BLUE JAYS (Miss Janis and Malika)
Nadia
Siena
Jane
Eden
Nathan
Banyan
John
Gabriel
Willa
Moriya
Noah
Lillie
Letter from Miss Janis – September 2010
Dear Parents of Stone Soup,
Welcome to our school year together!
This last week Paula & Dave and I have been busy bees! We have been cleaning and recreating the school. It looks beautiful. We will be sharing all we have done on TUESDAY September 7th with an orientation from 1:00 to 3:00. The next day, September 8th will be our First Day of School from 9:00am to 1:00pm.
Our Orientation will start in the back play yard with a short social hour and then we will gather together on the grass to have introductions and a brief meeting to go over some basics for the start of school. After this we would love you to have a tour of the school, where you may put inside shoes and cubby things away (more on that below) and to have a feel and vision of their school classroom. My hope is that this will help with any anxiousness, on the part of the children, so they can have a picture of their school to sleep on and relax into a bit of knowing what’s what. There will be no playing inside as it is still asleep and will be woken up by the children at the start of our first day!
The FIRST DAY of School will start at 9:00am Wednesday Sept 8th with goodbyes at our red gate and greetings from their teacher. Their day begins when they come into the play yard. All the children for the whole School will enter through the red gate and will start their mornings together. Please come to school dressed for outside. This will be crucial when the weather gets cooler. We want everyone to be comfortable and able to play no matter what the weather! (More talk on that at our first Parent Meeting Sept 21st 7-9pm).
From there we will have outside play time and then begin all together with our morning verse. After morning verse we will transition into two groups and have snack and go in for story time. Following our story we will have inside play and the activity of the day. Clean up happens wonderfully after a sweet ‘red red rug time’ and we don our gnome hats and fairy wings to tidy up the school from our great time playing!
The older group of children, we will be called the Blue Jays, will have ring time, then lunch and then go out to play! The younger children, their name is the Hummingbirds, will have their own shorter ring time and lunch and we will all meet again outside to play and to finalize our day with a closing verse. We will walk out from the back yard through the red gate to the front porch- yard area, where parents will be ready to greet them.
Waldorf education is clearly a joint effort of parents and teachers to create an environment that provides children with a calm and joyful experience filled with magic and reverence. Fostering the magic of childhood builds a foundation not only for creative and flexible thinking later in life, but also helps preserve the merriment and awe inherent in a young child. Each child’s unfolding of their wonderful gifts is met in a Waldorf school with love and interest, as the overall environment nourishes them physically, emotionally, socially and spiritually.
Rhythm is central to Waldorf Education, as it gives children a strong and secure foundation that fosters growth and development. The rhythm of the year is an important part of the curriculum and will be established by celebrating the seasons and festivals as well fostering observation and a respect for nature. The themes of Ring time, the mood of the story, and many of the craft activities center on this yearly rhythm. The major creative activities of the weekly rhythm will be:
· Monday: Painting
· Tuesday: Baking
· Wednesday: Handwork
· Thursday: Drawing & making Stone Soup (bring a vegetable)
· Friday: Farm Day (field trip)
Attached is a list of items each family needs to complete or bring to school. If you cannot come to the Orientation, please call me to make other arrangements. Also, please call me if I can help in any way with this ‘first day” transition, of if there are any concerns or questions you may have.
Thank you for trusting me with your little ones! I am so looking forward to our school year together. I am excited to get to know each of you as our year comes along. Always know I want to be in communication with you, to work together in protecting these precious moments of childhood, of which I respect and honor and love.
If you have ANY questions, a wonder about something, or just want to check in… call me.
Home Phone: 541 708-5123, after 2:30 Cell: 541 499-7274
The List!
School Paperwork:
· Emergency Medical Data Form
· Child History Form
· Food Allergy Form
Cubby Items:
· Inside shoes: slippers that stay on their feet or a soft soled shoe. Please know we spend a lot of time in these slippers and they must be comfortable, fit well and stay on when moving backwards. With all the movement we do inside it is very important that their feet feel warm, comfy and happy!
· A complete change of clothes (we play well here!) Names on everything (or at least initials in a permanent pen)
· Two terry cloth hand towels any colors you wish. We will be making them into an apron, which we will use while painting & baking.
· Sun Hat (as it gets cooler, a warm winter hat)
· A box of tissues ( to go towards our year supply)
· A box of band aids, for our yearly supply. No cartoon pictures please.
Please have your children wear shoes to school that stay on their feet and protect their toes. We encourage play to be creative and unhindered by shoes or clothes that don’t stay on while running, hopping or????
NO Flip Flops please… or dress up shoes; we want them to really play without concern for their feet or footwear.
Thank You SO VERY Much!!!!
P.S. We will be sewing our aprons on the First Day of School, our handwork day. So please have two terrycloth hand towels washed & ready for sewing. We will do this by sewing the top corners of the towels together, leave a place to slip over the head, with ties at the sides to secure. (Kind of like a sandwich board) This apron will be used all year long.