Dear Parents,
We have come to the end of Class One! It is quite unbelievable. Now we can have a happy holiday and good rest. I hope that you will have the time and space to spend with your family and friends and be filled with the golden light of the sun and the love and joy that being together can bring. All the reports and books are ready for collection. The children have truly done beautiful work. You can be very proud of them. I hope that you will find the reports valuable. They are written for you, the parents to read. As from Class Three the children will get a personal report addressed to them. Please use your discretion well when sharing some parts with your children. I am sure that they will appreciate some feedback, but there are some aspects, which are not appropriate yet – one day they may find these insights valuable. Each child is given a Life Verse for next year. The Life verse, also known as Report or Birthday verse, is an individual verse written or chosen for each child by the teacher each year as inner guidance for the following year. The child learns the verse off by heart and recites it on their own once a week in front of the class, for the whole school year. The verse speaks to a certain part of the child, whether a strength or a challenge. The rest of the class listens quietly and soon everyone knows everyone else’s verse and the whole class benefits from the words spoken and felt. Your child can spend the holiday learning it, but does not need to have perfected it by the start of school. I will work through the individual verses with each child. *Please try not to analyse and discuss the meaning of the verse with your child. Allow the verse to grow in meaning for the child. I would like to thank you all for the support and encouragement you gave me this year and for allowing this to flow as they needed. A special thanks to Doug for his support, for being around to help hold the space for all of us. I wish you a wonderful, safe, healthy and happy holiday and a peaceful festive season. Doug and I look forward to seeing all of you again next year. Silver Willow Term Dates for 2022 Term 1: Sunday 16th – Welcome Tea at 3pm 18th January – 31st March Term 2: 26th April – 30th June Term 3: 19th July – 23rd September Term 4: 11th October – 8th December Warmly and much love. Teacher Beulah 20th December 2021 TERM DATES - 2022 Term 1 18th January – 31st March Term 2 26th April – 30th June Term 3 19th July – 23rd September Term 4 11th October – 8th December
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Dear Parents,
Where has the time gone!!! As from Tuesday, we only have 14 days of school this year, with the term ending on the 3rd December. What a crazy thought! Soon your children will be crossing over from Class 1 into Class 2! They are very excited and so thrilled with what they have achieved this year. A little update. Over the past three weeks we completed ALL our letters of the alphabet and also wrote all our lower case letters. What a wonderful sense of achievement for all of us. The CAPITAL LETTERS went through a magical mirror and landed in an enchanted land, where, if they fell in the river, they would shrink or be stretched out into a strange shape. If they climbed a tree or ran through the fields, they could lose a part of themselves. But they came out the other side happy with themselves. We went through the lower case letters quite quickly and so constant re-enforcement will be important over the next while. Some children already knew the lower case letters, so connecting the ‘transformed’ letter with its capital letter was easy, but we are working on following the correct writing of each letter (the directions and form), neatness and (as always) creating beautiful letters and words. Now that we have learnt and written all our letters, we continue to build our reading programme. It is often at this point and in Class 2 that parents start to become anxious about reading. All the lovely stories and pictures in Class 1 felt okay, but the question is often, “but then when will ‘real’ reading begin?” It becomes a critical question when cousins and friends’ children all seem able to read by the end of Grade 1. But, this is where I’d like to ask that you trust the process. Your child will read -and very well- and it will happen naturally. When I was teaching my Class 3s in 2002, and we were reading a book called ‘Hay for my ox’, one of my boys, Alex, suddenly looked up and asked; “Mrs Reeler, when did you teach us to read?” In that moment, he realised that the whole class was reading and that he had not been aware of actually learning to read, until that moment. Up to that point, the three years had been filled with stories, much writing, reading, class plays, songs and games and even class readers. We had been building and growing our imaginations, building strong picture images, filling up our store of vocabulary, developing comprehension skills through recall, drawing and telling stories. It was unhurried and the children were unaware that they were in the process of building all they needed to be able to read. This is what we are striving for – an unhurried, natural process of reading that is joyful. This does not mean that I will not be working consciously on it – in fact, I will be working very consciously at it – using a whole language approach (which includes a phonics programme) and various strategies to build reading skills. But the aim is to steer clear from the technical, dry, outer aspect of reading that children are asked to work on and to rather engage them ‘with the far more important inner aspect of reading.’ To further my thoughts on this, I am including a very good article below. I think it describes the process and approach so well. I am also including links to some interesting online articles. Wishing you all a good week. Warmly. Teacher Beulah 8th November 2021 ARTICLE There's More to Reading Than Meets the Eye Published in Renewal, A Journal for Waldorf Education, Vol. 9#1, Spring 2000 Everyone who comes in contact with Waldorf education is sure to notice how beautiful it is, from the enchanting natural toys and seasonal themes in the kindergarten rooms, to the incredible chalkboard drawings in each classroom. Visitors and prospective parents enjoy the amazing array of children’s artistic creations — the paintings and drawings, knitted dolls and animals, woven baskets, beeswax figures, and wood carvings, just to name a few. The music that the children play, their singing, and the wonderful plays each class performs are truly impressive. They admire the main lesson books written and illustrated by the students, books that artistically reflect the rich curriculum of a Waldorf school. And of course they can’t help but notice the happy faces of the children in a Waldorf school. But invariably the question arises of how and when children are taught to read in a Waldorf School. The growing anxiety in our society over declining reading skills is so pervasive that suddenly, all the wonders and beauty of a Waldorf education pale in the shadow of the reading issue. “But Waldorf schools take a laid back approach to reading,” people say. “Waldorf students are not taught to read in first grade like public school students.” As a mother of four Waldorf students, I have often heard such remarks, and each time a cry of protest wells up inside of me. “Take a deeper look,” I want to shout. There’s more to reading than you may think at first glance. People generally think of reading as the ability to recognize the configuration of letters on a page and to pronounce the words and sentences represented there. This is the mechanical outer activity of reading that is easy to recognize. So, when people talk about teaching children to read, they mean teaching them to decode the symbols that stand for sounds and words. I have taught for a number of years in public and parochial schools that use this standard approach. In kindergarten, children as young as four years and eight months, are required to memorize the alphabet, a set of abstract symbols, and to learn the sounds that go with them. This process, called reading readiness, is dry and abstract, foreign to the very nature of small children. In the primary grades, children continue to work on the outer mechanical aspect of reading. Students spend long periods of time reading simplistic texts that correspond to the level of their decoding abilities. Readers and textbooks contain stories and information written with restricted vocabularies and simple sentence structure. There is little to ignite young imaginations, to evoke wonder, or to stimulate appreciation for the beauty and complexity of language. By the time such students reached my fifth and sixth grade classroom, they were all capable of decoding the words on a page, with varying degrees of fluidity. Some were good readers, but for many of my students, the words and sentences did not come together into a coherent whole. They had difficulty understanding or remembering what they read. On the surface, these children appeared to be reading, but with such limited comprehension, can it really be called reading? Clearly, there is more to reading than meets the eye! Besides the superficial process of decoding words on a page, there is a corresponding inner activity that must be cultivated for true reading to occur. Waldorf teachers call it “living into the story.” When a child is living into a story, she forms imaginative inner pictures in response to the words. Having the ability to form mental images, to understand, gives meaning to the process of reading. Without this ability, a child may well be able to decode the words on a page, but he will remain functionally illiterate. Of course non-Waldorf teachers recognize the importance of the inner activity of reading too. They refer to it as reading comprehension skills. In the middle and upper grades of elementary school, tremendous effort is spent trying to expand students’ vocabularies and to somehow work on comprehension. This is an arduous task, largely because reading is being taught in a way that is out of sync with children’s natural capacities. The teacher in the upper grades must address reading comprehension problems and also deal with the tremendous antipathy children with difficulties feel towards reading. It is very difficult to teach fifth or sixth graders, who have trouble with reading comprehension, how to create mental pictures. This inner capacity seems to have never properly developed in many. In contrast, kindergarten and primary grade children, left unhindered, are naturally busy creating imaginative inner pictures. They love listening to stories and actually live in the visual realm of imagination. How tragic that, in most schools, kindergarten and primary grade students are diverted from developing and strengthening this inner capacity so essential to true reading, in favor of learning dry abstract symbols and decoding skills. The same thing can be said for vocabulary enrichment. Everyone knows how effortlessly young children develop a sense for language and how quickly and unconsciously their vocabularies grow. They hear new words in stories and conversations and somehow have a sense for their meaning. They may not be able give dictionary definitions, but somehow new words fit into the images that flow through a child’s mind when she hears stories. How unfortunate it is that in the early grades most children are not exposed to rich complex language, simply because such language would not be compatible with their limited decoding skills. Just at the time when their minds are most open to