Wearing a hand-beaded headband adorned with a single feather, Rosemarie Varner settled down on the classroom floor with her bare feet sticking out in front of her, and a tiny xylophone on her lap.

"I have a beautiful song I want to give you," she said with a shy smile, and began to play a tinkling tune that sounded like water rushing down stones in a brook.

The song lasted about 40 seconds, and then Rosemarie quietly stood up and returned to the sacred circle, where her classmates were playing drums and reading books.

Like her other kindergarten-age companions, Rosemarie also has a "Native American" name, Gentle One. Others in the class are known to each other by such names as Running Wolf, Apple Picker and Singing Bird, and they belong to the "Little Mice" tribe.

The students are all participants in the Corvallis Waldorf Summer Enrichment Program, a six-week program focused on "Native American Ways."

Christine Waters is director of the program, and teaches the kindergarten class. Her co-teacher is a young man named Youtree (he prefers going by one name), who teaches the six through 11-year-olds in a separate classroom.

"The main thing we want to bring to children is a sense of reverence and gratitude," Waters said, traits she believes can be found by exploring Native American practices.

"The children are responding beautifully to it," she said.

Waters transformed the Waldorf kindergarten classroom into a wonderland, using natural elements brought in from the outdoors, as well as crafts she'd created herself. Rounded river rock formed a sacred circle in the center of the classroom, while sand in one corner replicated a beach, fed into by a paper river. A gauze-draped space was transformed into a fiery corner, while a teepee doubled as a cozy playhouse.

Waters said the program focuses on no one tribe or philosophy, but incorporates aspects of many different native cultures. The program culminates in a traditional giveaway Friday, the last day of the summer program, where students gather to give away the crafts they've made to other students.

"It teaches them how good it is to give," Waters said.

Throughout the weeks, the children have learned crafts, songs and dances based on a variety of traditions, including drum making, ceremonial mask making, leather and beadwork and even creating a garden of native plants, from squash and peppers to purple coneflowers, near a teepee village on the edge of the playground.

Thursday was spent finishing up some of the craft projects that will be part of the giveaway. In Waters' class, children were making bead necklaces and drawing pictures.

A little girl known as Wind Horse (Iuliana Wheat) brought up a drawing to Waters, frowning. She didn't like her work and wanted to start over.

"Honor it and use both sides," Waters told her. Wind Horse returned to her space on the floor, still frowning. Clearly, she preferred a clean sheet to honoring her used one.

Each morning, the children arrive and gather around the sacred circle in the center of the room, where Waters lights a candle. Then they go outside to the big teepee in the forest, and listen to stories and songs, and water the native plant garden. The rest of the day is filled with craft projects, stories, lunch and rest time.

"We've been respecting Mother Earth the way Native Americans would show reverence," Youtree said, as he supervised his older students, who were making candles in sand molds. His classroom is divided into spaces representing the four elements: earth, air, fire and water.

Youtree said his curriculum is not based on a single tradition.

"We're holding the Native Tribes together, keeping their spirit alive," he said. "They held a lot of reverence and closeness to the Earth."

Youtree said he's long been fascinated with the oral tradition of Native Americans and has passed this on to his students, and has learned alongside them about crafts like drum making and beadwork.

"It's exciting," he said. "I'm learning as I go along."

Back in the kindergarten class, the students had put aside their crafts for a little play time and make believe. Some had draped suede skins over their shoulders, others had picked up musical instruments and were forming a mini drum circle. Raccoon Boy (Ayani Duckhorn) had his head in Gentle One's lap, and was telling her his story. In it, he was ill and needed special care.

"You have to take care of me," he told her as she patted his head and played him a song. "I can't walk really well, because I'm wounded."

And thus, another story unfolds around the sacred circle, continuing the oral tradition they've come to honor.

Theresa Hogue is the higher education reporter for the Gazette-Times. She can be reached at theresa.hogue@lee.net or 758-9526.