Michaelmas: Have the Courage to Do What Is Right
Richmond Waldorf School celebrates many festivals throughout the year that demonstrate and deepen our values to make a positive impact on the world. Late September brings us Michaelmas season! Michaelmas falls during the harvest season, midway between the northern hemisphere’s summer and winter solstices. Although Michaelmas is not commonly celebrated in North America, it is an important festival in Waldorf schools throughout the world. As J Fleming from Shining Mountain Waldorf School explains, “Saint Michael is an archangel mentioned in the Bible, Apocrypha and Koran. He appears as a spiritual figure and protector of humankind, inspiring strength, courage and […]
Eighth Grade Projects
A Shakespeare performance, a weeklong class trip, and graduation performances are just a few of the capstone experiences 8th Grade Richmond Waldorf students look forward to as they end their time with us on campus. This year, Mrs. Pollard revived an old RWS tradition — the 8th grade project, to add to the mix. With our school year taking an unexpected turn due to COVID-19, many of these long anticipated experiences were forced to be left behind. The 8th grade projects began to take on new importance during this virtual learning time, as students worked creatively and independently towards […]
Shelter Projects go Beyond the Classroom
“A home provides shelter and protection, but it is also a place where we nurture ourselves, creating a safe place apart from the world. As the third grader continues to move through the nine-year change and the experience of separation from the world, an inner need arises in them to build their own sanctuary. Creating a shelter allows this impulse to find an outer expression.” –Waldorf Teacher Resources, Micheal Seafort, 2020. In Waldorf schools across the world, 3rd graders all work on a shelter-focused project. Students spend time discussing and studying all sorts of different primitive homes created by […]
May Faire Toolkit
Happy May Faire season to you and yours! While we are apart, we want to be sure our community is able to enjoy and celebrate May Faire at home. Below, you will find several resources for celebration ideas including songs, crafts and videos. As we do every year, we celebrate the beauty of spring and its promise of new beginnings. Let’s celebrate all that we are becoming in this time and all that we will be together when we are reunited. We hope to create a slideshow of our community’s remote celebrations this year, too! If you want to […]
Learning from the Bees – A trip to Spikenard Bee Sanctuary
The sixth grade recently spent three days at Spikenard Farm Honey Bee Sanctuary in Floyd, VA. Here is a description of their trip from Class Teacher, Roberto Trostli: The ride down to Floyd County went better than expected, and the children enjoyed the chance to be together on a journey. When we arrived, we ate lunch, unpacked the cars, and set up the tents, only to find that the original plan for which group would get which tent was not going to work. In the end, every group but one had to switch tents, which caused some grumbling, but I told […]
Waldorf = Movement
In a Waldorf school, students learn through a rich sensory experience that brings visual arts, music, performing arts and movement into everyday lessons including reading, math, and science. In Waldorf schools, great care is taken to integrate movement and the arts into the curriculum in a developmentally appropriate way. We believe that through these experiences, students develop the intellectual curiosity, social sensitivity, and physical stamina to meet their full potentials. Matthew Thornton joined the RWS faculty in 2017 to build our Movement Arts program. His teaching pedagogy draws from his experience with dance, physical theatre, martial arts, and mind-body […]
100 Miles for 100 Years
