Windows into Waldorf April 24, 2026
THIS WEEK’S ISSUE INCLUDES
Director’s note
Key Dates and Happenings
Dispatches from our Classrooms
Dear Waldorf Community,
Spring is re-united with the Elements
Experiential Education is a buzz phrase that appears in the marketing of many schools. For some it is a way to say, “we don’t sit at our desks all day!”. If avoiding atrophy is worthy of an advertising campaign then the bar for modern education has dipped below the horizon.
Experiential education at its best connects academic theory to real world application. In simple terms, learning by doing. In more complex terms, students engage in an authentic activity to develop skills. This is the doing part. The learning part comes after, when students process the experience and make sense of it at a deep personal level. As John Dewey wrote, "We do not learn from experience ... we learn from reflecting on experience".
Experiential education requires the learner to be involved in authentic hands-on tasks, where they take initiative, make decisions and are accountable for the results. When the learner reflects on their personal experience of that task they connect prior knowledge to future application. This is when the learning happens, when the student understands and can articulate their experience.
Waldorf Academy’s interactive Earth Day Celebration this past Wednesday is an example of experiential education on a grand scale. Grade 7&8 students led their team of Grade 1 to 6 students through the Nordheimer Ravine, Roycroft Park and Sir Winston Churchill Park. The Wizard of Spring was having difficulty getting things started this year and needed their help! The groups were given a quest to gather the wisdom of the four Elementals: Fire, Water, Air and Earth. The groups adventured independently to find the clues and actively engage in tasks along the way (garbage clean up, making cordage from natural materials, building a fire, identifying and measuring trees, counting birds, and imitating birdsong with acorn caps). Only if all clues were found, which required collaboration and risk, would the students bring the Wizard of Spring the tools and knowledge to herald in Spring.
Students were actively involved, participated in authentic hands-on tasks, the groups made their own decisions and were accountable for the results, and on reflection made personal and general connections between past learning and future applications. It was experiential learning at its finest. Our Waldorf Academy pedagogy engages students head, heart, and hands. We’ve been doing this long before anyone called it experiential learning. We call it good teaching and our students encounter it every day.
Thank you to Mr Ishai Buchbinder and Ms. Grainger for your vision and leadership in creating the Earth Day Celebration experience. Thank you to ALL our teachers and admistrative staff and parent volunteers for your commitment. Your costumes took things to a new level.
Warmly,
Conor
Be sure to Save the Date - it is May 2nd at Hillcrest Park. A larger venue to accommodate our growing community.
KEY DATES & HAPPENINGS
The school-wide Calendar of upcoming events can be found here.
- Monday April 27 - Gr. 4 is off to the Zoo!
- Saturday May 2 - Mayfair at Hillcrest Park!
- Tuesdays After School - Gauss Math Club for 7/8
Please see all of these details on our community calendar: Waldorf Academy Toronto School Annual Calendar
MAYFAIR!
Join Us for our Community Celebration of Mayfair
Students learning to dance around the Maypole
What: Mayfair!
When: May 2 from 9 am - 2 pm
Where: Hillcrest Park
Who: The whole Community! All Welcome
Details:
Schedule:
9:00 – 10:00 am Entertainment and free play
10:00 – 11:00 am — Mayfair Dances (youngest to oldest)
- Childcare Group 1
- Childcare Group 2
- Kindergarten
- Grade 4 (3 dances)
- Community Dance: Hal an Tow (a song celebrating the arrival of Spring!)
11:00 am – 12:00 pm — Games (organized by Community Council)
12:00 – 2:00 pm Picnic and free play — BYO blankets and chairs!
2:00 - 3:00 - Take down and clean -up
Summer Camp Registration (Spots are filling up fast)
Camp will run weekly for 7 weeks starting on June 15th and ending on July 31st.
Registration closing soon!
New for Next Year! Sports Practise 2026-2027 Schedule:
We are pleased to announce that Sports practice has a new schedule set up for next year! :
Grades 6, 7 and 8 students will have Sports Practise on Mondays and Wednesdays after school.
