Seasonal Life

May Day at Madrona School

Spring is upon us and at Madrona School, like many other Waldorf schools in the northern hemisphere, we celebrate with a May Day festival. Our traditions include making flower crowns, an all-too popular cake walk, lemon peppermints, maypole dancing, community picnicking and May cake and wine. It is a festive, beautiful day at school for all ages, especially joyful when the sun shines! We treasure the couple of times each year when we gather as a whole school community.

Here are some images from our most recent festival, taken by a few of our photographer parents, as well as the office -- thank you to all who shared their pictures!

A Season for Candles and Singing

The Shortest Day, by Susan Cooper, begins: And so the shortest day came and the year died / And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world / Came people singing, dancing, / To drive the dark away.... 

December at Madrona School brings candlelight and community singing. We gather together for our Spiral of Light festival, and the second grade brings us an annual Santa Lucia celebration. The classrooms sprout greenery and show off colorful windows, too. Our days are short but packed with a sense of festive anticipation. Enjoy this glimpse into this year's December.

Michaelmas at Madrona School

The weather turned fall-like just in time for our annual Michaelmas festival, and while the grade school had to practice their pageant in the rain in the morning, by festival time, the sun was shining! We had a lovely afternoon. Challenges for all ages, including boat races and an obstacle course for the young ones, and balance beams, pillow jousting, slack lines, tug o'war, giant knitting, and dragon bread roasting for older children. The grade school challenges concluded with a slightly ominous trip through the 7th grade-designed and run dragon's lair (tucked into the woods), where treasure awaited the brave. Then we feasted on potatoes from the garden, and a beautiful dragon's bread offered by the 2nd grade. The afternoon concluded with an all-grade school pageant -- gnomes, shooting stars, royalty, a brave knight and, in the end, a tamed dragon. Happy Autumn!

Harvest Dinner at Lowery Farm

Our recent Harvest Dinner was lovely -- thank you to everyone who was able to come and celebrate the new school year with us! The dinner was a kickoff to our year-long Community Fund efforts to raise $120,000 in non-tuition income in support of our school budget. And, we've  raised $56,000 to date! We are grateful for every gift we've received and thrilled that our re-organized fundraising program is off to a strong start. If you would still like to donate, please do so through our website here. 

Enjoy these photographs from the event -- a selection from talented parents Paige Clark and Julie Rings. Thanks for sharing, you two!

Madrona School is a non-profit, tax exempt public charity organization incorporated in the State of Washington. Madrona School does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender expression or identity, national and ethnic origin, sexual orientation, or religion in any of its programs, classes or activities.