Live Oak Charter School

The Faculty, Administration and Board of

Live Oak Charter School

is honored to announce the Commencement for the

Eighth Grade

Class of 2013

Family, Friends and Students of Live Oak are requested to attend ceremonies on

Friday, June 7 at 6:00pm

The Lucchesi Center

320 North McDowell Blvd, Petaluma Music by the Live Oak Choir and Ensemble

Reception and refreshments to follow.

Spring Concert

Our middle school Choir and Ensemble assembled before our community at the SRJC theater last week to perform pieces under the direction of choir teacher Sadie Sontag and strings teacher Dana Phillips. Mixing classical, folk and contemporary pieces, our students lifted their voices and our hearts. The Spring Concert will be-come an annual performance event for our music program due to the incredible work of Sadie and Dana. An encore performance of the 6th and 7th grade choir and Live Oak Ensemble will occur during the 8th grade graduation.

Concert Reflections

Wow. The choir concert was actually beyond my hopes and expectations, and in a way that I hadn’t imagined. I was surprised by the heart that each choir had. I was surprised by the way that they showed up - not in the sense of whether or not they sang well, but their presence and genuineness. I was surprised by the response of the families who came to support. I was surprised by the applause and the cheering. I was surprised by how it all came together.

I have become familiar with the concept of “Vision and Reality” in my creative activities. Vision does not always become reality, reality is sometimes very, very

dif-ferent. We throw paint up onto the proverbial canvas and then we take a step back and we look. Working with about 70 middle school students in the field of music is quite an example of this balance. “What will actually come of all this?” I wondered. Magic, just like I hoped. Wow.

My teaching philosophy is connected to my love of extreme sports—bear with me here. I feel like the decisions that we make in extreme situations show us who we really are. I have worked all year to impress upon the students that, “we have very little time” and to “stay focused” as much as possible so that we could have the most success. “Why?” they probably wondered. Because of the performance, that was the lesson. The entire year of teaching and learning was all for the lesson of one evening. What is it like to get out on stage and sing for a packed house? Great. It is great, and they were great. Wow.

I am extremely grateful to Autumn Rose, Alysson, and Gila for their continued support and flexibil-ity throughout the year, to Julie, Kim and Mat-thew for their assistance, to Julie Yarnall for being a tremendous help backstage, and most of all to Muriel and her parents for all of their efforts to create such a successful event! I am really look-ing forward to next year!

...Imagination In Education

LIVE OAK

May 30, 2013

www.liveoakcharter.org

Leaflet

In This Issue...

Page 1 Graduation Spring Concert

Page 2 Calendar Fly Away Summer Tasks Rummage Sale Summer Garden Summer Music

Page 3 Bulletin Board Appreciations

Page 4 FOLOCS News Packing&Moving

Campus Tasks

Page 5 Summer Activities Reminders

Page 6 2013/14 Calendar The Leaflet is available in three for-mats.

Blog - liveoakleaflet.blogspot.com

You may visit the blog via the web, or subscribe to receive the articles as they are published via email.

PDF - www.liveoakcharter.org/

leaflet-newsletter

Paper distributed to every family

via your youngest child’s folder. If you wish to opt out of the paper version please inform the school secretary.

Summer Music Lessons with Ms. Dana

This summer Ms. Dana will be offering private and group lessons for continuing violin students, as well as introductory viola and cello lessons for incoming sixth graders. Lessons may be held on the Live Oak campus after June 28th. Viola and cello students will need to rent or supply their own instruments. See Kim in the office for recommended music stores. Live Oak is also offering violin rentals for students who will be taking lessons over the summer, or who want to practice on their own. Rented violins should be brought to Ms. Dana or to another music teacher for weekly tuning so that they can be maintained in good playing condition for use in the fall.

If you are interested in lessons or violin rental, please contact Ms. Dana at [email protected].

Other local summer camps offered for beginners through more advanced players are the Santa Rosa Symphony Summer Academy (day camp) and Cazadero Music Camp (one-week sleep away camp).

