Spring Break April 10 - 21st 
April  2017
Dear Friend,

A special thank you to guests, donors, volunteers, sponsors, and bidders for our 14th Annual Auction "Message in a Bottle" Fundraiser. Our event helped to raise over $60,000 for our school, including new chalkboards for all our grades classrooms. It was a fun night and so great to see so many alumni parents. Please take a moment to complete a very quick survey to support next year's team 2017 Auction Survey. Thank you all so very much for your support!

Every April Fools our Third Grade Handwork Teacher (and Morning Glory Kindergarten Teacher), Christl Michele bakes up a special April Fools treat for the students of the Third Grade. I happened to catch her delivering her special "April Fools Spaghetti and Meatballs" and couldn't wait to share! What a fun idea, a real treat, and celebration. Thank you Miss Christl for your enthusiasm and dedication to our students. She has graciously shared the recipe below. Enjoy!

Next month we have a very special 2nd Annual CSWS Golf Event at Cold Springs Golf and Country Club. This event is organized by CSWS Parent, Ray Sarlatte as a class fundraiser for the Seventh Grade, in support of their 8th grade trip. This will be our second year hosting a four-person scramble with all kinds of fun contests, BBQ, raffles, and extras. We hope you'll consider joining us and bring your golf friends and family along.  More information below.

Last week our campus had an unexpected tree fall upon our White Feather building. We are grateful it was after school hours, everyone was safe, and our building held strong. In gratitude our teachers and students took some time this week to reflect upon our natural world around us and give thanks. See article below from Paula ThompSon.

For this month's parent education articles, I have included the most popular articles from our Facebook posts over the month. The first article, "Why adults have to stop trying so darn hard to control how children play"  is a The Washington Post article from 2015 and still very relevant. The next article, "Why Kids Need Minimalism" is from a guest blog post on the Becoming Minimalist Blog. Another great article on the importance of uninterrupted play.

Wishing everyone a very happy spring! 

Sincerely,

Jennifer Bumgarner
Director of Community Development

Inspiring our students to reach their highest potential as free-thinking, creative human beings who have a life-long love of learning, Cedar Springs offers a Waldorf Education to families and their children, infants through Eighth grade.  - CSWS Mission Statement
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aprilfools April Fools Spaghetti and Meatballs for the Third Grade
Third Grade Treated to April Fools Spaghetti and Meatballs by their Handwork Teacher, Miss Christl Michele

Makes 18 individual servings
Only made once a year because it's not (ahem) exactly healthy.

Equipment:
9x13-inch baking pan
Baking spray or baking parchment
Small offset frosting spatula (or butter knife)
Large pastry bag with small round pastry tip or opening (the diameter of cooked spaghetti)
Microplane or other small-toothed grater
Mixer (either hand held or stand alone works)
Mixing bowl
2 small bowls and 2 spoons (for the jam and the grated white chocolate)

Ingredients:
1 standard yellow cake mix and its specified accompanying ingredients (eggs, oil, etc.)
Buttercream recipe (see below)
1 medium-sized jar strawberry jam (low sugar or fruit juice sweetened)
18 Ferrer Rocher chocolate balls, unwrapped (on sale now for Easter and Passover)
a bar of white chocolate (you'll only use a little)

Easy Buttercream:
3 sticks unsalted butter, at room temp
5 cups powdered sugar, sifted after measuring
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup (approx) whole milk
(optional: small pinch ground turmeric)

Mix and bake cake according to package directions, using a 9x13-inch pan.  Let cool, then cut into nine pieces. Slice each piece in half horizontally to make a total of 18 slices. Set aside. 

Make buttercream frosting by whipping butter until creamy, adding powdered sugar and extracts (and optional turmeric for a more authentic pasta color) and beating again, then adding enough milk to make a frosting that is soft enough to pipe through a pastry bag, but firm enough to hold its shape.

Take approximately one third of the frosting and beat it in a separate bowl with enough additional milk to make it softer and more spreadable. (This will be your crumb coat layer that will seal each cake before piping the spaghetti on top.)

Place cakes on individual plates and frost the top and sides of each cake thinly with the softened frosting to seal the crumbs. 