NEW next school year - Grade 5 students will have their own sports practice on Tuesdays. Please reach out to Mr. Ankamah for further details.
DISPATCHES FROM THE CLASSROOMS
Al School - Earth Day Celebration - April 22 - Affirming That the ‘Kids are Alright’
The Wizard of Spring was having difficulty getting everything going this year. Things are wonky, and he needs your help! His walking staff had not yet sprung to life! The Wizard calls on the groups to go look for the Four Elements (as well as his birdsong Conductor, where did he get to?) to help him herald in Spring!
Activity stations at the “Elementals” the students made art from found materials, wove rope (cordage), boiled tea, participated in a ravine clean-up, and learned how to whistle for birds with acorn caps.
Meeting Nature, the students used measuring tapes and tangent height gauges, picking two trees to measure their height and report back. They were also tasked with identifying species of trees.
The Water Elementals assigned a specific area Clean-up! in preparation for Spring.
Meeting Fire, students were invited to boil water in the Kelly Kettles and making tea.
Meeting the Conductor listening for our returning bird friends, the students learned to use acorn caps as whistles
With a ‘clue’ handed out at each station was a line of song lyric. Students then put together their clues and sang to awaken Spring.
*Earth Day could not have happened without the support of our dedicated Parents and Student Leaders, Thank-You!
The students in Grades 5-8 to stepped up into a leadership role, helping the group communicate and come to decisions together working to make the younger students feel safe, welcomed, and included. Parents at key activity stations were instrumental in helping students carry out their tasks! Thank you!
Grade 3
With the play now complete, we have returned to a more regular rhythm in our main lessons. The children are currently exploring Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee creation stories. These stories introduce important themes and motifs from these Indigenous traditions and build beautifully upon the creation stories the students encountered earlier in the year.
Grade 4 off to the Zoo! - Classroom Learning Brought to Life
Taking their classroom learning outside, students are off to see the Canadian animals they chose as their study topics in real life!
Grade 7, 8 - The Play’s the Thing
Play season is in full swing at Waldorf Academy. Building on the success of the Grade 3 play Moses, and the Grade 4 Norse Mythology Play, to Grade 7/8s are leaning into the Madeleine L’Engle classic, A Wrinkle in Time that share themes of love, grace, and fighting the darkness. Focussing on the value of individuality, and the importance of defying conformity a Wrinkle in Time is a quintessential "heroine's journey," where Meg Murry ventures from her normal life to face an evil force, returning with the power to trust her own worth and love.
It inhabitants of IT who have "given in" to the Black Thing, the force of evil, descend on Meg, moving in mechanistic synchronicity as if they were robots.
Grade 7 , 8 - Tuesdays after school - Gauss Math Club
The University of Waterloo hosts - The Gauss Contests introduces students in Grades 7 and 8 to a broader perspective of mathematics in a fun, accessible way. Intriguing problems and a multiple-choice format make the Gauss contests a wonderful opportunity for all participants to grow their interest in and curiosity about the power of math.
Grade 7, 8 invited to high school application and successful acceptance support
Wednesday May 13th at 7:00 here at the school.
Educational Consultant, Sarah Claydon, OCT will present the process for high school application and successful acceptance.
This event is open to all but focussed on the parents of next years grade 7 and 8 students (current grade 6 and 7 students).
More details to come.
IN THE COMMUNITY
Calling all Creators! Invitation from our Friends at Wychwood Barns to Exhibit at their EcoMarket
Market Date: May 24, 10 AM – 4 PM
Location: Wychwood Barns, 601 Christie Street, Toronto
Our friends Jane’s Walk are hosting their annual Walk Festival May 1-3
Since we are ‘Jane’s neighbours in the Republic of Rathnelly and we are a community of armchair urban planners who like to explore our city,
Tour routes to Janes Walk Festival will be listed here. Check out if there is one in your ‘hood!
Spadina Museum offering history themed summer camp
Our cherished Spadina Museum will be hosting summer camps this year. So if you are looking to mix it up a bit, information on their history centric camps can be found here.
