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EVENTS
COME TO THE 39th HOLIDAY HANDCRAFT FAIR on November 12, 10 am – 4 pm
If you haven’t already, you should read this recent NYTimes feature article that supports Waldorf education.
Pre-Assembly Pre-School Gathering – Wednesday, November 23 at 10 a.m. in the library. This event is primarily for current kindergarten parents whose children are eligible for 1st grade in September. However, any are welcomed and encouraged to come. The program will consist of a brief welcome and introduction to the elementary grades by John Green, refreshments and reserved seating for attendees at the 11 a.m. Thanksgiving Assembly. Please RSVP to Tracey Fernbacher, at 528-4015 ext. 106 if you are planning to attend.
Thanksgiving Assembly – On November 23, our students will be participating in our annual Thanksgiving Assembly, which is traditionally exceptional! Each of the grades presents work they are doing in class. This is a perfect opportunity to invite prospective families to the school to give them a lively and informative introduction to Waldorf education. We suggest you arrive at 10:45 a.m. for the assembly, which begins at 11:00 a.m.
Remember that students are required to wear assembly dress. Students are also asked to bring a non-perishable food item to contribute to the Great Barrington Food Pantry.
EARLY CHILDHOOD
Rhyme Time @ Matrushka (309 Main St., GB) is held every Tuesday at 10:30 am. This is a weekly collection of rhymes, finger plays, circle games and simple puppetry designed to delight and engage infants, crawlers, toddlers and young children. It is led by two moms in the community who have experience in early childhood education and who share our desire to create free community events for families. It is a free, drop-in weekly event for young children with their care giver and all are welcome.
Lantern Walk, Thursday, November 10, 5:00 pm Early Childhood building
As the warmth of the summer sun and the colors of harvest time begin to fade, the children in our kindergartens and nurseries will illuminate the autumn evening with lanterns and song. Children all over the world will celebrate Martinmas with a lantern walk. This festival historically commemorates Martin of Tours who as a Roman soldier saved a poor beggar in a snowstorm by cutting his own coat in half to keep the poor man warm. St Martin was known for his gentle nature and his generosity and devotion to all humankind. As we carry our glimmering lanterns through the dark night we represent the light and warmth of humanity transcending winter’s darkness. The Lantern walk is an opportunity for us to join together in kindling our inner light. It is this light of reverence and generosity that we need most in our world today.
The children will make lanterns at school to carry their light. We encourage the parents to bring a lantern with candle for themselves and siblings. Please come to your child’s classroom at 5:00 pm for a story before we begin the lantern walk. We will finish the walk with a light snack shortly before 6:00 pm. Please dress your children warmly for the night. My family makes a special soup to keep warm for after the walk. When we return home, we hold the reverence of the festival by keeping the lanterns lit at the dinner table. When they were younger my own children would then carry their lanterns to light their way to their beds. The night in all its simplicity was a magical experience for them and they were able to take the celebration of light into their dreams.
“I’m walking with my lantern, my lantern is walking with me.
In heaven the stars are shining, on earth shines my lantern with me
My light it burns as homeward I turn
A bimmel a bimmel a boom …”
E.C. Thanksgiving dismissal
The Thanksgiving Assembly is a wonderful opportunity to see what the elementary children are learning. If you would like to bring your child to the Thanksgiving Assembly please let your Kindergarten or Nursery teachers know ahead of time. We will have your child ready for pick up by 10:45 am so you have time to go across the street. All other children will be dismissed at 12:00pm.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
Sports
Congratulations to the boy’s , girl’s soccer teams. Both teams placed second at the BCD tournaments. In addition, the girl’s Team Two took fourth place on that same day. Well done to all teams. The sixth grade co-ed team had a number of wins and losses and demonstrated good sportsmanship and teamwork. A hearty thank you goes to our coaches Elmer Orobio, Hartmuth Sommer and Bart Elsbach. Now it’s time to return those soccer uniforms to Krista Palmer before basketball begins.