language acquisition they are working with artificially limited vocabularies in school! Of course, vocabulary building is an ongoing process throughout the school years and beyond. But it is much easier for older children to learn new vocabulary if they already have a well-developed sense of language, and a large pool of words and mental images to build upon. It is apparent that the growing illiteracy problem in this country is not caused by the lack of technical decoding skills. For most of the children with reading deficiencies, it is a crisis in comprehension, a crisis largely brought about by the early introduction of abstract decoding skills and by ignoring the powerful tools of imagination and artistic activity that are the natural avenues of learning for young school children. Ironically, the only cure put forward by the educational establishment is to work harder and earlier on decoding skills, which only exasperates the problem further. The conventional method of teaching reading must be turned inside out in order to take advantage of children’s naturally developing capacities for learning. And this is precisely what happens in Waldorf Schools. On the very first day of kindergarten, children in a Waldorf school begin learning to read. True, it is not the technical, dry, outer aspect of reading that they are asked to work on. Instead they are engaged with the far more important inner aspect of reading. Working with a real knowledge of the developing child, Waldorf teachers begin teaching reading by cultivating children’s sense of language and their inner capacities to form mental images. Vivid verbal pictures and the use of rich language are constantly employed in the classroom. Difficult vocabulary and complex sentence structure are not held back in the telling of tales. Children sing and recite a vast treasury of songs and poems that many learn by heart. Children live into the world of imaginative inner pictures, totally unaware that they are developing the most important capacities needed for reading comprehension, for reading with understanding. They learn naturally and joyfully. Imaginative stories, songs and poetry do not end in kindergarten. Rudolf Steiner points out that children between the age of about seven to fourteen have, above all, the gift of fantasy. So it only makes sense that children learn best if the curriculum is brought in such a way that it captivates their imaginations. In his book, Kingdom of Childhood, Steiner says, “We should avoid a direct approach to the conventional letters of the alphabet which are used in the writing and printing of civilized man. Rather should we lead the child in a vivid and imaginative way, through the various stages which man himself has passed through in the history of civilization.” My own children experienced the joy of learning the letters of the alphabet through imaginative stories and through the painting or drawing that accompanied each one. The letter “K”, for instance, may be introduced by telling a fanciful story about a king. Then the teacher may draw a picture of the king standing in a pose that looks similar to the letter “K.” This process hearkens back to the picture writing of early man, and gives our modern symbols real and living qualities to which children can relate. Although it took the entire year of first grade to present the alphabet in this way, my children were never bored. They were living into their fantasy, living with a wellspring of imaginative pictures. They were, in fact learning reading comprehension, long before they learned decoding. Amazingly, Waldorf children learn the hard part first without even knowing it! They live into the stories, they create inner pictures, and they understand the words. Then comes the easy part, learning to decode letters that are no longer so abstract and foreign, and to read the printed word. So, the first book that my daughter, Anna, read when she was “finally taught to read” was not a dull primer, but beautiful prose by E. B. White, Charlotte’s Web. True, she learned to decode later than many of her public school counterparts, but she learned to read fluently, with understanding and enjoyment, much sooner than most. Take a look at the sophisticated novels and poetry that upper grade Waldorf students are reading. Take in an eighth grade production of Shakespeare, and you will see the wisdom of the Waldorf approach to reading. Working with a true knowledge of the human being, a true understanding of the stages of child development, the Waldorf teacher is able to educate children in ways that enable them to blossom forth with joy. As Rudolf Steiner says, “It is indeed so that a true knowledge of man loosens and releases the inner life of soul and brings a smile to the face. Barbara Sokolov, a native of California, has taught in public and Waldorf schools. Four of her five children have been Waldorf educated. Rudolf Steiner, The Kingdom of Childhood. Introductory Talks on Waldorf Education Anthroposophic Press, 1995, p. 23 2 lbid, p. 22 From Renewal: Spring Summer 2000, Volume 9 Number 1 Here are some articles you may find interesting: https://www.waldorfpublications.org/blogs/book-news/how-do-children-learn-to-write-and-to-read https://www.waldorftoday.com/2018/05/7-benefits-of-waldorfs-writing-to-read-approach/ https://blog.bellalunatoys.com/2011/waldorf-reading.html https://blog.waldorfmoraine.org/2019/07/early-literacy-learning-in-waldorf-education/ https://artofhomeschooling.com/learning-to-read-the-waldorf-way/ Dear Parents,
