A New Frontier: Waldorf School of Saratoga Springs' Forest Kindergarten Inspiring Other Outdoor Programs
A Waldorf Forest Kindergarten class has many of the same features as a typical kindergarten class — singing, nursery rhymes, light lessons, snack time and playing — but with one major difference: no classroom. Barring major inclement weather, the children spend their entire school day outdoors. Read more The Saratogian March 31, 2012

 Environmental Science Curriculum from Expert Educators: Craig Holdrege, Michael D’Aleo, and Gary Banks (both Waldorf teachers and scientists with a passion for environmental topics) participated in the development of an environmental science curriculum for the middle school for the Detroit Waldorf School. Craig’s curricular outline for the topic of Plant and Human Interactions (Craig Holdrege, 2011) is available online! March 2012

National "2012 Green Cup Recycle Challenge" Encourages K-12 Students to Rethink Waste and Consume Less Read more Huffington Post March 27, 2012

"Sustainability and Economics 101: A Primer for Elementary Educators," an article by Susan Santone, Executive Director of Creative Change Educational Solutions, a national nonprofit focused on sustainability-based leadership and innovation.  The beginning of the article has an overview of ecological economics that is useful for any reader; the last part identifies teaching strategies for elementary school educators. Read more Pelican web May 2011

Interview with Megan Durney by Sarah Hearn
This interview with Megan Durney, Head Gardener at the Pfeiffer Center in Spring Valley, NY, is the first in a series of AWSNA interviews with leading green Thinkers and Doers connected to Waldorf Education. Megan shares from her work in the garden, with both adults and children, and her experience that through Waldorf Education children can cultivate a sense of service towards the Earth and its creatures. Read more Interview by Sarah Hearn for AWSNA March 2012

Waldorf, How to Be Creative, and Unintended Consequences An interesting blog post explores the importance of using systems thinking and how that approach can aid in solving energy issues now and in the future. Harnessing any form of energy for human consumption creates impacts to social, political, economic, and environmental structures. System thinking encourages the understanding of how individual fuel sources like wind function, for example, in a life cycle analysis, then how wind fits into the larger energy complex. From there, we look at how energy fits into the even larger system that includes water use and food production. Assessing positive and negative impacts using this holistic approach, allows greater understanding of our global system, and not only looking at things in isolation. Read more Unintended Consequences blog March 12, 2012

Does it Matter? Natural World Disappearing from Kids Books From wild animals to jungles and forests, a new study says kids books about nature are becoming a threatened species. Read more My Northwest February 29, 2012  Brother Sun, Sister Moon from acclaimed author Katherine Paterson, and illustrator and parent of three Waldorf alumni, Pamela Dalton is a picture book that offers a stunningly beautiful tribute to nature.

Visual Learning: You Say Tomato, I Say Tomahto Images, photos, and pictures stimulate the mind. For the viewer, they offer a chance to connect and question. They also offer potential for play and imagination, and pulling the observer into purposeful messages. Yes Magazine offers a short visual exercise lesson plan for teaching about monocultures and industrial ag in the upper grades. Read more Yes Magazine February Issue, 2012

CANADA:  Waldorf School Wins Waste Free Lunch Challenge A Burlington, Ontario school has been named a winner of a waste-reduction contest. The Halton Waldorf School in the Orchard community is one of the 30 schools recognized by the organizers of the Waste Free Lunch Challenge. Developed by the Recycling Council of Ontario (RCO) last October, nearly 800 schools entered the challenge, which was launched to mark National Waste Reduction Week.  “Since the success of the Waste Free Lunch Challenge, I always have enthusiastic volunteers to help with the recycling each week,” said Grade 4 teacher Suzanne Hill. The school promoted Waste Free Wednesdays after the challenge and is now going one step further with Waste Free Weekdays. Read more  Inside Halton February 17, 2012

Lessons on Life and Compost at the Ann Arbor ReSkilling Festival Ann Arbor Rudolf Steiner School is reclaiming community bonds in the form of the Ann Arbor ReSkilling Festival. "Reskilling" is all about sharing often abandoned skills for “resilient, low-energy living,” in a face-to-face community setting. Since 2009, people have gathered at the Rudolf Steiner high school twice a year for a day of free workshops and seminars on such abandoned skills as cattail mat weaving, composting and canning fruits and vegetables, among many others. The idea of reskilling through community events is part of the world-wide transition movement, and it’s taking shape in all sorts of ways around the world. Read more Michigan Radio February 6, 2012

Eco-Cycle Expands 'Green Star' Program to Private Schools in Boulder County Eco-Cycle is piloting a private school program this year with two schools, Shining Mountain Waldorf in Boulder and Lyons Community Montessori preschool. The program has three basic components -- expanding the school's recycling program, starting large-scale composting for all food waste and non-recyclable paper, and developing waste-reduction projects. Dietz said most schools start with recycling a third of their trash, composting a third and sending a third to landfills. Read more  Daily Camera February 3, 2012

