2013 CWS May Fair

Saturday, May 11th, 10am-4pm

A street fair on Loyola Ave. (between Glenwood & Lakewood)

The May Fair is an annual festival of Spring, featuring the historic tradition of handmade arts and crafts that is celebrated by Waldorf schools throughout the Americas and Europe. This event connects the larger community to the creative spirit by which Waldorf schools nourish and support the whole child in attunement with the natural seasons’ cycles.

May Fair takes on its own aura for each individual school with activities ranging from barbecues to child-made crafts, handwork, fabric dyeing and more. The most iconic element of May Fair is the maypole dance that evokes the same community pride and spirit as it did in festivals centuries ago.

The Chicago Waldorf School 2013 May Fair has evolved from a celebration for children into a community-wide affair in Rogers Park that seeks to celebrate the spirit and values of Waldorf education with students, families, and the neighborhood. The festival features Maypole dancing, live entertainment and music, games, food, kid-focused activities, craft-making, and unique vendors and exhibitors of handmade artisanal goods.

Entertainment & Performances at the May Fair:

In addition to the many games, crafts and activities that will be available at May Fair, the event will feature a lively roster of entertainment including:

10:30am           The Kelson Twins      (location: Street Stage)

CWS student, Juliet Kelson and her twin sister will perform a medley of music. Enjoy these High Schooler's musical artistry.

11:30am      Circus Aerialists Perform      (location: Gymnasium)

Students from the school’s Circus Club Aerial Group will perform a variety of acrobatic skills and feats on the silks, spanish web and trapeeze.

12:00noon      Maypole Dance      (location: Street Stage)

The maypole bears garlands and is a symbol for the growth of new vegetation and spring life. Dancers gather around the pole that is sprawling with greenery and colored ribbons attached to the top. To the accompaniment of traditional music they walk and skip in opposite directions allowing the strings to intertwine to create a braided weave around the pole. This colorful dance is a special part of the tradition celebrating the coming of Spring.

1:00pm      Circus Club Performance      (location: Street Stage)

Students from the Chicago Waldorf School’s Circus Club will perform a variety of skills and physical feats from acrobatics to tumbling, floor exercises, clowning, hip-hop dance performance, juggling, and more. See teams execute advanced jump skills and competitive jump-rope routines. Coached by professional circus artists, athletes and acrobatic performers, this is our circus club students’ chance to show off their excellent new skills.

2:00pm      Scenes From Shakespeare      (location: Auditorium)

Students from the 8th grade will share a selection of scenes from their upcoming class play, Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Nights Dream."

2:30pm      Brazilian Music with Brasil Nativo      (Street Stage)

Hear the energetic sounds of Samba music from Lourdes, Heitor and Paulinho Garcia Family Brazilian Music Trio.

3:00pm      CWS Student Talent      (location: Street Stage)

Students from the Chicago Waldorf School’s High School and Middle School will perform special selections for the community. See and hear the African Drumming Class perform, watch talent performances and skits from High Schoolers. Comedy, tragedy, or inspiration may ensue with performances that run the gamut from serious to irreverent in nature.

The May Fair will have a variety of booths, food vendors, and activities including the traditional Cake Walk, Jump Rope Braiding Machines, Tie-Dye Station, Flower Crowns, Arts & Crafts projects for kids, a Treasure Hunt and more!

Make sure you invite your friends to come join us!

Tina Howe’s Museum is performed Thursday – Saturday, May 16 – 18 at 7:30pm

(Recommended for grades 5+) - CWS Auditorium

Parents, faculty, alumni and ALL members of the CWS community are invited to see the senior class in their final dramatic production. Yes, that’s right; it’s time for the annual 12^th grade play! This year the seniors are tackling the contemporary comedy, Museum.

Written in 1976, Tina Howe’s Museum takes place on the final day of a group show of three fictional contemporary American artists. They are exhibited in a major museum of modern art and, in the course of the day, the usual suspects walk through the show: art lovers, skeptics, foreigners, students, lost souls, fellow artists, and museum guards.

The 12th grade's production of Museum explores the effect of art on the viewer, showing how reactions to a work of art say as much about the viewer and human nature, as they do about the work on display.

Directed by Colleen Everhart and produced by the senior class, all the 12^th graders perform and many have more than one speaking part. They are receiving assistance from Nancy Melvin (costumes), Rick Paul and Frances Vig (set), Michele Preysler (hair and make-up) and Mike Smith (lights and AV) for their production.