It feels like this letter needs to be written today. The full moon and the slow, slow shift to summer is asking for clarity and I realise that I need to be clearer. After much thought, managing my levels of energy, observing the children and feeling things through, I’ve come to a clear sense that at this stage in my life I need to do what I can, in and with the time, energy and space that I have. What it means for this class, at this point and for me, is that six children make a manageable group. I can’t see that this will change for me in the near future. It also means that I can still teach here at home, where I can manage my personal space and classroom and provide a space for the children that we all love. Doug is also here to connect with the children and support what I do. However, this does not stop any other class group from forming within the Silver Willow Cottage school. If and when parents find that the time is right, and that another group is ready to be formed, then that will and needs to happen - if there is a wish for the school to grow. I want the school to grow. Another teacher would be needed for these children and a space would need to be found. I will fully support and be there for that. But, for my little group, I would like to keep it at the size that it is. This means that I am setting a ceiling of six children in the class. However, if a child leaves, we can consider bringing another child into the group. This is what I am willing to commit to. I think that what we have is very precious and special and should be guarded and cared for. We don’t know what the future holds and in this very difficult time in the world, it feels prudent and wise to keep classes small and intimate, if we can. It may be that once the children are older and more self-directed and independent, a bigger class could be possible, but that would be something in the future to grapple with and consider – and not for us to worry about today. I believe that a slow, steady growth and development would be a good way for Silver Willow to go. I hope that this letter clear and that you can see that even though I may be drawing a clear line in the sand, your children are at the centre of my concern. I can only be a good teacher if I am well. Wishing you all a good week. Warmly. Teacher Beulah 20th October 2021 Dear Parents Letter #14 September 2021
By now you may all have heard snippets of our songs and stories of saints and dragons, swords and girdles, heroes and kings as we step into the time of Michaelmas …. Michaelmas is an ancient festival celebrated on the 29th September and is named after the archangel Michael. There are many legends of St. Michael, across many lands and many cultures. The archetypal image of St. Michael, depicted in many paintings and images, with his sword held high and the dragon underfoot is a representation of the struggle between good and evil. St. Michael does not slay the dragon, but through his inner forces is able to hold it within his control, at the tip of his spear. Stories of good versus evil are often told to illuminate the balance we all must strive towards mastering. The story of St. George taming the dragon is an earthly representation of Michael and woven into a much more imaginative picture for the children to understand. In the northern hemisphere Michaelmas is celebrated midway between the summer and winter solstices, but for us it’s the other way around - midway between winter and summer. It is our spring solstice. As the cold of winter recedes and the first signs of spring appear, we celebrate new beginnings as the blossoms and new buds promise the coming fruit and flowers. The season of spring requires us to take up a new task, different from that of the barren winter. The St. John/Winter festival sent out a message of burning one’s inner light in the heart of winter, so that it may bring warmth and guidance in the dark days. New life brings new possibilities and we must ‘take up a new task’. Michaelmas time challenges us to put that inner light to use, to engage our will against the darkness so that we may become conquerors and leap into our purpose during the season of new life and growth. St. Michael took up his task of facing the dragon with strength, bravery and courage, so too we are called on to raise ourselves above our fears and struggles. In the Michaelmas story the dragon symbolises our daily challenges, which drag us down into the earth away from our purpose, but Michael offers four gifts to those who are willing to undertake self-transformation and look towards that which is divine in every human being. He offers strength, courage, the will to do good deeds, and love. Both the transformation and the battle with the dragon are uniquely individual; they reside within our powers of thought, and we are the only ones to have access to them. Michael’s message to humanity is not to try to slay the dragon within ourselves, for we would not live in freedom if we did, but rather to overcome it with consciousness and to awaken our “will” for rightful deeds. Michaelmas is a celebration of our strength and courage. Wishing you all a good weekend. Warmly. Teacher Beulah 10th September 2021 Dear Parents,
Before we go into our next Main Lesson, which starts tomorrow, I thought that you may like to have a little look into one of the approaches Waldorf teachers use to help them better understand and work with the children in the class. Rudolf Steiner gave teachers many different indications for working with the child, one of which is using the Four Temperaments. As humans we are special beings. Each one of us is unique. There are no two people who are the same, not even identical twins who are given similar bodies when they come into the world. Each person is an individual with a particular combination of qualities, and in the course of one's life, one discovers more and more what these individual qualities are. Using the Temperaments is therefore not about pigeonholing or labelling, but rather about better understanding certain aspects of ourselves. There are four temperaments, and these are related to the four