The Lakota Waldorf School 

wishes you all a very festive and humble Christmas Holiday

as well as a very blessed New Year!! 

Children have worked on their special gifts to parents.  

As they are now on Holiday!! 

We are so very thankful to those who have been so kind in donating to our school this year

. We hope that you share our mission and also hope that you inspire others to join in helping our school prosper. Blessings to all!!

If you would like to donate or learn more please visit our website @

http://www.lakotawaldorfschool.org/en/

“Live through deeds of love, and let others live with tolerance for their unique intentions.”

― Rudolf Steiner

Thank You Brooklyn Waldorf School!!

The Lakota Waldorf School has been extremely happy to receive a monetary donation from the Brooklyn Waldorf School. 

Betsy Gimenez and her 8th grade class sponsored a Thanksgiving fundraiser during their assembly on behalf of the Lakota Waldorf School.

Every contribution is greatly appreciated and we send our heartfelt Thank You.

Wopila Tanka for your Support!

www.lakotawaldorfschool.org

The Lakota Waldorf School would like to extend our sincerest gratitude for your donations, blessings, and continued support over the years. 

Because of your generosity, we have been able to move forward in our educational and service goals to the Children here on the Pine Ridge Reservation. We continue to exist because you cared enough to contribute. "Thank You" for your commitment to our students and their education.

As the season of Christmas is upon us, what would have more value than gifting the children with a brighter hopeful future? We do need and wish to have the continued support of donors like you to fund the essential aspects of this initiative. We would not be successful in our mission to increase the effectiveness of our school without your financial contribution.

We encourage you to share our blog and to continue to share our School mission with all. 

The children are our future, and they are better equipped to lead because of your commitment to their Success.

~May my soul bloom in love for all existence. (Rudolf Steiner)~

Painting Day!

 

Kindergarten Teacher Joyce, begins to tell the children a story as she introduces the technique of wet on wet painting for their daily activity. The children patiently wait as she also introduces the colors of red and blue.  Wet-on-wet watercolor is a dreamy, fluid, mostly formless painting method that allows the children to fully experience color. It is perfect for the process-oriented kindergarten age child who of course has quite the imagination.  

 

 

 

This photo captures how focused our children are when painting.  As he begins to use the color blue, we can just imagine the story his teacher told him replaying in his mind. With his full attention he is now captivated and captured by "Blue".  With smiles on their faces, they have completed wonderful art all their own. 

If you are interested or would like to learn more about the Lakota Waldorf School, please feel free to take a look at our website at Lakota Waldorf School.  A dear friend of the school also created a fundraising initiative through the internet on our behalf.  If you would like to donate and help our school here is the link http://www.gofundme.com/g5n4ig.  Also, our school is featured in an article in the Lakota Country Times on who we are and what we do. 

Children at the Lakota Waldorf School are participating in the Teaching Artist Program Residency where local artist Sheena Meyers.  On October 28^th, 2014 the children ventured out to a place called Yellow Bear Damn on the Pine Ridge Reservation.  At the beginning of the trip, they offered water and corn back to mother earth as a gift in return for the gifts they were about to receive.       

During their adventure with nature they collected a variety of plants to utilize as natural paint. They were so excited and focused on what they were looking for.  They found buffalo hair, wild raspberries, red cedar, golden rod, verbanium, cat tails, and elk or deer droppings.  The Lakota Waldorf School will utilize these different plants in a Lakota cultural project called a winter count. We extend a big thank you to Sheena and to Leslie Henry who helped us in finding the plants we needed.

 

 

Children who have experienced wonder and reverence in childhood can have the basis for gifts of spirituality, universality and love of the earth and its peoples as adults.

 

 

 

~Nurturing Love and Reverence for Nature~

 

 

 

The Lakota Waldorf School strives to initiate the educational process while maintaining the Lakota Language and Culture.

Our goal is to empower our Lakota children so they will create positive active futures for themselves and their community.

~Mission Statement~

 

 

 

First Graders eager to learn!

 

 

Receive the Child in reverence, educate the child in love, send him forth in freedom...

