Potomac Crescent Waldorf School

🤍CHILDREN THRIVE HERE.🤍 We prioritize your children's health, well-being, social-emotional development, and academic mastery. Everything we do - every detail on our campus, every moment in the classroom, every interaction with your child is carried out with love and care.✨ Come visit us and experience the warmth and thoughtfulness of the PCWS community. Follow the link in our bio, call us at (703) 486-1309, or DM us. We love to chat education!

Waldorf school education is not a pedagogical system but an art - the art of awakening what is actually there within the human being.🤍 -Rudolph Steiner

Spend a morning chatting with Waldorf-trained teachers and experience an integrative math lesson that you'll never forget.✏️ Did you know math can be engrossing and fun for all? And, did you know that you can engage all your senses AND your body to learn math seamlessly? Join us for a morning in the grades this Saturday, February 8 from 9:00am-10:30am at our beautiful Old Town Alexandria campus (424 N. Washington St.) Follow the link in our bio (or DM us and we'll send it to you) to learn more. (This event is for adults only. If you can't make it on Saturday, our doors are always open - schedule a visit now). And, don't forget your questions! We love chatting elementary education with everyone!✨

Do you love a cozy ambience? Bread making? Puppet plays? Come experience our school's magical open house on February 1 from 11:00am-12:00pm at our beautiful campus conveniently located in Old Town Alexandria (424 N. Washington Street). All are welcome,🤍

Everyone loves a fairy tale.✨🧚🍄 But, what are the practical purposes of fairy tales in education?
✨Often, fairy tales (and Waldorf stories) are emotionally evocative and children process their emotions in productive ways while listening to them.

For example, from the Land of the Singing Sounds:

⭐️Once upon a time there was the land of the singing sounds. Whenever anyone talked with one another, they would sing their words to each other. Harmony and joy were the rule of the land. Even when they disagreed or were angry, they would sing their feelings. When singing they could not remain angry or sad for too long.⭐️

✨Along the same lines, fairy tales are a gentle way to introduce complex topics, including academic ones.
✨Fairy tales are also engrossing and spark children's imaginations.
✨They a didactic and often have a valuable life lesson embedded in the story.

Do you remember a favorite fairy tale from childhood?🤍

And with that, the Fairy touched her wand to every apple and planted deep within it a star.🧚

To this day, whenever you cut open an apple, you will find a star buried deep, waiting for you to discover it.⭐️ (From "How the Apple Got its Star: a Waldorf Apple Story). DM us if you'd like the whole story, we'll happily send it to you.🤍 Children at PCWS (and all children, really) love listening to stories and letting their imaginations flourish and expand.🤍

Who else is looking forward to the smell of rolls baking at their school?🤍✨ 📸: Eva Hartman

BOND WITH YOUR BABY, meet people. and ask our parent-baby guru and teacher, Jennifer Scotti (she truly is the baby whisperer) anything.🩵 Learn about rhythms, sing special songs, and play adorable finger games.✨ Having a newborn can be an isolating and confusing time - especially during the winter months. Come experience the magical, cozy parent-baby Acorn class at PCWS. Classes run from January 24-February 28. Grab your spot now! According to one Acorn parent, "It's a wonderful way to make long lasting-friendships and have built-in support." Follow the link in our bio (or DM us and we'll send you the link) to sign up. See you soon!

DUE TO THE WEATHER FORECAST, we are pushing our Saturday (1/11) open house START TIME to 10:30AM. The event will run until 12:00pm. If you have any questions, give us a call at (703) 486-1309, email us at [email protected] OR DM us.🤍 Stay warm and safe - and see you tomorrow!!

🌱CHILDREN THRIVE OUTSIDE🌱 - by integrating outdoor group work and lessons, forest days, outdoor activities, gardening projects, farm field trips, and time in our nature playground, Potomac Crescent Waldorf School prioritizes children's brain growth and development.🤍

According to an NIH (2022) study, children benefit greatly when participating in outdoor activities. Benefits include: helping kids build longer attention spans, bolstering impulse control, and creating the right environment for supporting cognitive growth.

Want to learn more about the positive impact outdoor education has on children?

Give us a call at (703) 486-1309, DM us, or visit our website (link in bio). Best of all, schedule a visit and let's chat in person!

ONE THING WALDORF'S really good at is aesthetics - specifically integrating beautiful, natural components into a child's environment. Natural elements help with sensory balance, and develop children's interest in the world.🌎 Scroll through the photos to see some of the gorgeous nature tables at Potomac Crescent Waldorf School (), and then go make one with your child! You can keep adding, and changing it, all winter (and switch it out each season). Here's how:
✨Pick a special place in your home (you can use a small table or shelf).
✨Find a piece of fabric (a beloved scarf, play silks, a lovely cloth napkin, lace doilies) to use as the base.
✨Go outside and search for things like acorns, pretty rocks, leaves, flowers.
✨Add indoor elements like crystals, dried flowers, drawings, quotes, knitted or crocheted animals, ornaments, fruit (persimmon or pomegranate are gorgeous). Have fun with it and be creative!
✨Display a seasonal book, if you’d like..