200,000 Ontario Elementary students Unite in the Waste Minimization Fight! - Ontario Waste-Free Lunch Challenge: Where less is more! AWSNA member Halton Waldorf School in Burlington, Ontario, Canada was one of 30 grand prize winners Read more Canada Newswire January 18, 2012

Sanderlings Waldorf School participate in the California Coastal Clean Up Day Watch the Video of Sanderlings Waldorf students cleaning up the beach or learn how YOU and YOUR school can volunteer in the next California Coastal Clean Up Day here

Central Oregon Waldorf Schools Teach Children to be Green Through their everyday classroom experiences, Waldorf students learn to be environmentally responsible. "We live with it. We model it more than anything. As a part of their natural living, they are learning to live green," said Yvonne Babb, who this year teaches first grade at the Waldorf School of Bend. Read more True North Parenting January 2012

Waldorf Students Take Initiative Students of the Waldorf School of Orange County took the initiative and set up a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program to provide the school community with organic produce mostly grown in their backyards. Once a week, the students fill large paper bags with fresh fruits, vegetables, sometimes nuts and eggs. Read more November 29, 2011

Straw bale Cottage is a Charming Waldorf Preschool in Cuernavaca, MexicoA charming straw bale classroom in Cuernavaca, Mexico is actually a Waldforf preschool that was designed and built with the help of the local community over an 8 week period. Laboratorio Arquitectura Básica Mx led workshops and building sessions to raise the roof on this strawbale building, bringing the community together in a really positive way. The teacher of the Tecilli Classroom requested that the school be like a fairy tale building with curved walls, round windows, and playful details. The end result is an adorable, organic, natural, and healthy building. Read more  Inhabitat.com October 13, 2011

Waldorf of Orange County Expands their High School with 32 Recycled Shipping Containers adding 10,000 sq.ft. 
The City of Costa Mesa presents Waldorf, ConGlobal Industries, S3 Advisors, Kraus Construction and Condocs with Green Design Award. 
View the YouTube video here September 2011

San Francisco Waldorf High School 1st School in San Francisco
to Receive LEED Gold Certification
The San Francisco Waldorf High School is the first school in San Francisco to be awarded the coveted LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The centerpiece of the project involved the conversion of a 1970s-era 23,000-square-foot concrete structure into a sustainable learning environment featuring classrooms, science labs, art studios, a library, and administrative spaces. This marks the first time that a school in San Francisco has obtained LEED Gold certification. Read more September 2011

Building the Future: An Interview with Colleen Kent of YouthBuild/ReSOURCE Interview by Emily Hoyler Read more The Sustainable Schools Project June 2, 2011 

Children at Long Island’s Waldorf School Learn Healthy Eating from the Garden Up The Waldorf School of Garden City is the only school on Long Island with a gardening program integrated into their curriculum. They use hands-on learning to teach children about sustainability and organic eating. The gardening classes are taught by Jeannine Davis who instructs students in grades one through eight on all aspects of growing. Long Island Report May 23, 2011 Contact the Waldorf School of Garden City for more information

LI Vegetable Orchestra's Tasteful Music Ask Waldorf music teacher Dale Stuckenbruck his favorite instrument, and it's quite possible he'll say "the eggplants." Rub two together and they make a squeaking sound like sneakers on a gymnasium floor, or a monkey chanting "ooh ooh ooh." Read more  Long Island Newsday March 25, 2011

School's New Building to be Made From Shipping Containers
In a groundbreaking ceremony Tuesday morning, kindergartners sprinkled both water and wishes on the vacant lot that will soon house the Waldorf School of Orange County's new $2-million building. The private school for pre-kindergarten through 12th grade on Canyon Drive invited all 326 of its students to join faculty, parents and the community to see where it planned to erect what was said to be Costa Mesa first building made from recycled shipping containers. Read more Hartford Courant February 8, 2011

Brookford Farm Partners with Tidewater Waldorf School in Farmers-in-Schools Program The fields of Brookford Farm may be covered in a heavy blanket of snow today, but the grade school children at Tidewater Waldorf School in Eliot, ME are already gearing up for spring planting. As part of just one of the farm's collaborative school partnership programs, Brookford Farm and its growers, located in Rollinsford, NH, are teaching Lisa Sweeney's 2nd and 3rd grade Tidewater students about farming. From growing, to harvesting, to preparing fresh, seasonal food, Mrs. Sweeney's enthusiastic students will travel to the farm each week once the ground begins to thaw, and immerse themselves in the daily activities of farm life. Read more Brookford Farm February 8, 2011 