Admission is free with donations gratefully accepted at the door. All donations will help fund the 12th grade’s Service Learning trip to the Yucatan in Mexico where they will work with the Mayan community on various service projects.

A foundation for learning―and the spark that fuels the creative, inquisitive mind―starts with the question: "Why?"

                    CWS Annual Fund 2013 Goal: $150,000         Current mark: $110,000

40 In 40 challenges the Chicago Waldorf School community to raise $40,000 in 40 days in order to meet our 2012-2013 Annual Fund goal of $150,000. Click here to donate to the 2013 CWS Annual Fund!

Ask: Why Give to Annual Fund? This is Why...

Your Annual Fund gifts support the costs of important school operations, ensuring that Chicago Waldorf School can keep tuition competitive and offer access to Waldorf education for many families. Other expenses covered by the Annual Fund include everything from classroom enhancements to refueling the bus gas tank. Here are examples of what the CWS Annual Fund donations support: 

Your Participation Counts!

We need your help to raise 40 In 40. We are asking for 100% participation from parents, faculty, staff, and Board of Trustees of the school to reach our goal. Your donation is vital to sustaining the Chicago Waldorf experience, and the benefits are exponential—every dollar donated makes a difference in the life of CWS, which is a benefit to everyone. And all donations are tax-deductible—a great benefit for you!

Please click here to make your donation to 40 In 40 today!

Exciting news about the Illinois Council of Teachers of Mathematics Regional Math Competition. This competition is held every February at Chicago State University on a Saturday during our Mid-Winter break. Students from our high school have been competing in it for years, but this year is by far the best we’ve done! The students/teams have qualified to go down to the State Competition at the University of Illinois in Champaign in May!

Please Congratulate our Math Team on their accomplishments
and wish them well in their upcoming State Competition!

Accolades are in order for the following people:

1. Samuel Liss and Conor Sullivan have both qualified as individuals in Algebra I


2. The entire Algebra II Team: Joe Wendy, Paco Alvarez, Lindsay Thompson, Alex Morson, and Merci Randolph


3. The Junior/Senior 8-person team: Joe Wendy, Paco Alvarez, Lindsay Thompson, Alex Morson, Merci Randolph, and Gabrielle Anspach


4. The Freshmen/Sophmore 2-person team: Samuel Liss and Conor Sullivan

We are are very proud of them all!

-Robert Wilson and Kelsey DeWitte, Math Club Faculty Advisors/Coordinators

Open to the Public / See our Grade School, Middle School & High School performers

Please join us for the annual Spring Eurythmy Festival in which students from the 4th thru 11th grades perform for the assembled students, faculty, staff, parents and their invited guests.

Eurythmy is a performing art that has been developed as part of traditional Waldorf curriculum into pedagogical movement classes. Pedagogical Eurythmy uses graceful movement that arises out of the human being’s physiology, soul and higher self and is expressed not only through movement in space but also as meaningful gestures that incorporate hand, arm and body positions with flowing complex coordinated patterns of movement in groups. As core elements of the curriculum, Eurythmy presentations are an expression of language, and the inner experience of poetry and music.

Please come see our students present their latest levels of study in the Eurythmy program.

This year's Spring festival will include:

- the 4th grade performing a piece inspired by their studies of Norse Mythology and based on the poem,
 "Forge Me With Fire"

- another group of 4th graders will perform with copper rods to the "Sonnen Übung (Sun Ray exercises),"
  with German music composed by Carla Ritchie, followed by a Eurythmy presentation incorporating
"The Walls of Asgard."

-the entire 5th grade will perform eurythmy to the poem "The Fountain" written by James Russell Lowell, and
 accompanied by a music prelude composed by Leopold Van Der Pals.

- a group from the 6th grade will perform their Eurythmy to the poem "Akbar's Hymn To The Sun" by Lord Alfred
  Tennyson and accompanied by a Hebridean song (from the Western Islands of Scotland).

-and a second group of 6th graders will perform to "A Song of King Arthur's Castle" by A.C. Harwood accompanied
 by "Music for Transition of Diamonds" also composed by Leopold Van Der Pals.

Come enjoy and support the students in our Eurythmy program; which remains one of the most unique, traditional and quintessential art forms in Waldorf education!

- Newest Additions to the CWS Community!
We warmly welcome Ursula Burrows (grade 1) and her parents, Lara Oppenheimer and Dersu Burrows, to the Chicago Waldorf community. We love new members to the "CWS Family."  Welcome!

