Desert Star Open House
features African Drummers

Families invited to meet teachers, tour classrooms and learn about Waldorf-inspired education

Cornville, Ariz. (July 30, 2010) – Desert Star Community School is hosting a back-to-school open house and inviting Verde Valley families to stop by and see firsthand what Waldorf-inspired education is all about.

The event is planned for 4 to 6 pm Thursday, August 5, at the Desert Star Community School campus, 1240 S. Recycler Road, Cornville, just off Cornville Road, one mile east of Casey’s Corner.

Board members and Susan Simon, principal of Desert Star Community School, will be on hand to meet families and present the principles and benefits of the school’s philosophy and results for students. Teachers will offer tours of their classrooms and display samples of student work for their respective grade levels.

The event is free and open to the public, with entertainment provided by Arizona Dunun Ensemble, an African drumming group.

Desert Star Community School is a ‘performing plus’ Waldorf-inspired Arizona Charter School serving children in the entire Verde Valley from its 3-acre Cornville campus. It offers tuition-free Grades 1-6 and low tuition full-day Kindergarten. Desert Star is a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit organization founded in 2006 by parents and community members with a vision to provide an education for children that integrates the arts, music, nature, sustainability and physical activity in a curriculum that nurtures the whole child – head, heart and hand.

Event Details

Who: Desert Star Community School

What: Back-to-School Open House

When: 4 to 6 pm Thursday, Aug. 5

Where: 1240 S. Recycler Road, Cornville, just off Cornville Road, one mile east of Casey’s Corner

Why: Meet the school leaders, visit the sustainable campus, tour Waldorf-inspired, arts-integrated classrooms and learn how we’re making a difference in education

Open Enrollment for all grades is happening now!

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Welcome to Desert Star - A Tuition FREE, Waldorf - Inspired Elementary Charter School in Cornville, Arizona
(near Sedona and Cottonwood)

Desert Star Community School offers a Waldorf-Inspired curriculum, enhanced by Howard Gardner’s theory of Multiple Intelligences. The teaching methods meet the needs of the whole child by engaging the child on many levels: cognitive, physical, social, emotional as well as the creative-imaginative. Desert Star’s educational program places a special emphasis on academic learning, sustainable environmental stewardship and provides a variety of multicultural experiences.

The school has designed a program to meet Arizona state educational standards through an innovative approach that is child-centered, meaningful and imaginative. As a progressive Waldorf methods school Desert Star cultivates a spirit of openness and flexibility based in the educational philosophies of Rudolf Steiner.

Our Mission Statement

The mission of Desert Star Community School is to provide an education that considers the needs of the whole child, develops the full diversity of human intelligence within each individual, and instills a life-long love of learning. Our purpose is to inspire and empower students to reach their full academic and creative potential so they may lead fulfilling, purposeful lives and make a positive contribution to the multi-cultural society and world community in which they live.

Why Choose Desert Star School?

Desert Star provides a nurturing learning community that honors and respects the wonder of childhood. In this age of pervasive media and technological influences Desert Star offers a healthy, balanced alternative that draws upon both age-old traditions and cutting edge research to determine how to best teach children and meet their needs.

The Waldorf approach of “head, heart and hands” helps children to integrate and retain what they learn through experiential, multi-sensory and emotionally engaged learning experiences. Our educational methods and curriculum are designed to invigorate the mind intellectually, engage the heart through experiences with creativity, beauty and wonder and to work actively with the hands and body throughout the day.

Gardner recognized that each child possesses a unique blend of intelligences, i.e.: linguistic, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial, bodily kinesthetic, interpersonal, and intrapersonal. Beyond just recognizing a child as a visual, auditory or kinesthetic learner, Desert Star’s approach focuses on “bringing forth” the student’s full potential in each area of intelligence.

Our goal is to provide a learning environment in which children thrive and develop into balanced, creative, confident and compassionate individuals who love learning and have a great deal to contribute to our society and the planet.

Desert Star Welcomes Your Support

Desert Star Community School invites you to become a part of the establishment of a truly remarkable public charter school. Please partner with us in helping to create an exciting and innovative school that brings instruction alive in the classroom and promotes a life-long love of learning.