Basketball starts on Monday November 14 at Simon’s Rock gym. Those students who are playing will receive a letter this coming week explaining the details. Bart Elsbach will coach the boys and Heather Alston will coach the girls with Assistant Coach Bradley Danyluk.
Catamount ski forms are due November 1 to the school office. After November 9, families will have to pay a $10.00 late fee and send the application to Catamount themselves.
Students who have a season pass may ride the bus for a $25 fee if space is available. For more information see Mrs. Krista Palmer.
We will be going ice skating again this winter [weather permitting], so be on the look-out for ice skates. We appreciate families bringing their too-small skates; we will put them to good use during the winter.
Eurythmy
The students have been doing beautiful work in eurythmy this fall. You are invited to see a sample at our open lessons:
| Tues. November 15 | Wed. November 16 | Thur. November 17 | |
| 10:45 am | Grade 3 | Grade 4 | Grade 6 |
| 11:35 am | Grade 1 | Grade 2 | Grade 5 |
Music
Students who take private lessons are invited to play in the first all-school recital of the year.
All-School Recital Schedule 11-12
Sunday, November 20 at 4 p.m.
Sunday, February 12 at 4 p.m.
May at 7 p.m. – date to be announced
All-school recitals are not obligatory. They are an opportunity for individuals through-out the year to share their gifts with others.
Please check the Parent Handbook regarding all-school music recitals (pages 38-39).
Children must be signed up by a parent or music teacher. Call Mrs. Mitchell at 274-0138 for more information.
HIGH SCHOOL
Open House ~ Thursday, November 3 (7:30 pm)
Our first Open House is set for Thursday, November 3 (7:30 p.m.) at the high school. Student work, brief presentation of school programs, questions and answers, and refreshments! Please join us!
Spaghetti Dinner ~ Friday, November 4 (5:30 pm to mingle, 6:00 dinner pm)
Why cook? Join us for a festive meal to welcome our new families and visitors from Germany. Waldorf High School Spaghetti Dinner, 5:30 p.m. to mingle and 6:00 p.m. for dinner at the Congregational Church on Main St., Gt. Barrington (between TD Bank and the Library). $10 adults, $5 students 8th grade and younger, $30 family.
OFFICE
Health tips
It is the cold and flu season so remind your child to wash his/her hands frequently.
It never hurts to check for head lice. Remind your child not to share his/her hat, scarf or comb.
Share your findings with the school. It helps to prevent outbreaks.
Scrip
Scrip is Available via Pre-order and at School
Our new parent volunteer as the Scrip Coordinator is Rebecca McFarland, parent of Adelaide in Grade 6. You may leave your orders at school in the Scrip box and she will fill them. If you find yourself needing scrip in a pinch, please see Janie LaBrasca at school. She has a limited supply of Big Y, Co-op and Guido’s cards in $50 and $100 denominations. Scrip must be paid for when received in order to keep the program going. If you’d like to place a standing order, please complete a form at school or contact Rebecca via email (mcfarland135@verizon.net) or phone (c: 413-813-8014 / h: 413-528-1954). Please note that Rebecca also has a supply of gift cards on hand for Amazon, Dick’s Sporting Goods, iTunes, LL Bean, Land’s End, Overstock, and Zappos. These and many others are also available by setting up an account at www.shopwithscrip.com using the school’s enrollment code 8921332621922.
ALUMNI NEWS
Sarita Orobio-Wolff (Class of 2007 GBRSS, Class of 2011 GBWHS) wrote us about her recent trip to Columbia:
I spent this past September enjoying an incredible graduation gift: a trip to Colombia! My grandmother and my mom’s two sisters decided that they would pay for me to visit the country I was born in. I hadn’t been back to Colombia since my family moved to the U.S.
I spent the first ten days living in Bogota with one of my cousins and exploring the city. She showed me not only important landmarks (the neighborhood where Bogota was founded, the gold museum, the president’s home, the Botero Museum) but also all of her favorite places to go eating, dancing and shopping.
