A Traditional Waldorf Story for Fall....

Once upon a time, a very long time ago, the world only had one apple tree.

It was just a baby apple tree, a seedling with small roots and no branches to speak of.

One night, the little apple sprout looked up into the night sky and admired the beautiful stars. The little apple sprout wanted so badly to reach up and touch them, so it stretched and stretched and stretched… until it was a great apple tree.

But as much as the great apple tree stretched, it still could not reach the stars.

The great apple tree began to cry, it was so sad that it could not touch the beautiful stars. A star fairy heard the great apple tree cry, and flew down to ask what was wrong.

The great apple tree cried, “Oh, star fairy, I want to touch the stars! But I am way down here and they are way up there!”

The star fairy thought for a moment and said, “Great apple tree, I will bring you back a star, but the stars live very far away so it will be awhile before I return.” And with that, the star fairy flew back up into the sky, leaving the great apple tree in wonder.

With spring, the great apple tree had beautiful green leaves and pink flowers, but still could not touch the stars.

And then with summer, the pink flowers grew turned white, just like the bright stars, and began to turn into tiny apples, but the great apple tree still could not touch the stars.

And then with fall, the tiny apples grew bigger and bigger and bigger… until they were ready to eat! The great apple tree was so proud of its apples that it forgot all about the stars, until one day when the star fairy came back.

“I have returned as I have promised, and brought you a basket of stars,” said the star fairy, “but your branches are full of apples! How will you ever hold them?”

“Oh, thank you, Star Fairy,” exclaimed the Apple Tree, “but I no longer need the stars. My apples fill up my branches and are so beautiful, I couldn’t part with them.”

The Star Fairy thought for a moment and then said, “I will give each of your apples a star, hidden deep within, and every time a child cuts open an apple, they will see a beautiful star!”

And with that, the Fairy touched her wand to every apple and planted deep within it a star.

To this day, whenever you cut open an apple, you will find a star buried deep, waiting for you to discover it. (Author Unknown)

This Waldorf Apple Story is the perfect story to tell before sharing a delicious apple snack together. We hope your children delight in discovering this hidden start as much as our early childhood students do!

An important aspect of Waldorf education is the celebration of festivals and seasonal traditions. Every season offers its mysteries and magic. At the Waldorf School of Baltimore, we present the seasons as a living process. By allowing each tradition (such as apple picking, or the telling of a special seasonal story over a shared snack) to dwell within it's own unique place in the course of the year a living calendar of rhythm and harmony with nature is created. Festivals, class plays, performances and other events are an integral part of our rich programing and Waldorf community. Many of them have become precious traditions upon which many happy memories are built.

Want to learn more about how we integrate seasonal rhythms and story telling into our Children's Garden at the Waldorf School of Baltimore? Join us for our next Waldorf 101, a 30 min. prospective parent zoom (registration link on homepage), or dive right and call (410) 367-6808 our Admissions director, Ilene Wise.