Tuesday Notice

On Friday morning, the May Day Festival team will make a decision about the location of May Day.

If the park field is too soggy, May Day will be moved onto the school yard wood chips. If it is truly RAINING, May Day will be moved inside to Pine Hall.

If May Day is moved inside to Pine Hall, we will request that only parents that have helped with crowns remain with us along with 8th grade parents for the celebration. Unfortunately, Pine Hall will be too full if we have all our friends with us. Thank you for your understanding!

Our eighth annual Medieval Games is back after a three year break. Huzzah! This event is a wonderful example of how certain key events enliven the Waldorf curriculum.

After studying the Middle Ages, the Medieval Games serve as a “rite of passage” for the Sixth Grade Student. Last Thursday evening, a total of 70 sixth graders from three local Waldorf schools converged at The Siskiyou Kingdom for activities, games, and a banquet in The Royal Pine Hall with our King and Queen, Ms. Franczak and Mr. Alvarez. Students are mixed and are put into groups of “shires” where they confront certain challenges that they must overcome together. All day Friday, the event continued in a tournament where the shires are then challenged in group initiatives, archery and spear throwing. They also demonstrate chivalrous conduct and strive to become “squires”. This initiation is the first step to becoming a “knight”.

This year was a fabulous event with hot, sunny weather and the best helpers ever! To do events like this, it definitely takes a kingdom! My biggest thanks goes to Bethany Stonewood for cooking, decorating, and organizing the banquet. Bethany was supported by her daughter and Siskiyou alum, Ayala, as well as Phyllis Cooley and Amy Bull. Thank you banquet team! A special thanks goes to the Seventh grade class and to Mr. Beech for the music, entertainment, and for serving at our feast. Your contribution really makes the event fun and alive. Thank you to “behind the scenes” help from our Sixth grade parents, Ms. Benson, Mr. Alvarez, Ms. Franczak, and Mr. Monda. Thank you Claudia, Jamie & Dave, Rachel & Lance, Pavel, Rachel B, Rachel T, Aaron, Celina, Sue, Tamara & Jamie, Renee, Kendra, Ariana Jappe, and anyone I missed here for helping with the banquet, doing the registration, helping set up outside including the shade tarps, helping with clean up, doing the laundry, and for being a guardian, Barret. A hearty “Huzzah” to each one of you. Like I said, it takes a kingdom!

This Week:

Tues, May 2: Kindergarten Orientation Night, 6:30 pm.

Friday, May 5: May Day! Join us! 11:00 in Clay Street Park

Friday, May 5: Middle School Dance, 6:00 pm.

Next Week:

Mon, May 8 to Fri, May 12: 8th Grade Trip to Santa Cruz.

Tues, May 9: 6th and 7th Grade Clay Street Park Clean-up, during school hours.

Tues, May 9: Incoming 1st Grade Orientation Night, 6:30 pm.

Friday, May 12: 5th Grade Olympiad

Looking Ahead:

Mon, May 15: NO SCHOOL! Report Writing Day for Faculty.

Tues, May 16: School Board Meeting, 6:00 pm.

Wed, May 17: Main Lesson Tour, parents please join us! 8:30 am.

Wed, May 17: Class 7 Parent Meeting, 6:30 pm.

Thurs, May 18: Class 2 Play, evening community performance, 5:00 pm.

Friday, May 19: Class 2 Play, morning school performance, 8:45 am.

Dear Siskiyou School Parents,

Looking out my office window, the spring rain is saturating leaves, flowers and our precious mother earth. Colors are vibrant, shining and beautiful!

The Auction: The colors of our community are just as vibrant, shining, beautiful and strong: What we do as a whole community matters! We could see this with the auction; what an event of joy, beauty, true collaboration of all the pillars of the school and generosity of heart and hard work. This event also showed that we have reunited in a new way as a school community with so much warmth, kindness and spirit of strength. Thank you, parents, for all your immense support and generosity! A huge THANK YOU to Aleta and Christy: In just two months they organized this event at the Elk’s Lodge! A big thank you also to their families who helped and supported them in all their efforts. Aleta and Christy made it happen – and yes, they jumped into this with all their hearts and all their might in true service of the school. Aleta and Christy, we are deeply grateful to you! We look forward to sharing some of the photos soon and anyone who has auction items to pick up, please do so within the next days!

The Medieval Games: The last time we held the 6th grade Medieval Games was in 2019; last week we hosted it once again! The spirit of medieval times, chivalry and competitive games spread throughout the school and reminded us of the incredible opportunities our students have over the years at our school! Thank you to Ms. Glatte, organizer of the event, for overcoming hurdle after hurdle to bring it all together! Thank you to Mr. Alvarez, Ms. Franczak and Ms. Benson and all the many parents who made it such a wonderful 2-day event for the classes. It was wonderful to have the 6th graders of the Madrone Trail Public Charter and the Woodland Charter School join our 6th graders.

May Day: We are hoping for good weather so our whole school can come together for our May Day Celebration this Friday, May 5th. Please see below more details and announcements for this event.