- CWS Frosh Create "Geometry Math Rap" Video
High School students self-produced a wordy, wise, and high-speed delivery "Math Rap" that premiered on You Tube to enthusiastic responses. See the video at:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRxanbwaEz8 Congrats to Graham Heavenrich, Conor Sullivan, Shannon Sullivan, Natascha Ulrich and Siubhan Stormont for writing the lyrics, singing, self-producing, directing, performing in, posting and sharing the video!

< Life's Cycles of Renewal Continues. CWS gets a New Tree!
Did you notice that something new stands at the front of school waiting to welcome students for their daily rituals at the pick-up/drop-off lane? City workers recently planted a new sapling to take the place of the old tree that collapsed that had been ravaged by dry rot. Welcome this newest addition to the greenery and natural environment in the school's front vestibule.

- Interested in hosting German Waldorf Students this Summer?
Two high school students (1 boy and 1 girl, both 17 yrs. old) from a Waldorf school in Germany are looking for lodging or a host family in Chicago. CWS Circus Club's Meshu Tamarat encouraged them to come to Chicago and they will be volunteering with CircEsteem this summer. They will arrive at the end of June and stay through August. If you are interested to host them for some or all of the summer please, contact Info@CircEsteem.org

-Albion Parking Lot Gets a Makeover Into New Green Park
See this link for details about the City Parks Department's new proposed renovations of a vacant lot into a new Albion Park which will effect our Rogers Park neighbors..and all CWS classes that make trips to Albion beach!

ALUMNI NEWS CORNER:

- CWS graduate, Gwen Kelly-Masterton, has adapted, produced and directed French neo-classicist Jean Racine's "Andromache," a tragedy about survivors of the Trojan War. A passionate exploration of human relationships in the aftermath of war, this terrific production includes a wonderful mural by aftercare teacher Elena Amesbury, excellent acting, and a surprise ending that may move you profoundly. See a show in the final week of their run: May 1, 2, 3, 4 at Collaboraction's pentagon Theater on the 3rd floor of the Flat Iron Building , 1579 Milwaukee Ave. All performances are at 8pm. $15 Tickets can be purchased online at agatandromache.brownpapertickets.com, or at the door. Submitted by Beth Kelly

- Anna Balch is a CWS Grade School Alumnus from 2013 who is making news in Evanston and Highland Park for her exceptional athleticism in Softball. An excerpt: "Balch is having an outstanding start to the Evanston softball season, posting a 1.571 slugging percentage in the Wildkits’ first four games. Her impressive power numbers show just how much the Wildkits missed her last year. Balch was a sophomore..." Read the full article here Submitted by Cheryl Henley

Worthy Of Note:

Our sought after seniors collectively were granted over $2 million dollars in merit scholarship offers!

Fourteen colleges/universities are new to our list when compared with the last few years. These new schools are Dickinson College, University of Wisconsin – Madison, Stetson University, Albion College, University of Pittsburgh, American University of Paris, University of Arizona, American University of Rome, Indiana University – Bloomington, Rollins College, Hendrix College, Lynn University, Providence College and Susquehanna University. College familiarity with CWS continues to expand with each graduating class!
 

Congratulations to the 2013 Seniors & their families!
Their future plans will be profiled in the next bulletin.
 

Colleges that the Senior Class of 2013 have been accepted to:

Its clarifying to hear this insightful Dad's perspective on Waldorf education. He shares a balanced and considered approach to his son's experience in a Waldorf school, and a sage parental response to doubters and critics in the article:

My Waldorf-Student Son Believes in Gnomes—
and That's Fine With Me

In response I would say, first, that while I'm not on board with all of Waldorf philosophy, I am absolutely on board with parts of it—and those, are I think, the most important parts. I would rather have my nine-year-old learn about gnomes, by a long shot, than spend his school days preparing for a multiple-choice test designed by some distant bureaucrat. I love that recess and flopping about in the mud in all weather and movement (that's Waldorf for "gym") are considered not discardable extras, but central parts of learning. And I really love that his gym teacher is not encouraging him -- as my public school gym teacher encouraged me—to pick on the kids in the class who were weaker, or, in one case, on the kid who had to wear braces on his legs.

And there are plenty of other examples. I love the arts education—my son, in third grade, can really and truly draw in a way that I still can't, because no one cared to teach me. I love that he knows how to knit. I love that his school took him on a camping trip where he learned to tap maple trees and went ice fishing. I love that when he gets sick, he cries because he can't go to school. I love that, if he is ever having any problem in class or with other students, I call his teacher, and the teacher listens carefully—and then she fixes it.

Thus, on the one hand, I have a bright, kind, loving, cultured, energetic, active child who adores school and his classmates and his teachers. On the other hand, he sort of thinks gnomes exist. To me that seems a good bargain.

