Upper Grades: Sept 10 - 14

Last week the Upper Grades class wrapped up our local geography block with a deeper look into the first people of Georgia and how the regions and resources have impacted how humans have lived since first arriving in Georgia. Our field trips to the Etowah Indian Mounds and New Echota helped strengthen our understanding of the Mississippian and late Cherokee people. We will continue to dig into the way our local land and natural resources have given rise to industry and development throughout history in our practice periods over the next few weeks. Our field trip to Driftwood Education Center in October will weave in more of the geography, industry, and native culture of coastal Georgia and the barrier islands. It was wonderful to spend time with your children these past few weeks!

— Ki Molly

Thank you, Ki Molly, for helping us expand into our region on all levels!  This week we will focus on math, and next week is our break. The day we return, October 1, we will have an early morning start as we begin our journey to St. Simons Isalnd’s Driftwood Education Center!  More details are coming. 

Have a great week! 

Ki Carol 

Upper Grades: September 3 - 7

Greetings Upper Grades families,

We continued our study of Local Geography last week. We looked into the forces that have shaped the Georgia landscape through the ages, and this week we'll tie in how that geography has shaped human history in the area, with studies of the indigenous peoples and the European settlers. The students worked in small groups to research and present to the class each of the geographical regions and how they were formed, the characteristics of the regions, and the natural resources and crops that are produced in each region. We also built 3-D models of the state characterizing each region's elevation and topography and continued with map drawing, compass work, and honing our composition and grammar skills. We also continued weaving our review of arithmetic into our daily studies.

Reminder that our field trip to the Etowah Indian Mounds and New Echota is this Thursday, September 13. We will be leaving from the school parking lot at 9:00am returning by 3:30pm. 

We're so excited that we will be taking an overnight field trip to St. Simons Island next month, with Ki Sonya and her older Homeschool students! We'll leave early on the morning of Monday, October 1 and return in the evening on October 3. Detailed packing and departure information will be sent soon. We'll be staying at the Driftwood Education Center where we will study marine science, and take a deeper look into Georgia's coastal plain and barrier island regions. If your child will not be able to attend, please let us know asap so we can adjust our headcount totals. Please be on the lookout for medical forms and permission slips coming home soon. We hope this trip will provide a meaningful and experiential conclusion to our Local Geography block as well as an opportunity for continuing to build healthy group dynamics and relationships as a class.

We were so very proud of our class as they organized and MC'd the first assembly at the Garden School this past Friday.  They did a beautiful job of singing our song, "Land of the Silver Birch."  See the video on the Families Facebook page!

Have a great week!

Warmly

Ki Carol and Ki Molly

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Upper Grades: August 27 - 31

Greetings, Upper Grades families!

Last week and until September 14, Ki Molly is teaching the Main Lesson block, which is Local Geography.  The block began with a look into our immediate surroundings. We completed map drawings of our desks, bedrooms, classroom, and campus taking into consideration orientation, birds-eye view perspective, scale and dimension. Next week, we move outward into the local area and state with studies of the first people of Georgia.  Next week on September 13, we are going on a field trip to the Etowah Indian Mounds (built by the Mississippian people in ancient times)  https://gastateparks.org/EtowahIndianMounds and to New Echota, the capital of the Cherokee Nation until their forced removal in 1830. https://gastateparks.org/NewEchota

We had a good turnout at the Parent Evening on August 28. An overview for those who were unable to attend: I talked about "circle time" or "warmups" in Waldorf education.  This summer I learned in my training that different activities represent either an "in breath" --  promoting inward individual concentration -- or an "out breath" -- representing expansion, release, and social connection.  Just like our physical breathing is naturally an alternation of in breath and out breath, the nature of our activities should ideally have this alternation as well.  In general we try to keep this in mind when scheduling the activities of the school day, but especially during circle or warmups.  I learned that since all the children and teachers arrive at school in their own frame of mind, based on the many factors influencing that, by joining together in our warmups, with alternating inward and outward activities, we start to "breathe" as one; so instead of teaching a number of individual children, we end up teaching one class.  In the Parent Evening, we did a sample warmups time, including bean bag tossing.  Hopefully the parents present had as much fun as I did.  :)

Elexa Wagaman, the parent who is leading the fundraising activities of our school this year, came to our meeting and inspired us to give to the school, starting with "Apogee" fund.  This is an easy and painless way to direct state taxes to The Garden School.  Please participate by talking to Elexa or reading about it on the Monday Messenger.  

Happy September!

Ki Carol

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Upper Grades: August 20 - 24

Happy Monday, Upper Grades parents! 

Here’s a reminder that tomorrow (Tuesday) at 7 pm we have our parent evening. It’s only 45 minutes long, and it’s important that one or more parents from each family attend. As a parent, my understanding of Waldorf education had its beginnings in these parent evenings over the years. 