Out of the Building ... and into the Classroom by Michael K. Stone Schools discover creative strategies for regular, all-seasons outdoor learning. "We've always advocated expanding the notion of "classroom" to get students outdoors --- into gardens, schoolyard habitats, and the natural world. But how to find time in packed class schedules? How to make the outdoors more than a break from --- or competition with --- time in the "real" classroom? Some schools are turning those questions around: what if we commit to regular, extended outdoor experience, and then fit what we want to teach to the setting? Here are three schools trying that tack, while maintaining high academic expectations and records of success."  Read more The Center for Ecoliteracy blog February 2010

Multiple Harvests by Naomi Lubick
Project-based learning integrates environmental awareness, learning, and community vitality into students' curriculum and lives.
Read more The Center for Ecoliteracy

For Forest Kindergartners, Class Is Back to Nature, Rain or Shine SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Fat, cold droplets splashed from the sky as the students struggled into their uniforms: rain pants, boots, mittens and hats. Once buttoned and bundled, they scattered toward favorite spaces: a crab apple tree made for climbing, a cluster of bushes forming a secret nook under a willow tree, a sandbox growing muddier by the minute. Read more New York Times November 29, 2009

Lessons in Life at the Forest School Thousands of pupils in Denmark learn tree climbing not times tables. But this carefree life for the under-7s is under threat. It’s a chilly, breezy afternoon in Klampenborg, an affluent suburb just north of Copenhagen. Two dozen children are playing in woodland that lies off the busy main road that leads into the city. Some are clustered around a teacher playing his guitar, others are running in and out of the oak trees in some made-up game. Empty lunch boxes are stacked by a tree and mats are strewn across the grass, evidence of a recent picnic, although it is not quite picnic weather. The children are well wrapped up in fleeces, jumpers and wellies. It looks as if it is an afternoon outing for the local children, a break from the classroom and a chance for a little fresh air. But something quite different is going on here. The wood is the classroom for these children who are pupils at the Klampenborg Skovbo, a forest school. From 8am to 4pm, five days a week, the 25 or so children come to school here, rain, hail or shine. Read more ... New York Times October 6, 2009

Ancient Farming Practices Motivate Students to Grow When a class of second- and third-graders cheer wildly when offered a chance to return to school midsummer for physical labor and homegrown salad, somebody's clearly doing something right at the Waldorf School on Bend's north side. Read more The Bulletin May 29, 2009

A Field-to-Fork Experience The Prairie Moon Waldorf School in Lawrence, Kansas recently received a grant to establish a market garden on the school grounds. The garden will provide a vital focus for the school’s Waldorf curriculum, encouraging appreciation and connection to the natural world through active participation in planting, growing, and harvesting. Students will learn about plant biology, soil science, hydrology, gardening, mathematics, geology, geography, and business. Read more pdf  March 2009  

Leave No Child Inside by Richard Louv
For decades, environmental educators, conservationists, and others have worked to bring more children to nature---usually with inadequate support from policymakers. A number of trends, including the recent unexpected national media attention to /Last Child/ and "nature-deficit disorder," have now brought the concerns of these veteran advocates before a broader audience. While some may argue that the word "movement" is hyperbole, we do seem to have reached a tipping point. State and regional campaigns, sometimes called Leave No Child Inside, have begun to form in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Chicago, the San Francisco Bay Area, St. Louis, Connecticut, Florida, Colorado, Texas, and elsewhere. A host of related initiatives---among them the simple-living, walkable-cities, nature-education, and land-trust movements---have begun to find common cause, and collective strength, through this issue. Read more Published in the March/April 2007 issue of Orion magazine

Creating a Buzz at Kimberton Waldorf
Kimberton Waldorf School’s students and parents welcomed thousands of honey bees to new hives built by students recently at the school’s organic garden. Read more The Mercury May 6, 2009

Waldorf School Composting Project Benefits Community
Whole Foods, along with several other Congress Park neighborhood businesses, have enthusiastically agreed to partner with The Denver Waldorf School in a school-wide composting project that will extend far beyond the school grounds itself. Read more Your Hub Denver April 4, 2009  

At Waldorf School, Kids Experiment with Solar Panels
The half dozen solar panels mounted atop the Chicago Waldorf School in Rogers Park power just a handful of light bulbs. But they provide students with the kind of hands-on experience in physics and environmental sicience that's not available in any book.
Read more  Chi-Town Daily News, January 5, 2009

Waldorf School Unveils New Solar Installation
Students shoot hoops under the new solar panels recently installed at Waldorf School of the Peninsula in Los Altos.
Read more  Los Altos Town Crier, December 31, 2008

Siskiyou School Completes 'Green' Classroom Buildings Mail Tribune November 17, 2008