Thu May 30, 2013

8:30-12:30 Handwork Guild Handwork Room 11am-12pm End-Of-Year Assembly 12:40-2pm Both Kindergartens

Farmers’ Market

Mon Jun 3, 2013

Thru June 5 7th Grade Field Trip Point Reyes

Thru June 6 8th Grade Field Trip 8:30-10am FOLOCS

Aftercare Room 8:45-12:15 K. Rosemary Field Trip

Crane Creek 9-2:30pm 1st Grade Field Trip

Fairfield Osborn Preserve, 5:30-7pm K-8 Parents & Teachers

Developmental Movement Workshop w/Karen Perry MPR

Wed Jun 5, 2013

1:10-2:10pm 2nd Grade Kick Ball Game

Thu Jun 6, 2013

8:30-12:30 Handwork Guild Handwork Room

Fri Jun 7, 2013

8:15-12:40 Last Day of School 1/2 Day 8:30am 8th Grade Rose Ceremony 11:15am Kindergarten Fly Away Ceremony

6-9pm 8th Grade Graduation Lucchesi Center Assembly Hall

Mon Jun 10, 2013

5:30-7pm New 6th Grade Parent Meeting

5th Grade Classroom 6-7:30pm New Kindergarten Parent Meeting

The Live Oak Community Calendar is host-ed at the liveoakcharter.org website. You may subscribe to the calendar and link it to your own datebook. If you have an event to include in the calendar, please submit your event to Muriel in the main office or via email at [email protected]. Visit the Online Leaflet:

www.liveoakcharter.org

Kindergarten Fly Away Ceremony

Rosemary and Sunflower Kindergartens invite their families to honor the children moving on to First Grade at the Fly Away Ceremony on Friday, June

7 at 11:15am. Families and students will gather under the trees in front of

the Kindergarten classrooms to watch graduating Kindergarteners “fly away” and meet their new 1st grade teacher, Ms. Anca. This ceremony honors a big leap for the children, as they leave the sanctuary of the Kindergarten for the wonders, joys and challenges of the grades. Ms Anca’s current 5th grade stu-dents will be participating with songs to welcome the future 1st graders. We recommend parents bring lawn chairs for themselves and grandparents, and expect the event to end before 12:15 to allow families time to leave before the all-school dismissal at 12:40. Be mindful that parking will be challeng-ing and allow extra time on this special day.

Summer Projects and Climbing Wall

Some may have noticed the heavy duty green trellis that has sprouted at the north end of the playground. The structure is the skeleton of the soon to be completed climbing wall that will welcome students back to Live Oak in the fall. The climbing wall is one of many projects that are scheduled for the summer. We will be using Sign Up Genius to organize our volunteer teams over the summer. Major projects include exterior painting of the upper cam-pus and lower camcam-pus, interior paint for the lower camcam-pus, installation of the much delayed 2nd grade portable, and installation of swings and other play features for the lower grades playground. Picnic tables, mobile ball walls, and landscape also require attention. We will be using the school email system to notify folks of upcoming projects and requesting your help through the Sign Up Genius scheduling website at http://www.signupgenius. com. Thank you to all of the work accomplished this year. Over 3000 hours of volunteer time were donated last summer alone.

Rummage Sale Success!

Thanks to the concerted effort of many hands, our annual rummage sale brought in $3500 for our school. Thank you to everyone who donated items, picked up items, baked goodies, helped set up, and helped with running the sale. And a huge thank you to our community for stepping up to get things cleaned up. Last year a few very tired souls cleaned up for over 6 hours, but what a difference this year! Plenty of hands came at the right time and it took just over 2 hours to get everything cleaned up. It was a lovely example of many hands making light work and made us so thankful for our Live Oak community.

-- Gayla and Dori

Summer Garden Help Needed

Community

Bulletin Board

This is a space for parents in the Live Oak community to post notices about items or services for sale or trade, or to give away, or simply to share infoma-tion with one another. Send your no-tices to [email protected].

