Shining Star Waldorf School

About

Welcome to Nature Immersion! Our educational philosophy can be distilled into five words: Play together in nature regularly in a Waldorf appropriate way!

Story

In 2011, Shining Star Waldorf School founded an outdoor nature immersion program for its students, the goal was to spend an entire day each week, year round, in unstructured wild areas around the metro area. Elizabeth Neeley, Naturalist, at Oxbow Park for 11 years, was the first teacher. Children learned to spend cool and warm days, outside, in a variety of settings from Sauvie Island Wapato Flats park to local green spaces and quiet crannies in huge parks with little development, like Tryon Creek State park. Laura Johnson joined the teaching team the next year with Marguerite Condon, and then the following year, Deirdre Spahr began to teach. In the 4th year, Peter Bauer from ReWild was hired to work with Laura and Deirdre, and each week, a Waldorf style outdoor program included circle, story, activity, play, and often a craft or nature skill. In 2015, it was decided to move the Nature Day to Friday and create an arrangement with ReWild to operate the program. Up to 25 children gather each week with Peter and Deirdre, to enjoy the lessons from Mother Earth and learn her secrets. We feel strongly that children and adults need to connect through nature regularly and we are very proud of the Nature Immersion Program!