Have a good week, everyone! ~ Aurilia

Join us at Clay Street Park for this beautiful spring festival! Feel free to bring a blanket or folding chair for seating on the grass. Family, friends, and Waldorf preschool and kindergartens are welcome to join.

We ask that Siskiyou School students:

• Wear white clothing (tan pants are great) – if you do not have white clothes, we do have some items in our lost and found closet, just contact Phyllis (phyllis.cooley@siskiyouschool.org) or stop by the office if you’d like to borrow something.
• A bouquet of flowers from your garden to share with their class for their May Day crowns.

Please note:

• Wear sunscreen or a hat and bring a water bottle.
  
• Dismissal will be at regular Friday times (12:20 for 1st, 12:30 for 2 through 4, 12:45 for 5 through 8).
  
• Please let your child’s teacher know if you will be on campus and are taking them directly from the classroom and not going to the dismissal area.

If you're interested in volunteering to help construct flower crowns with the children on our festival day, please click the link below to sign up. No experience needed! Its a very fun event to volunteer at!

Thank you!

Just a reminder that tuition for the current school year includes payments for both May & June.

Payments for the new school year begin July 1st, 2023.

If you have any questions on your balance due, please contact Cynthia at cynthia.bower@siskiyouschool.org. Thank you! ~Cynthia

Please take a moment to sign up for Parent-Teacher Conferences by clicking the link HERE. The link will CLOSE on Tuesday, May 23 at 1:30pm and all subsequent changes must be made through the office.

• Click on the tabs at the bottom of the page to get to your class teacher’s page.
• After entering your information, click to another location to “save” your work.
• These times have been carefully chosen by the teachers, please do not alter them.
• If you cannot make the times available, please contact your teacher. Please note, make-up conferences are reserved for emergencies only. Two household families, please sign up for ONE conference time.
• If you need help signing up, please call or email the office.
• Students are REQUIRED to attend 8th grade conferences.
• 5th through 7th grade math and language arts conferences are upon request of teacher or parents.

• All conferences will be in person.
• OHANA FAMILIES: Please sign up for your conference in the highlighted times available. You will meet with both class teacher and Ms. Hutchins.

Conference Childcare

We’re happy to be able to offer childcare for conferences! Childcare will be available from 8:00 to 4:00 on Thursday and 8:00 to 2:00 on Friday. Children stay free during your conference time, beyond that time childcare is $10/hour (cash or check only please).

A cornerstone of Waldorf education is the scaffolding of academic projects and expectations. In the early grades our faculty focuses on developing skills so when larger requests are made of the children in the later grades, the students have those fundamentals to build upon and produce excellent and beautiful work. In the fourth grade, a main block on Zoology is capped with the Animal Research Project. Students not only produce a model of their chosen animal in its native biome (similar to what they did with their 3rd grade shelter projects), they're also asked to produce a written report on their animal along with a presentation given to their classmates. How exciting to see these academic skills develop over the years along with the children's confidence and joy in having reached another important Siskiyou School milestone. In a blink of an eye, these children will be ready for their 8th grade projects!

Ms. Glatte will be on medical leave starting May 8th. She has an old ankle injury that will need surgery now. Unfortunately her hip surgeries earlier this school year affected this old injury. She will return in the fall for our new school year. All Games classes will be in good hands with our former 1st grade assistant and alum parent and very experienced substitute teacher, Tracy John, owner of FlipSide.

If you're able to donate a pack of pumpkin seeds to the ACORN program, we'd love to begin planting our pumpkin patch for the next year!

Thank you, Ms. Leann

Dear Siskiyou School Parents,

Per the Parent Handbook and in accordance with Jackson County regulations and our Emergency Preparedness Plan, we perform all-school monthly fire drills. Additionally, and to always meet requirements, we conduct earth quake drills a few times a year as well as Safety Command & Act drills.

Our Safety Committee, (Jenny James, Margie Glatte & Aurilia McNamara), meet regularly, go over requirements, update documents and tools, bring information to the faculty and to the children as needed and if appropriate, and read up on policies and regulations to ensure we are up to date and complying with the law.

On April 25th we conducted a Safety Command and Act drill. Although these are used to be fully trained for the instance of an intruder coming to campus, they are also used for MANY different instances, where we need our students to be trained to simply listen to WHATEVER the command of their teacher might be. It is always the teacher's discretion in any of these emergency instances to either evacuate as quickly as possible, or to take shelter in place.

A few years ago, when the faculty and administration participated in the ALICE training, the police said that evacuation was preferred but if the trespasser/intruder or danger was too close to be able to evacuate safely, then shelter in place would be the command of the teacher. We always make sure to practice both so that our students learn to follow any and all commands of their teachers.

We also ask each class to walk to our evacuation sites; one is in the Takelma neighborhood, the other is the Ashland Fire Station on Ashland Street.