---Live Oak family (Cameron in 3rd grade and Mimi in 2nd grade) looking for a ru-ral/semi rural home to rent. We would like to relocate to either Cotati, Peta-luma or North Novato. Contact Irene at (707)478-8127 or irenemeech@gmail. com

---Fresh pastured eggs from organically fed hens delivered to Live Oak. $6/ dozen. Home delivery available over the summer to Petaluma, Novato and Rohnert Park. Contact Joy Dolcini [email protected]

---Pasture raised, grass fed, fertile, local, organic chicken eggs. $5/dozen. Reg-ular delivery to school. Contact Ger-ald at (707) 326-4800 or gleuschen@ gmail.com

---Unique Recreations and Heart Felts creates custom pieces of felted art for you. Check us out on Facebook, [email protected] or see Ger-ald on campus.

---Are you looking for a suitable camp for your child this summer? FARM CAMP will be held during the week of July 22-26 at a beautiful country home off Lakeville Hwy. Children will partici-pate in feeding animals, baking bread, collecting eggs, nature hikes, and crafts such as wet felting. Many students from Live Oak will be attending, which makes for a great opportunity to com-mute together. If you have any ques-tions, please contact Mrs. Lemesh at [email protected]. Fliers are up around school and have been put in students’ folders. Camp is best for students age 5yrs10 mos. to age 10.

$235/week before June 1st $250/week after June 1st.

---Ms. Denise is offering Horse lessons for Live Oak Charter School children this summer for a special rate. 5 lessons for $150.

Appreciations and Gratitude...

Mrs. Mary Alice and Ms. Lori send their sincere thanks to all the Sunflower families who contributed to the life of Sunflower Kindergarten this year. All you do, however small or large, from sending weekly vegetables for stone soup, fruit for birthdays, laundry, cleaning the classroom, driving on field trips, con-struction, sewing, and repairs, add so much to the richness of your child’s school experience. We especially want to acknowledge our Class Coordinator, Shaina Ferraro, and the team of parents who take care of parent duties such as field trip coordinator, cleaning reminders, farmers’ markets, and so on. Thanks to Laura Barberio, Deanne Jean, Jasmine Hudnall, Marie-Josee and Stephane Paquet, Joe Ferraro, Marek Kaszuba, Mark and Toni Condon, Stacey DeGooy-er, Gretchen Turzo, Monique Topzand, Sam Azlant and Wendy Prusso. Thanks to all the spouses and extended family who hold down the fort at home while moms and dads attend parent evenings, events, and volunteer at school. A big thank you to Himalayas Fiddle Adventures (which runs international fid-dle camps) and the Rotary Club of Petaluma Sunrise for their kind grant for much-needed music for our budding strings program.

Many thanks to the Alliance for Public Waldorf Education for their grant for Suzuki parent materials. http://www.allianceforpublicwaldorfeducation.org/ alliance-grants-program/

Heartfelt appreciations to Karna Dawson, Maayan Schoeman and Judy Kirschner, the fifth grade parents who gave up their seats to chaperone back-stage for their children’s Waldorf at Weill performance.

Thank You to Ms Anca, Ms Leah, and Ms Lemesh for their amazing support. Warmest appreciations to everyone in the office for all they do each day and the wonderful warm way they are - Ms Julie, Ms Kim, Ms Muriel and of course Mr Morgan - if I wrote about how remarkable they are, it would take up the whole Leaflet.

-- Dana Phillips

The After School Program would like to thank all the teachers, parents and staff who donated gifts of supplies and food to our program. We have had many “surprise” gifts left on the counter for our ASP kids!! Thank you Thank you! We have had a lovely year with lots of fun, creativity, games, crafts and yummy food. A special thanks to Kim, our amazing office manager for helping in many many ways. Thank you to our ASP teachers this year: Mimi Hersch-kowitz, Meret Piederman,Alex Steffen, Malia Buckheit, Irene Meech and Lori Christopher. Thanks to Amy Ross and Cheryl Witte for stepping in many times in a crunch! And MOST importantly, THANK YOU to all the kids who made our program fun and helped keep our room so neat and tidy too! Have a LOVELY SUMMER!! Love, Hugs and Kisses to the kids!!

