Kindergarten February Update

By Cristan Vineis, Kindergarten Teacher

Over the course of the last few weeks our Kindergarten children have been experiencing warmth in all kinds of ways. Being a Waldorf school that values the importance of outdoor learning, we need to work hard to create warmth for the children in the unpredictable, wet and chilly winter weather. I’m writing today to bring you a picture of how we cultivate this both inside and outside and also to tell you why, for it is not just a physical need we nurture, but an emotional and social need as well.

This month inside, our morning circle was an imaginative journey of marching up a mountain where we sawed down trees, carried them home and chopped wood to then build a fire. We also played a game in which the children used their whole bodies to “sew” a sweater for a friend. We also sat in a circle and passed around “tea” (bean bags). Last week we played “a tisket a tasket,” a traditional Valentine’s Day children’s skipping and chasing game. Like most of our circles, this one provided many opportunities for crossing both the vertical and horizontal midlines and utilizing parallel limb movements, but what made this circle just right for this time of year was the focus on warmth giving: both the vigorous movement and the imaginative pictures of giving, creating, and sharing warm things.

To bring these imaginations to life even more the children sawed and collected wood on our walks and then chopped the wood to build fires in our fire pit (under Mr Kennedy’s direct supervision, of course). Inside, last week all of the children used needles to sew their paper heart pockets together. We offered warm herbal tea to the children at lunchtime. And of course, on Valentines Day the children gave handmade gifts to one another. All of these little moments enliven the “lessons” that were introduced to the children in the morning circle time. Cultivating these threads throughout the day brings a cohesiveness to our days as well as nurturing seeds of interest.

With parent’s integral help in dressing your children in layers and proving both waterproof and warm outer gear we are able to help the children regulate their temperatures both inside and outside. Our classroom is generally warm and our circle and play is often quite active. We encourage the children to start the day with layers on, peeling them off as needed. It is important to remember that the kindergarten aged child does not always have the ability to know when they are cold or hot and we teachers are attentive to this burgeoning capacity.

Learning Goals

The importance of physical warmth cannot be overstated. Young children use the same forces to develop their internal organs as they do to keep their bodies at a homeostatic temperature. In other words, when a child is cold they use their energy to keep their temperature up potentially at the expense of growing. When a child is cold and wet they are more susceptible to illness, as well, as there is less available energy to fight off viruses. So, the prominent “goal” for us as teachers is to ensure the health giving properties of warmth to the kindergarteners. We cannot explicitly teach the children to develop awareness of their body temperatures- this is a sense that grows in consciousness over time from within the child. However, we can check in with them, feeling their hands and the backs of their necks, to provide moments of self-awareness and language with which to express their inner condition. We can also work to develop good habits of wearing appropriate layers and materials for the weather.

In terms of the particular skills or abilities that this “warmth giving” month provided via the curriculum: Sawing, carrying, chopping and stacking wood are all activities that are not just good opportunities to practice bilateral and parallel limb movements and midline crossing, but they are useful skills to learn! Even if your child never builds another fire again in their life, they have had the experience of doing something useful and meaningful for themselves and for their friends. For the older kindergarteners in particular, this goal-oriented and purposeful work has tremendous value and importance.

Sewing, too, in another one of those important life skills that some people never ever use in adulthood but that offers excellent fine motor skill development and hand strengthening in childhood. The ability to “follow the thread” can be a metaphor for the growing child who is beginning to make intellectual connections in their life: it is building a foundation for logic later on down the road.

Other Resources

PROTECTING and Building WARMTH by Adam Blanning

He is an anthroposophical doctor practicing in Denver. He was also the keynote speaker at the recent Waldorf Early Childhood conference where he spoke of how the experience of physical warmth and elicit feelings of social connectedness and morality. The above link is to his article that cites the scientific research, as well as other considerations of warmth in the young child.

Take a look at what the Third Grade Language Arts Main Lesson Block* looks like.