Place reserved firmer frosting in a large pastry bag and pipe spaghetti-like squiggles around all the sides, including over the outer edges of each top.

Spoon jam into a bowl and stir to loosen. Spoon a thin layer of jam on top of each 
cake, letting a little drip down one or two sides for realism.

Place an unwrapped chocolate ball in the center of each cake. 

Grate a little white chocolate into a small bowl (about 1/4 cup). Using a teaspoon (so the heat of your fingers won't melt the chocolate) sprinkle
a light dusting of the grated chocolate on the jam to resemble Parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!
- Miss Christl
treefallCedar Springs Protected by the Angels and Mother Earth
By Paula ThompSon, Pedagogical Chair



While we continue to grow stronger through the commitments of our families, faculty and staff, Cedar Springs has weathered several unusual experiences this year.  In the first half of the year, our beloved chickens and goats were attacked over a break and none survived.  At the end of March, a large, grandfather tree that sat in an unused corner of our property fell upon White Feather.  This tree was large enough that it required the closing of school for two days while we worked to remove it from the building and make the surrounding area safe the children's return.
 
As we prepare ourselves for the coming spring break, parents, teachers and grades children stepped out of our hectic schedules to participate in an intentional recognition of the protection forces that we feel surround us every day.  As a school we created a sacred space and adorned it with offerings from each class.  In addition, James Marquez, 6 th  grade parent and member of the Oglala Lakota/White Mountain Apache tribes, supported our gathering with a heartfelt picture of the grandfather tree, one of our many protectors, holding on in its last day until all the children were safely home and when it could hold on no longer, laying itself down with deep intention, sparing our classrooms and protecting the teachers who were meeting within.

Classes will share responsibility for maintaining this sacred space and our conscious connection with the land and the living forces that make our school such a special space.  Please feel free to visit the sacred space any time you are on campus - it is just outside the sixth grade classroom near the animal pen and the location of the tree fall.






golfPlease Join Us for the 2nd Annual CSWS Golf Tournament
Monday, May 15th 12 PM at Cold Springs Golf and Country Club 

You are invited to the 2nd Annual CSWS Golf Event!
Come join us for a fun day of Golf, BBQ, and Prizes. A great way to support Cedar Springs Waldorf School and have fun with family and friends!

Sponsorships are still available. Click the link below to register as an individual or your whole team!


If you have any questions about the event, sponsorships or how to register, please feel free to contact Ray Sarlatte (530) 409-4005 or email cswsgolf@att.net All proceeds benefitting the CSWS Class of 2018.
Why adults have to stop trying so darn hard to control how children play
play
The Washington Post
By Valerie Strauss
December 11, 2015

Here's a new piece from Angela Hanscom, a pediatric occupational therapist and founder of 
TimberNook,  a nature-based development program designed to foster creativity and independent play outdoors in New England. She has written a number of popular posts on this blog, including  "Why so many kids can't sit still in school today,"  as well as " The right - and surprisingly wrong - ways to get kids to sit still in class " and " How schools ruined recess. " This post is the latest in her exploration of the effects on young children of limited movement. Her book, "Balanced and Barefoot: How Unrestricted Outdoor Play Makes for Strong, Confident, and Capable Children," will be published in April 2016.  Read full article here.
minimalism
Becoming Minimalist Blog
By Denaye Barahona


As a child, I had the type of closet that you opened at your own risk. Because when you opened that door, only God knew what barrage of toys, clothes, and "stuff" would come barreling forth. I didn't know it then, but as a kid-I needed minimalism.
I always said, " I am just messy, period. " Like it was some kind of personality trait:  Messy Cluttered Overwhelmed Anxious .

As a kid 30 years ago, I needed minimalism. But today...for my kids? Minimalism is essential.

I grew up in the time before Amazon and one-click ordering. This was the time before snack-catchers  existed for children to carry around snacks and mindlessly eat around the clock. The time before kids needed iPads hanging over their carseats  to survive a trip. The time before you could get virtually anything on television at a moment's notice.

The kids of today need minimalism more than ever.  Read full article here.
AWSNA Community Newsletter

Read this month's AWSNA  Community Newsletter   INFORM here.


 



 

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