Tidings - April 2009

IN THIS ISSUE~Celebrating a new name & itentity~Eugene Swartz Speaks~Art, Poetry + Thoughts from grade 5~Fundraising Fun~Painting with the Pre-schoolers~Making bread with the Kindergarten class ~Art from grade 1

Message from the Board President

These are exciting times in our school – times of growth and change. Sun Haven School is now Sun Haven Waldorf School – something the faculty and board have worked toward since the school’s inception in 2001. The significance of this change is not to be underestimated. It is not just a change of name to include “Waldorf” in our school’s title. It is not simply recognition by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) that the school has met all its requirements and earned the right to call itself a Waldorf school. With this change we experience a deepening and a strengthening of our foundations – the supportive energies of fellow Waldorf schools, of AWSNA, and of Rudolf Steiner’s ideals are palpable. In my mind’s eye I see them gathered around and cheering us on as we forge ahead!

Growth and change will increase several-fold in the coming years with the support of the extended Waldorf community and the dedication of our Sun Haven parents, staff, and board. The newsletter you are reading now is one indication of the school’s maturation. Another is the new school logo introduced later in this issue. Yet another is the success of our committees in combining the energies of the board, staff, and parents to bring improvements to the school. In addition to successes of the Marketing & PR Committee (most visibly seen in the new logo and this new quarterly newsletter), the Adult Education Committee is bringing Eugene Schwartz, an internationally renowned speaker to the Sunshine Coast (more on pages 11-12), and the Playground Committee has designed a wonderful playground for the children with plans to begin building soon.

I hope you enjoy this inaugural issue of “Tidings.” Look for further exciting developments in the times ahead!

Jenine GobbiPresident, Sun Haven Waldorf School

Message from the Board President

NewsletterApril 2009

IN THIS ISSUE~Celebrating Our New Name & Identity~Eugene Schwartz Speaks~Art, Poetry & Thought from Grade 5-6~School Fundraising ~Painting in the Pre-school~Breadmaking in the Kindergarten ~Grade 1-2 Beeswax Modelling & Form Drawings

Tidings

tel/fax: [email protected]

www.sunhavenschool.ca

1341 Margaret Rd.Roberts Creek, BC

CANADA V0N 2W2

Sun WALDORF SCHOOL

Haven

The Quarterly Newsletter of Sun Haven Waldorf School

The Quarterly Newsletter of Sun Haven Waldorf School Tidings 2

Sun Haven Waldorf School parents and students enjoy the school for its special teaching methods and atmosphere. To ensure that the school can maintain the quality of methods and in order to offer new opportunities for growth we need to ask our community for support.

As most parents know, we have recently built a new classroom building for grades 5/6. The building is almost complete, however, it does need a fewadditions. A portion of the proceeds raised in 2009/2010 will help to coverthese additional expenses.

At our most recent Parent Meeting, the Parent Committee presented the plans for a new play area for our children. This play area has been under development for some time and we are all very excited to see it come to life. This play area will be funded by proceeds raised over the course of its staged development.

The Marketing & PR Committee has been working with Sun Haven Fundraiser, Rhoni Whyard, to create effective ways to raise funds for these projects. Below is a summary of fundraising activities already underway and others that will be announced in detail soon.

Strait Coffee: Coffee can be purchased at the same price you would pay at the Cafe but the school receives $4! Order forms will be available outside your classroom the first Monday of every month. You pick your blend and grind!

IGA Receipts: Please remember to save your receipts from IGA and drop them off at the school. We receive a store credit. The receipt box can be found in the office.

Eugene Schwartz: On May 14th, Eugene Schwartz will present a powerful topic to our community which will help to raise awareness of and funds for our school.

Midsummer’s Eve Gala: On June 20th, we will host a gala event with amazing organic food and wines, a silent and live auction, and of course wonderful live music. More information will be provide closer to this date. Please mark your calendars to join in this ancient tradition celebrated around the world on this summer solstice eve.

Fundraising

Tidings is published quarterly for the parents, friends, and

extended community of Sun Haven Waldorf School.

In order to be published, submissions must be received

electronically before the deadline and include the full name of the

contributor. Handwritten submissions will not be accepted.

Submissions received after the deadline will be included at the

discretion of the editor.

e-Subscriptions: FreeMail: $20/year

Disclaimer:Items and advertisements appearing

in Tidings may be the opinions or beliefs of their contributors and may not necessarily reflect the policies or ideas of Sun Haven Waldorf School.

The next Tidings

publication will be

July 1, 2009.

