Star of First Grade
“Star of First Grade
Star of Gold
Can’t be bought
Can’t be sold
Come Logan Genevieve
Here you are
Receive your star
Here you are
Here you are”
Fourteen six and seven year olds in the Rose Kindergarten at Eugene Waldorf School were sung to as they came forward from the class to receive their Star of First Grade and join the group that was leaving kindergarten. Some will be going on to other schools. One has a sister in Rose Kindergarten, and has visited for a day at a time regularly through out the year, but wasn’t actually in the kindergarten. She’s going to be in the first grade, so they invited her to come for the ceremony and receive her star too. One had left kindergarten a couple months ago due to health problems in his family, but came back for the last few days this week and received his star.
They all left the room as a group, followed by the gathering of parents, to hear a story in the first grade room with the children from the other kindergarten’s who had received their stars. They heard a story in the first grade class room, and left the room as a group before splitting up to retrieve things from their former class rooms.
We went to the assembly after school, gave some end of year chocolate to teachers, although Logan is still sewing the ones she was making, and went to see her friend Nancy working at the supermarket and bought a balloon of Logan’s choice before going to get sushi for lunch.
The first grade teacher has been chosen, but is finishing out his year teaching at a school in Canada, so he couldn’t be there to meet the children. We told Logan that he was a man, and why he wasn’t there on the way home. He has a daughter I believe, already at EWS. Logan seems to be doing okay with the idea of a male teacher, although I’m waiting to see what happens when she meets him. We’ve never been able to predict whether she’ll like any given man or not whatever the criteria she uses are they are known solely unto her.
We brought home Logan’s folder of art work earlier, which of course is not yet scanned or photographed to show here.
On Tuesday Logan’s baby came home after a naming ceremony. All the children spent the last several weeks working on their babies. First they hemmed the blankets, and embroidered a design on them. The six-year-old blankets were bigger and had a design each child drew on before embroidering. The five-year-old blankets had free form designs. Then each child sewed a baby hat, and sewed the arms and legs of his or her baby. Then the baby was “born” in the class with a circle of children all helping to roll the wool (from clouds) to make the head and arms and legs, and singing the “brought me to my house of birth” song. The baby was dressed in its hat and blanket and handed to it’s brand new parent. They have been constantly held during class time and slept in the classroom nursery with all their other infant friends in between times. On Tuesday each child brought their baby to the teacher during circle time and whispered the baby’s name to Ms Marie Christine. Ms Marie Christine blessed it with salt and water and told it what it’s name was. For Logan’s baby: “Fairy Flower will be your name. Your name is Fairy Flower.” (which I hear with Ms Marie Christine’s French accent.) Then Ms Kathy wrote the baby’s name on a golden necklace for the baby, and the baby came home with it’s parent that day.
The end of the year also brought kindergarten changes. An assistant was leaving the Sunflower kindergarten for the third year in a row, so Rose Kindergarten’s beloved Ms Kathy will go to be the assistant there, giving them a familiar and experienced face instead of one who is new to all things Kindergarten. Ms Mary, who has children in EWS, and has been a substitute and volunteer in Rose Kindergarten (and maybe the others, I’m not sure) will come to be the new assistant in Rose Kindergarten next year. It sounds like the best solution, although Logan and I will have to run around to two Kindergartens to visit our teachers instead of just the one we walk past now.
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