Objective+Audience+Deliverables >> This is Cedarwood!

Process sketching for diorama

Mary Jo Abinader, 7th grade teacher

Early Childhood (kindergarten) teachers

Grades and Subject teachers

Cedarwood Waldorf School (formerly Neighborhood House, b. 1910)

Objective

The goal of This Is Cedarwood! is to invite new families to become a part of the Cedarwood Waldorf School community. This will be accomplished through the production of a fold-out, 3D diorama info-playset of the school building, featuring pull-out, pop-out, punch-out, all-out information pieces and colorful interactive playthings and gadgets. This info-playset is intended to engage the entire family unit, parents and children alike, in practicing the threefold principle of "Head, Heart, Hand" emphasized in Waldorf education, and heartily embraced at Cedarwood Waldorf School.

Audience

The target audience for this effort would be newcomers to Cedarwood, whether they are newly enrolled families wanting to learn a little more about the school, or brand new families considering choosing Cedarwood for their children's educational development. To help deliver my intended message as accurately and concisely as possible, I have devised two questionnaires. One has been sent to all currently enrolled Cedarwood parents via email, and contains questions pertaining to their experience of finding and choosing Cedarwood, as well as some personal/professional questions to gather relevant, quantifiable data such as names and ages of children enrolled, the occupations of the parents, residence location/commute times, hobbies/interests/clubs in which they might be engaged, etc. The other is similar but tailored specifically to gather biographical and professional information from the faculty and staff, and has been delivered via email, generating several enthusiastic responses already.

Deliverables

A tryptic folder of sturdy card material, which folds out and stands up as a 3D diorama infoplayset representing Cedarwood Waldorf School which enables a new Cedarwood family to sit down together as a unit and explore this place they're considering sending their child. This hands-on exploration is an excellent manifestation of the threefold Waldorf principle of "Head, Heart, Hand", engaging intellectual, tactile, and emotional energies to discover Cedarwood School.

Each panel of the tryptic contains pull-out information booklets, embodying three categories of information about Cedarwood:

• The School

1. bios and stats about teachers
2. concise descriptions of programs
3. a look at classrooms
4. some important numbers (tuition, success ratings, etc)

• The Building

1. pull-out panels that slide into grooves to form the floors of the building diorama
2. these feature an illustrated floor plan on one side, and relevant building info on reverse
3. structure/materials
4. history (Neighborhood House/NCJW
5. Centennial
6. Expansion
7. Lair Hill Park

• The Community

1. a concise runthrough of Cedarwood schoolyear events and festivals
2. clubs/extracurricular activities information (fencing, folkdancing, robotics club, etc.)
3. Waldorf parent duties/meetings

More later as this develops.