The Bridge Land for Learning

04/13/2026

Summer is just around the corner, and we are so looking forward to welcoming children onto our beautiful land for a season of creativity, connection, and outdoor adventure.

This year, Okanagan Waldorf School is offering three unique week-long camps, each thoughtfully designed to bring imagination, hands-on learning, and nature together:

Summer Art Camp (July 6–10)
A week of creating, observing, and exploring art in nature with artist Jolene Mackie.

Wildcraft Summer Camp (July 13–17)
Days spent in the forest building skills, confidence, and a deep connection to the natural world.

Acting Camp (August 17–21)
A joyful outdoor theatre experience with Amelia Sirianni, where storytelling, movement, and imagination come to life.

Each camp unfolds in a gentle daily rhythm and culminates in a special end-of-week sharing for families.

9am – 3pm
If your child would love to spend their summer days creating, exploring, and connecting, we invite you to fill out our Expression of Interest form (LINK). We’ll be in touch soon with full registration details.

If your child would love to spend their summer days creating, exploring, and connecting, we invite you to fill out our Expression of Interest form below. We’ll be in touch soon with full registration details.

We can’t wait to share summer with you.https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfjBgG2AO-yag4e64i_Oac18Uze55HAv2it3YfGQMJaXc1RAg/viewform

04/11/2026

A growing body of research continues to affirm what Waldorf education has long understood: children learn best through experience. From hands-on projects and outdoor exploration to movement, art, and collaboration, experiential learning supports deeper understanding, stronger engagement, and lasting skills across all subjects.

This article from AWSNA explores how learning through the senses, through nature, and through meaningful activity helps children develop not only academically, but as whole human beings.

Read the full article here:

Explore how experiential, hands‑on learning strengthens engagement and deepens understanding

04/09/2026

Waldorf education gently nurtures in children a natural sense of care, responsibility, and connection to the world around them. Through meaningful work, relationships, and shared experiences, children grow into individuals who are not only capable, but also deeply community-minded.

In our latest blog, we reflect on how these qualities take root and the joy of seeing them come to life beyond the classroom.

https://bridgeeducational.org/our-community/blog/growing-hearts-for-service-how-waldorf-education-nurtures-community-minded-children/

04/08/2026

Looking ahead to summer, we’re preparing two meaningful offerings for our community.

The Early Years Centre (EYC) will once again provide school-aged care through the $10/day Child Care program—offering familiar rhythms and dependable support for families.

Okanagan Waldorf School (OWS) will also be launching week-long summer camps, inspired by Waldorf education and designed to bring children into nature, creativity, and joyful connection. More details will be shared later this spring.

We would love to hear from you as we shape these offerings. If you’re interested in OWS summer camps, please fill out our Expression of Interest form (see link below) to receive early updates when registration opens.

A separate Expression of Interest for the EYC $10/day Summer Care Program will be shared later this spring.

We look forward to sharing more soon.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfjBgG2AO-yag4e64i_Oac18Uze55HAv2it3YfGQMJaXc1RAg/viewform

04/05/2026

Wishing you a joyful and peaceful Easter from all of us at Okanagan Waldorf School, the Early Years Centre, and The Bridge Educational Society.

May this season of renewal bring warmth, light, and moments of connection to your home and family.

P.S. These beautiful watercolour eggs were lovingly painted by our Kindergarten students.

04/05/2026

There is still time to bring a little colour and life into your home or garden this spring while supporting our school community.

The Bridge Parent Association’s Growing Smiles Spring Plant Sale is now open, with a beautiful selection of plants, flowers, and garden favourites to choose from.

Funds raised through this fundraiser help support special events, classroom activities, and enriching experiences for our students throughout the year. Every order, big or small, contributes to meaningful moments in the life of our school.

Order deadline: April 17
Thank you for supporting the BPA and our school community.

Browse and order here: https://bpa.growingsmilesfundraising.com/home

04/04/2026

Cooperative Garden Update - Spring 2026
All are welcomed! The Cooperative Garden Group will be active from April to October, working together to support the garden site and Bridge Educational Society programming. Although a lot of laughing and learning get's done, the group's focus is on growing annual vegetables using organic methods, and the crops are shared amongst participants. Everyone is welcome, and no prior gardening experience or affiliation with Bridge Educational programs is required. Children of all ages are welcome to attend with their parents.

