SHINING STAR WALDORF SCHOOL PORTLAND OREGON
Outdoor Education Option
Thursday Nature Immersion Program ages 5-12
We want to take you and your children out into the deep dark magical woods, located right in the middle of the city. And we want you to join us on Thursdays if you have a child ages six to eleven!
For Fall 2012, we plan to offer our Fourth Day Class for children in grades 1-5. This fourth day will be open to all students in our school as regular pupils as well as open to children who are homeschooling. The Fourth Day Class will be based at the 2120 NE Tillamook campus, and the focus will vary from month to month or season to season during the six hour day. In the fall and spring, the class wil journey out into urban explorations of nature and other sites, accessible by bus or Max, and for some days, invite parents to go along on more extensive field trips once a month that require assistance with driving and transportation.
This Fourth Day will be a focus day on urban wilderness including gardening, growing, exploring, and discovering how we can live on the green earth, in peace and harmony, with nature spirits and wildlife. Lively teachers and a changing curriculum will allow the children to go outdoors in nicer weather and huddle in cozy conditions to enjoy art, music, drama, games, movement, play, and learning in a beautiful setting. Within walking distance of our campus, are two unique and special parks and urban wild areas, and we will be visiting these often to discover Mother Nature in the City. Two blocks away are public transit routes that will quickly take us out and about into other marvelous urban sites. Two teachers plus helpers will accompany each trip to safely explore beautiful NW nature and return to school, refreshed, tired, happy, well-met kids, coming back from outdoor adventures!
We will also invite other teachers to visit on this day, to bring us practical arts such as cheese making, soap making, woodwork, and nature crafts, as well as some fun activities such as theater games, circus arts, claywork, and much more. The main lesson will be split into two groups, Stars and Suns, and each will enjoy all the bennies of the Waldorf World's arts, story, song, and magic!
Fourth Day is an exciting new class at our school and we invite you to consider joining us for this day, or for the whole week. Tuition for a month (4 weeks) is $175 for those not enrolled in the school currently, or you can pay $50 per six hour day, as you are able to attend, with pre-arrangement.
To learn more about our exciting new program, and to sign up call 503 753 4459. Space is limited, please sign up early.
Nature Immersion Program Schedule
September: Elk Rock Island, just off the town of Milwaukie, a real island for pirate play, treasure hunting, beaches, tides, wildlife like deer and even elk have been seen here, we cross the rocky bridge to the island, plenty of Mother Nature here with eagles and osprey, river life right near the main metro area, we may explore kayaking here this year
October: Reed College Canyon, our urban SE wildnerness with hiking trails, the Rhododendron Gardens nearby, the swamps and creek, and Bybee Howell House on Sauvie’s Island, which is an close to Portland organic farm with orchards, magic tree circle, old fashioned home and barn
November: Mt. Tabor, our city Volcano with its wild south side slope and huge forests, filled with urban wildlife including coyotes, racoons, opossum, squirrels, birds, nutria, and much more. We may visit a nearby witchy woman who uses her entire yard as a urban permaculture farm including barreled trout, rabbits, chickens and ducks, dye gardens, and much more....we will have a visit from a mushroom guide as well to learn to identify these amazing fungi.
December: Cooking Month at Prescott Site, Explorations with natural cooking, using local organic foods to make staple and tasty meals and treats to eat, use art to paint and draw foods, or craft items with clay or wax.
January: Archery Camp/Survival Training Camp(Bows, Arrows, Survival Skills and Robin Hood) at Prescott Site. A local wild man will visit our class for the month to provide us with true survival skill training, tracking, taking items from nature to clothe and maintain health in the wildnerness.
February: Instruments & Music Making/Drama Camp at the Tillamook Site, we will have local musicians visit to share their beautiful music, build simple instruments with wood and natural materials, learn rhythm and produce a short drama with original scores and songs.
March: Forest Park, the largest in-city-limits wild park in the US, we will hike, explore, find warm nesting spots in the end of winter as spring calls forth the birds and fawns, enjoy vistas over the Portland area, feel the trees in their homes and follow streams.
April: Laurelhurst Park, designed by the same landscape architect as Central Park in NYC, we will explore the developed and wild areas of this very urban park, enjoy the beautiful flowers of spring, and explore for several weeks, then take ourselves over to NW Portland and enjoy a day with a Guided Audubon Tour, a nature center where injured birds are cared for, and we will help with a service day at the Park.
May: Wapato on Sauvie’s Island, our all time favorite spot close to Portland, we will spend the month enjoying the multitude of natural experiences that can be found here with water, meadow, forest, lake, wetlands, river, and much more. Covered shelter will allow us to build fires to roast vegetables and explore nature cuisine. The Wapato experience takes place on the site where native people lived for 100s of years, this is a fantastic site and a great place to end our year.
June: Celebratory party, all family play day at a spot to be determined. Another year completed!
The Nature Immersion Day is from 9 a.m. to 3pm, we will help parent groups organize a carpool schedule to the sites, as we will not be transporting children. The winter months we will spend half the day outdoors at the Prescott Site and half the day indoors. We look forward to meeting you!!
Thank you for joining us in this pioneering adventure!
