Adventures

Ms. Miller’s fifth-graders spent October and April weeks this year in the study of Botany.  They considered a diversity of plant life, from ferns to forests.  On October 30 and April 30, the group toured to Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square to see what was blooming, six months apart, in one of our region’s most beloved botanical habitats.

Accompanying the April Botany block was a journey through various modes of poetry, from the sonnet to haiku.  While Joyce Kilmer wrote that “Poems are made by fools like me,/ But only God can make a tree,” the students found that plenty of great poets have honored flowers and trees through their words.

Fifth-graders chimed in with poetry of their own.  They co-wrote a double acrostic poem about spring, where the first letters of each line, when read vertically, spell “April Showers,” and the last letters spell “May Flowers.”  The students’ “Poison Ivy” sonnet made Ms. Miller itchy for a week!

Mrs. Curtis and her eighth grade class are in Durango, Colorado on Tuesday morning for a ten-day wilderness adventure.  They will be spending seven days backpacking and white-water rafting between the Colorado Rocky Mountains and the canyons and mesas of the Colorado Plateau.  Their final three days will be spent in-service on a Navajo reservation.

This adventure is the final frontier for the SWS Class of 2010 who will be graduating on Saturday, June 5th.

Mr. Martino and the fourth grade camped at Ricketts Glen State Park for three nights.  They hiked to the waterfalls, toured a coal mine, and cooked dinner over an open camp fire. This field trip wraps up their block on animals and their habitats.

So what did the 6^th grade class at the Susquehanna Waldorf School do in three days in NYC?

• Walked through Times Square on a clear night.
• Walked through Central Park in crisp clear sunshine.
• Walked past beautiful brownstones, Rockefeller Center, and Bryant Park on their way to SoHo at dusk to get dinner.
• Met Andrew Goldsworthy at the Museum of Natural History – Synchronicity
• Visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art

What were some of the things the students liked?

• The Cathedral of St. John the Divine, “This place is so cool!”
• The bread at La Pan Quotidian and their praline butter.
• The pool table at the hostel.
• The little pocket park by the Met where they could hone their parcore skills.
• Strawberry Fields.
• Just being there, feeling pretty comfortable in the city.
• Raspberries from a sidewalk vendor.
• An open face tartine (over peanut butter and jelly) at La Pan.
• Too-cool-for-school oversize white sunglasses from a sidewalk vendor.

What happens after New York City?

• Medieval History
• Geometry
• Back to the salt mines.