Thank you for your kind words, hugs, and positive expressions of what our school year together has meant for your child and family. Your gratitude is such a gift for me as is the love I feel from your children. That is my greatest reward for this work I do. Thanks to all who donated to the Faculty Education Fund in honor of Ms. Nicole and me. The teachers in our school work tirelessly and for very modest pay. This fund helps to see that anyone wishing to attend training and professional development workshops has funds available for this. This gift gives right back to our school and children!

Our departing kindergarten students have gifted us with new placemats for the classroom and a new carpet sweeper. Thanks to the Peterson, Stokes, DePue-Renollet, and Howard families for this.

I wish you all a wonderful summer full of much joy and adventure. I’ll do my best to rest and replenish so I can return to your children in the fall with fresh energy and enthusiasm for another year!

In closing, I share the closing words of our morning circle:

“The Earth is firm beneath my feet. The sun shines bright above,
And here I stand so straight and strong. All things to know and love.”

Good-bye.

Blessings,
Donna Brooks

Thank you all for your support this school year. Our kindergarten children have crossed the bridge and are excited about their adventures into first grade for next year. The children staying in our garden are also very full of love and joy right not. I’ve been hugged and kissed so much this past week. It’s like we’re all getting our fill before a summer apart. But rest assured we’ll come together this summer. My hope is to have a forest preserve picnic for our families returning next year and our incoming families and students. I’ll keep you posted as to the date and location of this play, play, play date.

We bid farewell to our students going to first grade, and we also bid farewell to two students who’ve been in our garden the past two years. One student will join her big brother and sister at their charter school at Prairie Crossing. I will miss their family very much. The parents brought their oldest daughter to our school back when I first began teaching here. Fond memories from long ago that lead up to beholding their young daughter’s beautiful smile and singing now. Another family is moving this summer, so today I washed their daughter’s feet for the last time in our lavender bath in Extended Day. My how those feet have grown since she was three! I will miss her very much, but we are promised a visit whenever they return to Illinois! Best wishes to both families. You are in our hearts.

Children will be taking home bags with all their school belongings on Thursday and Friday. Be sure to pick these up this week and check our lost and found for any other items to go home.

Additionally, I will have some tending, cleaning and ironing projects for any motivated summer workers!! Come pick up a bag to tend, wash, and/or iron and return some time during June and July. I’ll be giving away bags tomorrow and on Friday after the picnic. Oh yeh!!! Deep cleaning will happen in August, so let me know if you’re inspired for this when the time comes. All this is our effort to create and keep a clean, beautiful, safe space for these children. This is our home away from home.
Please extend a thank you to Kristin DePue, who served as our Room Parent this year. She has been a great support to the teachers and to our program, and I appreciate all her efforts. Anyone interested in taking on this PTO function for next year, please let me know.

Have a wonderful summer vacation! Breathe out!!

Warmly,
Donna Brooks

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Please join all of us at Water’s Edge Waldorf School in congratulating our newest graduates.  8th-graders Nikala Purcell and Tessa Wallis-Deering received their diplomas today in a beautiful and emotional ceremony.

(Photos by Amy Howard)

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Today the Sunflower Garden Early Childhood class celebrated the students who will be going to the First Grade in the fall.  Each child holds a puppet that they sewed for the puppet show they performed for their classmates and parents as part of the festivities.  These students will share a classroom with the current first grade students who were also in attendance for the celebration.  The students stand with their teacher, Donna Brooks (left) and her assistant, Nicole Griffith (right).

Next week concludes our time together. Please make sure to double check your child’s bag and belongings going home. If you can send in a paper shopping bag on Monday or Tuesday, that will help us with our packing. There will be laundry needs and ironing projects sent home for summer cleaning. Let me know if you’ll take a bundle! Thanks!

