by Christine McQuade Hsu | May 18, 2021 | Community
Melanie Ingler | May 18, 2021
Sandy was raised on a centennial farm in rural Michigan as the oldest of six children where she developed a deep connection for working with animals and nature. After graduating from Michigan State University with a BA in Interior Design, she started graduate work in Facilities Management. She held jobs in design and sales and completed studies in Advanced Screenwriting through the Professional Program at UCLA. She retired from work to raise her children, who attend WSP. Sandy has led the Auction for the Spring Gala and enjoys finding ways for other parents to get involved and make a difference. Her other passions include writing, horseback riding, pilates, yoga, reading, Waldorf education, gardening, working with animals, and being a mother.
by Christine McQuade Hsu | May 15, 2021 | Early Childhood
Jane Philipson, Parent Child Program Director | May 15, 2021
“Way up high in the redwood tree, three little birdies chirping cheerfully
I looked way up, just as far as I could
Away flew a birdie off into the wood.(3x, counting down)
When I looked back down to the earth below
I saw a little snail gliding oh-so-slow.
I looked up again–I saw a nest…
Mama/Papa bird and their babies hopping in for a rest.”
Gathering weekly this spring at beautiful Redwood Grove are eight class groups of parents and their little ones from 0 – 36 months. Children play as parents observe, craft, support and connect with one another, and experience the wisdom of the “Three Rs” of Waldorf early childhood education: rhythm, reverence and repetition. In our outdoor classroom, we are surrounded by the majestic trees, native plants of all kinds, insects, baby bunnies, squirrels, and many birds–chirping cheerfully, of course!
Mornings Together families are making a set of wooden rhythm sticks. Here they are seen using a rasp to remove the bark from 6” lengths of stick. Then will come sanding, and the finishing touch of shining them with heavenly-smelling beeswax polish.
Infant friends in the Warm Beginnings class play on a cozy lambskin and gaze at the tall trees as parents massage their feet with calendula cream, quietly observe, talk together, and sing some gentle songs and rhymes coupled with playful and loving touch.
by Christine McQuade Hsu | Apr 15, 2021 | Middle School
Dr. Lisa Babinet | MS & HS Math Teacher
Every year in the sixth-grade math class, the students undertake a statistics project of their own choosing, learning to perceive the world through a numerical lens while using basic statistics and creating graphs and charts. This project brings joy and meaning to their strengthening their facility with fractions, decimals, and percentages. This year, the seventh-grade students took on a mini project where they learned about percentiles, quartiles, the interquartile range, stem and leaf plots, box and whisker plots, and standard deviation. Their deeper foray into statistics had plenty of COVID-related statistical examples to deepen their understanding and appreciation of how valuable statistics can be.
In the sixth grade, of the people they surveyed:
- Parnavi learned that most did not want to leash train their cat.
- Gabriel found that the most common breed of chickens is Ameraucana.
- Laszlo found a lot of people didn’t like many toppings on their burgers.
- Nathan found only one didn’t like lemonade.
- Sacha found most people felt at least a little bad when taking breaks.
- Max found many people thought that singing would be boring.
- Juliette found not many people practice ballet, and basically half do not like it.
- Ilham found most people had only seen a little bit of anime and gave it a good rating.
- Omer found that a lot of people like animals.
- Rosalia found many people think climate change is urgent but do not know much about it or how to reverse it.
- Thomas found most liked entertainment from chickens.
- Shaylana found a lot of people like hip hop.
- Mascha found most liked sports a lot.
- Grace found mostly either they did a lot of dance or no dance at all.
- Neel found most have dogs.
- Rose found, on a scale of one to ten, not many people rated that they liked pink more than a score of 5.
- Greta found not many read a lot of books.
In the seventh grade, of the people they surveyed:
- Brian found most people have been on their screens a lot more during the pandemic.
- Isabella found that they liked The Counter and In-N-Out Burger best.
- Samanyu found that the ones who thought they were lazy also assumed other people to be lazy as well.
- Tobin found that the 13-year-olds he surveyed liked to meme.
- Samih found that they liked movies, and thought Marvel is better than D.C. (96% to 4%).
- Arnav found that they had no idea how much a car costs.
- Sky found that most of them liked pineapple on their pizza.
- Paulette found that those who owned more shoes would pay a lower price for shoes, and those with one pair would purchase very expensive shoes.
- Sam found that no one hated TV shows.
- Meera found that they only wanted 3, 4 or 5 days of school per week.
- Audrey found that most people knew the song We Will Rock You, but not the band who played it.
- Daphne found 5 out of 30 people knew how many brain cells they had (approximately).
- Jordan found that most people make a lot of mistakes, but aren’t very forgetful.
