lcg

Hello Evergreen parents,

What more can I say? I love these children and will really miss them, but luckily I should be seeing them all each week at LCG.

THANK YOU for the Buddha! He's already in the garden, chatting with St. Francis.

Thanks for everything these last two years. I feel so incredibly fortunate to have been in the Evergreen class and to be in a community like Lilac.

Hope to see you all at the picnic next Tuesday.

Many blessings to all of you always,
Lynn




Um, let's see. Emma finished all her capital letter cursive drills and her map book. We're trying to finish up. Now I need to go get the Everything Your 5th grader should know...I liked the 4th grade on this year as an idea machine.

soren lcg

Dear Maple class families and friends,
It was such a delight to have one final "normal" class before the end of the year. The play was a wonderful experience, but it felt so good to back to our familiar routine, although we missed Annie, Sam and Grant. We squeezed a lot into the day, just wanting to get back to all of the pursuits we enjoy. We began the day with some painting. Sue told a story beforehand, and soon happy little red-suited gnomes were scampering down green hillsides under sunny blue skies on our papers. Afterward, we gathered for circle and said our verses, learning a new song - "I Wake in the Morning Early". We heard a jataka tale about how a clever monkey outwitted a conniving crocodile, and then formed monkeys, crocs, pomogranates and rocks out of beeswax. We moved next to beanbag passing, and our hands moved "like ripples on a river". Cathleen also taught us a new passing verse: "Think at first then act upon, But when acting, think thereon." Good advice for life in general! We also used the four directions to challenge ourselves while catching the beanbags. A quick handclapping game of "A Sailor Went To Sea-Sea-Sea" helped us transition to form drawing, during which we created a three-part drawing depicting an "advent spiral", a "square spiral" and "triangular spiral". Throughout the year Cathleen has guided the children through ever more involved drawings, and it is wonderful to see the focus and confidence with which they now approach their form drawings. We had a nice, social snack and handwork session, then rehearsed the "Skye Boat Song" on our recorders. We sang "Shalom Chaverim" as a round, sent the "friendship squeeze" around the circle, then out to the playground we went. It was a pleasant, busy day.
A note about next week...We will be watching the Willow's play "Briar Rose" at 1:15 next Tuesday. You are welcome, as always, to stay and watch the performance with us. Next Tuesday is also the last class of the year, so we will be ending early and gathering in the Fellowship Hall at 3:00. Each class will give a short performance (please be sure that your child brings his/her recorder next week) and the Red Oaks will have a graduation celebration for those who are leaving the program. The children will then walk back over the rainbow bridge to their families.
Finally, an announcement that I make with a heavy heart. I will not be returning as a Lilac teacher next year. This was a hard decision, and one made based on a number of factors. First, my family's situation requires me to seek full-time teaching work, as my partner Jenny is facing a lay-off due to budget cuts in her district. While it is possible that she will find another teaching position, we are facing the possibility that she might not. (And here I become unapologetically political - one of the results of No Child Left Behind is massive budget cuts to ESOL programs. I guess it's okay to leave children behind if English is not their first language!)
My other reason has to do with the children and what they need and deserve. For the past two years I have earnestly tried to provide (along with Anne and Cathleen) an enriching, enjoyable, Waldorf-inspired experience for the Maples. Not a week has gone by, however, when I haven't wished that I had more of everything to give to this program - more time, more expertise and more experience. The pull of family, work and community involvement meant that there was never enough time or energy to do the program justice. The children are getting older now, and they need and deserve a teacher who can give them even greater challenges and opportunities for growth than I would be able to in the coming year. My hope is that a teacher who will be able to bring more experience and more energy to the class will be hired in my place. Anne, whose quiet wisdom is in many ways the heartbeat of the class, will continue to be the Maples' teacher, and the board has not yet made a decision regarding the second teacher for the class. I want to thank you all for the time and love you have given the class these past two years, and above all for sharing your incredible children with me. I will be talking with the children on the last day about this change, and would like to leave it up to individual families to decide whether it is best for them to tell their children in advance or not. I feel immeasurably blessed for having had this experience, and hope to always be in some way connected with Lilac Children's Garden.
With much love,
Sue Morgan

LCG and such

ello parents,

We had a fine day today, and missed Allysa, who was out.

We started with copying a spring poem into our cursive books.

Then we did our opening and singing, including round singing and one three-part round which went suprisingly well. Then we sat down for bean bag tossing with multiplication and even some division and some clapping and rhythm games.