The key is to create a space with beautiful things you and your child find and curate together.

Assembling your work together is a lovely bonding experience, and your child will adore walking over, discussing, and engaging with the nature table.🌱

Any questions or ideas? Comment below.🤍

Enjoy your winter fun!❄️

🤍DON'T MISS OUT on winter fun and play January 11th at PCWS (conveniently located at 424 N. Washington St. in beautiful Old Town Alexandria).🤍 We're hosting our open house, an event complete with: making our famous PCWS bread rolls together, watching a fun puppet play, spending time with our kind & lovely teachers, playing with new friends in our nature-inspired campus (we have the COOLEST wooden toys, if we do say so ourselves), and simply meeting wonderful people. There's truly something for everyone. The PCWS open house runs from 9:30am-11:00am. Visit the link in our bio (or DM us and we will send you the link). See you there - it's a great way to spend a Saturday morning!✨

❄️KEEP WATCHING THE PCWS () ACCOUNT FOR SNOWY DAY ACTIVITY SUGGESTIONS❄️: If there's something a Waldorf school knows how to do, it's enjoy nature AND be cozy. Make sure to follow along with us during these snowy days (Anyone else home on a snow day?🖐️). Here are the first few .. AND we'd love to know if you have any suggestions. Post in the comments so we can all help each other enjoy our wintry days!🤍

❄️A SWEET POEM TO READ TO YOUR CHILD ON A SNOWY DAY❄️

The day is cloudy and the wind is bold. Dress up warmly, you mustn't get cold! Put on your coat and zip it up tight, put on your left boot, put on your right. Put on your scarf and put on your hat, put on your mittens and clap-clap-clap
Go outside and play and play.

Come in again, and then we'll say. Take off your coat that was zipped up tight, take off your left boot, take off your right. Take off your scarf, take off your hat, take off your mittens, and then take a nap!

-Poem by Jack Prelutsky
📸: Eva Hartman

LOOKING BACK AT SOME OF OUR AMAZING COMMUNITY EVENTS in 2024. We're so thankful and grateful for every single one of you, and we cherish every single of our memories with you.✨ Here's to many more incredible, meaningful & enriching moments in 2025.🤍

⚪️Community Fall Festival
⚪️Diwali - Celebration of Lights
⚪️Pie Pot Luck

#2024

✨What's a great way to spend a Saturday morning in the winter?🤔 On January 11th from 9:30am-11:00am come play and learn inside our beautiful, soothing, nature-inspired school.🏫 We'll be baking our famous PCWS bread rolls, singing songs, performing puppet plays, playing together, meeting new friends, and hanging out with our lovely, kind &
experienced teachers.🤍 All ages are welcome, there's truly something for everyone.✨ PCWS offers parent-baby & parent-child classes, and our school's grades run from pre-K through 5th grade. The PCWS campus is conveniently located at 424 N. Washington St. in the heart of Old Town Alexandria.🤍 Make sure to tell your friends, family, and community to join in on the fun on January 11th! See you there.🤍

THROWBACK to our open house puppy play "The Pumpkin House" - it was such a wonderful time!🤍 MARK YOUR CALENDARS for our winter open house (I wonder what puppet play we'll perform at that one?🤔❄️) on Saturday, January 11 from 9:30AM-11:00AM at our Old Town Alexandria campus (424 N. Washington Street). All are welcome, it's a wonderful way to spend a morning.🤍 📸: Eva Hartman

THROWBACK TO OUR PCWS FALL GARDEN 🪴 (scroll through 📸). Situated behind our beautiful Old Town Alexandria, VA we have a working garden 🌱 - our children are outside and garden all year long. Did you know gardening has a multitude of benefits for kids? -->
🌱Fine Motor Skill Development
🌱Encouragement of Healthy Eating (our kids naturally eat right from the garden!)
🌱Integration of Academics through Experience (for example, science, botany, & math skills are taught in our garden)
🌱Appreciation for Our Natural World - including the flow of the seasons 🌷☀️🍁❄️
🌱Patience
🌱Resilience (experiencing what it takes to plan, maintain, and nurture a garden)
🌱Reduction of Frustration Impulse (gardening CAN be frustrating - children learn to overcome frustration through problem solving and simply trying again and again when things inevitably fail)
🌱Sensory Integration and Regulation

At PCWS, we love to chat about outdoor education, learning through experience, AND our beautiful nature-inspired campus.🤍

Want to learn more? DM us, visit our website (link in bio) - or even better, come see for yourselves.

Schedule a visit today.📚

📸: Eva Hartman