Part of the reason it seems like a good bargain is that I'm okay, in general, with my son learning things, or thinking things, that I don't think myself. After all, surely part of the point of education—or for that matter, the point of leaving the house— is to find out about things you wouldn't necessarily find out about at home. That can mean gnomes. It can mean ice fishing. It can mean knitting. It can even mean discovering that there are adults who will bully the weak if they can—though, obviously, while that knowledge may be valuable, there are other reasons for wanting to put your child beyond the reach of such people as quickly as you can....

Rather than focusing on topics covered, it seems to me, it would be healthier to look at whether a school is committed to learning, and committed to its students both as learners and as human beings—rather, than, say, as disciplinary problems or as potential test scores. I don't agree with Waldorf about everything, but I agree with it about the main things. My son will grow out of gnomes. And if he doesn't—well, I didn't send him to school so that he'd end up agreeing with me about everything, anyway."

See the full article at its source.

Building Our Future Today
is the kick-off of our FIRST
capital campaign for a
permanent campus!

To many who will attend the Gala, a permanent campus is a dream that has been a long-time wish. For others who are newer to the school, please know how important this effort is to the growth of CWS and its importance in Chicago’s arena of independent schools.

THERE IS STILL SPACE AVAILABLE! Purchase your tickets online or call 773.828.8458 today!

This year’s Gala has many new and exciting highlights, including:

New Venue

Germania Place – 108 W. Germania Place – Chicago (Clark and North Avenue across the street from Latin School).

Germania Place is listed with the National Registry of Historic Buildings, and is situated in the heart of the Gold Coast. Designed in 1888, Germania Place endures as one of Chicago’s most significant historic landmark buildings and exemplifies the style of 19th Century Victorian architecture.

Live Music

Dance to the amazing music of Lynne Jordan & the Shivers.  Lynne Jordan has a powerhouse voice and is one of the most talented musicians today.Go to Lynne’s website to hear her musical talents. http://www.lynnejordan.com/

Program

Robert Black, architect for the Rudolf Steiner High School of Ann Arbor, will headline our speaking program and share his expertise and experiences in renovating a building into a school.
Child Care from High School Students
Thank you to our high school students for offering to sit for your children in your home while you enjoy this year’s Gala. Funds raised are designated for the 12th grade prom. If you are interested in child care, please email Colleen Everhart at ceverhart@chicagowaldorf.org. Make your request TODAY!

The Presentation of the Boyce Award

The Boyce Award will be presented at this year’s Gala. The faculty member selected for this award will have a long-time commitment to CWS, ongoing full-time service, the ability to bring joy to students and colleagues, and the talent for inspiring others and/or taking initiative. Join us as we congratulate the winner of the Boyce Award.

Questions about Gala? Email Alexa at amarkoff@chicagowaldorf.org or call 773.828.8458.

The Care to Share Committee would like to thank everyone who supported our international outreach efforts at the Holiday Fair in December and to those individuals who came to various crafting workshops and knitting circles to create toys and handwork pieces  to sell as fundraising for Care To Share initiatives. With your help and the generous CWS community support,

Care To Share was able to
raise over $3,600 in 2011-12

That amount will be donated to support initiatives with our partner institutions. Here are some updates on those CTS partner projects:

CWS received recent correspondence from the McGregor Waldorf School in South Africa. The 5th & 6th grade students are now learning about Ancient Greek History, decimals and fractions, measurement and money just as many Waldorf middle school classes do traditionally.  Our funds for McGregor are managed through  Waldorf for Africa. As part of their correspondence the McGregor students sent us thank you notes and beautiful handdrawn artworks from their block curriculum and lesson plans.

Additional CTS support will go to the Kibera Social Circus, an NGO in Africa co-founded and supported by Meshu Tamarat (of CWS Circus Club fame!)  and the Escuela Caracol, a Waldorf school in Guatemala, South America.

REMINDER:
You can still support Care To Share initiatives by buying beautiful handcrafted goods. CTS fundraising goods are still for sale down the street at Tibble Square, 1228 W. Loyola, hrs: Wed – Sat 12noon – 7pm

Where you can purchase these fundraiser goods:

- Play silks in all the rainbow colors
- Silk dress-up capes
- Baby Blankets
- Children's bibs and aprons

As always, if you have any questions or would like to donate directly to the CWS Care To Share Initiatives, please contact Laura Donkel or Margaret McGuire  and thanks for supporting Waldorf Education throughout the world!