Submissions are due June 15, 2009

Submit to:[email protected]

The children enjoying a surprising late-March snow fall.


PAINTING IN THE PRE-SCHOOL

“The world fires us when we paint. Behind the sense world are not atoms and molecules, but spiritual beings... what emerges in painting is the restoration of the supersensible, a revelation in our spatial environment and, from outside space, the spiritual world penetrating us..." ~Rudolf Steiner

Painting With Children Author: Brunhild Muller

The pre-school children focus on their painting as the teacher, Janice Hendry-Cote, sings a peaceful song.

Available through Janet Lacroix at Fairy Tale Toys & Books [email protected]


The pre-school years are of great importance in laying the foundations for healthy adult creativity and intelligence. Today, nearly a thousand Waldorf schools around the world promote true self-discipline, sound development, and solid learning through a head, heart, and hands approach, striving to offer the right stimulus at the right time and to help each child's abilities to fully unfold. The curriculum, begun in 1919, is a successful model for holistic education.

Nurturing and protecting childhood in a beautiful, warm, homelike setting is a key element of the Waldorf early childhood program. Reflecting a deep belief that children's natural creative play contains the cornerstones of academic ability, the rhythm of the school day flows between lively social and quiet individual activities.

In the first seven years, the child seeks to see that the world is a place of goodness. These early years are a period of joy and exuberance during which the child will absorb and imitate everything he or she sees, and during which learning will flow through the movements of the child. Therefore, the teacher seeks to lead the work of the class in a kind, conscious, loving manner that is worthy of imitation ... and the child learns by doing.

Great care is taken in planning and providing an entry into school life that fosters wonder, joy, and possibility - the early foundations for a lifelong love of learning. The Waldorf pre-school and kindergarten experience is meant to enliven the imagination and lovingly guide each child toward an understanding of the world - to plant the seeds for a successful school career and adult life.

Parent & Child Class, Pre-school, and KindergartenSun Haven Waldorf School is proud to offer a Parent & Child Class, Pre-school, and Kindergarten. Registration forms for the next session of the Parent & Child class can be obtained from the office. Registration has begun for the Pre-school and Kindergarten 2009/2010 school year. Please contact [email protected] or Jayne in the office at 604-741-0949.

Gnome VillageGnome Village is a daycare program run by Karen Gaze, a parent and board member of our school, which follows Waldorf Education principles and offers full daycare for children. Gnome Village is currently in the process of obtaining developing status through the Waldorf Early Childhood Association of North America (WECAN). Karen can be reached at 604-865-0027.

THE EARLY YEARS


On March 20, 2009, the Sun Haven Waldorf School board of directors approved a new logo for the school. After many months of working on logo ideas, the Marketing & PR Committee was thrilled to present the Board with the final choice.

The committee consists of parents, one teacher (Janice Hendry-Cote), and one board member. Beth Hawthorn, Janet Lacroix, Victoria Gazeley, Rhoni Whyard, and Jim Dorey have a range of marketing, communications, branding, publishing, and design expertise and all are currently working in these fields.

In the Fall of 2008, Janet Lacroix and Beth Hawthorn initiated the process of creating a new logo for Sun Haven Waldorf School. This was deemed necessary since in 2008 the school was given approval by the Association of Waldorf Schools of North America (AWSNA) to use the word "Waldorf" in its name. Based on the idea of using professional branding and marketing strategies, it was felt that in addition to the name change, the original logo developed in 2001 was no longer current and a new one was needed to bring the school to a new level of awareness in the community.

Janet and Beth made an initial new logo presentation to the board. At that meeting, it was decided that more involvement from the parents and staff at Sun Haven should be considered. In the New Year, the Marketing & PR Committee gained three additional highly qualified volunteers and in February 2009 the larger committee was pulled together and new energy was brought to the table.

After many logo designs and revisions were made, four final logos were created and on March 12th these logos were presented to the faculty, board, and parents to vote upon. Twenty-nine votes were collected and a winner was chosen.

What does the logo represent?

This new logo consists of two components, one being a new word mark--Sun Haven Waldorf School, using a Waldorf-inspired type font, as well as a new organic sun. Together, these two components make up the new brand.

The organic sun is a metaphor for the rhythm of the day and for the seasons. It suggests movement, growth, and positive energy. The image also references an egg, which is a symbol of birth and growth, as well as a seasonal renewal of nature. With these symbolic meanings we are confident that this new logo will remain timeless in an everchanging world.

