Date: May 19
Time and Place: 8:30 a.m.
All-school drop off at the Snow Bowl, Camden, Maine

All across North America, during the month of May, Waldorf fifth graders gather for the annual Pentathlon. This year, eighty-two fifth graders from six Waldorf schools in Maine, New Hampshire, and Quebec will join us for a day of friendship, athletic determination, singing, sharing odes and oaths, and lots of fun. This bilingual festival is a celebration of the study of Greek mythology and history, an integral feature of the Waldorf fifth-grade curriculum. Students train for this event throughout the year. Friendships are formed, and there is a tremendous spirit of support and good sportsmanship for all.

This year it's our turn to host, and we will need help from the entire school community to make this event a success. The event will be held at the Camden Snow Bowl beginning on Thursday afternoon and continuing until Friday afternoon. We share hosting on alternate years with the Bay School in Blue Hill and the Maine Coast Waldorf School in Freeport. This year, it is our turn.

You are welcome to come and watch on Friday morning when you drop off your children. Stay for as long as you are able; you are sure to be impressed. Please help us make this event a success by bringing one of the dishes for the Greek Feast! To sign up, please click this link.

Pentathlon, 2016. -Jody Spanglet School Director

There is but one May in the year,
And sometimes May is wet and cold;
There is but one May in the year
Before the year grows old.
Yet though it be the chilliest May,
With least of sun and most of showers,
Its wind and dew, its night and day,
Bring up the flowers.  

This poem by Christina Rossetti certainly rings true this year. In Early Childhood we did succeed in having our May dance a couple of times, outside, without being soaked, but several times we had to cancel our own small May circle celebration. Still, spirits are high, and we celebrate spring all the time through songs, games, and rhymes.

The days before the Serve-A-Thon, several children helped teachers clean up around the school, and the day of the Serve-A-Thon, EC children joined the first graders and Ms. Buczacz to clean the gardens by the office buildings. We were rewarded by happy plants emerging from the half-rotten, compressed, dead leaves and by tasting the vibrant green chives. On May 1, we found two new sawbucks, and our old one had been repaired! As one child said: "Now we can cut a LOT of wood." Thank you to the builders!

- Marianne Böckli
Early-Childhood Teacher

Ashwood will be offering four summer camp sessions this year. You can download a form online, or pick one up in the office!

Here's the lineup:

Nature Explorers
for children 4-7 yrs. old, June 26-June 30.
Leader: Rose Swan

Ultimate Frisbee & Archery Camp
for children entering grades 4-8, July 17-21.
Leader: Jeremy Clough

Jump for Joy!
for children entering grades 1-4, July 17-July 21.
Leader: Rose Swan

French Cooking
for children entering grades 2-4 , July 24-July 28.
Leader: Sarah Trapani

Click the icon and read the May issue of Inform, the newsletter of the Association of Waldorf Schools in North America.