Next I went to Cali (the city where I was born) and I stayed with my grandmother and my aunt for the rest of the trip. I could not have asked for better tour guides. They took me to see all of the places where my family would go when I lived there, my old school, the house where I lived for 6 years, and countless museums and important places. I was able to visit a lot of my parents’ friends and I came back with over 1,000 pictures on my camera! I also got to meet my dad’s whole side of the family which was an emotional, exciting and very sweet experience.
I can’t even begin to describe how wonderful this trip was, it was the best graduation gift that my family could have given me. In January I will be traveling again, but this time only as far as Baltimore, Maryland where I will be starting school at Goucher College.
PARENT ASSOCIATION NEWS
Parent Association Minutes October 12, 2011 (2 meeting)
The meeting began at 7:04 pm., on the campus of the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School, in the library. Those in attendance where Mr. Sblendorio, Faculty, J. Valens, EC Faculty, C. Clark 2 Grade, M. Cleveland 6 Grade , M. Di Simone 8 grade, L. Bissaillon 5 Grade, B. Posey 2 Grade, J.Cooney 4 Grade, J. Minacci 7 Grade and Chair.
The meeting starting by welcoming the new parent reps and their willingness to be of service to their class and for their respective teachers.
Old Business:
a.) Playground update- Mrs. Palmer is researching the possible playground equipment that may go in the “back” play ground for the children.
b.) Library update – A. Abrams is continuing with the research of the additional books for the library.
c.) AWSNA (Assoc. of Waldorf Schools of North America) visit- The reaccreditation committee will be at Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School on October 23-25. This will complete the self study that began last year. Every 10 years it is re-done.
d.) Waldorf 101- After much consideration, a plan was decided on, to change the time of this venue and to a evening lecture series. There was a decision to change the title to “Parent Education Series”, to try to revitalize the enthusiasms for parent education.
The first lecture will be lead by S. Sagarin PhD., High School leader will begin the series with “What makes Waldorf?”
Then there will be six (6) lectures following, about one a month, on Tuesday nights.
These lectures will be held at the Great Barrington Rudolf Steiner School and be at 7 pm. They are free and open to anyone (in our community or in the area) who is interested!
We were reminded, by Mr. Sblendorio, that the speakers work hard at preparing their talks, feel discouraged with a small turn out. Please, try to participate and pass your enthusiasm along to your individual classes.
e.) Fair Updates-
All rooms are staffed with their respective Fair rep. Please, get the word out there is a need for GENTLY used items, toys, baby items, & clothing!! Look through your stuff, and see if there is anything that can be donated to this room (5th Grade). The items can be dropped off to Janie La Brasca, in Development.
Remind classes that set-up is the 11th (no school), and the Fair is the 12th (Saturday).”Many hands make light work”…. Any questions can be forwarded to your Class FAIR rep or Leslie Bissaillon.
f.) Berkshire Botanical Gardens Harvest Fair- T. Fernbaucher, set-up a display of materials and posters of the school. The puppet wagon was there, along with the EC teachers performing a play, for any interested children. It was successful and a positive outreach activity.
New Business:
a.) Request from EC. for Michaelmas (October 19).
Garden beds are overgrown and need new boards. We talked about the feasibility to get donated supplies. We need more information and a formal request written. We will revisit after gathering more information on their needs, in supporting this festival.
b.) Reminders in Parent Teacher Conferences Dates-
The conferences will be held Thursday, October 27, in the evening and October 28, Friday, during the day. The 5th grade is responsible for providing a meal for the teachers on Friday, as apart of Teacher Appreciation.
c.) Reminder- Parent education workshops will happen in EC, 1 x a month, all are welcome. There will be fliers hanging on the bulletin boards. Any questions ask EC teachers or contact the Website.
Closed the meeting at 8:15pm.
Next Meeting will be November 2, 2011. All are welcome.
Respectfully Submitted, Jamie Minacci, Chair