A special visitor came to our room on Wednesday to observe the work we do. Pat Grosso, a certified HANDLE practitioner and occupational therapist, visited our class to reconnect with Waldorf education and our school. Her now grown children attended school at Four Winds Waldorf School. She was very pleased with her visit and reaffirmed the good work we are doing…how good it is for children’s healthy development. She also reiterated the value of children spending time and growing up in the early childhood program. Like Pia Antonetti, who works with children from our school, Pat Grosso is an excellent resource for children needing extra support (especially before going into the grades) with attention, sensory processing, coordination/balance, and other work needed for children who may have neurodevelopmental differences. If you have any questions about this, feel welcomed to speak with me more.

Next week we’ll have our own classroom ceremony to bid farewell to our friends “crossing the bridge” and going on to first grade next year. This journey is never to be rushed, for if one is not fully ready now, it will often show more and more with progression through the grades. Though a child is “of age,” this does not always mean ready. With this I am grateful for the one family’s decision, in concert with me, to keep their child in our garden for another year. This student just came to us in January, and we considered this carefully, as I will with any child. We do what we should always do ~ that which is best for the child. So our ceremony on Wednesday will be a send off to five children leaving the garden. This ceremony is for parents and grandparents of these children only, along with our children who attend class on Wednesday. In the fall, they’ll be welcomed in a Rose Ceremony into the grades.

Next Week:

Kindergarten Ceremony ~ Wednesday, June 3, 11:30 a.m.

Where Do the Children Play? ~ Movie screening and panel discussion Thursday, June 4, 7:00 p.m.

Friday, June 5, School Picnic ~ Pizza and potluck, 12:30.

I’m actually enjoying working with the energy of these children during these final days of school. It is a lesson in adaptation and flexibility! We have to meet them where they are!

Warmly,
Donna Brooks

Miss Nicole and I are continuing the marionette puppet show of “Queen Bee” we shared at the May Faire. If you missed it that day, know that your child will have several opportunities to receive this story. I know some were unable to enter once the story was begun at the faire, and this may have felt hurtful or frustrating. These puppet shows require a good deal of focus on the part of the teachers, and the children are “dreaming into it.” If we have people entering late or disruptions, it interrupts this flow and can distract the focus and dreamy quality of the experience. Whenever story time or circle time has begun, the ideal would be to not interrupt. I appreciate your timeliness and consideration of this. Thanks for understanding.

Our kindergarten children have been having some adventures. They’ve finished the basic form of their puppets and next week we’ll embellish them with capes, crowns, and whatever else is desired. Then they’ll get a chance to play with their creations. From that comes a story. The six year olds also visited Mrs. Bowmen’s classroom twice this week for a first grade experience. We in turn invited the first grade class to come see our “Queen Bee” puppet show.

Home visits: Families of six year old/turning six next year children…please contact me about a time in the coming weeks and into summer when I might visit your home. I’d like to visit the homes of all my incoming kindergarten children within the next month. Thanks.

Last call for letters of interest, resumes, and applications for candidates interested in our assistant positions. We are setting up times for applicants to visit the classrooms/observe and interview in the next two weeks. Any questions? Just call my cell phone number (listed in the Handbook).

Enjoy the long weekend!

Warmly,
Donna Brooks

This class continues to be a vivacious group of children eager to learn and experience!

We are currently hearing the story of the Hebrew people, and having one last block of drama. Our class play will be “The 12 Points of Punctuation,” and the children are excited about this production.

We have had very interesting field trips this spring. We visited McGraw Wildlife Center to experience maple tapping through history and animal shelters. While there, we met another Waldorf class, and they have since become our pen pals. During our measurement block, we went to Ambrosia Patisserie. We have been to work at Schaumburg Park District’s Spring Valley Living History Farm, and we spent a whole day at Sweet Meadow Stables, mucking out stalls, dispersing feed for horses, and enjoying a horse back riding lesson.

The 3rd graders, their teacher and parent chaperone Erik Stokes will be leaving for a weeklong farming trip to Angelic Organics, a biodynamic farm in Caledonia IL, where we will join two other 3rd grade Waldorf Schools in the Chicago Suburbs (including some of our pen pals.) While the 3rd grade is gone, the 2nd grade will lovingly receive more fables from Mrs. Paczynski, who will be leading their morning lessons. The 2nd graders can look forward to a Farm Trip next year as well.
It has been a great year full of new and rewarding experiences. Come join us next year!