 ~  Rudolf Steiner                                   



 

Waldorf teachers introduce the letters, beginning with the consonants in first grade by deriving them from pictures. We introduce the children to certain visual language forms. We have them draw simple round and angular shapes for the sake of the forms.  Through that we are able to introduce the children to writing.  Here is the first grade learning this style in Language Arts. 

 



 First graders hear stories, draw pictures, and discover the letter in the gesture of the picture.  One of our students spells the word "gum" and has been working on three letter words, sounding them out and is very happy that she feels that she can read and write just about anything. 



“Where is the book in which the teacher can read about what teaching is? The children themselves are this book. We should not learn to teach out of any book other than the one lying open before us and consisting of the children themselves.”
― Rudolf Steiner, Rhythms of Learning

 

On October 3, 2014 Lakota Waldorf School 1st graders ventured out into the garden to see what they could find.  After the first frost, we still have tomatoes and green peppers.  Gardening provides an avenue for reconnection as well as an opportunity for meaningful work, healthful exercise, and extremely fresh and nutritious food.

 

 

October 3, 2014 was also

"PIZZA DAY!!"

On pizza day, the children have the daily activity of helping with lunch.  Incorporating food – growing, preparing and eating – in the curriculum from the earliest ages is one way that students’ heads, hands and hearts become engaged.

 

 

“In the universe we have not to do with repetitions, each time that a cycle is passed, something new is added to the world's evolution and too at its human stage of development”
― Rudolf Steiner, Anthroposophy in Everyday Life





In Canwahpe Gi Win - September

Lakota Waldorf Students worked on grinding canpha (choke cherries) and made them into patties that they will be using for the fall and winter months ahead as wojapi (pudding) with their lunch meal. The making of these patties is part of their Lakota Cultural life way in making preparations for the winter months.  They did a wonderful job and as you see enjoyed their daily activity.

 

 

 

The kindergarten students also enjoy their daily activity of painting. Wet-on-wet watercolor painting is a technique taught in Waldorf schools. It’s a satisfying artistic experience with beautiful results.  Because the wet paint is laid on wet paper, the colors flow, blending into one another in beautiful and unexpected ways. Here they are enjoying the colors of blue and yellow.

 

Children who live in an atmosphere of love and warmth, and who have around them truly good examples to imitate, are living in their proper element.
            —Rudolf Steiner, The Education of the Child

 

 

Our Students enjoyed the morning with the morning harvest and  gardening.  They, as well as the teachers, went out and picked as many tomatoes as they could.  The weather is changing now and we are soon expecting our first frost.

 

"May my soul bloom in love for all existence"

- Rudolf Steiner 

 

 

 

 

 

We feel it is important for our students to learn with head, hand, and heart. The connection with nature will provide healthier living for our students.  It always makes the heart happy when the children are happy.



Our new school year here at Lakota Waldorf School 2014 to 2015 has begun.

 

We are very happy to have the children back this school year.  Lakota Waldorf school is working with kindergarten, first, and second graders.  The staff, board of directors, and parents would like to thank everyone for their continued support. 

 

Everyday has been very exciting for our second graders to look in the chicken coup for fresh eggs from our family of school chickens.  We are fortunate to have a garden that provides nourishment for the students. Here they are able to pick tomatoes, bell peppers, and cabbage.

 

 



 

Time to Garden!

Our students here at Lakota Waldorf School have started their garden! We feel it is important for our students to learn with head, hand, and heart. The connection with nature will provide healthier living for our students. We here at Lakota Waldorf School eat organic, and our garden plays a big part in our year. The students have planted various fruits and vegetables a couple of months ago in preparation for this warmer time of year. It is a really good feeling to watch the children enjoy digging in the dirt and planting with smiles on their faces. We thank you for your continued support as the end of the school year comes to a close.

For more information:

Visit our Website: Lakota Waldorf School

Add us on Facebook: Lakota Waldorf Facebook

Follow Us on Twitter: @LakotaWaldorf

To Donate: Donate (Thank You)

A lot has been happening here at Lakota Waldorf!

