News
Join us during Christmas in Edgartown Saturday 12/11/21 10:00am to 2:00pm at the Federated Church.
This year's event will be mainly outdoors with Gingerbread House Decorating and Take Home Holiday Craft Kits for Sale. Soup and Bread from Mo's Lunch. Retail Table with many children's books and beautiful gifts! All Proceeds benefit the Plum Hill School
Plum Hill School is happy to announce we are opening our doors this month at our new home on Pine Lane in West Tisbury. We are embracing an outdoor forest kindergarten model to begin the year. Plum Hill staff and administration feel that this is the safest and healthiest way to serve our families at this time due to COVID-19.
Being outdoors in nature has always played an integral role in the rhythm of our days at Plum Hill, and we are excited to bring more of our curriculum outdoors. This fall we are looking forward to lots of time together planting our gardens and exploring the surrounding woods. Children who spend ample time in nature learn important physical, social, emotional and cognitive skills that pave the way for academic learning later on. At Plum Hill we strongly believe in fostering a connection to the outdoors and the natural world. We aim to instill a deep respect for Mother Earth, helping to create life-long stewards of this planet.
Though we will be spending the majority of our time outdoors, we are still working to ensure a safe experience for our students. Each child will have their temperature taken by staff upon arrival everyday, and parents are also expected to regularly check their children for symptoms of COVID-19. We ask that all parents dropping off their children wear facial coverings and maintain a safe physical distance from other families.
As for our students, we are taking action to create several outdoor spaces for learning, playing, eating, and gathering. Faculty and staff will work to minimize the use of shared materials between children as much as possible, and if any materials or toys are shared, they will be cleaned and disinfected between use.
We are so excited to implement this outdoor model into our classes, and even more excited to see our new students! If you need any more information on our reopening plans and safety guidelines, click here.
Home sweet home! After years of searching for a permanent home, the Plum Hill School has finally found its place in West Tisbury. Now located at 5 Pine Lane, the new school will soon be opening its doors to students later this September with a primarily outdoor setting. Our new home has a large and lush mossy backyard that gives us plenty of room to learn and play. The purchase of this lovely property was made possible by two generous private donations as well as years of fundraising.
With the help of MV Youth, we are now renovating and expanding to include a toddler program, which will serve children from fifteen months to two years nine months. For many children around this age, this is their first exposure to a larger group environment. Within the community of the class, we can attend to the social development of the child as well as encourage their creative development through imitation and imagination. We are excited to be able to provide rhythm and balance to these younger ages in a peaceful, safe and beautiful environment.
Having a permanent space also allows us to run a summer program for both toddlers and preschool-aged children starting in 2021. This hasn’t been something we have been able to offer before, so we’re very excited to be able to extend our program through the summer!
We would also like to thank our General Contractor, Steve Kelly, along with Keenes and the Merry’s, Good Neighbors Fencing, and our painter, Paul Thurlow. And of course, a big thank you to our wonderful parent volunteer’s continued support throughout our moving and renovation process. It is with the support of the community that we have managed to get here, and we couldn’t be more grateful and ready to give back.
Join us at Christmas in Edgartown back at the Federated Church on South Summer Street (past Rosewater on the left).
Many classic Elves’ Faire crafts:
decorate a candle
make ribbon trees
decorate a gingerbread house
make a yarn person
stamp and decorate a card
And more!
AMAZING silent auction items from our generous island businesses and friends. Some items are:
tickets to the taste of the Vineyard
cape air round trip to Boston
Island summer camps
4 nights in house on Chappy
handmade Adirondack chairs, handmade sweaters and more
locally raised leg of lamb
massage, yoga, bodywork and Pilates
Oysters
and much much more!
Come warm up at our cafe with our classic chilis, corn bread and mac n’ cheese. Also Hot cider, coffee, tea and baked goods!
Check out our stellar retail table with wooden toys, silk capes, Waldorf dolls, beeswax candles, tops and yo-yos, crystals, picture books and more!
Interested in checking out Plum Hill? Call 508-696-7701 or email laura@plumhillschool.com to set up a visit! We typically have families come at 9:00am on a given morning. You will see morning circle, free-play time, crafting and school chores.
Bread Day with Hand Churned Honey-Butter and Organic Apples. All of our snacks are warm and homemade with help from the kids!
We hope you will join us for our longest standing Plum Hill tradition- The Elves' Faire, during Christmas in Edgartown.
On Saturday, December 10th from 10-3 come inside and your children can make quality crafts, like our ever popular gingerbread houses and beeswax decorated candles, or new crafts this year like wooden stamped ornaments, ribbon trees and cute sewn gnomes. Enjoy a delicious warm lunch made by island chefs and some local ingredients, like Farm Institute beef. Our silent auctions are sure to entice you, from a ski cabin in New Hampshire, many restaurant and wellness gift certificates, to day sails on historic schooner and beautiful island made jewelry, glass and leather bags. Port Hunter is right on the Main Street where the parade passes by at 11:00!
We are looking forward to welcoming all of the children and families back to school! After visiting with the sweet new children in their homes we are busy moving in and setting up the classroom. Enrolled families should feel free to come by to say hello, play in the playground, and become more familiar or with our space. Our Parent Orientation Night is Thursday, September 8th at 6:30. There will be snacks and refreshments and we hope a parent from each family can attend! Our first day is Monday, September 12th and we start right away with full days, from 8:30-3:00. Please check out our new CALENDAR section on the website to learn about this years' breaks and festivals.
See you soon!
The Plum Hill Teachers
We are excited to announce our first annual summer fundraising even on July 13th at FLAT POINT FARM in West Tisbury. In collaboration with the art group Whatever The Outcome, Plum Hill will be hosting an evening of Local Food, Cocktails, Desserts, DJs and Dancing under the stars.
The main event will be the construction of a 40 square foot painting by island artist, Nathan Shepard painted on a magnetic canvas and assembled by our guests on a wall of steel. Whatever The Outcome has offered to participate in this unique event at no cost. They have held shows in locations all over the island with great success. As well as serving as an opportunity to raise funds for The Plum Hill School Capital Campaign to help us build a permanent home for our school, this is a great way for us to raise awareness about Waldorf education and its place in our modern lives.
We would like to ask for your help in spreading the word about the event. By buying a ticket to attend, and sharing the event on social media, email, and by word of mouth, we can make this a memorable event! We have 150 Tickets to sell and this will only be achieved with the generous support of this amazing community. Already, Plum Hill School teachers, staff, board members, parents, alumni, as well as the artist and WTO have freely given of their time to make this event something as special as the school itself. Your help in reaching this goal will bring us closer than ever to finding our permanent home.
Tickets are $125 and are now on sale and available at http://www.whatevertheoutcome.com/ticketsandgear/.
If you would like to learn more about Whatever The Outcome or Nathan Shepard, make sure to check out their website at www.WhateverTheOutcome.com. You can see photos and bios of past events and artists.
Let's feast on food, drink, music and art while supporting a school that values the importance of childhood and a reverence of the natural world.
If you are not on island, or you cannot make it to this event, please consider contributing a tax-deductible donation to Plum Hill. On our website you can read about our campaign to raise money to buy our own space, expand our programs, and offer Waldorf Education on Martha's Vineyard for years to come.
We thank you in advance for your support!
The Plum Hill School
Join us for our annual May Festival at Plum Hill on Saturday, May 7th, from 10-1. There will be games and spring crafts, like flower-crown making and silk dying. We have a May Pole celebration and a play that the children love starring King Winter and Lady Spring. Food, spring herbs and Waldorf toys and books will be for sale. $7 per child. Fun for children of all ages.
