Madrona School's Alphabet (C)

Our amazing class teachers are at the heart of Madrona School!

In our mixed-age preschool and kindergarten classes, a young child can expect to have one teacher for the duration of the program, sometimes over multiple years. This continuity of care is comforting to the young child, and it means that when it is time for grade school, the teacher is able to offer a full developmental picture to the incoming 1st grade teacher.

In the grade school, the class teacher loops up each grade with his or her class through the 8th grade. While not necessarily unique to Waldorf education, "looping" teachers are relatively rare in American schools. A class teacher has been a fixture of the Waldorf grade school since Rudolf Steiner founded the first school in Germany at the close of the first world war, however. Steiner believed that the strong relationship forged between a teacher and a student was essential to a robust education and healthy child development. Students in a Waldorf grade school begin each day and have main lesson with their class teacher, who becomes a familiar and beloved part of their school lives, even while they have a chance to learn from other teachers throughout the day in specialty classes. When a teacher spends this much time with his or her class, the education is truly child-centered, allowing a teacher to bring developmentally appropriate and emotionally engaging education to a constellation of students. Teachers and students build long-term relationships, and a teacher can truly foster community building within a class. It is the essential work of the teacher to know and see each student and to meet them where they are in any given year of their development -- no small task, but beautiful to witness as a parent of any grade schooler could tell you!

--edited from our weekly school newsletter, September 17, 2013 and April 28, 2014.

Parent Enrichment with Susanna Reynolds

We are so pleased to welcome Susanna Reynolds back for her second of three workshops this school year. All interested adults are welcome to join us in the 3rd grade classroom on Thursday, November 5 at 6:30pm. Susanna's workshop, entitled, "Seeing our Children in the Dark and in the Light: Becoming More Comfortable With The Polarities of Growth With Your Unique Child(ren)."

Susanna will work with us in conversation and with art to explore the struggling steps and triumphs in grade school children's growing minds and bodies, even as we celebrate their colorful expression and feeling lifes. When we become more comfortable with the fluctuating steps that occur in growth, with can better weather constant change.

Susanna is the Director of Sound Circle Center’s Parenting Programs, and in private practice at Seattle Sensory and Structural Integration. We are always pleased to host her across the water!

Madrona School's Alphabet (B)

What makes a Madrona School education unique and special?
During the 2013-2014 school year, we celebrated what a Waldorf education offers both our children and our community as we strive to graduate creative and eager lifelong learners. Using the alphabet gave us 26 aspects to celebrate! 

B is for...Bread Day! Why do we bake bread in our early childhood classrooms? The obvious answer is because it tastes amazing and fills our hungry young students with a warm, nutritious snack. Yet, the process offers so many benefits, eliciting a robust sensory experience, even as it provides an anchoring weekly rhythm in the early childhood classroom. The activity of baking bread engages the sense of touch through kneading and shaping the silky dough, it engages the sense of smell as the bread bakes, it engages the ears though the songs sung throughout shaping ("Five hot buns in the bakery shop...."), and it enhances class community as the children come together to shape their buns and to eat them warm from the oven. Baking bread also provides an outlet for the purposeful work that young children crave, an activity that they can easily see and participate in from start to finish over the course of a morning. And of course, it is fun and imaginative; sometimes dough gets shaped into worms, bugs or as some grade school students fondly remember, bunnies, hearts or a plate (more room to spread on butter and jam!). 

We all look forward to 'Bread Day' at school. Some children routinely save a bit for a sibling or a parent, spreading the anticipation. And, ask any of our older students, and they will tell you their fond memories of  kindergarten bread. Each year, our older students (and frankly, many teachers) make it their business to know which days are bread days, and they might peek in at lunch, hoping for leftovers. It becomes very nostalgic, and offers a real reminder of the beginning of their respective school journeys. There is a lot baked into each week's bread!

Want to bake at home? Here is a copy of one of the recipes used in our preschool and kindergarten classrooms.

--reprinted from the weekly school newsletter, September 23, 2014.

The Madrona School Annual Fund for 2015-2016

Jump In!

Our annual fund for the 2015-2016 school year is underway, and will run through mid-December. Our goal this season is a short and sweet $50,000 in 50 days. As in other years we're aiming for 100% parent community participation, at whatever level feels comfortable for your family. 

The annual fund supports the current year's operating budget, allowing us to continue to provide a joyful and creative education to around 130 students. Furthermore, the Madrona School board is in the first of a three-year effort to raise teacher salaries to be commensurate with island public and independent schools.

New this year!: Give directly through the Madrona School website -- it's quick and easy to give either a one-time or a monthly gift. Gifts can be processed through your bank account, or your debit or credit card. And, all your family and friends can give this way too.

We are so grateful for your gifts -- at any amount. Thank you for supporting Madrona School and Waldorf education!