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On Thursday, February 6th, grades one to eight participated in Cultural Diversity Assembly and the classes offered poems and music from different cultures and peoples around the world. The assembly opened with Mrs. Reed, our CARE Class teacher, leading everyone in a Samba dance lesson which can be seen here on our Community Facebook Page and closed with Ms. Smith, our Music teacher, leading the grades in a Ghanaian rhythm song. (more…)
First-grade parents Joanne and Seth McDonough built a sukkah with the first, second, and third grades on the first/second-grade playground on Friday. Sukkahs are temporary structures built to celebrate the harvest and the Jewish festival of Sukkot. While the festival finished this past weekend, we are hoping to eat some of our snacks in the sukkah this week. The three classes will then dismantle the structure. Click the link to learn more about the festival.
Bread making at Waldorf School at Moraine Farm is a much-loved activity beginning with children as young as two years old. Waldorf schools around the world use different bread recipes.
At Waldorf School at Moraine Farm, we have been making huckabuck bread since the first days of school, now 30 plus years ago! (more…)
Michaelmas (pronounced “mick-el-muss”) is one of the four seasonal festivals we celebrate on our Waldorf calendar. It is named for the biblical hero, Michael (meaning “Who is like God” in Hebrew). Other examples of this figure can be found in many cultures throughout time and history. (more…)
What is CARE Class?
This year, students in grades 1-6 will have a weekly subject class called CARE Class, led by Mrs. Reed! Students will work with monthly themes such as Communication, Gratitude, and Creativity. Lessons will have aspects of story, art, movement, and service as part of the regular rhythm of each 45-minute period. The last class period of each month will be dedicated to an age-appropriate yoga and meditation practice that will help to integrate the learning that developed over the course of the month. Students in seventh and eighth grade have an extremely tight schedule, so their exposure to this program will be integrated into existing classes and curriculum planned for them throughout the year. While their experience with SEL and mindfulness will look different than the younger grades, they will still receive instruction as time allows and according to the same themes as grades 1-6. (more…)
Every month, we share one or two classroom updates on our blog. This month, we share the 4th grade classroom update on social-emotional learning.
Being in school is a hugely social experience as children interact throughout the day with their same-grade classmates, teachers, teammates, coaches, recess buddies, aftercare group, younger reading buddies, and others. Even independent activities such as reading a book to oneself or visiting the bathroom are done within a social context where an awareness of others is at play. As they make their way from one social setting to another—from home to school, from the classroom to outdoor recess, or from math class to strings class—children are learning to navigate a range of individual personalities and social norms for the group.
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Please note that we will not be holding the Middle School Curriculum Night originally scheduled for January 10.
By Dirk Tiede, Cyber Civics Teacher
In early September I attended the “Humanity + Tech” conference at the MIT Media Lab. It featured Joi Ito, the director of the Media Lab, Glen Murphy, the head of user experience at Google, and even Bo Burnham, the director of the movie “Eighth Grade”. In addition, a long list of scientists, journalists and thinkers joined the conference. I attended this important conference to investigate how closely the topics would parallel the ideas we cover in Cyber Civics class. In addition to sessions on the rise of artificial intelligence, how social media is changing our culture, and the proliferation of misinformation and fake news online, a significant portion of the conference focused on finding balance between our time spent on screen and everything else in our lives, which just happened to be the theme of the first unit we covered in the seventh grade class—“Learning Balance.”