-- Ms Denise , ASP Coordinator

Thank you to our crossing guards and the giving of their time to ensure that our students are safe during drop-off and pick-up.

Your presence is helping ease the flow of traffic and is very much appreciated. -- Julie B.

Thank You Jen for being our Leaflet Editor. Communications is such a vital part of our community and having you as the hub of the Leaflet production has been such a blessing! Thank you for keeping our community well informed about upcoming events, sharing what happens in the classrooms, recapping Board meetings, how the Friends Pledge program works, and overall commu-nity needs.

-- Kim Anderson

I thank our trees who talk to the winds and calm them; our walls that keep us huddled in less than perfect classrooms, yet safe from extremes; the gates and ground keepers that protect our boundary; our office hive with all its humming and dedicated team; my kind colleagues and our diligent families whose chil-dren we all tend to: may our light shape with love their future.

FOLOCS News

As Friends of Live Oak wraps up the 2012-13 fundraising, there are always questions that come up for families. PLEDGE FAQ’s:

Q: Is it too late to pledge this year?

A. No! Your contributions before June 30 will be supporting your childs’ 2012-13 enrollment period. Drop checks in the office or set up single or recurring payments online at www.liveoakcharter.org/fundraising/pledge-program.

Q: Do my automatic Pledge payments continue through the summer?

A: Yes. Your contributions spread out over 12 months are easier to manage and provide consistent predictable funds for Live Oak.

Q: I have been putting a check for Pledge in the box in the office each month. How do I get it to FOLOCS in the summer?

A: Mail checks to: FOLOCS, PO BOX 2054, Petaluma, CA 94953 Q: When do I start making contributions for next year?

A: Families with recurring payments will begin their payments in July. You can set up online payments anytime using a credit card from home.

Q: If I already filled out a pledge form do I have to fill out another form next year?

A: Yes. You will receive a request from FOLOCS to commit to a yearly pledge in your enrollment packet. We use the pledge form to estimate expected income for Live Oak’s budget planning.

Q: What will be the pledge amount suggested by FOLOCS in 2013-14?

A: Your contributions are voluntary but essential because Live Oak does not receive enough state and federal funding to provide a Waldorf-inspired program. FOLOCS suggests that families donate $175 each month per child enrolled or $2100 a year to bridge this gap.

Q: What if I can’t afford $175 a month?

A: Live Oak is committed to providing a public education that welcomes all children regardless of differences in income. All families are asked to give what they can through pledge in order for students to have quality classroom materials, play-spaces, field trips, and specialty programs.

Q: What if I have more questions?

A: You can call Bobbie Smith at (707) 364-4452, or email [email protected], or visit www.liveoakcharter.org/ fundraising

Thank you! FOLOCS thanks all families for their participation in our Pledge Program, Holiday Outreach, Spring Auction, and Rummage Sale. Your contributions and participation truly make a difference to the educational experience of all our students at Live Oak!!

Packing and Moving

We will need lots of help with cleaning, packing and moving during the last week of school. This work will begin on

Thurs-day, June 6 at 1:00, and will continue on Friday beginning at 9:30am. Helpers should be mindful of events, ceremonies,

and classroom activities and try not to disrupt them.

Lower Campus- We will need lots of extra helpers. We have to move everything out of the classrooms and do a thorough

cleaning. Teachers will have lists of tasks on their blackboards. Please contact Muriel Bertucci(mbertucci@liveoakcharter. org) if you are able to help.

Upper Campus- Classrooms will need to be cleaned and prepared for summer. Teachers will have lists of tasks to be done

on their blackboards. Check with your class teacher or coordinator or Julie Beckner ([email protected]) about when the work should take place to minimize disruption for the students.

