Sandpoint Waldorf School expands its outdoor learning to mitigate spread of COVID-19

BONNER DAILY BEE
| September 12, 2020 1:00 AM

At the Sandpoint Waldorf School, as at most schools across the country, returning to school in the midst of a pandemic looks quite different.

After almost six months away from their campus, SWS students arrived on Wednesday for the first day of school to classrooms inside spacious tents in the field behind the Litehouse YMCA. Instead of heading into the school building, students in first through eighth grade found their classroom tent with benches, desks, bookcases, chalkboards and, in some cases, log rounds as seats. A gentle breeze wafted through the tents allowing for easy ventilation.

Each tent is eight-sided allowing for a flexible, open and airy classroom. When the teachers wanted the students to engage in movement activities, they only had to step outside the tent where there was ample space to form a large circle.

“The choice to move the classrooms outside was a quick decision when we looked at the COVID transmission rates in an outdoor setting. With so much of our curriculum involving movement and time outside, it seemed to be a very natural and gentle transition for both students and our faculty,” said Julie McCallan, the school’s educational director.

Although the decision was easily made, the act of creating this simple arrangement required a lot of coordination and collaboration. From the moment, the school suggested the concept of the outdoor learning lab in tents, Tammy Campbell, branch executive of Litehouse YMCA, was very supportive.

“I believe this kind of creativity, and these partnerships, will allow us as the YMCA and our community to thrive and succeed.”

The YMCA will be able to use the tents when they host the high school swim meet later this summer for parents and teams.

The parents were also a major player in making the outdoor learning lab possible, SWS officials said. They built and painted chalkboards for each tent and brought in log rounds for the benches. The week before school they erected the tents. When the Labor Day wind storm blew in, the parents came running, literally, to help drop the tents in the morning and then returned to put them back up again in the evening, even repairing and replacing some of the poles that bent in the process. By Tuesday, the day before school, the tents were ready for the teachers to move in, each adding their personal touch to them.

The transition to teaching in tents has required a lot of creativity and flexibility from the teachers, as they figured out what is essential for each day’s instruction and how to utilize the outdoors to broaden the student’s experience of the world.

Fourth grade teacher Clare Stansberry said she views it as a time to connect students with nature in a deeper way. “Outdoor education is an opportunity to connect students to the place they live and expand their resilience in the face of all the elements,” she said.

The faculty are thinking out of the box and turning adversity into an opportunity for change and growth. Rather than having students crowded indoors in the woodshop, woodworking teacher Shaun Deller took his students on a walk to the nearby slough to identify trees. The wind storm had blown down a large cottonwood tree which provided the students with limbs to carve. For her first botany lesson, fifth grade teacher Yvette McGowan took students on a walk to a nearby garden where they could observe mushroom propagation. Upon their return to their tent they wrote their observations in their journals.

The pre-kindergarten and kindergarten students return to school on Thursday. While their classrooms are still indoors, they will be spending much of their day outside playing. Ryan Rayniak, one of the mixed-aged kindergarten teachers is planning two full days away from campus each week, these adventure days will allow the students to explore the park, the slough, and the nearby wetlands and forests. Dressed in layers and rubber boots, and carrying snacks, water, and extra clothing in their backpacks, the children will be ready for whatever the weather brings, SWS staff said.

Schooling during a pandemic is fraught with unknowns and challenges, but the Sandpoint Waldorf School is hopeful that being outdoors as much as possible will help mitigate the spread of COVID-19 while offering the students a rich and creative learning environment.

In this, they said the goals of the YMCA and the Sandpoint Waldorf School align: to offer programs that help build a healthy spirit, mind and body for all. Both organizations are nonprofits that are committed to making our community and the world a better place to live, work and play.

SWS Reopening Plan: A Culture of Care

Dear Sandpoint Waldorf School Community,
 
2020 has been a year fraught with change, uncertainty, and struggles as we strive to  comprehend the complex effects of the pandemic on the physical well being of  millions and on the social fabric of our country and our world. This has had a profound impact on our children. They need more than ever an education which honors childhood; an education which  nurtures children in body, soul, and spirit ; an education which  gently guides them in developmentally appropriate ways toward  becoming who they came here to be, becoming human beings with compassion for others, the ability to think clearly, and the strength of will to manifest their dreams.  At the Sandpoint Waldorf School, we remain committed to this task.
 
Our mission has not changed, but how we create a safe space for our children and for their families has changed.  Our protocols have been drafted with this at the forefront and our teachers will introduce these protocols to the children in an imaginative, age-sensitive manner which makes it clear that they are about a culture of care, about concern and care for others, not about judging or shaming others or fear. Together, students, teachers, staff and parents, we can join together in caring for one another.  
 