By Branigan Reed, Third Grade Teacher

Learning Goals

• Students will:
  Understand and distinguish between the four types of sentences (command, statement, question, exclamation) and the punctuation used for each example.
• Explore adverbs and understand how they support other types of words within sentences.
• Independently compose a written synopsis of a story heard in class.
• Collaborate with peers to compose a written synopsis of a story heard in class.

Class Work

In addition to the ongoing practice of spelling, mental math, movement, speech, and song work that occurs throughout the year, the main activities of this block included:

• Independent writing: synopsis of the story of Joseph
• Group Writing: Compose group retelling of the story of Moses
• Compose sentences using the parts of speech learned and practiced so far this year. (article, noun, verb, adjective, adverb)
• Main Lesson pages recording important aspects of stories heard in class, and grammar lessons practiced throughout the block.

Why do we teach this block and why do we teach it this way?

In January we are completing our second language arts block and continuing with our exploration of the Hebrew stories of the Old Testament. The children heard stories of how the world was rebuilt after the great flood, as well as the obstacles Abraham faced in the city of Babel and the journey to Canaan. They learned about Jacob’s struggles with his brother that led him far from home, only to return to reconcile with Esau, and the amazing trials of Jacob’s son, Joseph the dream interpreter and eventual confidante of the Pharaoh. Finally, we have come to Moses’ dramatic experiences at the hands of the Egyptians, and their great exodus into the desert. The content of these stories is juicy and thrilling, and filled with the best of cliffhangers that allow the children to digest the ample details at a healthy pace.

The rich stories of the Hebrew people provide the children with an experience of right and wrong, faithfulness, perseverance, and honor. At the same time they also give us many beautiful images that inspire the main lesson drawings, writing, and painting we create each week. We are able to use bold colors and have begun to incorporate more form into our artwork, particularly in painting. This allows the children to experience again and again, with each repetition meeting a different part of them: writing connected to thinking, painting connected to feeling, and drawing connected to their will work.

Working with grammar and the different parts of speech throughout this block help us to put our experiences and thoughts about the stories into words. The children are beginning to build the ability to express themselves through writing, using the tools to help make their sentences more colorful and descriptive. The hardships and sense of rightness and perseverance provide a supportive and enriching backdrop for the practice of practical skills such as handwriting and grammar practice.

*A Main Lesson Block is a dedicated two-hour block of time in the morning that concentrates on specific subject. A main lesson block lasts anywhere from three to six weeks during which one subject is the focus.

This year on Giving Tuesday, I invite you to join me and my family in giving to the Waldorf School at Moraine Farm Fund.

When Paul and I returned with Alexander (then five) and Aylin (three) from our nine-year sailing circumnavigation of the globe, we looked for a school that would mirror the experiences to which they had been exposed during our life away. We sought an environment that would continue to nurture their innate curiosity, let them take risks, and allow them to learn through experiencing the world around them. We wanted a place where they would feel understood, heard, loved, respected, and supported. Finding and then joining this Waldorf community was a perfect fit.

We are now in our third year at the school, and continue to be amazed at the wonder of Waldorf at work. Our children ask questions, challenge what they hear, and explore to learn. Our kindergartener is working with her classmates to build ever-more-complicated forts and learning about cooperation, collaboration, balance, physics, and architecture without realizing she is doing so. “You could use the big rocks too,” she exclaims, “but they are harder to balance!”

Our second grader is encouraged to discover patterns in the multiplication table that help him understand the “why” and “how” of it, while also retaining the “what.” “Three by two is six,” he explains. “And thirty by two is sixty, but three by twenty is also sixty!”

To ensure our school’s continued development and success, my husband Paul and I give to the Waldorf School at Moraine Farm Fund every year. I encourage you to join me in supporting this wonderful educational community! #givetoWSMF on #givingtuesday

Thank you so much for considering this!

Giving Tuesday Goal: $10,000

With excitement for the year ahead,

Sima Baran and Paul Robertson

On Saturday, December 8, the Waldorf School at Moraine Farm will be transformed into the Waldorf Enchanted Fair. This event offers a magical holiday experience for the whole family with handcrafted gifts and toys, adult and children’s activities, live music, puppet shows, and food.

