We are pleased to invite you to our 2013 Grandparents and Special Friends’ Day on Tuesday, April 23 from 10:30a.m. to 1p.m.

PROGRAM

10:30a.m. Welcome reception

(Gilpin Hall gymnasium; take driveway past Sanctuary and Founders Hall)

11a.m. Assembly showcasing Grades 1 — 8

11:45a.m. Special Guest presentation

12p.m. Cross campus to Eagles II, main building

12:15-12:45p.m. Visiting time in student’s classroom (except Kindergarten and Nursery)

12:45p.m. Brief Closing Reception in Applied Arts Wing, Eagles I

***

RSVP by April 15 to Allison Budschalow at 215-248-1662 x 225 or development@phillywaldorf.com.

If you forgot to submit your Grandparents and Special Friends’ form at the beginning of the school year, please let Brooke know, office@phillywaldorf.com.

This is also our first year of our Grandparents and Special Friends’ Giving Circle.  The goal of this Giving Circle is to further create a sustainable community at our school.  To learn more about the Giving Circle and how you can join, please visit our Annual Fund page and scroll down.

Searching for Valentine inspiration for your family? Check out these Love Apples  and more Valentine craft ideas on The Magic Onions blogspot.

Third grade students constructed a Sukkah to celebrate the Jewish festival of Sukkot. Adorned with greenery and laden with strung fruit, the Sukkah is a symbolic wilderness shelter made beautiful by the fruits of our autumnal harvest.

Photographs from the Michaelmas festival earlier today. Enjoy!

In many cultures, the autumn time marks the beginning of a new year. The forces of nature are transiting with the autumnal equinox, as the relationship of light and darkness changes the world around us. The equinox is for us a turning point, a change in relation of light and darkness in the world around us. On September 29th the autumn festival traditionally known as Michaelmas is celebrated. It is a day of celebration, where the children hear stories about St Michael as he cast the evil dragon out and inspires us to find the light of goodness insides ourselves. May we gain insight, courage and truth at this Michaelmas time, to bring light into our inner life, our community and the world in these times of darkness.

We live in a time of hard tests for humanity, of hard tests which must become harder still. We live in a time in which a whole host of old forms of civilization to which men still ceremoniously cling, are sinking into the abyss, a time in which the claim of insistently arises that man must find his way to something new. - Rudolph Steiner