At this time we are still working on the “reunification plan” and we are in touch with Kelly Burns, who was formerly Ashland Fire dept Battalion Chief and now is working as the City of Ashland Emergency Management Coordinator. He has always consulted with us and will keep advising and updating us on best practices in these areas.

If you have any questions, please contact Jenny James at jenny.james@siskiyouschool.org.

1st Grade Assistant

We are looking for a loving, attentive, "on-it" person to support the first grade class teacher and the first grade students for part of each school day for the 2023-2024 school year. The position is part time and paid hourly. It runs Monday through Friday, for about 18 hours per week, from the arrival of the children through main lesson and snack recess. Responsibilities include tag teaming with the class teacher as needed through the morning, supporting children who need that extra bit of attention to allow the class teacher to hold the whole, and helping with class logistics and setup to ensure a seamless flow for the children from one activity to the next. Work would begin in late August.

Kindergarten Assistant

We are looking for a person interested in supporting our lead kindergarten teacher for the 2023-2024 year. The position is full-time, paid on an hourly basis, with some benefits. The hours are 8-3:00 pm, Monday - Thursday, and 8:00-1:00 on Fridays. Responsibilities include tag teaming with the lead teacher as needed through the morning, supporting children who need that extra bit of attention to allow the lead teacher to hold the whole, and helping with class logistics and setup to ensure a seamless flow for the children from one activity to the next. It also requires helping with the afternoon enrichment program from 1-3pm. Our new kindergarten program will be housed in the Glendale House at the back of our Clay Street campus.

If you are interested in one of these two positions, please contact Aurilia at Aurilia.mcnamara@siskiyouschool.org

The fourth grade completed their animal reports. Each student wrote a 6-paragraph report, created a diorama, and gave an oral presentation. Students researched their animal from multiple books. They learned interesting facts about their animal. They also learned the role their animal plays in the ecosystem, and how humas can help them. The animal export is a milestone for the 4th grader. They are ready to leave the world of early elementary school and move towards middle school.

Congratulations, Raven Class!

~Mr. Alvarez

Fifth grade is in our last history block studying Ancient Greece. What a vast subject to tackle in a few weeks! We are moving swiftly through time, concentrating on the salient points such as the birth of Democracy. We began our work by learning about the Minoan civilization of Crete, its immense Palace of Knossos and accompanying legend of Theseus slaying the Minotaur. From there, we learned about the different city states of antiquity and compared and contrasted early forms of democratic governments. How wonderful to learn about Athens and Sparta! The Greek Miracle is something that happens in the 5th century B.C.E. when the soul of the human being was evolving to birth a novel experience of individuality. It is said that this moment in history mirrors what is happening for the fifth graders psychologically. Personally, I find this block to be one of the richest we have studied all year. Just around the corner is the Greek Olympiad where we will meet up with other Waldorf Schools in Williams, Oregon to reenact an age-old Greek tradition. I am so proud of all of my fifth graders for bringing forth their best each and every day!

~Mrs. Martin

Dear 7th Graders,

Thank you so much for all of your hard work on the night of the Medieval Games Feast. Your preparation of a song and your presentation as the Dragon were wonderful. You brought your best selves as hosts and servers of food and entertainment. You cleaned the whole hall after the feast. You served the larger community with openness and diligence and not one ounce of complaint. You supported our chef, Bethany, and our parent helpers, Samae and Phyllis, with poise and grace. Your Class Teacher is VERY proud of you. Nicely done, Dragonflies.

Sincerely,

Mr. Beech

Mark your calendars for a unique opportunity to experience a traditional celebration of Ukrainian culture through the wonderful display of embroidered clothing unique to each region of the country. This holiday showcases one of the most well-known and vibrant aspects of Ukrainian culture.

We invite you to join us in celebration of the beauty and richness of Ukrainian culture on May 20th.

This Friday, Ashland Natural Medicine is hosting the incredible macro photography of Laurie Boucher. Come on down and enjoy art and a little nosh. We'd love to see you!

May 20 and 21 9:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.

Supporting the Developing Child From The Inside Out

Join Nina Gallwey for a rich exploration into how learning arises from within the child and how to enhance and strengthen the foundations that support academic and healthy social skills. Discover how we all learn differently depending on the gateways open to us and how to access gateways that have been closed. Come away with an abundant tool chest to unlock your (and your child’s) highest potential.

What recent participants of this workshop shared:

"I want to say what an incredible resource you are providing. I am so grateful to have been able to attend and gain these tools to use with my children and myself. I am using your materials to support our school and all the families I interact with. This has been life changing.” -MS

"Just wanted to say thank you for an amazing,nourishing, and insightful weekend of knowledge! I enjoyed every moment! “ KL

Nina has 31 years of experience teaching and working with children with diverse learning styles. She created our Ohana Program at Siskiyou School. The Foundations of Learning is a distillation of her extensive experience with supporting healthy neurology, sensory integration, vision therapy, integrative movement, and child development.

Contact Nina Gallwey for more details or to sign up at ohanafamilyresources@gmail.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/