Seasons come and seasons go, Friends and games and songs I know

The days are lengthening as winter moves into spring. Spring is the season of birth, growth and rejuvenation.  The rhythm of the seasons, of the moon, the tide, our heartbeat, night and day, the rhythms of life are all health giving.  Yet the vast majority of humans have lost connections to natural rhythms.

In Steiner kindergartens much emphasis is placed on the rhythm of the day.

Young children respond well to rhythm and so at kindergarten each day is structured the same way. As the day progresses a kind of breathing takes place. 

For example when the children come in to morning circle or story time an ‘in’ breath takes place. 

When the children move to creative play or into the garden an ‘out’ breath takes place.

The times of the ‘in’ breath are times of quiet attention to what is happening.  Rhythm is health giving for children and helps them to anticipate what happens next.  Therefore they feel safe and secure in their day.  Rhythm also helps to direct and strengthen their will.

When the appropriate song is sung for that time of the day the children will know it is time to wash hands, begin chopping vegetables for the soup, or tidy up the toys.  The teachers set the example for the children. For instance, if it is time to pack away the teachers slowly and carefully pick up the toys and place them in their ‘home’.  Because toys are put in the same place every time the children know where each one belongs and they want to join in too.

Learning through rhythm and imitation is the natural way for young children to learn.

If we can hold back from following the rapid flow society demands, even for children, and take a long slow breath we may be surprised at what we see.  Wishing everyone an enjoyable spring holiday.

The older kindergarten child, who is five to six, is actively preparing for the transition to formal learning in primary school. 

This transition needs to be carefully observed and documented so that the Class One teacher has a picture of the early development of each child in the class.  Between now and the end of the year, the children, in pairs, will be guided through an imaginative journey of activities that enable their skills and understandings to be observed.

The areas of development that indicate readiness for formal learning include; Physical;  Lengthening of limbs, appearance of visible joints, waist and neck appear.

Is the child able to touch the top of the opposite ear with their hand over their head?

The beginning of second dentition (emergence of the first permanent

molar) indicates that the enamel (the hardest substance in the body)is fully formed.  The formative forces that have been working on the teeth and completion of the organs are freed up for thinking.

School-age thinking

Young children rely on repetitious language and habitual activities to support localised memory, which serves as a foundation for internalised memory. When the child develops memory independent of location, they are beginning to be able to think abstractly, and can call  up memories in response to direct questioning.

Social readiness

The child’s intentions are increasingly receptive to being guided by the spoken word of an adult as instinctive imitative activity recedes.

Verbal expression

The child is able to sing, pronounce all speech sounds, retell stories in complete sentences and express ideas in conversation.

Dexterity and Movement

The child has developed fine and gross motor skills necessary for formal learning.

Dominance (or sidedness) of hand, foot, eye and ear is established ( should be either all right sided or all left sided) Able to track with the eyes Horizontal and vertical midlines of the body have been integrated Primitive reflexes have been inhibited.

We need to know that the children have the capacity to meet the expectations in Class One successfully. Children need to be ready for the authority of the teacher in Class One, and be fully incorporated into their bodies. They should be able to sit in an upright posture at the desk to write and draw, and learn to knit. They need to have the gross motor skills to manage the rhythmical movement in the curriculum. Children also need to have the social skills to move and work with their classmates and the consciousness to focus beyond their desk.

Denise Bullen

References; “Developing the Observing Eye; teacher Observation and Assessment in Early Childhood Education” Cynthia Murphy-Lang “ School Readiness Today” A report from the pedagogical section of the Goetheanum “First Grade Readiness; Resources, Insights and Tools for Waldorf Educators’ Nancy Blanning,ed

We are nearing the end of Term 3 and Spring is certainly in the air. I look forward to our Festival on Tuesday and hope to see as many of our class parents there as possible. It has been wonderful to have Mike Hyder join us in the mornings  to teach us the Spring dance that we'll be performing on the day and to play the fiddle music for them to dance to. The children have been entranced by stories Mike has told them accompanied by music/sound effects played on his violin. He is such a great asset to  our school.

We have been fortunate to have had Jewels Auburn with us doing her two week prac for her TAFE Certificate as an Educational Assistant. She has worked tirelessly and has been concentrating on small group work with a number of Class 1 children. She is such an exciting and inspirational educator and the children greatly benefited from her work with them in both numeracy and literacy and in a social sense as well.