elements, EARTH, WATER, AIR and FIRE. They are known as MELANCHOLIC, PHLEGMATIC, SANGUINE and CHOLERIC respectively. We all have bits of each temperament in us, which show up at different times of our lives or in different situations, but generally there is a dominant and a secondary temperament. In Waldorf schools teachers use the basic, simple Four Temperaments, understanding that for the most part, there are no pure styles, but all people share these four styles in varying degrees of intensity. In dealing with the temperaments, it is not only a matter of knowing the children in order that the teacher can handle them better, but of harmonising their natures. In a well-integrated, balanced, complete person, the four characteristics would be harmonised but since this is not the case it becomes one of the tasks of education. When working with the temperaments in the classroom, it is critical to remember that we look at the assets of the temperaments and appeal to the different strengths of the children. We can bring them into balance gradually over time by appealing to their gifts first and helping them overcome any one-sidedness through the curriculum. Understanding your child's temperaments can also help you as a parent. For example, melancholic child loves order and to do things right. She will look for hinderances and obstacles and never seem satisfied. Show the child how human beings can suffer. Stories of trails and suffering are a godsend to the melancholic. The phlegmatic child likes comfort, to be kept warm, enjoy delicious food, but needs to be encouraged to have many different playmates as possible. Sanguine children respond well to calm parenting but enjoy social situations. Love is the magic word for the Sanguine. Choleric children like to be leaders and you may find letting them be in charge of tasks helps to give them direction. Having things which challenge them, obstacles they need to overcome will build their resilience and understanding. When working with the temperaments, it is important to think of them in relationship to all the other influences in the children’s lives, both hereditary and environmental. Working with all aspects of each child helps us see all children in their totality and keeps us from making stereotypical judgments about them. These are the tools we can use as parents and teachers to better understand children as they develop and help us find the best way to help them come into balance. Our ultimate goal is to help the children develop interest in the other, find compassion, and fulfil the mission of the human being on the earth: to develop true human love. The Sanguine – AIR – SPRING This child lives in the realm of thoughts and ideas, which, if untempered, can lead to chaos of images. These children can easily flit from idea to idea and not settle on anything. Think of the butterfly. This child is usually very social and can bring great delight into the classroom. They weave between children and can be the great social equalisers in the classroom. The Choleric – FIRE – SUMMER The choleric child may seem self-centered and have a strong presence in the classroom. This child will want to be assertive in every situation and can be aggressive or bossy with other children. But cholerics can also be strong leaders when their passions are channelled into doing good deeds for others or to help the teacher. The Melancholic – EARTH – Autumn These children may feel that the body is too heavy for them to manage and this creates a disharmony inside their being. The melancholic may seem inflexible and very sensitive to pain and sorrow in the soul-life, which may become a source of inner grief or brooding. This inner struggle may become manifest in the sad countenance, more inward gaze, and dragging gait. The Phlegmatic – water – winter In the phlegmatic child, the physical body dominates her expression in the world. There may be a complacency that develops as the child feels inwardly all is well and nothing more needs to be done. This can result in a lack of interest in vigorous activity. These children like to eat and digest their food! They can be the calm anchors of the class because of their inner balance; what they lack in physical initiative they make up for in imbuing the classroom with their quiet presence. They feel connected to nature spirits, and elemental beings, they have a vivid imagination and much is directed inwards. Wishing you all a good week. Warmly. Teacher Beulah 24th August 2021 Please note: Much of this letter has been taken from these sources: 1. Helping Children on Their Way - Educational support for the classroom Compiled by Elizabeth Auer 2. A.C. Harwood: The Recovery of Man in Childhood, Chapter XVI 3. Rudolf Steiner: The Temperaments. Dear Parents,
So, we have completed our all Vowel stories and I must say it went very well. We wrote three wonderful sentences, each on different days: THE WORLD IS BEAUTIFUL. I STAND ON SACRED LAND. THE SKY IS BLUE, MY HEART IS TRUE. At this first threshold moment it is not about learning to ‘read’ it is about writing. A sacred act in itself. And so the first writing needs to be meaningful, beautiful and worthy! In the Waldorf approach the children write before they read moving from the ‘active to passive’. At this stage they write texts/sentences that they know. They recognise the letters we have done/worked with in the past and they start to recognise/see/learn sight words. Over the short time they come to sounding out the word and a real sense of satisfaction comes over them. While being immersed in stories, they do not feel pressurised to ‘learn’ sounds but rather to experience how the words evolve and develop out of what they know - and always within a context (a story). This does not mean that they are not learning sounds. Through the stories, verses and