With this annual fair, the Waldorf School at Moraine Farm has cultivated a reputation for bringing enchantment to children of all ages. Families can “Slay the Dragon” with bows and arrows; decorate wreaths; watch a puppet show; make wands, ornaments, and lanterns; have their faces painted; make a beeswax candle; and much more.

A fair favorite is the Wee Folk Shoppe. This tiny shop, just big enough for small children to enter, allows little ones to pick out a special gift and have it wrapped by a Wee Folk Elf. Another favorite is the Pocket Lady and Pocket Gnome, who stroll through the halls with treasures hidden in their many pockets. Children delight in finding out what prize they have chosen.

The Waldorf Cafe & Bakery will be selling a large selection of homemade baked goods, sandwiches, apple cider and coffee.

The $5 entry fee includes 5 tickets that may be used toward any of our activities and food. Holiday gift making activities range from 2 to 10 tickets.

To enjoy an adult-only shopping experience, attend the “Enchanted Eve” on Friday night, December 7th, from 6pm to 9pm. In addition to great shopping, there will also be hors d’oeuvres and wine served.

Businesses interested in sponsoring our Enchanted Fair can gain exposure with over 1,500+ local families! Sponsorship opportunities include, program ad, media exposure and more. Learn more.

Sneak Peak at the Enchanted Caravan Store

 

By Dirk Tiede, Cyber Civics Teacher

In early September I attended the “Humanity + Tech”  conference at the MIT Media Lab. It featured Joi Ito, the director of the Media Lab, Glen Murphy, the head of user experience at Google, and even Bo Burnham, the director of the movie “Eighth Grade”. In addition, a long list of scientists, journalists and thinkers joined the conference. I attended this important conference to investigate how closely the topics would parallel the ideas we cover in Cyber Civics class. In addition to sessions on the rise of artificial intelligence, how social media is changing our culture, and the proliferation of misinformation and fake news online, a significant portion of the conference focused on finding balance between our time spent on screen and everything else in our lives, which just happened to be the theme of the first unit we covered in the seventh grade class—“Learning Balance.”

One fascinating part of the conference was when a group of high school students representing the Boston Debate League presented a policy debate on the notion, “Have smartphones destroyed my generation?”. This debate was in response to an article in The Atlantic last spring with a similar title.  The students examined the pros and cons of smartphones from an academic standpoint. They cited the downsides of this technology as a major source of distraction that makes time management more difficult.  They also noted that smartphones and technology can interfere with sleep, intensify symptoms of anxiety and depression, and even prevent teens from “putting themselves out there” in the real world. However, on the upside they reminded us that mobile devices help us connect all over the world and empower young people in a way we’ve never seen before.  And all the students said they use their phones to read books and research, and love that they have access to essentially an infinite library through the internet. In the end, both sides concluded that moderate usage is the best answer.

This is exactly the same idea that inspired developer Kevin Holesh to create the app “Moment” after he realized how much time he was spending on his phone.  Now millions of people are using this app to help moderate their own phone usage. Data from the technology sector and research from academia now suggest that the key to a happy relationship to our devices comes from moderating our usage. Here’s what Mr. Holesh found from his users of the “Moment” app:

In just about all cases, more time spent on an app, the less happy users are.   Anya Kamenetz, NPR education correspondent and author of the book “The Art of Screen Time” sums up these findings this way: “Enjoy screens.  Not too much. Mostly together.” Her research suggests that so long as we are mindful about the content and use screens as an opportunity to interact with each other—such as looking up something interesting together or even watching a movie as a family—that we can make good use of these tools.

In our seventh grade class, we tackled all these ideas in a two-part lesson, “Your Digital Diet.”  The students’ first homework assignment was to track how they spent a full day over the weekend, and when they returned the next week, we added up all the time spent in different categories to examine how much time was actually spent on screens.  As you can see, while we as a class did find a way to balance our time, screen use still made up a significant portion of our time.