Throughout the spring and summer, we have been constructing a plan for our return to school, a plan with health and safety, the education of the children, and our core values at the center.  This effort required research, creativity, common sense, and wisdom.  In this letter, we share the product of that work in a document that has been reviewed by the faculty, the directors of the board, and the medical professionals in our community: SWS Reopening Plan: A Culture of Care
 
In developing our plan, we reviewed the best medical and public health guidance available and mapped that information to SWS’s values, especially the fostering of the emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being of our students and the conscientious care and consideration of all members of our school community.  At SWS, these values are exemplified by our dedicated faculty and staff who are invested in each student as a unique individual on their path toward developing their own gifts and attributes and overcoming the challenges that face them. 
 
Mitigating Health Risk 
Our goal is to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 on the SWS campus.  To do this, we need to be scrupulous about hygiene and complying with local, state, and federal safety guidance.  As a practical matter that means we need to be observant about our children and ourselves exhibiting signs of illness, be conscientious about:

• Limiting our exposure to illness through large-group activities and travel

• Practicing good hygiene with  frequent hand washing and the disinfection of surfaces

• Everyone older than early childhood must  wear face coverings on campus when the level of community spread warrants it and  social distancing or outside activities are not possible.

 These actions represent a vital, shared, and sustained responsibility.  We need to practice these activities not only for ourselves individually, but for our students, our faculty and staff, and our family members, some of whom are very vulnerable to illness.  
 
Together we can keep our children on campus by embracing and practicing A Culture of Care.
 
In Service,
Julie McCallan
Pedagogical Director on behalf of the SWS Covid Task Force

Click here to read our SWS Reopening Plan

Congratulations to our 8th grade graduates...

SWS Class of 2020 Graduation

Usually we urge the whole school to attend our eighth grade graduations, not only to celebrate the accomplishments of the class and mark their rite of passage, but also to witness the culmination of the eight year journey through a Waldorf school.  This year, due to the pandemic, the gathering had to be small, just the families of the eighth graders, Ms. Shaffer (their teacher), Ms. St. Pierre (the Drama teacher who gave a commencement speech), and myself (who handed out the diplomas).   

The ceremony was at Camp Eureka.  Parents had decorated the small outdoor stage with flowers and veils that caught the gentle breeze.  Families spread out  picnic blankets or lawn chairs, keeping a six-foot distance between each family unit, to savor their own picnic dinners before the ceremony began at 6:45 pm.  

Starting with the students who had joined the class most recently, Ms. Shaffer then shared a tribute and wish about each student with heartfelt inspiring words that let each student know how clearly she saw them for who they are now and who they are becoming. After her tribute, that student came up and addressed the audience, giving highlights of his or her journey, transformations, aspirations, and gratitude.  

As each student was showcased, the evening grew cooler and families drew on sweatshirts or huddled under sleeping bags or blankets, and the woods seemed to close in, sheltering us in a sacred space.  After the speeches, the  students sang an uplifting song together, received their diplomas one by one from me, and then said goodbye and thank you to Ms. Shaffer, just as they had at the close of class each day for eight years.  

There were cupcakes for all, but the darkness was deepening, so as they were being eaten, we were also packing up.  Everyone felt grateful that graduation happened in person, and  as one grandparent said as we walked back to the cars, the ceremony was a positive, hope-filled reprieve and antidote to the insecurity and anxiety of our current moment in time. 

William Greenway, an alumnus from the class of 2015, filmed the evening--his second battery dying just at the last diploma was handed out.  Below is a link to the video  so that you, too, can be inspired by the beauty and the wisdom of the class of 2020 and their teacher.  

https://youtu.be/hZIyVk9k4dY

Submitted by Julie McCallan

Bubble Wands!

Craft of the Week: Bubbles

Bubble Wands:

You can make bubble wands out of pipe cleaners, coat hangers, string with straws, or use random kitchen utensils. This would be a great time to experiment and see which wand blows the biggest bubbles and/or the smallest.

To make a wand out of pipe cleaners, just twist and shape. Your wand could even be decorated with beads. You could use a coat hanger instead of pipe cleaner.

To make a wand with string and a straw, cut a length of string. Cut your straw so you have 2 pieces that are about 2 inches long. Thread string through the straw pieces and tie the two ends together. Now dip the string wand into the bubble solution, pick the string wand up by the straw pieces, and blow.

You could even use your hand. Shape your hand so it makes a circle. Dip one end into bubble solution and blow from the other side.

Bubble Solution:

Measure 6 cups of water into one container, then pour 1 cup of dish soap into the water and slowly stir it until the soap is mixed in. Try not to let foam or bubbles form while you stir. Measure 1 tablespoon of glycerin or 1/4 cup of corn syrup and add it to the container. Stir the solution until it is mixed together.