The children are excited to see their plants start to grow. With warmer weather around the corner we are starting to plan for our garden. It is a great time here at Lakota Waldorf School to witness the children get excited to see their plants grow larger with each passing week. Soon we will have the garden tilled and fertilized for their labors to really grow. We apologize for not posting lately, but with the school year coming to a close we have had a full plate to digest. Thank you for visiting, and we hope you continue to help make our dream a reality.

We were really excited for the children to have chickens to raise here at Lakota Waldorf School. All together we have nine chicks that will be a part of our school. 

We appreciate our friend Kira, a Waldorf Teacher from Stuttgart Waldorf School in Germany, come and work with our teachers for two weeks. She donated her time to help our teachers polish their skills while visiting our region. We will miss her help and presence at the school.

We were glad to have our Ojibwe friends from Duluth, MN come and visit our school. Julie, Anthony, and Reyna were here to stop by and get a better understanding of what our dream is here at Lakota Waldorf School. Their new friendship will carry on for years to come. We hope to help them achieve their dream of a possible Ojibwe Waldorf School.

For More Information:

Visit our website: Lakota Waldorf School

To Donate: Donate to Lakota Waldorf School

Add us on Facebook: Lakota Waldorf Facebook

Follow us on Twitter: @LakotaWaldorf

Thank You!

Easter Festival

Today we had our Easter Festival here at Lakota Waldorf School! The children have made their baskets all week in preparation for this day. The day's activities included: Easter Egg Hunt, an Easter Story, the children all received the baskets they made during the week, and we followed with a nice meal for all. We hope everyone has a nice Easter weekend!

The children searched high and low... 

"I found you!"

"Look what I made!"

This cake looks delicious!

Our website is back up again!

We just want everyone to know that our website is back up! We are working on updating all the information to keep everything current. Thank you for your patience, and we apologize for any inconvenience.

Here is the link:
Lakota Waldorf School

Website down for maintenance

Sorry to inform all our  friends, but our website is currently down for maintenance. We shall inform everyone when the maintenance is finished. Thank you all for your patience in this matter!

Teacher Training was held this week

Throughout the year our teachers go through Waldorf Training with either instructors or mentors from other Waldorf Schools. We were pleased to have Lin Welsh here this week to mentor our teachers and staff. We wish her a safe journey home, and hope to see her soon! Thank you for making the trip!

We started our garden!

During the first days of spring we decided to start planning our garden. With help from Rose Fraser (Oyate Teca Project - Kyle, SD), we were able to start some of the plants early with her tips. We hope to have a large garden this year, so we will be starting soon. The children will help along the way, and we can tell they are excited to experience something new for most of them. Warm weather help us grow!...

"With Head, Hand, and Heart"

For more information, visit our website: Lakota Waldorf School

Follow us on Twitter: @LakotaWaldorf

Like us on Facebook: Lakota Waldorf

To Donate: Donate

Artistic Fundamentals

In Waldorf teaching, the artistic aspects are very fundamental. Water Painting, Drawing, and even our Play Dough, is made of all natural ingredients. The crayons are made from beeswax, the water paints are made from natural ingredients such as plants. Waldorf teachings say; "with head, hand, and heart."



We here at Lakota Waldorf School focus on these aspects to help the children grow.

For More Information: Our Website
Like us on Facebook: Lakota Waldorf School
Follow us on Twitter: @LakotaWaldorf
To Donate: Donate

Waldorf Teacher Training

We held our Waldorf Teacher Training on February 20th through the 23rd. It was good to welcome Tom, Laurie, and Patrice to our School. They come from Denver Waldorf School and New York, to help train our teachers. We hope to see them again soon!

For More Information
Visit our Website: Lakota Waldorf School
Follow Us on Twitter: @Lakota Waldorf
Like us on Facebook: Lakota Waldorf
How to Donate: Donate

Circle Time

Part of the rhythm here at Lakota Waldorf School includes our Circle Time. Circle Time is set aside for the children to Sing, Dance, Share Stories, and also Learn Lakota Language.

For more information
Visit our Website: Lakota Waldorf School
Follow us on Twitter: @LakotaWaldorf
Like us on Facebook: Lakota Waldorf School
How To Donate: Donate

Bread Making

Every Wednesday is Bread Making Day here at Lakota Waldorf School!