word games the children learn the ‘name’ sound (Aye = Ayden, amen) and the ‘earth’ sound (a = Annabella, apple) of the letters. The ‘heavenly’ sound (Ahhhh = far, star) – the continuous sound is brought simply in the story – bringing the feeling quality of the letter. It is not formally referred to in the ‘lesson’ – it and other vowel sounds will come later – in Class 2 when we go deeper into Phonics. It’s really fascinating to help them sound out the words and encourage them to ‘see’ the words. Slowly they come to see what letters the word is made up of. Within all this is to allow them to develop a love for words and to see how they fit into what they already know and to become excited about writing and reading. Another important aspect when teaching the Vowels – and in fact all the subjects – is the moral aspect (not moralistic). Whether it is in Numberwork where Princess Minus prefers to ‘give away’ or David Divide who ‘shares equally’ or in Literacy where Angel E brings kindness, Angel O brings love and protection, etc. In everything we do in a Waldorf classroom, we try to instil a feeling of reverence, of beauty and goodness, kindness, love, caring, nature, community, honesty, sharing, etc. This work is not only about learning the 3 Rs (Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic) – it is about our constant journey of becoming human. We constantly stand on sacred land. Wishing you all a good week. Warmly. Teacher Beulah 15th August 2021 Ps. A small request… during this week break… please could you continue to immerse the children in nature, encourage them to play with their animals and friends, and try to refrain from technology, movies and other electronic devices… Dear Parents,
We are well on our way with our Vowel stories and their sounds. At this moment, we are still living in the world of orality, but soon we will be writing our first sentence and officially step into the world of literacy. This is a big step, for them and for you. When this moment happens your child will be crossing a threshold that is wonderful and magical, but one from which there is no return. Once the child learns to read, they enter the world of literacy that changes the way they see the world. I’m sure that you may have had some ‘concerned’ friends and family asking when you child will actually learn to read and you may even be feeling a bit of pressure and anxiety in that regard. This is understandable as there is a growing trend across the world to get children into schools younger and to get them to read sooner. A great amount of time and money is spent on developing programmes and learning materials to get children to earlier linguistic and reading proficiency. Technology is used to get babies to recognise sounds and images which will (so it is presumed) allow them to become proficient readers sooner. The idea is that the sooner they learn to read, the better they will do at school. But the strange thing is, the sooner we tend to start with literacy, the less we seem to get to it! Many education systems presume that they can fix the problems around literacy with more literacy. However, literacy cannot be fully or truly understood and mastered without exploring its relationship to orality – the ancient state of consciousness that we passed through and have forgotten, leads us to literacy and gives us the framework that we need to work with the world of the written world. Norman Skillen (an experience Waldorf teacher and trainer) says that; “if orality is not given its rightful place, school will not be a wholesome environment for children and literacy will ultimately suffer.” Literacy, which is vital to the developing human being, needs to be grounded in spoken language and so the cultivation of oral skills always underpins literacy. Literacy begins with Orality – ‘it fits like a glove on the hand of orality’. The task in this modern, technological age however is, as Rawson & Richter states, “to cultivate a transformed orality”, which, as Skillen concluded, “is none other than the power of imagination itself.” In his book ‘A is for Ox’, Barry Sanders states that, “Orality provides a proving ground, a safe place, where a child’s imagination can unfold without fear of judgement or censure.” Where then do we as teachers find this ‘transformed orality’ that will take us into a dynamic, imaginative, creative approach to literacy? I think that the answer lies in stories. We know that stories answer our questions, they allay our fears and help us to make sense of the world. When we hear stories that touch us, we fall in love with the words and language and within us is ignited a desire for more, a love of learning. Stories bring the idioms, expressions and sayings of our community and people, and we develop a deeper, richer understanding of the world. Stories hone listening skills, they develop a sense of logic and comprehension. When we recall and retell stories, we organise and ‘storyfy’ the information, with expression, rhythm and timing. The teaching of literacy needs to be founded on a curriculum of stories, jokes, riddles, songs, plays, improvisation, and recitation. Children need to hear stories made up and told by the teacher. Teachers need to love words. This will inspire children. Teachers need to use good language, rich descriptions filled with colour and sensations. A child with an abundant vocabulary will become a good reader and writer. Past generations were able to read well because they learnt to speak well. They acquired an increased vocabulary through rhetorical practise. Good readers grow out of good reciters and good speakers! However, stories, verses and songs are often regarded as a waste of time in countless education systems and teachers are told to ‘get on with real work’. But children are hungry for stories. As Philip Pullman says, “After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” TERM 4 Week 1: 12th – 14th October Week 2: 19th – 21st October Week 3: 26th – 28th October Week 4: 2nd – 4th November Week 5: 9th – 11th November Week 6: 16th – 18th November Week 7: 23rd – 25th November Week 8: 29th Nov – 3rd Dec (full week) Watching the children everyday as they listen to the stories, I agree with that…. Warmly. Teacher Beulah 5th August 2021 Dear Parents,
