Bright Water Waldorf School

The second and third graders celebrated Dia de los Mu***os this week and took time to honor our ancestors with their painting. When Bright Water Waldorf School celebrates a festival or holiday, the stories come through the children in multiple ways. Taking in the world comes in many forms and through all of the senses.

This is your gentle reminder to Fall Back. Go easy on yourself and the littles this week, adjustments and transitions take time. Daylight Savings starts in a few hours. 🧡💛❤️

The Early Childhood lantern walk is tonight! The lanterns are ready and the weather and are mood just right!

Dia dos Mu***os at Bright Water Waldorf School. We are honoring our loved ones and ancestors. 💀

The Bright Water Waldorf School middle schoolers are getting into the lantern making fun too! The whole school collectively has been singing and reflecting to cultivate inner light. It's almost November!

The Bright Water Waldorf fourth grade felted their lanterns today!

The Bright Water Waldorf seventh and eighth graders are in an anatomy and physiology block. The sketches of the human skeleton are in the hallway. What timing that this block aligns with Halloween and Dia de los Mu***os? Each step and intention matters with bringing lessons to the students so that the learning is a whole "body" experience.

Bunka no Hi (Japanese Culture Day) is a holiday in Japan celebrating Japanese culture. At the JCCCW, Bunka no Hi is a free-to-attend cultural festival dedicated to celebrating, commemorating, and educating the public about Japanese and Japanese American culture in the Seattle area.

The theme of this year’s Bunka no Hi festival will be “Explore Cultural Art through Japanese Language!” Discover Japan’s unique forms of art and expression with activities like haiku poetry and calligraphy, as well as live performances of kamishibai and recorded performances of rakugo storytelling. Look forward to presentations of other cultural arts as well, including karate, taiko drumming, classical dance, and much more! We have a special guest this year — Lori Matsukawa, Emmy-award winning journalist and founding member of the Nikkei Heritage Association of Washington (NHAW). Matsukawa will have a reading and signing event for her new children’s book, ‘Brave, Mrs. Sato’. The Hosekibako Japanese Resale Shop located on-site will also be open during the event.

*Please check our website for more information as the event approaches.

Volunteering:
We are looking for volunteers to help with preparations, as well as on the day of the event. The sign-up form is expected to become available in early October at www.jcccw.org/bunka-no-hi so please check back for more details!

Website: https://www.jcccw.org/bunka-no-hi

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文化の日

日時:2023年11月4日(土) | 午前11時~午後5時

場所:ワシントン州日本文化会館(JCCCW), 1414 S Weller St., Seattle, WA 98144

ウェブサイト: www.jcccw.org/bunka-no-hi

内容: 当文化会館では、日本や日系アメリカ人の文化などを広く知っていただくための催しとして、毎年11月に「文化の日」（入場無料）を開催しています。今年のテーマは「言葉で探ろう日本の文化」で、俳句や書道、紙芝居、落語（動画上映）など、日本ならではの表現手法をご紹介します。実演は、空手などの武道、太鼓、日本舞踊などを予定しています。また特別ゲストとして、当会館の創立メンバーであるローリー・マツカワによる書籍「ブレイブ・ミセス・サトウ」（今秋発売）の朗読とサイン会も開催！日本の物専門の再販店「宝石箱」もイベント中、営業します。

最新情報は当会館のウェブサイト（www.jcccw.org/bunka-no-hi)をごらんください。

ボランティア募集：イベント準備期間およびイベント当日にかけて、ボランティアを募集します。詳細はウェブサイトにて10月初旬に更新します。興味のある方はぜひご応募ください。

Tis the season of pumpkins! The Bright Water Waldorf School early grades are carving, painting, and baking with October's favorite squash!

It's Lantern Walk season! Bright Water Waldorf School is preparing for their annual Lantern Walks! Take a peek into the sweet early childhood program. The children have been creating beautiful lanterns this week.

"I go with my bright little lantern, my lantern is going with me.
Above me the stars are shining,
on earth shines my lantern for me."

The Bright Water Waldorf School seventh and eighth grade are in an anatomy and physiology block. Students have been learning about and sketching the human skull.