The rings originated from the ancient symbol of concentric rings. In sacred geometry, the rings are named from the inside going outward…The Germ of life, The Seed of life, The Flower of life, The Fruit of life. Some sacred geometry examples found in nature include: raindrops falling in a pond - rings radiating outwards; tree rings - showing the passing of time; the rings of Saturn - the solar system.

The organic sun sits up in the sky - its center is a pure white source of light and it radiates light downward and outwards. It heats the earth and warms our souls. The colours of the logo are orange and brown, both of which are earthy, warm, and bold.

Thank you to all the parents, staff, and volunteers in welcoming the new logo.

SUN HAVEN WALDORF SCHOOL: A NEW NAME AND IDENTITY

Sun WALDORF SCHOOL

Haven


GRADE ONE-TWO: FORM DRAWING

Liam Wilson

Jack Clarke

Robyn Wareham

In some respects, Form Drawing is the most important subject that your child will study this year, for it provides a good foundation for the letter recognition that is so central to reading, as well as numerical/spatial relationships that are essential in arithmetic. As you will see when we do some Form Drawing in our parent evenings, the drawings themselves could not be any simpler: all year we work with only two elements of drawing – straight lines and curves. On the very first day of school, the children will be presented with the polarity of these two kinds of lines, and throughout the year they will see the infinite variety of forms that can be created out of these simple elements. Form Drawing awakens several capacities in the first grader:• Concentration: this elusive quality flourishes in Form Drawing. The forms we draw can’t be done well unless each child is focused and quiet.• Eye/hand coordination: the “model” drawing on the board must be copied onto the child’s paper, and, as the year goes on, most children learn to trust their eyes’ guidance. This ability to trust in one’s own capacities helps instill confidence that in turn shows itself in other subjects.• Understanding the relationship of the part to the whole: the harmonious nature of the form drawings we will do helps both the scattered child, who is drawn too far into the “whole,” and the overly contracted child, who lives too strongly in the “parts.”• Understanding forms that relate to numbers: the simple “geometrical drawings” the children encounter will help with numerical relationships and a whole range of geometrical concepts.• Neatness and balance: a Form Drawing can’t be beautiful unless it is placed in just the right way on the paper!

By Eugene Schwartz

The Waldorf Curriculum: Grade One

http://knol.google.com

In the portfolio of Form Drawings your child has brought home you will see over 30 examples of the year’s work. In the first two years of school, Form Drawing is possibly the most important activity undertaken by the children, and I hope you will look at these deceptively simple drawings in detail. These forms are an invaluable aid to me in determining potential form-perception problems, and as the children practice form drawing over the months, such work helps to solve or at least mitigate these same problems.

The Waldorf Curriculum: Grade Two

The Quarterly Newsletter of Sun Haven Waldorf School Tidings 10The Quarterly Newsletter of Sun Haven Waldorf School Tidings 7

The Sun Haven Circle

The Olympics

Tara Butler ~ Grade 5

Lily Larsen ~ Grade 5Sarah Ellison ~ Grade 6 Yasmeena Kennedy ~ Grade 5

Odysseus Drawing

“What I appreciate about Sun Haven is P.E. We are learning about Greece and we get to go to the Greek Olympics this year. There are five events like the original pentathalon from ancient Greece: running, wrestling, long jump, discus, and javelin. We made our own javelins in woodwork class. This four-day trip to Duncan will be significant because we will meet kids from all the different Waldorf schools, like Whister, Vancouver, Duncan, Nelson, and even Calgary. Going to the Olympics feels like a grand finale to my seven years at Sun Haven, and a great way to graduate!”

~Raven Wall ~ Grade 6

“What I appreciate about going to Sun Haven is that everything all shapes together in some way. The lesson starts from a story, everything has its own beauty, and everything is a kind of art. This makes me feel like a part of a circle. Everything blends, and everyone is a loving family. It makes me feel like I can express myself, and feel connected in every way.”

~Asha Wareham ~Grade 5


Kindergarten teacher, Mary Rocha Leite, sings while she leads the children through their weekly breadmaking activity. The following day they are able to enjoy their bread at snack time.

BREADMAKING IN THE KINDERGARTEN

Waldorf Kindergarten Bread Recipe

1-2 tbsp quick active yeast5 cups bread flour

4 cups water (hand hot)2 cups milk 3 tbsp olive oil 2 tbsp molasses

4 tsp salt3-4 cups whole wheat flour

Prepare yeast with water, as per instructions on package. Sprinkle mixture over bread flour and let sit until frothy.

Mix together remaining water, milk, olive oil & molasses.

When yeast mixture is ready, add wet mixture to it and beat for 100 strokes. Leave until a lot of bubbles appear and then add salt and whole wheat flour.