Campus Tasks

Looking for a volunteer opportunity? If you have some time and energy to spare during the day, stop in and choose a task! Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Summer Movement Activities

Just how important is movement to learning? Eric Jensen, in Teaching with the Brain in Mind, notes neurophysiologist Carla Hannaford will spend all day telling you of its merits. The cerebellum takes up a mere one-tenth of the brain but contains over half of all it’s neurons! She says the vestibular (inner ear) and cerebellar system (motor activity) is the first sensory system to mature. “Long known for its role in posture, coordination, balance and movement,” Jensen asserts, it “...may be the brain’s sleeping giant.”

Neuroscientists are catching on to what we have known in Waldorf education for years - movement is critical. Peter Strick at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center of Syracuse, New York has traced a pathway from the cerebellum to areas of the brain connected to memory, attention, and spatial perception, finding that the part of the brain that processes move-ment is the same part that processes learning. During a panel discussion at the 1995 Annual Society of Neuroscience Conference, nearly 80 studies were presented suggesting strong links to the cerebellum and memory, spatial perception, language, attention, emotion, nonverbal cues and even decision making. “These findings strongly implicate the value of movement and games in boosting cognition.” (Jenson, 1998)

Before my studies at Rudolf Steiner College in remedial movement, Remedial Education, and movement activities, I thought that because I was fairly good at sports, I was properly “developed”. My first awareness that this was not the case was three years ago, during a Remedial assessment wherein I was asked to crawl across a mat. For a moment, I had to think, “wait, how do I do this?” It had been a while since I was on the floor crawling around! During another exercise I was asked to toss some bean bags in a particular manner. It looked easy but I had difficulty doing what seemed simple to my teacher. As a recreational athlete, I was humbled (and given homework!).

At first I was skeptical as to how these mundane, simplistic, or unusual activities could actually do anything for me or anyone else. But I respectfully endeavored to practice in the areas in which I was weak. And, given what I’d read and seen of the results of the class 2 years ahead of me in the program, I started to introduce some of the activities to my students. I have been surprised and curious as to the results. Several times this year, teachers have reported subtle yet powerful changes they have seen in their students. Given prescriptive movements, I have witnessed some students become more comfortable in their bodies, shift their demeanor so they are more present, lighten up and become more flexible socially, and improve their concentration and cognition.

All of us have areas in which we could improve when it comes to movement. Here are some exercises that can be done over the summer that I recommend students (as well as adults) practice. These can be done as games, creatively incorpo-rated into chores, on trips, while waiting in a line, or as a morning routine.*

• Integration of Early Movement Patterns (coordination of left/right and above/below): Crawling, Rolling like a seal,

Wriggling like a fish, Crab walk , etc.

• Support of Sense of Balance, Integration of Vertical Midline: Wheelbarrow walking, Tumbling, Swimming, Walking

heel-toe in straight line, Simon Says, Somersaults, Headstands, Skipping, Hopping, Jump Rope, Clapping & string games, Jacks, Marbles, Yo-yos, Foot drawing & writing, Gardening, Sweeping, Cooking , etc.

• Sense of Touch/Well Being: Cocoon wrap, Massage, Regular daily/weekly routines, Sleep, Regular outdoor activities

As one who also bridges the traditional track of education, administering standardized academic achievement tests, I am astounded to see how students with learning challenges are also challenged when it comes to developmental move-ments; and that when one practices some of what I used to think were mundane, simplistic activities, improvements occur. My conclusion? Done consistently and with persistence, specific movements can result in profound life changing experiences for both adults and children.

*To see the list of activities in greater detail please see the article in its entirety on the Live Oak Leaflet blog at http://liveoakleaflet.blogspot.com

For an interactive introduction to the benefits of these activities you are welcome to attend Karen Perry’s Developmental Movement Workshop for K-8 parents and teachers on Monday, June 3, 5:30-7pm, in the Multipurpose Room.

Reminders

• The last Farmers’ Market of the year is on Thursday, May 30. This Market is in support of next year’s new first grade class.

• There will be a Dog Show at the Fairgrounds this weekend, May 31st - June 2nd. There will be no restrictions to parking or weekend access.

• Friday, June 7 is the last day of school. Grades 1-8 will be dismissed at 12:40