Every Thursday evening, Vermont Day School families are invited to participate in a family event night via Zoom. Highlights have included a Family Trivia Night, during which parents and students tested their knowledge of geography, history, pop culture, sports and more! During this week’s virtual STEM Challenge, participants were given the task of building a suspension bridge that would span 14 inch distance and hold as many pennies as possible, using only 2 pieces of paper and 6 inches of tape. Families had fun working collaboratively on this challenge at home, and their sharing their bridges with others via the Zoom call. The Thursday evening Family event nights have been a wonderful way for VDS families to stay connected during this period of campus closure!

 

 

Vermont Day School closed it’s campus on March 13th, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 18th, the school launched its Continuous Learning program to allow students to continue to advance their academic skills, and maintain connections with their classmates and teachers. Each day, students follow a suggested schedule that consists of classes in core content areas of Literacy, Math and STEM, along with Spanish, Art, Music and PE. The K-5 students are using SeeSaw for Schools as their digital platform for learning, while students in grades 6-8 are continuing with Google Classroom. Each classroom has daily video calls, where they may participate in literature circles together, work on a collaborative project in STEM or simply enjoy lunch together!

On December 18th, students at Vermont Day School loaded boxes of donations onto their school bus and delivered 1,031 pounds of food and dental hygiene items to the Shelburne Food Shelf. The Food Drive is an annual event for Vermont Day School with this collection far surpassing their initial goal of 790 pounds and setting the record for the largest in the school’s 5 year history. Susan Stock, of the Shelburne Food Shelf, also let the students know that this was the largest donation to the Food Shelf so far this year.

The 5th grade class led the initiative along with their teachers, Shannon Riddle and Erin Capps. “I look forward to Food Drive every year,” explained Capps. “It’s an authentic leadership opportunity for our students, and a great way to teach students to be active and supportive community members.” The 5th graders inspired families to participate in the Food Drive by holding signs up during morning and afternoon drop-off times, posting signs around school, and charting the school’s progress towards meeting their collection goal.

During the month of December, students learned about the concept of food insecurity. They invited Shelburne Food Shelf Board Members, Susan Stock, Dana Valentine, and Toby Knox to the school to talk about what they do, who they serve, and how it all works. They graciously answered enthusiastic questions from the crowd of elementary and middle school students and emphasized the importance of the Food Shelf in the community and how everyone can help.