BWS Winter Plan 2020/21
The Berkshire Waldorf School is pleased to share our plan for the winter term, which begins for students on January 11 and extends through March 19. It is a 9 week term with a mid-winter recess. We are confident that this plan will sustain a range of possible challenges coming in the winter months. Be sure to check the revised calendar for anticipated spring changes as well.
Thank you for being part of the Berkshire Waldorf School Community!
Holiday Handcraft Fair Tradition Continues December 7-12
Can you imagine what it would be like to live inside a gingerbread house?
For the last 47 years, Fall has been “Fair season” at BWS, when our whole school community worked together to transform the grade school building and grounds into the Holiday Handcraft Fair for one unforgettable day.
From Falling Leaves to Falling Snow
October set off a flurry of making, doing, and getting ready. BWS parents held crafting circles in the mornings after drop off, learned to sew “heavy babies” with Mrs. Palmer, and built wooden toys together in the woodshop after bedtime.
Each class worked together to create a theme and decorations to transform rooms throughout the school, including first grade’s Little People’s Shop, where children choose gifts for family and friends, seventh grade’s Country Store, and eighth grade’s Handcraft Room, with warm handmade items including winter accessories and soft toys.
A Winter Wonderland of Family Fun
Together, we transformed the school into memory-making puppet shows, horse-drawn hayrides, face painting, jump rope making, and candle dipping. Other highlights included the children’s craft room, our favorite “lemon sippers,” a very special cakewalk with live musicians, maple sugar cotton candy, and the Pocket Wizard, whose many pockets are filled with small gifts—all traditions handed down from parent to parent for almost 50 years. The centerpiece, in the school library, was the silent auction, full of wondrous goods and services from local makers, as well as art, gifts including food and wine, and a chance to win a fabulous get-away.
A Fair for Our Times
This year, the 48th Holiday Handcraft Fair is being reinvented as an online auction, with the same fantastic goods, services, and handmade items—a real slice of the Berkshires you can share with family and friends all over the world. We’ll recreate many of our beloved traditions, for example, a “lemon sipper family kit,” a chance to win a cakewalk cake, or a CSA from our Pumpkin Hollow school garden. In prior years, BWS children and adults alike would be knitting in every spare moment to finish unique squares that come together to form the Community Afghan—and that won’t change!
Warm Hands, Warm Hearts
We think of community as “building something together,” and that tradition is strong in the Berkshires, family to family. This year, many of the treats and fun we enjoyed together in years past, now you can share at home. Please join us December 7-12 for the 48th Annual Berkshire Waldorf School Holiday Handcraft Auction on www.charityauctionstoday.com. You can register in advance beginning November 23rd.
And to donate, please contact fair@berkshirewaldorfschool.org no later than Wednesday, December 2 to include your gift or service in the online auction.
Spreading the joys of a handmade holiday in the Berkshires!
BWS Reopening Health & Safety Plan
Dear Berkshire Waldorf School Families,
Thank you to everyone who attended our Health & Safety Town Hall meeting. We are grateful to our Medical Advisory Panel for their dedication to the well-being of our school and local community. We are also grateful to our entire BWS community as we continue this journey together.
For those who weren’t able to attend, or want to review, please find below:
- A link to the August 18th Health & Safety Town Hall recording
- Our previously released Health & Safety Plan for the 2020/21 school year
Thank you for being part of the Berkshire Waldorf School Community!
School Reopening Plan for Fall 2020
After weeks of intensive planning, we are thrilled to present our Reopening Plans for the 2020-21 School year. Click on the button below to view our plans outlined in a slide deck. Your child’s class teacher will provide more information about class-specific topics. More details to come about September 8, our first day of school, later this summer. Please review our plans and feel free to contact us with any questions, either via the inquiry form at the bottom of our home page, or by calling Admissions Director Robyn Coe at 413-528-4015 x. 106.
Thank you for being part of the Berkshire Waldorf School Community!