We are starting our 3rd Term tomorrow 26th July! How amazing that we have already come this far! After the long break the lovely winter weather calls for busy hands and minds and so we will start off with three full weeks: Monday – Friday from 9am -1pm every day. Over the past few months we have made good progress with our Literacy, as we completed thirteen consonants, giving us a solid store of letters to work with. The children have a good feel for the letters, they have been immersed in stories and rhymes and now it is time to introduce the vowels. So, why the separation of the Consonants and Vowels? If we listen to consonants, we hear how clearly defined they are. The lips, teeth and tongue are very active, and we can experience how consonants are formed mostly in the front of the mouth. They often reflect sounds we hear in the world around us. The Consonants give definite form to words, as in MaN, BiG, KiNG, RouND, SaM and we can say that they have a structuring, forming, conscious quality. They are the building blocks of words…. Vowels have different characteristics. They are generally more continuous, building a bridge from one consonant to another. Vowels also have a very different quality about them. They have a ‘carrying’ quality – they seem to go on forever. They somehow reflect and express soul qualities, and inner states of being as opposed to consonants that have to do with definite objects and are more grounded. They are less strongly formed and are experienced further back in the mouth. Vowels also tend to express moods, feelings and colours in a way that consonants cannot do. They bring wonderful feeling qualities of reverence, warmth, awe, wonder, love and joy. In many Waldorf schools the vowels are presented as singing beings or angels coming down the rainbow from heaven to earth, each with a very particular task. Because children learn to read first through hearing, it is important that the sounds come through very clearly and that there is enough time for repetition of sounds. Unlike Afrikaans and Xhosa and even German, which have pure vowel sounds; English has several sounds for each vowel - which can be very confusing. I will therefore try not to bring too many sounds at one time as the children may become confused and not know which sounds to listen for. Only the most important phonic rules will be taught in the least complicated manner possible. And so our journey towards reading takes its next step…… Warmly. Teacher Beulah 25th July 2021 Dear Parents,
We have come to the end our 2nd Term. What a wonderful time of learning and growth it has been. Even though the cold of winter has slowly crept upon us, the children have thrived in the warmth of their relationships with each other and the curriculum, which is so, so right for them at this time. They have been busy with so much and have felt and enjoyed the sense of achievement. We brought this term to a close with our lovely Class Sharing and tonight we will celebrate the Winter Festival together. Festivals are times to reflect and celebrate - not only significant historical or natural events, the change and quality of the seasons and the diversity of feelings they bring, but also the development and growth within ourselves. When we join in these festivals, we help our children feel and experience and celebrate the change of time within the warmth and care of community. Here is a little excerpt about Festivals taken from Michael Mount Waldorf School website. Festivals …celebrating the coming together of earthly and cosmic forces In the words of Sharifa Oppenheimer, Waldorf teacher and author of Heaven on Earth: A handbook for parents of young children: “In earlier times, children were raised within the agricultural calendar. … they knew the steps in a process, and learned the lesson to persist until the goal was attained. From planting a seed and persisting through till harvest … these children had a … sense of sequencing. In our technological lives which are fractured … and [have] a thousand distractions, it can be difficult for children to have a sense of the long rhythms of life, and the step-by-step sequences these rhythms involve. To celebrate seasonal Festivals gives our children an opportunity to live these long rhythms, the rhythms of the earth and sun. These children will begin to know the long, slow sequences of their own human lives.” There is another, deeper reason. Clusters of significant cultural, folk and religious dates on calendars from every corner of the world indicate a universal significance to these dates – even though the meanings assigned to them differ widely. Interestingly, there is an observable relationship between these festival dates and solar alignments, such as the solstices* and equinoxes**. * A solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year, in June and December. The day of the solstice is either the longest day of the year (summer solstice) or the shortest day of the year (winter solstice) for any place outside of the tropics. Alternative terms are June solstice and December solstice, referring to the months of year in which they take place. The word solstice is derived from the Latin sol (sun) and sistere (to stand still) ** An equinox is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year, in March and September, when the tilt of the earth’s axis in inclined neither away from nor towards