That took us to handwork time with Melissa-- our last handwork of the year. The children have done so well with handwork this year, with many varied and abundant creations.

We settled in for a delicious and bountiful snack (thanks Marla and Michaela). I then told our last stories of the year-- two stories of powerful women of the Old Testament-- Deborah, one of the judges of the Israelites who helped the Israelites prevail against a powerful enemy and beautiful Queen Esther who saved her people from destruction.

We then worked on main lesson books-- some drawing from today's story, and others finishing up previous artwork and writing.

We helped a bit in the clean up of the Willow Room, then it was outside into the rain-free afternoon.

Next week is our last class. We will watch the Willow class (5-6 year olds) play of "Briar Rose" at 1:15 next week. I think the play is probably 20-30 minutes. Please join us if you can.

We'll then head back to the classrooms to finish up. The LCG closing ceremony will follow from 3-4PM. Please plan to join us in Fellowship Hall as we close the year, and for the "graduation" of the Red Oaks class-- some of whom have been at LCG for the entire 8 years.

Have a good week,
Lynn


__________________

In other news girls went on a camping trip at Arrowhead and had a blast! Cooked their own dinner/bkfast and learned Leave NO Trace.

motivated

I suddenly kicked myself in the ass this week. I am determined that we get through our ,ist of stuff before summer really hits!

Soren's play was awesome this week. She has one of the lead roles and did a great job!

Emma and Soren were in a talent show last night. Emma did gymnastics and Soren played a french folk song on the violin. she was amzing!

today soren and I worked on capital cursive letters (emma working on them now) and soren and I read most of her social studies book (!). she was super into it.

Dear Maple Families,
What a marvelous job your children all did on the play today! We were so impressed with how much work they had obviously put into learning their lines and developing their characters - the play was terrific! And I was glad to see the sentiments Audrey whispered to me backstage ("This is so much fun!") reflected in the happy, proud smiles of the children. The Maples took a larger role in this year's play in many ways - especially when it came to coming up with ideas for the set, costumes and staging. It was a real group effort.
Please remember that our evening performance is this Friday night. We need the children there by 6:30, and the play should start at 7. We hope that you will be able to remain for the Red Oak's performance of "As You Like It" - if you didn't catch it today you are in for a real treat. We'll see you all on Friday!
The Maple Teachers,
Sue, Anne and Cathleen

lcg

Good morning parents,

As we near the end of the year, I am growing even more fond of these Evergreens!

We had a very short day yesterday, starting with our verse and singing and some rousing clapping games, rhythmic "concentration" game (which is really improving) and some marching to calm the high spring energy.

Then I re-told the story of Moses as the children drew and wrote in their main lesson books. We moved right into snack to celebrate Molly's 11th birthday.

At the end of snack I told the children that I would not be teaching the class next year. Not unexpectedly, I started to cry as I told them. But, I'm happy to say that a number of them cheered when I told them Sarah would be their teacher. Please let me know if your child has any concerns about next year. I'd be happy to talk with any of the children.

Also, as I told Emma M, I'd be happy to be "pen pals" with anyone who likes to write!

We really enjoyed the Maples and Red Oaks' plays. I highly recommend the Friday performances!

Have a lovely week,

catching up

i Parents,

Hard to believe we are nearing the end of the year!

We missed Allysa and Emily, who are on vacation.

We started today with some handclapping, then our opening verse and singing. We marched around to "I left my wife..." and then sat down to do bean bags and times tables.

We moved into main lesson time and reviewed the long story of Joseph the Dreamer, and drew and wrote in our main lesson books. Many of the children have moved into writing their own summaries. I'm very pleased with that!

Melissa came in for handwork and we worked on a variety of handwork projects.

We cleaned up and came back for snack, with chatting and some "Stories to Solve."

We then tried a challenging form drawing-- first practicing it on chalk boards.

Then it was time to breathe out with some rounds of "The Big Wind Blows" and then we blew outside for some jump roping.


Hello all,

We had another nice day with the Evergreens.

We played clapping games as we waited for all to arrive. We started with our verse and some singing in rounds. We also played our rhythmic "concentration" game.

Then we moved into our last watercolor painting for the year. The children took a good amount of time to paint some lovely pictures

That took us to handwork time and then snack.

After snack we heard the long tale of Moses who led the Israelites out of Egypt.