Knead dough.

Leave 15-20 minutes until dough has doubled insize.

Punch down and shape.

Allow to rise again.

Knead and shape into loaves or buns and place on greased baking sheets.

Bake for 10 minutes in preheated 425-degree oven.

Lower temperature to 375 degrees and bake until bottoms are brown and hollow.

Enjoy.


Speed Watch is a community program designed by ICBC and the RCMP. Parent Lindsay Hatloe works with Constable Adriaan De Jong to try to set up a monthly hour to make a presence on Beach Avenue, across from the school. He gives out warnings and tickets as needed. The community response is excellent.

Speed Watch

Health and Safety

The school is required to be self-sustaining for 72 hours in the unlikely event of an emergency, natural or other. Food, water, and wool blankets are stored and accessible by the school in case of need.

The staff and faculty have performed fire drills and have a plan in place.

Plan AAll classes make their way to the field. The children will then go into the school building once it has been cleared by two members of the faculty. If an evacuation is necessary, Plan B is undertaken.

Plan BAll faculty and children will walk along Beach Ave., up Flume Road, across the highway, along the upper path adjacent to the highway heading west, turn right on Pell Road, then right again on Plant Road, to Jean’s Organics. Jean has enough space and the proper shelter needed.

The office answering machine will be changed to let parents know where the children will be. If phones are not working then there will be a notice on the office door.

All children have their personal safety kits on premise. A complete change of clothes is also a very good idea and can be left in a bag on their hooks in each classroom.

Handmade Toys.Simple felted objects and wood blocks are easy to make and offer hours of imaginative play.

As I walked through the forest,The plants captured me,Growing out of the ground,In their spectacular beauty.The mushrooms so slimy,With their many different shades,The forms so fresh and green,Sparkling in the dew each day.The plants are so magical,And the forest is too,I wrote this poem because, I wished to say thank you.

~By Hannah Schmitt ~Grade 6

Elphinstone’s Magic


THE IMPORTANCE OF HANDWORKIN THE WALDORF SCHOOL

Important experiences come about through working with the hands. As teachers, we must help the children become aware of their hands and of the great gifts they bestow on themselves and on others. Their hands need to become skillful, sensitive, and strong so that they can accomplish many wonderful deeds. Blind people get to know the world through their hands, but most people are unaware of the knowledge that can be gained when they are used in sensitive and useful ways. Think of art and music! Think of what physical work and daily tasks teach us. Think of a handshake and what it tells us about another person. Handwork and crafts should be imaginatively and artistically taught, encouraging original designs that are colorful and creative in form. The children should learn new ways to use colour and make designs that indicate the practical use of the project. Rudolf Steiner gave several indications of how this can be done. The painting and form drawing the children do in all their lessons are extremely important. Working with colour and experiencing how colors flow into one another in painting affects everything they do in and beyond handwork lessons, fostering artistic, imaginative growth in the thinking as well. We want the children to make things they love and enjoy and to work skillfully, always increasing their artistry. Handwork should be relaxing and fun, and at the same time productive, involving strong will activity. Nothing happens if you don’t use your hands and get to work!

GRADE ONE-TWOBEESWAX MODELING In all Waldorf Schools, beeswax modeling is part of the curriculum in the grades. The children start with a flat piece of beeswax which is warmed in their hands and then shaped into a sphere. The sphere is then formed into an egg shape. From this shape, the limbs, head, and tail of the animal are pulled out with fingers and thumbs. All the animals were chosen by the teacher, Cary Davis, from the fables (grade two curriculum) told in class. Each modeling class starts with a verse andpreparatory hand-warming exercises. The grade one-two class has been creating lions, foxes, and mice from various fables told in class.

The new post office in Roberts Creek has committed to featuring artwork from both Sun Haven Waldorf School and Tree House Afterschool Care on a rotating basis. Keep an eye out for it.

DID YOU KNOW?

An excerpt from a book called Will-Developed Intelligence: Handwork and Practical Arts in the Waldorf School by David Mitchell and Patricia Livingston


Studies published in the July 2005 Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine conclude that television viewing tends to have an adverse effect on academic pursuits. In spite of this, many researchers are reluctant to voice condemnation of television viewing by children. "Parents should be encouraged to incorporate well-produced, age-appropriate educational TV into their children's lives. Such programming represents a valuable tool for stimulating children's cognitive development," write Ariel Chernin and Deborah Linebarger of the University of Pennsylvania.

