Tuesday Notice

The 7th grade created a scavenger hunt for their buddies last Friday. The 2nd grade students gleamed with delight as they made their way around campus, finding clue after clue, to ultimately find themselves in the Glendale garden where they were greeted with special notes and tokens of love.

Dear Siskiyou Families,

We are now entering a nice rhythm where the “hum” of the day can be felt.

Transitions and protocol routines are habits now, which free us up for even more quality time

with the children. We had a wonderful celebration here on Friday, which you can see from the videos. Many thanks to Lora for her gift of documenting it all.

You will find current schedules for the next weeks following. We will continue on with our Touchstone Program, offering 2 hours on campus and 2 hours at home (streamed to Touchstone at Home students) with the remainder done through remote learning through October. While the school is awaiting approval of an ECL (Early Childcare License) and is currently approved for the Emergency Childcare Unlicensed Program, which can allow us a bit more contact time, we feel it is prudent to continue with our schedule until COVID numbers in Jackson County come down. The outline of the schedule will remain the same with specialty teachers rotating each week. We will reevaluate our campus time at the end of the month. Your class teacher will let you know of any slight changes to your schedule if it differs from what it has been.

We remain grateful for our time with the children. It is a joy to see them daily, and it makes the remote learning section so much more fruitful as we maintain the connection.

May the rains bless us all this week!

~Nina Gallwey

Next Week

Tues, Oct. 13: Parent Meetings - 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th Grades - details to come

Wed, Oct. 14: Parent Meetings - 1st, 2nd, 6th Grades - details to come

For 7th grade, Ms. Razi will send a separate email with an updated date.

On Friday, our class celebrated Michaelmas by enjoying games and obstacle courses at Clay Street Park. The children's faces were filled with such joy to be running and playing together in the fresh air! Afterward, we built a sukkah in the Clay St. Garden. The Jewish holiday Sukkot is a week-long holiday that starts five days after Yom Kippur, known as the time of atonement. First, we learned about Yom Kippur, and I told the story of Jonah and the Whale from the Torah. This sparked the children's feelings for self-reflection and refining one's character to become more upright in life.

Next, we turned our attention towards the holiday of Sukkot. Sukkot is a festival of gratitude for the harvest. A sukkah is a temporary dwelling where one sits, spends time with family, and recites blessings during this holiday. The roof is open enough that the stars can be seen. We used corn stocks and natural materials to build up the frame and decorated with dried flowers and apples from the garden. We also planted autumn starts in the garden beds and watered them.

This morning, we put some finishing touches on the Sukkah by stringing marigold flowers together and hanging them inside. I told more stories from the Torah and gave an introduction to ancient systems of measurement-- our second block begins!

I am utterly astonished at how much we are able to get done in two hours together. The Siskiyou School children are incredibly lucky during a time when most schools are completely closed and fully online; we give our students such depth and richness of curriculum and learning experience in person. I am so grateful for our wonderful Blue Heron class. ~Ms. Martin

“All Are Created Equal”—The title of our current block is taken, and changed slightly, from the Declaration of Independence. This block is a study of groups of people who have had to fight for their rights and equality because of their skin color, ancestry, gender, or sexual orientation. Many, many people have had and are having this experience in our country. Throughout the year, we will focus on four groups: Black Americans, Women, Native Americans, and LGBTQIA+. We’ve begun the year studying and outlining our current racial tension with the question, “How did we get here?” From there, we’ve gone back to 1619, when the first enslaved Africans were brought to this land. We’ve journeyed through the Middle Passage, slavery, the Emancipation Proclamation, after the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Black Codes that turned into Jim Crow, Plessy v Ferguson, Brown v Board of Education, and Emmet Till. Emmet’s murder was the spark to catalyze the Civil Rights Movement, and there we find ourselves, sitting on a bus with Rosa Parks, having had enough and not moving for a white man. One event does lead to the next and, if at this time, we can look back and learn anything, we can see that we do indeed keep rising. In the words of Maya Angelou, “… Out of the huts of history’s shame, I rise. Up from the past, that’s rooted in pain, I rise. I’m a black ocean, leaping and wide, welling and swelling I bear in the tide. Leaving behind nights of terror and fear, I rise. Into a daybreak that’s wondrously clear, I rise…” May we all continue to take the next step before us. Many times, that in itself is a great act of courage. Have a beautiful week. ~ Ms. Tisdel

We are very grateful for the companies that have joined our Year-Long Corporate sponsorship program. If you would like to learn how to become a sponsor, please email: Lora.Wilde@siskiyouschool.org.

In the aftermath of the fire, the second grade class at the Siskiyou School has been rallying around the Dilansa family, providing meals, and more. Now the Seventh Grade class is happily taking on creating a new MealTrain for the Dilansa family and wishing them many blessings as they move to their new (temporary) home and continue on this journey. Please join the Seventh Grade class as we open up the Meal Train to everyone.

Click Here to view the Meal Train

Alum siblings Rowan, Riley, and Kinsey have been working as medics at the Expo during the Wildfire Relief. Thank you for your hard work and dedication.

Please visit our website to support our community GoFundMe accounts.

Have something to share on our Community News and Classifieds section?

Here are the guidelines for the Classifieds:

Please keep your classified ads brief and succinct. We will run ads for two consecutive weeks. Flyers and pictures are appreciated!
Send classifieds to Lora Wilde at lora.wilde@siskiyouschool.org by noon on Tuesday.

The Siskiyou School is not responsible for the content.

Connecting Children, Sprouting a Love of Learning, Promoting Stewardship

Children, you are each invited to:

Be Peace. Make Peace. Share Peace

Let's play Peace. How fast can we spread Peace from child to child across our ONE Earth?

We will track (digitally) our Peace travel and individual gifts of Peace (Doves/signs/cards)

Classes:

Human Values Class: Fri. Oct 23 2pm, Fri Oct 30 2pm, Ages 9-12

Teachers: Mr. and Mrs. De Hart: Waldorf teachers for public and private schools. Co-founders of Waldorf on the Farm School. Don and Pamela DeHart, dcdehart@gmail.com.

Each class presents a value such as Peace and Happiness through music, art, storytelling, discussion and life application (service projects).

Circles of Seedlings

Contact: Meadowsweetseed@yahoo.com

Little Gnomes Nature School has just begun its fifth year now that the smoke has cleared and we have space for one more kindergarten girl. Our Waldorf inspired program is fully outdoors in partnership with North Mountain

Park Natures Center. Learn more at littlegnomesnatureschool.com or contact

littlegnomesnatureschool@gmail.com for more information.

Ages 6-17. Check our website www.ashlandchildrenstheatre.com

Email: office@siskiyouschool.org
Website: www.siskiyouschool.org
Location: 631 Clay Street, Ashland, OR, USA
Phone: 541-482-8223
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/siskiyouschool/