The Bright Water Waldorf fourth grade is deep in learning about Norse Myths! The incredible fourth grade curriculum meets the students as they begin their feelings of separateness and things that have endings. Loki's mischievousness is a central theme in fourth grade children, who struggle with making choices which test their moral compass.

Take a little peek into the sweet, fundamentally simple, and elegant first grade classroom. The Bright Water Waldorf first graders are just beginning their grade school journey and are invited daily to experience colors, numbers, and letters in a way that brings learning about the world into their whole being. Join our monthly tours to take a peek into the wonders of Bright Water Waldorf School.

Yesterday afternoon, the seventh and eighth grade visited the first grade classroom and helped them make corn husk dolls. It was a lovely and fun afternoon. Corn has been a central theme in the school most of last week in celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day and grounding into a resource that has sustained humanity for generations. The seventh and eighth graders just finished the book Braiding Sweetgrass and shared some wisdom with their buddies.

The Bright Water Waldorf 7th and 8th graders made corn husk dolls. They will be doing this craft again soon with (and for) their 1st grade buddies.

Bright Water Waldorf School grades 2 and 3 are learning to measure! This lesson is brought to the students by using their own hands and feet. The hallways have been full of students measuring all sorts of things using heel to toe and hands!

Bright Water Waldorf School students listened to the story, Raven Steals the Light as part of the Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations and honor. The hallways are full of beauty! Story by Bill Reid will be linked in the comments.

Bright Water Waldorf 7th and 8th grade posters. The students shared the artwork with businesses and organizations as well as, hung posters on telephone poles and on neighborhood boards yesterday.

Bright Water Waldorf School happily pays

We hope to encourage more to do the same: https://www.realrentduwamish.org

Indigenous Peoples Day was an incredible day for Bright Water Waldorf students and faculty. Grades 1-4 heard stories, played games, and made delicious soup for the whole school. The middle school learned about Real Rent and created individual posters to share out into the community. Our 5th and 6th grade students participated in the rally and march.

The day brought joy, learning, listening, and enthusiasm.

"WE ARE STILL HERE.
We are the People of the Inside, dxʷdəwʔabš"

Bright Water Waldorf School is dedicating the entire day to honoring the land, the Duwamish people, and honoring various tribes in North America for Indigenous Peoples Day. Our regularly scheduled school day is on hold until tomorrow to uplift and honor the stories from Indigenous tribes and people. The students will be hearing land acknowledgements, stories, listening to and reading Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer, making Three Sisters Soup and Fry Bread, and taking a deep dive into understanding Real Rent. Some students will be spending the afternoon sharing with neighbors and businesses about Real Rent, hoping to inspire others to join and support our local Salish Tribes.

For millennia before there was a city called Seattle, thousands of indigenous people - the Duwamish Tribe - lived in harmony with the natural surroundings that sustained them. The Duwamish Longhouse is active and an important regional resource for tribal members, researchers, teachers and students interested in Duwamish history and culture. Real Rent Duwamish

The Bright Water Waldorf science classes for the middle grades focuses on experience and close observation. Our 6th-8th graders are learning about combustion and wildfire through both reading and lab work. The students are learning about the characteristics of various plant parts and man-made materials as they burn. It's very exciting!

The Bright Water Waldorf second and third grade heard another creation story this week. The story twists and turns, but ends with the never-ending song of justice, mercy, and peace (shalom/salaam) into the newly formed world.

Chalkboard by Skye Chamberlain

Our early childhood students are having fun with two simple ingredients, sand and water. Want to learn more about open-ended play and Waldorf education? Sign up for our tour on October 26th at 9:00am. Link in the comments!

It was picture day today at Bright Water Waldorf School!

Our littlest students in early childhood wore their golden capes of light last Friday at our Harvest Festival! The Bright Water Waldorf community gathered together to sing, eat soup and bread, and took part in challenges of courage! It was a wonderful afternoon.

Bright Water Waldorf School honors the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a day of reflection and remembrance. Today we take a moment to listen, learn, and stand together in support of Indigenous communities, especially the Duwamish people, on whose land we occupy.

The orange shirt has become a symbol of hope, reconciliation, and a commitment to a better future. By wearing an orange shirt on September 30th, you too can make a statement to support reconciliation and commit to the enduring truth that EVERY CHILD MATTERS.