Update on Fall School Reopening
BWS faculty, administration, staff and trustees have just wrapped up the second week of intensive collaborative planning for how we will meet the challenges of the 2020-2021 school year. I have joined a remarkably sincere and creative school team as they work to plan the safe return to our campus. I am inspired by the reimagining of opportunities for connectedness and the enduring commitment to the learning journey we have chosen for our children.
Wednesday, July 15, we will share our school’s reopening plan on our website.
Waldorf Education is a refuge and antidote to the pressing needs of these complex times. It specifically emphasizes community health and well-being, connection to nature, and striving for a more just and equitable society. Having spent these weeks immersed in conversations about how BWS will meet this moment, I am reassured and comforted by the strength of this community, and excited to share our plans with you.
Kind Regards,
10 Tips for Distance Learning
- Keep a sense of the rhythm of the school day, based on Steiner’s concept of weekly/daily rhythm. Change out of pjs and dress for the day, to begin main lesson in the morning. Progress to downtime, reading or quiet time at midday, then outside time, games and projects in the afternoon. Focus on keeping bedtime and meal times consistent. This reliable rhythm is very important for children (and their families), to help them feel held and supported.
- Set up a dedicated work space. Structure—via your child’s own desk (for grade schoolers) or table and chair—is grounding, along with a place for their materials.
- Give yourself and your child recess times.
- Include special set up and clean up chores for each child, so they have the empowerment of real work to help their family.
- If you have little ones who still nap, what a wonderful time to do “grown up” activities with older students, such as painting, cutting paper, building, knitting, reading a chapter book together or even baking or starting dinner.
- Appeal to the senses. Let them help you knead bread or make soup, take a “listening” walk or a bird watching hike, play a guessing game by touch only.
- Take time for feelings and sharing.
- Music is important—singing, whistling, playing music, dancing, jump rope rhymes help children move through transitions and bring a comforting feeling of calm.
- The snow drops are “up,” and the red wing blackbirds are back, so this is a wonderful time to learn something new: hopscotch, skate, ride a bike, scooter, plan and prepare your garden, build a bat house or a bird house together, teach old dogs new tricks. (Your children might be amazed to know you can ride a unicycle or juggle balls!)
- Let your child teach you what they know. They will enjoy teaching you how to knit, how to play a pentatonic flute or recorder, put on a puppet show, do Eurythmy or plant onions. They know lots of songs and stories, the blessing before meals and morning verse. Children take such pride and pleasure in sharing what they’ve learned with loved ones.
IMPORTANT NOTICE
Engaging minds, hearts & hands with distance learning.
Updates are made daily here
Wash your hands
While the world is busy responding to the novel coronavirus, at school, we are taking extra precautions to keep the school clean and bring awareness to keeping our hands clean. If you’re lucky enough to witness the warmth with which our teachers greet their students in the morning, you’ll know that traditionally this is done with a handshake, clear eye contact and welcoming words. This week, our class teachers are finding creative alternatives to handshaking and are greeting their students with a bow or a gentle touch at the shoulders. Last week, the first grade class made posters for all the bathrooms to emphasize the importance of handwashing, and their class teacher, Ms. Taiga, along with Ms. Allesandra and the fifth grade class, demonstrated the proper way to handwash along with a catchy tune during our Friday all school assembly. Afterwards, one could hear students singing this little ditty in the bathrooms all over school. Meanwhile, in our faculty meeting, one of our teachers shared out a little “comic” to further educate older children (and ourselves) about this illness. The final page of this little comic advises: “And don’t forget! There are a lot of helpers out there who are working to protect you. It is not your job to worry.” This is a good reminder for us as adults too, as we want to protect our children from unnecessary anxiety and promote a healthy sense of life and continue to support their learning at home and at school.
Know the facts about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and help stop the spread of rumors.
“Looking Ahead to Middle School” discussion with middle school teachers, parents and students. berkshirewaldorfschool.org
Middle School Science Fair Wednesday 2/12 3:30-5:30p and Thursday 2/13 8:30-10:00a
