During this ceremony, the new Grade One students “cross over” a bridge from their parents to join their class, where they are met at the other end of the bridge by their teacher and a student in Grade Eight with a rose as a symbol of welcome. At graduation, our first graders will then present a flower to their graduating buddies as this tradition comes full circle.

Each September, near the autumn equinox, the school celebrates Michaelmas — a festival dedicated to courage, strength and goodness. Much preparation leads to a program in which students in grade 1-8 put on a performance. All students, Pre-K through Grade 8, fly kites on this celebratory day.

Several times a year, our Grade 2-8 students share what they’re learning with one another and interested community members during an all-school assembly. These assemblies last approximately one hour. Check the Tuesday Note for dates and times.

This is a highly anticipated annual event, open to the public, where children and their families come together to enjoy puppetry, make-and-take crafts, live entertainment, an artisan’s market with vendors from around Akron, and delicious food from the Spring Garden Cafe. This event requires many volunteers to make magic.

This reverent, candle-lit ceremony takes place during the school day. In this peaceful celebration of bringing light into darkness on (or near) the shortest day of the year, students from each class, Pre-K through Grade 8, light and carry a candle to a space along an evergreen spiral path.

Each year, two seasonal evening programs are presented in which students in Grades Three through Eight perform both choral and orchestral pieces they have been learning. Programs are wonderful opportunities for parents, families, and friends to see how music is woven into the Spring Garden curriculum.

Once a year, typically in March or April, our community gathers for a charity dinner and auction to fundraise for the school. Students in PreK-Grade 8 create and contribute a project to be auctioned live at the event. This event, like the Children’s Festival, requires many helpful hands.

Drama is part of Waldorf education in Grade 1-8 and each class performs a play each year. These plays reflect what students learn in the curriculum and are performed for small audiences in our younger grades and larger audiences in older grades. Our eighth graders put on a production of a Shakespeare play as the culmination of their drama experience at Spring Garden.

Each year, two seasonal evening programs are presented in which students in Grades Three through Eight perform both choral and orchestral pieces they have been learning. Programs are wonderful opportunities for parents, families, and friends to see how music is woven into the Spring Garden curriculum.

During the first week of May, the fullness of spring and the impending arrival of summer are celebrated. Festivities include song, dance and service to our gardens and grounds. Our Early Childhood classes celebrate on the same day, but separately, from Grades 1-8.

Each graduating class works together to develop its own unique graduation ceremony. Held the evening preceding the last day of school, this is an important event for the graduating Grade Eight students, who are given a special send–off by the entire community. This emotional, heartfelt evening includes the Grade One students giving their Grade Eight Buddies a rose, bringing the year to full circle, and the passing of the torch to the Grade Seven students who will enter Grade Eight the next year.