Starting April 7, 2026, weekly work parties will be ongoing as follows:

Tuesday evenings: 5:30 PM – 7:30 PM Friday mornings: 8:30 AM – 10:30 AM
Sunday mornings: 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM

All are welcome! The Cooperative Garden Group will be active from April to October, working together to support the garden site and Bridge Educational Society programming. Although a lot of laughing and learning happen, the group's focus is on growing annual vegetables using organic methods, and the crops are shared among participants. Everyone is welcome, and no prior gardening experience or affiliation with Bridge Educational programs is required. Children of all ages are welcome to attend with their parents.

04/03/2026

In Waldorf early childhood programs, toys are intentionally simple and made from natural materials such as wood. Wooden toys offer warmth, weight, and texture that create a rich sensory experience for young children. Their simplicity invites imagination. A wooden block might become a house, a bridge, or part of an entire village, encouraging creative thinking rather than directing play. Beautifully crafted wooden toys also nurture a child’s developing sense of beauty and care for the materials around them, supporting thoughtful, imaginative play that can grow and change with the child.

How does your child transform everyday objects in their play? What kinds of toys seem to hold your child’s attention the longest? Have you observed how simplicity in play can spark deeper creativity?

03/24/2026

March in Kindergarten

As winter slowly loosened its hold, the children were busy with meaningful work and joyful play. Small hands carefully threaded Cheerios to make bird feeders, offering a simple gift to the birds who share our school grounds. Inside, the classroom came alive with signs of the coming season — a wall-sized tree filled with paper chickadees and a growing bird mural created together in quiet concentration.

Outdoors, the rhythm of the days carried us into fresh air and movement. Snow angels were formed in soft patches of snow, stones were tossed again and again into the moving stream, and spontaneous moments of bead sorting became opportunities for focus and discovery.

Throughout the month, the story of The Snowdrop Fairy’s Courage accompanied our days, offering a gentle image of bravery, hope, and the promise of new life emerging.

In these simple experiences, through work, play, story, and the living world around them, the children continue to meet the changing seasons with wonder.

03/20/2026

In Waldorf early childhood programs, simple materials are chosen with great intention. Silks invite open-ended imaginative play, becoming capes, rivers, butterfly wings, or baby blankets, allowing children to supply the story and strengthening the foundation for later learning. Their natural softness, movement, and luminous colour offer a gentle sensory experience that supports regulation and joyful movement, while also helping to create the seasonal mood we cherish throughout the year. In their simplicity, silks nourish creativity, beauty, and wonder, which are the very hallmarks of a Waldorf childhood.

03/13/2026

In our Kindergarten, watercolour painting is a quiet, nourishing rhythm throughout the week. With soft brushes, flowing colour, and careful preparation, the children enter a gentle mood of creativity and focus. Before we begin, we take time to ready the space together by smoothing the paper, filling small jars with water, and watching as the colours are set out like a simple invitation.

At this age, painting is not about creating a finished picture. It is an experience of colour itself. The children delight in watching hues meet and transform on the page, with a warm yellow becoming golden light and a cool blue spreading like a calm sky or deep water. Through this process, they are strengthening their sense of beauty, patience, and inner quiet.

Watercolour painting also supports the developing will of the young child. Each careful brushstroke asks for presence and intention. The children learn to care for their tools, to move with purpose, and to find joy in the unfolding moment rather than striving for a particular result.

When the paintings are complete, we take time to wash our brushes, pour away the water, and hang the sheets to dry. In these simple moments, the seeds of creativity, reverence, and confidence are gently sown.

03/11/2026

In Grades 5 and 6, our mornings have been filled with wonder as we journey into the living story of the Earth. Through hands-on exploration, the children have been discovering the great rock cycle and learning to recognize igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic rocks. Our walks have become treasure hunts, with keen eyes searching the ground for clues to the planet’s ancient past.

This week, we turned our attention to the ever-changing nature of the Earth itself. Using layered Jell-O as a model of the Earth’s structure, the students experienced in a playful and memorable way how the ground beneath us is in constant motion. With imagination and skill, they built small towns upon the “continental crust,” only to watch them tremble and topple as earthquakes of varying strengths rolled through. There was laughter, surprise, and thoughtful reflection, and, of course, a shared snack to help restore order after the creative chaos.