Tag: gardening

A Visit to Our Summer Garden

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This year, our fortunate 6th graders will spend their school day in our beloved campus garden, which is being transformed into the 6th grade outdoor classroom.

One of the most special spots on campus, it is a true cooperative project, tended by faculty, parents, and students throughout the year. Just last week, our gardening teacher, Ms. Betsyann, shared some pictures of our school’s beautiful garden in bloom over this warm and sunny summer. See the photos and read her update below.

The Waldorf Garden is thriving this summer thanks to the watering help of parents. Sunflowers are blooming!

Taking a picture of a butterfly is hard as they don’t sit still. The bees are a little easier to photograph. Here, both these pollinators, are visiting the milkweed.

Elderberries are ripe and grapes are ripening. 

Bubbles the turtle misses everyone.

Video: Flower Petal Mandalas

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Last week, we shared some of the beautiful drawings of plants, trees, and flowers that our 5th Graders created for their botany block. Now, they are exploring the beauty of plants by creating natural, inherently ephemeral mandalas in the garden. (Pictured above, our school garden in the springtime.)

Says gardening teacher Ms. Betsyann:

This activity is my favorite garden class of the “usual” year. The students always enjoy it. This year I filmed a version with directions for the class so they can work at home, alone. It is not quite the same as having bubbling activity of many groups making masterpieces in the garden.

The Vortex: A 7th Grade Lesson (Video)

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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.