However, considering the average teenager in the United States spends 8 hours and 40 minutes in front of a screen (vs 9 hours 22 minutes for adults), our class actually is well below that at about 3 and a half hours per student on average.  Of course, the amount of screen usage varied quite a bit from student to student, but they chart very well as a whole.

For the second part of the lesson, I assigned the class to take a “24-hour Digital Media Vacation” over the following weekend and write a paragraph about the experience.  We discussed how it went during the next class, and several students said it was very difficult to stay off devices entirely for a full day, especially since other family members were on them.  A couple of students reported getting some “second-hand TV” when walking into a room where someone was watching a program. Another had to write an email and found herself on YouTube out of habit afterward, and had to stop herself.  Yet another student pointed out that she found herself wanting to use devices more intensely than she normally would simply because she couldn’t use them.

What about this question of digital “addiction”?  Are these devices actually creating addictive behavior? Research is still unclear, but without a doubt, our technology is definitely habit-forming.  Author Nir Eyal, an expert in “persuasive technology” and the author of “HOOKED: How to Create Habit Forming Products” argued that using the term “addiction” was excessive, but even he agreed that we have to take steps to prevent forming bad habits with our tech.  He points out that developers and marketers use our emotions to try to “hook” us into using their products more often by tapping into our hidden fears and desires—something that advertisers have been doing for over a century.

He suggested we do the following things to help moderate our usage:

1. Ask yourself, “What am I trying to avoid by looking at a screen?”  — This will help you identify an “internal trigger” like loneliness or fear of missing out (FOMO), both of which often drive “addictive” social media usage.’
2. Schedule a specific time each day to check in on social media — try to keep your sessions to under 30 minutes and consider deleting social media apps off your phone and only check them on computer or tablet.
3. Use a calendar to schedule your time — you’re more likely to distract yourself online when you don’t have something else you’re planning to do at any given moment.
4. Disconnect from the internet when you need to do important “focus work” — especially anything creative or thinking-intensive.  Schedule specific blocks of time, and use an app like “Freedom” to help you disconnect if you’re having trouble with self-control.

A few other suggestions from the MIT conference were:

1. Turn off notifications on your phone for everything except texts, phone calls, and other direct person-to-person messages.  This will cut down on constant interruptions and distractions.
2. Don’t use your devices while going to the bathroom.  (Bonus: you’ll be less likely to drop your phone in the toilet!)
3. Avoid using a screen right before bed.  The easiest way to do this is to not bring anything into the bedroom at all.  This can also help you break the habit of checking your phone first thing when you wake up.  Though, it may mean buying an old-fashioned alarm clock.
4. Set aside specific “device-free” times for your family, such as during meal times and short car rides.
5. Put your phone in “Do Not Disturb” or “Airplane” mode when you’re spending important face to face time with someone.  This will help you prioritize the people you’re with over the people on your phone.
6. Lastly, consider making a pact with the people closest to you to not expect an immediate response to every text or email.  Work on giving each other some “breathing space”.  Come up with an “urgent” signal to use in cases of emergencies, such as repeated calls or texts.  For example, we have an email policy for the school that we expect a response to direct emails within 48 hours, not including weekends or holidays.  If there is an urgent need we will call or text, and we prioritize speaking about issues in person when we can.

I gave many of these suggestions to the seventh graders as “Pro Tips” in part because they were given to me by the real pros at the “Humanity + Tech” conference.  I hope these can be useful for you and your own family. I was gratified to find important thinkers, engineers and scientists grappling with the same ideas and issues we face in our Cyber Civics classroom, including future topics on social media, information literacy and even artificial intelligence.

In addition to all this wonderful information, I had a chance to converse with a number of other attendees, and upon explaining my work as a Cyber Civics teacher their response was surprise and delight that such a program exists. I got into a lively discussion about the program with a professor of psychology, and a Harvard student I spoke with who said, “I wish we had something like that when I was in high school.”