These new studies, in common with most studies that have appeared in past decades, generally assess television’s effect on children’s cognitive faculties while ignoring the deeper, less-easily quantified effects of TV on the child’s life of feeling and willing. Such cognitive studies tend to focus exclusively on the content or “programming” of TV as a positive or negative force. Approaching the question from the perspectives of children’s feeling and willing faculties might give more insight into the intrinsic nature of the television experience.

A young child or adolescent sits before the television set, focused on the screen, which serves as a border or threshold separating the inner hardware of the TV and the outer space into which its imagery flows. Behind the screen, a condensed, high-speed beam of electrons flies through a cathode ray tube and hits the back of the TV screen. The cathode ray tube encloses a vacuum; and this tube has a history worth exploring.

In the late nineteenth century William Crookes (1832–1919), a distinguished chemist and physicist, embarked upon a personal investigation of “spiritism,” especially those phenomena said to be caused by the intervention of departed souls. Skeptical at first, Crookes soon became convinced that the realm of the dead could be studied with the same scientific rigor as the realm of the living. If the living thrived in air, perhaps the dead could be found in an airless vacuum, and perhaps the same electrical currents that seemed to “animate” so many phenomena in Crookes’ time could be used to make dead souls manifest and visible. This passionate quest led Crookes to develop the “Crookes Tube,” a partially evacuated bulb through which “cathode rays” were generated. As the tube was further evacuated, unearthly swirls of light and color appeared, without any apparent ether or medium to convey them. Crookes may not have encountered the spirits for whom he searched, but he had established the basis for the cathode ray tube and laid the foundation for the modern television.

The TV screen is coated with phosphors, substances that glow when hit by an electron beam, the path of which is controlled by electromagnetic fields. On the other side of the screen, the child experiences these bursts of energy not as the thousands of small dots or pixels that they really are, but rather as recognizable images, e.g., a tree or a human being. These images are static, but the speed with which they are scanned onto the screen calls upon the child’s “persistence of vision” to present the illusion of moving images.

The processes described above occur regardless of the content that is transmitted. From the cathode ray tube, electrons—fragments of matter—stream at high velocity, toward the child, while from the child form-giving forces that restore the fragments into the semblance of wholeness stream toward the television. From one side, the child is

Discover Waldorf Education: Beyond Cognition - Children and Television by Eugene Schwartz

~Continued~

http://knol.google.com/k/eugene-schwartz


bombarded, while from the other, he or she is drained. We could say that the child’s own etheric forces cohere the pixels into a “form,” while the child’s astral forces animate the form into “movement.” Forces of life and soul that should be serving the child are instead drawn out to serve the image on the television screen. The speeding electrons are like an attack of inchoate will forces, while the faculties the screen draws from the child drain the child’s life of feeling. It should be no surprise that EEGs reveal that a television viewer resembles someone in a state of deep sleep.

The “passive-aggressive” nature of television described above may help us to understand why it is an inherently unbalanced medium. We need only contrast this with the enlivened forces of feeling that awaken when a child’s own will is engaged in artistic activity. Perhaps William Crookes’ suspicion that the cathode ray tube was a medium in which deadening forces flourished is not so far-fetched after all. By its very nature, television undermines the healthy interplay of feeling and willing that arises as a child’s faculty of imagination. Perhaps future studies of the effects of television will take into consideration, in one form or another, its impact on the threefold nature of a human being.

~Continued~

Raising Balanced Childrenin an Unbalanced World

with Eugene Schwartz M.A., educational consultant

The link between the unbalanced nature of modern life and the learning problems and behavioral challenges we find in our children may be more than coincidence. In this lecture, Mr. Schwartz will explore the ways in which parents and teachers may re-establish healthy balance in their children’s lives—and their own. Mr. Schwartz has lectured on new ideas in education at Harvard, Columbia, the Aspen Institute, and other premier centers of higher learning and innovative leadership. Questions and discussion are welcome!

Thursday, May 14th, 2009 7:30 - 9:00 pmSt. Bart’s Anglican Church Sanctuary 659 North Rd, Gibsons

6:30 pm: doors and concession open7:30–9:00 pm: lecture and slide presentation followed by a question periodTickets $10/person (cash and cheque only) available at:

Gaia’s Fair Trade Gifts in Gibsons LandingWindSong Gallery in SecheltSun Haven Waldorf School in Roberts Creek

For more information contactSun Haven Waldorf School1341 Margaret Rd., Roberts Creek, BC604-741-0949 www.sunhavenschool.ca

For more information on Waldorf education, visit Eugene’s web site, www.millennialchild.com, or watch his videos on YouTube.com at Discover Waldorf Education.

Documents

Tidings - April 2009