The latter part of this term has been dominated by play practice and next week we will be performing “Saint Jerome and the Lion”. It has been an exciting undertaking with twenty three spirited actors involved and I have been ably assisted by Evie and Jewels.  I will have to let you know by email about performance times as plans may be slightly altered due to  the rescheduling of the Festival.

The children really enjoyed making little felt balls to fashion into key rings for Father's Day gifts. They are crafty little things and their knitting continues to improve. Currently they are working on knitted recorder bags, cats, pigs and very shortly – gnomes!

Our Environmental Immersion afternoons with Kristi continue to be a highlight, although I suspect some parents may be wishing their children didn't get quite so immersed at times! There are always strange potions and concoctions and a lot of mud and paint to mess up their clothes. I prefer the weaving.

Our reading program is still going well thanks to some dedicated parent helpers and the Class 1 children have now joined in. Volunteers are always welcome. It's a great way to see your child in the classroom environment and to meet other children in the class.

I think we are all looking forward to the holiday break and some sunny, beachy weather. Thanks to all of the Class One Two parent group for your ongoing support.

Jan

Round and Round we go

we hold each others hands,

We weave our lives in a circle,

our love is strong and the dance goes on.

Class 3 have approached the changing of the season in earnest this year as we feel the giddy excitement of performing the Maypole Dance next Tuesday at our Spring festival. We have practised the traditional festival songs during our junior choir time and have managed to learn the Maypole Dance song on our recorders. Spring has made our way into story, writing activities, verse and our gardening journal as we begin to think about what we buried in the ground last Autumn……..

Our painting sessions  have also focused on using spring colours and seeing what we can make from our primary colours in a symmetrical pattern. The seasons have a strong focus in the class three curriculum.

We are into our third week of our music main lesson as we travel along with story to the Land of Phonopolis, an italian story about the adventures of Silasol and Farmeido as they meet the local music man Mousike. On the way to the wind tower they meet the Kings daughter Melodia and join in her search to learn to write down the beautiful sounds they hear. The children have begun to put the last couple of weeks of the writing of the story and the many facts regarding melody, pitch, notation, time signatures and rests. A whole new language has opened up regarding treble staves and clefs, crochets and minums. This week the children have begun to write and play their own simple melodies and are becoming competent in reading music. Such a joy.

Class 3 had a fabulous day dressing up as our favourite book characters, even Mary Poppins flew in….

Class 4 have recently finished their second Human and Animal main lesson where the children were able to research an animal of their choice, write an information report on their chosen animal, and then create a diorama of their animal in its natural environment. It was wonderful to see their final creations! Fantastic effort by all! The children have also completed some beautiful paintings on the elephant, horse and the lion (much better than I could do!).

Class 4 have also been on an adventurous bush walk following the Mt Shelia trail from Ocean Beach Road up to Mt Hallowell and down past Monkey Rock. The trail is a medium to difficult walk, covering 4.6km with a steady incline up to the summit. We went on this excursion as a pre-cursor to our mapping and local geography main lesson but also as some light training for our upcoming camp in term 4. We took turns walking in silence, listening to all the sounds of the forest, and then sharing what we notice. We made it to the cave just in time for morning tea!

After several hours of tiring trekking, we finally made it to the top of Mt Hallowell where we had lunch and an exploration. It was wonderful to see the reactions of the children as they came to a view most of them had not seen before. The children wrote some beautiful poems about their experience.

The children have also begun their second Fractions Main lesson where the children have joined King Merlin as he builds up his Fraction Kingdom. They have assisted him in selecting fruit trees for the orchard, livestock for the animal pens, grains and vegetables, and they will be helping him with more tasks in the village later on. The children have been learning how to add and subtract fractions with unlike denominators and find equivalent fractions, practicing these tricky skills through board games.

It has been a jam-packed term and the children have worked very hard. I’m very pleased with all their effort. Now it’s time for a well deserved holiday.

Some Poems by Class 4

Walking to Mt Hallowell 

Wandering through the vines and branches

Rocks and stones everywhere

Soft and colourful moss and flowers

Now the exploring has really begun

Trees and tree stumps following us

To the magnificent cave

With birds now calling.