the sun, with the sun’s centre in the same plane as the equator on earth. On an equinox, day and night are of approximately equal duration all over the planet. The name “equinox” is derived from the Latin ‘aequus’ (equal) and ‘nox’ (night), because around the equinox, the night and day have approximately equal length. There are eight major dates celebrated in the world for one reason or another, and they all fall roughly on solstice or equinox days or on the midpoints between them. These dates mark the beginnings and middles of the four seasons of the yearly cycle. Rudolf Steiner attached particular significance to the celebration of these festivals, because the cycles of nature represent the many inner and outer cycles of human life, birth and death being the most obvious. “Celebrating festivals can bring us consciously to what we all experience instinctively in our daily lives, the changing cycles of the seasons and of life itself. Through various festivals and rituals we acknowledge and celebrate our connection to … each other and the world.” – Marilyn Pelrine St John’s Festival/Winter solstice – celebrated in June (Adapted from article by Michael Mount Waldorf School) In many Waldorf schools in South Africa, the winter festival celebrated is called the St. John’s Festival. The festival takes its name from John the Baptist, known as the prophet Yahya in the Quran. Catholic as well as the Anglican and Lutheran liturgical calendars placed the birth his on June 24, six months before Christmas. John the Baptist was a Jewish itinerant preacher in the early first century AD. It is generally accepted that he baptised Jesus. He is revered as a major religious figure in Christianity, Islam, the Baha’I Faith and Mandaeism. He is called a prophet by all of these traditions, and is honoured as a saint in many Christian traditions. John the Baptist called upon humankind to seek the light. Hence, the festival of St. John’s reminds us to cultivate inner light and warmth. Some schools prefer seasonal rather than ‘religious’ festivals – but ultimately the messages, themes and symbols are the same – a time for us to look at our humanity within the broader world. Children make lanterns – a symbol of the light. Traditionally a great bonfire is built around which the children and the community gather. When the flames die down, students, teachers and parents jump over the ashes to signify leaving behind past troubles. Hot, nourishing bowls of soup and fresh bread is served – warming our bodies and community spirit. Warmly. Teacher Beulah 26th June 2021 Dear parents,
It has been a long while since our last letter. Autumn is coming to an end, winter is just around the corner, and we are coming to the end of our Numberwork Main Lesson for this term. There have been some breaks in the term, children have been sick, and the cold mornings and rainy days are steering us indoors with a greater feeling for hibernation and staying warm and cozy. All this, together with the fact that Numberwork is often a ‘difficult’/challenging Main Lesson, can be trying on the children. In this ML, they are not as wrapped up in the fantasy of story, drawing and writing as they would be with the Letters. Now they are tasked with doing much more; counting and writing numbers, working out ‘sums’ and numberwork problems that require much more concentration and understanding. Now differences in knowledge, experience, skills, levels of interest, perseverance and focus become more apparent, and it takes a lot more to keep them focused and engaged. But they have worked hard and much has been achieved. When we look back at the first term, we remember that we worked on the Quality of Numbers and simple counting and rhythmic work. This term we made great jumps, working with the Bonds of 5, 7 & 10, the Number Line to 80 (we will go to 100 soon). We worked with Odd and Even numbers and introduced the Four Operations/Processes +-×÷. The slow and unhurried approach of the previous term was replaced by a greater immersion into numbers and counting, with children working with counters, drawing (the amount of) objects (tedious for some), arranging objects in number order, playing with number cards - constantly becoming aware of numbers. At this stage the concepts of the WHOLE, EQUALS and the FOUR PROCESSES are important to give them the big picture of mathematics. These are the foundations on which their number concepts and confidence will be built. They are not yet at the stage of working out complicated sums, but through the continued work with movement, concrete, experiential and embodied learning, they are developing a sounder number concept understanding. In all this, the story of the Land of Numbers continued, where Andreas and Mudiki have been on a mission to learn numbers and calculations so that they can help the people in the Land of Confusion. They are slowly getting it, but it is not always easy. They have met Queen Equals, Prince Plus, Princess Minus, Tommy Times the Jester and David Divide the gnome. These characters give the children the quality of each operation; Prince Plus is about making things more, always adding to the store – about abundance. Princess Minus is about giving away – especially to those in need – but she can never give away more than she has. Tommy Times is quick and joyful and multiplies everything in a flash, making counting so much quicker. David Divide is organised and quick tempered, not liking to be disturbed, but when called upon, loves to share things equally. And Queen Equals makes sure that everything is in balance. Numberwork is (still) fun! Soon we start with the VOWELS (class not to be missed!) All the best. Teacher Beulah 1 June 2021 |
AuthorTeacher Beulah's 'Letter to the Parents' Archives
February 2023
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