We headed out into the sunshine to play jumprope and then we did our last Willow class clean up.

Next week we will be watching the Maple and Red Oak class plays, beginning at 2:30, as well as the HickSequoi's "Olympic" demonstration after class. Please join us if you can.

I will be telling the children about next year's teacher changes next week. I am really enjoying the Evergreens these days, and treasuring our class time together.

Have a lovely spring week,
Lynn

Hello Maple Families,
What a whirlwind day we had! We began class with our candle and verses, then sang a couple of songs including the round "Music Alone Shall Live". We then filed into the Fellowship Hall and rehearsed our play on stage. The children have been working so hard, and it showed in the confidently recited lines and the creative ideas they had regarding our rather tricky staging challenges. Many of us still need to work on being heard - it's so hard to feel comfortable speaking loudly and slowly. We finished our rehearsal and enjoyed an outdoor snack in the sunshine. After, we worked on painting key set and costume pieces and a well, a cliff and shrubbery appeared like magic out of a few carved up appliance boxes. By the time we had cleaned up and stowed them away, it was time to close our circle with "Merry we Have Met" and our friendship squeeze.
You should have received an e-mail stating the times of the play, but here they are again. We will be having our daytime performance at 2:30 next Tuesday and our evening performance at 7PM on the following Friday. Please have children arrive no later than 6:40 so that we have time to don costumes, give reminders and "stage notes" and collect ourselves before taking the stage. After our performance on both days the Red Oaks (the oldest class) will be performing their play. We look forward to having you come to the show!
Sue, Anne and Cathleen

Kids did high ropes at Camp Arrowhead and did an Oregon Trail adventure yesterday, with having to figure out supplies needed, and each having different jobs and stuff. it was very cool! Soren did a Lords and Ladies class a couple of weeks ago on medieval times.

They've done more of their maps books - just about done; and more math practice. Writing group.

We did a field trip to the Memorial art Gallery today, docent-led. Went through the egyptian exhibit, some local exhibits. It was interesting and fun!


Dear Maple Class Families and Friends,
What a busy class we had today - it really flew by. We are finally firmly into our play preparations, and as the children arrived they took a moment to draw a picture of what they thought their character(s) in the play might look like. Sensing a lively energy, we gathered to circle with an equally lively rendition of "Rattlin' Bog", then said our verses and lit the candle. Anne read a poem that related the classic story of the Blind Men and the Elephant. We had several visitors joining us for the first part of our day, so we talked about the plot of our play. We had our first read through with all actors assigned and present, and the kids did a wonderful job. We began work on some of the costumes and props we need, and hands were busy stitching imp caps, cutting out crowns and assembling silver cherries. The work time went quickly, and we gathered in the Fellowship Hall to begin working on the stage. After snack (with an extra treat of chocolate covered matzoh - thanks, Mark!) we did our handwork. Some were knitting, some finishing items for the play, all were busy. We had just enough time to clean up and close out our circle with "In the Pines" and "Merry We Have Met", then out to the playground for social hour.

Some notes about the play:
The children, as I mentioned, are doing a wonderful job so far. We have asked them to - if at all possible - try to have their lines mostly memorized by next week. Most children have only a few speeches - some have more, and we understand that they might need more time to get them learned. We don't have many fancy costume or props needs, but we are looking for big cardboard boxes (stove, dryer or refrigerator sized). We need at least one that is mostly intact, and another one or two to be cut up for scenery use. If you spot one or have one, please send me an e-mail or call me - and if you have a car big enough to transport it (or bigger than my Honda Civic), that would be even better.
You and your child can be thinking about costumes. General needs are as follows:
Black Imps - black clothing (pants or leggings, long sleeved shirts or sweatshirts) We made caps today. Shoes are a must onstage, but any color is fine.
Animals - We are mostly using tunics we have in stock, but clothing in a similar color could be worn beneath them (Stork - white, Elephant - grey, Stoat and Monkey - brown, tan or grey, Giraffe - yellow or light brown). I have been looking for those rubber noses you sometimes see that can be worn on the face with an elastic band - particularly an elephant or giraffe one. Does anyone happen to have one in their dress-up box?
King and Princes - It seems that most of the kids have ideas about what they'd like to wear for this, and anything is fine. We have crowns made and tunics available if needed.
That's all I can think of for now, but we will keep you informed if any other needs arise. Many thanks, and have a wonderful week.
Love,
Sue, Anne and Cathleen