Then it got boiling!!

Over Mountain and ancient drawings

Views spread wide and birds still calling.

By Charlotte

Flower petals in the meadows

Streams are streaming down the river       

Vines are climbing up the trees

And there I stand and there I see

That all the birds look after me.

They talk as if they are watching me.

Then I climb up to the top

The views are there right at my feet

Just one more step and I am dead meat!

I feel as if I want to jump

Instead I walk away then I jump

Landing on my feet with a glance

After that I want to dance!

By Cloudy

A walk through the forest so tender and bright

A walk to the mountain so mighty and tall

A rest in a cave full of treasures and traps

In nature I am indeed!!

Soft and colourful, green and tall

Water indeed has it all.

Ancient rocks I look around

Beautiful flowers and very nice sounds

But now we have reached the end of our walk

With the sound of the breeze still in our minds.

By Ella

Flowers around me as I hold my breath

Then I look around what will I see next?

A tree so tall that I can’t see the top

I walk straight on then I stop,

The vines are crawling down the trees

I listen to the birdsong so free

We play so much that I can’t stop

And then we come to Monkey Rock!

By Meg

Have no fear Tullulah is here

Cloudy loudly comes here too

The rest are here

Make it clear skies!!

“Come along girls

Get up here in your disguise”

Looking around, something makes a sound

In the mound it looks like a crown

A flower crown.

By Anoushka

Strolling through the soft squishy moss,

Exploring caves with campfires, climbing rocks

Trees so tall and tough

Small tree stumps.

Birds are flying through the trees

Pelicans flying in the breeze.

Cave drawings on rocks and rope

Passing through the vines seeing beautiful views

Wildflowers surround the path

Up to Mt Hallowell so high

Where you can get a bird’s eye

That was our special day, I really enjoyed that.

By Fern

When me and my friends met at the parking place

We went on a journey to Monkey Rock

We passed so much moss and it felt so soft,

You should have seen it

You should have touched it

It felt so soft

Oh how I loved it!!

It looked like a small paddock and so green too.

We saw a cave and went inside

What did we see?

We saw great Aboriginal paintings and campfires

On and on we went

On and on and on

We did it! We were at Monkey Rock!!

By Jayden

Mossy branches, rocky views

Walking along the track with you,

On the mountain we had a bird’s eye view.

Climbing, exploring rocks and caves

Mountain trees along the way

Ancient drawings in the cave.

We all laughed and played that day

Strolling back from Monkey Rock

All of us tired from the walk

By Eden

What a whirlwind of opportunities and experiences for our Class 5/6 students over the last few weeks! An excellent excursion to the Denmark Agricultural College, High school transition day and, of course, camp and the Greek Olympics. Amongst all this we have been working our way stoically through our Ancient Greece main lesson and rehearsing our play, not to mention preparing for our spring festival. Phew!

Like the Greeks of old we boldly drove our chariot (Thanks to Bill our expert charioteer) to the distant and exotic lands of the North. In Perth we camped at the Bickley Outdoor recreation camp and participated in many adventurous activities such as climbing and search and rescue. After an exciting albeit spartan and slightly sleep deprived night in our tents we dusted ourselves off for a visit to the city. This included a tour of Kings Park, the Art Gallery and a Buddhist temple. Meditation and origami lotus flowers were a highlight! On the Friday Class 6 conquered their fears at the adventure camp whilst Class 5 covered themselves in glory at the Greek Olympics.  After the Olympics we rendezvoused at the wonderful Bibra lake playground and then ventured into the heart of Fremantle for a Greek meal.  Finally, we returned to Perth Waldorf School to see the Class 7 Play, The Greening, written and directed by their teacher Kevin Mazzer. It was certainly inspiring for us to see with our own play coming up. On Saturday, the long return journey was lightened by songs, games and the joyful spirits of the class.  With the odyssey over, tired children fell into the waiting arms of very relaxed and civilized looking parents and dishevelled and exhausted teachers returned slowly home to enjoy the underrated pleasures of peace and quiet.

I and every member of our Class 5/6 community would like to express a huge and heartfelt thank you to Jacqui, Bill and Tegan for going above and beyond expectations to ensure that our children had this wonderful experience.

Ashley