We are in community to commemorate the residential school experience, witnessing and honouring the healing journey of the survivors and their families. Every child matters.

Friday many Bright Water Waldorf students, led by the 5th and 6th grade, wore orange shirts as a symbol of our commitment to telling the truth, healing, and reconciliation.

*link to local rally in comments

Image credit: Charliss Santos’ winning design for the 2023 Orange Shirt Day contest.

We will be hosting a giant pumpkin silent auction today at the Bright Water Waldorf School Harvest Festival! Please wear your red, orange, or gold. See you right after school for a special play, delicious soup and bread, and some courage building challenges!

It's all about the apples! (How do you like them apples)?
Watercolor paintings by Bright Water Waldorf School 2nd and 3rd grade

Bright Water Early Childhood programs prepare children for the academic challenges of elementary school by engaging their will through meaningful and practical activities; cultivating their feelings through the arts; developing reading readiness through story, song, and verse; and stimulating creativity and fantasy through imaginative play.

Our Early Childhood and Kindergarten programs develop imagination, verbal capacities, sequencing, sensory integration, memory, social skills, and motor skills that are essential as the foundation for later learning and academic excellence. This is all achieved in a supportive atmosphere free from formal academics, allowing children’s intellectual abilities to unfold from a foundation of healthy sensory development.

Join our monthly tours to take a peek at our new Early Childhood building. https://www.brightwaterwaldorf.org/events

“Learning is creation, not consumption. Knowledge is not something a learner absorbs, but something a learner creates.” George Couros.

Bright Water Waldorf School offers children a dynamic education that grounds students academically and socially, preparing them to consciously navigate the complexities of our time. Students are immersed in an environment that supports the whole child, educates by example, and teaches arts and sciences using physical movement and academic rigor. Waldorf education helps children grow their understanding, resilience, and a sense of their own capabilities.

Join one of our monthly tours to learn more about Bright Water Waldorf School.

Bright Water Waldorf School grades one through five took a field trip to last Friday! The weather was glorious and the students engaged in all kinds of work and play. Bright Water Waldorf has deep gratitude to Hiromi and Shawn Sensei, their farm serves our school in so many ways. The pumpkins you see will be auctioned at our upcoming Harvest Festival this Friday! Happy fall everyone!

Tonight at sundown begins Yom Kippur. Bright Water Waldorf School is closed in observance.

Yom Kippur, known as the Day of Atonement, is the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Central to its observance is the sound of the shofar, a ram's horn trumpet.

This ancient instrument serves as a spiritual alarm clock, urging us to reflect, repent, and renew our commitment to our faith and community.

Wishing everyone who observes, "Gmar Hatimah Tovah" and an easy fast.

Yellow the bracken,
Golden the sheaves.
Rosy the apples,
Crimson the leaves.

Mist on the hillside,
Clouds grey and white.
Autumn, good morning!
Summer good night!

The Bright Water Waldorf School seventh and eighth grade students took a deep dive into the Sengoku period (also know as the Warring States Period) in Japan. The students learned stories of Oda Nobunago, the "Great Unifier" and Yasuke, the Legendary Black Samurai. (Chalkboard art by Ms. Simpson)

Yesterday morning, the Bright Water Waldorf fourth grade worked on their sketches and a big picture wonderment of our local geography! Can locals name this incredible park where one can sit up high and see most of the city? 💙

The second and third grade farmer's market today was delightful! Mother Nature gave a wonderful backdrop and setting to the incredible offerings of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and herbs.

A few samples of fourth grade's compass roses. In fourth grade as students begin to navigate who they are and where they are going, they are learning about local geography and their relationship to it. Our teachers and parents must delicately adjust to meet the more conscious, questioning and independent being.

The 2nd and 3rd grade watercolor paintings of Old Turtle Offers to Catch Sky-woman.

Shana tova! Happy New Year! Ms. Chamberlain greeted the students today at drop off with apples and honey.

May your year be sweet!

Happy summer Bright Water Community!

A big thank you to all the families watering the garden! We hope you're having a wonderful and nurturing summer break and we will send out some communications and updates for Back to School soon!