Today we finished our first Main Lesson block, The Song of Hiawatha. While I will still be holding space for our class, I am very excited to introduce Molly Parker as a guest teacher for our next block.  Tomorrow we will begin a 3-week study of Local Geography.  Molly is a parent in our class and she and I were in a 2-year Foundation Studies class together a few years ago. She also has many years of homeschool teaching experience. 

We had a lot of fun celebrating our first birthday last week. Liam brought in yummy popsicles (not too high in sugar and without artificial ingredients), he lighted a special candle he got to take home, and we sang and made cards for him. You can see the picture of Liam entertaining the class with his new magic kit he’d received that morning. When your child’s birthday is approaching, I’ll contact you. Also we’ll set up times to celebrate the summer birthdays!

I would like the shared birthday snacks from home to be fresh fruit, or the popsicles like Liam brought. Please don’t send in snacks containing gluten, dairy, or artificial sweeteners, flavors or colors. We have some allergies in the class, plus we like to honor the school food guidelines even on birthdays. I greatly appreciate your help with this! 

Some of the children have REALLY been interested in the caterpillars that are everywhere nowadays. One day, this interest was especially strong, as you can see in the photo. 

We did some language arts study in an outdoor classroom. It was my first time teaching in this way. It’s so pleasant and relaxing, which I can see contributes to easeful engagement with the lesson. After we finished the lesson they were allowed to visit the tadpoles in the little pool.  

See you tomorrow night! 

Ki Carol 

Upper Grades: August 13 - 17

Greetings, Upper Grades families!

We finished our first full week together on Friday, and the week seemed to fly by for me.  We are getting to know each other and bonding as a little community!  

Speaking of community, we will be having our Upper Grades Parent Evening on Tuesday, August 28th at 7 pm.  At least one parent is expected to attend the Parent Evening.  Please let me know if you won't be able to attend, so we can make sure you receive the information you need!  There will be time for questions, and for getting to know each other so we can create a strong foundation for all the children in the class.  I look forward to it!

During our Morning Lesson, we have been reading, writing, and drawing from Longfellow's The Song of Hiawatha, and we will complete that language arts block in the coming week.  I taught the class the Canadian folk song "Land of the Silver Birch," and they seemed to enjoy the mood of that song - it matches the imagery and stories of the Hiawatha poem very well, I think.  

Here is a message from Ki Kathee full of details about the Strings Program.  Have a great week!  Ki Carol


The Strings Class is doing great!  As a general rule, for right now, I would like for them to practice five times per week for 5 -10 minutes on the songs that we are learning in class.  I have not yet introduced the bow, so all of their classwork prep is to be done pizzicato - plucking the strings with their pointer/ index finger.  They received a handout on Wednesday that identifies the parts of the violin.  They will be quizzed on those terms on Wednesday.  When you arrive at school on Wednesday and Friday, please allow your child to bring their violin to the Strings Class Room and leave in on the table.  At the end of class, we move them to the hallway on the other side of the building so that you can access them easily as you leave.  We need for them to stay inside the building for climate control.  Any assistance you can give to making sure that your child's instrument is tuned when they come to school would be greatly appreciated.  Beginning this week, I will be teaching them how to tune their own instrument using the fine tuners, in the hope that only slight pitch adjustments are needed.

Ki Kathee

Upper Grades: First Week of School

Greetings, Upper Grades Families,

 

Our school year has started off beautifully!

Our classroom is bright and crisp, with its new desks and chairs for everyone! It feels wonderful. On the first day, I gave the students their bundle of supplies, one student at a time.  They were touched by the beauty of the handmade crayon pouches, and there's nothing quite like the thrill of untouched colored pencils and beeswax crayons.  Some said it felt like Christmas.  I know they will take care of these and other beautiful and practical tools they will continue to receive at certain times.  

Five of the nine students are new to The Garden School, as am I, and we are all learning and creating routines and expectations.  The structure we are forming now will serve us well throughout this year of learning, hard work, creativity, and community building (fun!).

My intention is for our class to embrace their position as the oldest students in the school, and the leadership responsibilities that go along with that. I am excited about helping them increase their already impressive capacity to have real respect for others.  They have already touched my heart with their powers of inclusivity and kindness. 

In the coming two weeks we will have a language arts block, focusing on a section of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, The Song of Hiawatha.We'll be immersing ourselves in this story from pre-colonial times, through Longfellow's rich imaginative language.  We will be writing and illustrating sections of the poem, along with creating our own poetry in the meter of Hiawatha. I've already read a portion of the poem to them, and shared my husband Steve's recent experience of taking an original poem written in Longfellow's hand up to the Longfellow museum in Portland, Maine, on behalf of a client.  

 

Before we begin our main lesson work each morning, we work on mental math, learning songs, and doing verses and movement to warm us up for the day and bring us together.  

I look forward to learning and growing with your positively wonderful children!

Warmly,

Carol