Ms. David and Ms. Stroud, along with colorful pictures of student work.
The shelter project is such a big part of the third grade curriculum and this year we took on the challenge of building each of our shelters at home whilst we all have had to ‘shelter in place’ — it certainly gave a new depth of meaning to our shelter projects!
Once the children had each decided on the shelter they wanted to make, the challenge was to find materials from around the home to build their model: Gautham used clay from his garden to build his cob hut; Colin chose to make his igloo out of sugar cubes; Bianca collected sticks in the woods by her house to make her log cabin; Noah found fennel sticks to make his tree house; Adam used a dish towel for his tipi cover and Roen used mud from his yard to make his mud hut.
The students not only created their own shelters but also the people and animals that lived in them, and the landscape around them; Alona lives in Leah’s Clay House, she sleeps in a hammock that she wove from soft grasses; Kiian’s Mongolian Yurt is in a desert which is cold by night and hot by day; Adrian’s pueblo has a large fire place inside the red walls; Oliver’s Swiss stone cottage is under the Matterhorn mountain; Alexandra’s Thai Water House is on stilts; Sofia’s grandparents home was on a Colombian coffee plantation; Leo’s Tabernacle has a lapis lazuli heart stone hidden inside and Dario’s barracks was to house soldiers, like his Grandfather.
The children had to think about life inside their shelter — what would the people living their wear, what would they eat and drink, how would they get all their food and clothing and necessities to keep warm and dry? Sara’s imaginary ‘Hutacie’ had animal skins for warmth, Jude had two pigs and a chicken to help feed the peasant farmers that lived in his Chinese shelter; Angelo had cooking and sleeping inside his tipi which was situated near a lake for water; and Lucas’s shepherd had sheep for wool, meat and milk.
I am so proud of all the work that went into these shelters and so grateful for the patience and support of all the third grade parents!
We would usually have an event to display all this fantastic work and the children would all be there to answer questions. We hope you will tour the gallery of photos and please do ask us any questions you have!!
Thank you, from all the third grade students, Ms Stroud and Ms David
The interdisciplinary and experiential nature of Waldorf education encourages students to explore topics with their hands, with their hearts, through art, and through doing. A few days ago, we highlighted the way our gardening teacher, Ms. Betsyann, tied the 7th Grade curriculum to work in the garden with a video about spirals in the natural world.
In the video (left), our woodwork teacher, Mr. Neale, helped bring the 6th Grade study of the Middle Ages to life by providing students with materials and instructions for creating and painting their own knight’s shield.
The project dovetailed with 6th Grade Ms. Terziev’s “Knight’s Challenge,” in which she asked 6th Graders to complete a series of tasks to become like modern-day knights.
Here are pictures of some of the 6th Graders’ fine work on display!
Fifth Grade’s botany block begins with the study of mushrooms, working its way to trees and flowering plants. Our 5th Grade teacher, Mr. Stopeck, shared these wonderful main lesson pages created by his students.
Following our virtual May Faire celebrations, Waldorf alum and current MWS first grade parent Anouk talks about the joy in Waldorf education and her love of festivals!
As we shelter at home through the remainder of the school year, our sister school, Kusi Kawsay Andean School, in Pisac, in Peru’s Sacred Valley, is also navigating the challenges of maintaining community and encouraging learning for its students.
We want to share a few beautiful photos from the school and, below, introduce the concept “ayllu,” which the school shared with its extended community in their April 2020 newsletter.
Our Andean culture and traditions are rooted in building and nourishing community. We share food, music, stories and more as a community. During these troubling times, encouraged to practice physical distancing, is very difficult for the needs our hearth and soul. We are guiding our community through these challenging times as best as we can.
Ayllu means community in Runa Simi. Ayllu – Comunidad – Community. This year, we are embracing our Ayllu, near and far, sharing, as we always do, to build towards a future that respects, honors and celebrates life.
As we all practice patience during uncertainty, we are well aware that this crisis is affecting all of us, emotionally, physically, economically. Our Ayllu is working very hard to ensure our students and their families well-being.
We will also be sharing with our supporters, allies, partners and international community, what is happening in Peru and stories, songs, photos and words to carry us into a hopeful tomorrow.
Throughout the grades, the Waldorf curriculum is interdisciplinary and experiential, helping students make connections between different subject matter and to understand their place in the natural world. This week, our gardening teacher, Ms. Betsyann, shared this example of how two subjects can be beautifully integrated in the 7th Grade curriculum.
Ms. Betsyann explains:
Kristine Deason asked for a small contribution about the marvels of the world of nature as they relate to the Fibonacci sequence or golden spiral. The common vortexes that we see in nature are tornadoes, dust devils, rivers, eddies, tidal action, hurricanes, and leaf swirls. In this video I chose to concentrate on the vortex created in a Biodynamic stir.
Grandmother Oak 