21st Century Learning for Pre-K-8 in Shelburne, VT
Congratulations to all the walkers and runners who participated in this year’s VDS Jog-a-thon! Student of all ages demonstrated tremendous endurance and sportsmanship as they completed as many laps as possible during a 45 minute time period. The event was a fundraiser for our outdoor education programs to New Village Farm, Shelburne Farms and Hosmer Point. Congratulations to all the participants, and thank you to all our supporters!
Hello! We are so excited to kick off the new school year together! This year is a milestone year, as Vermont Day School celebrates its 10th birthday. Please check back for updates to our website as we highlight happenings throughout the school year. It is going to be a tremendous year of learning and growing together!
This Spring, we celebrated major milestones for two of our student groups: PreK students moving on to Kindergarten, and middle schoolers moving on to high school!
For Spring CLIC Week, Vermont Day School partnered with Vermont Green Football Club. Our driving question was: How can Vermont Green FC engage the local youth community?
Our CLIC week started with a visit and presentation from Sam Glickman, Co-Founder of Vermont Green FC, to provide us with background on the organization and our challenge for the week. Next, students worked collaboratively in groups to generate year long and game days ideas to increase youth participation. On Friday, our students groups had the opportunity to present their ideas to Mr. Glickman and Vermont Green FC interns.
This CLIC Week project was an impactful learning opportunity for our students, and we hope that we provided Vermont Green FC with some helpful and creative ideas! Go Green!
The end of the school year is marked by two of our most fun traditions – Music Cabaret and Spring Carnival! Music Cabaret was hosted by our very own Kendra Gratton and Hallie Carpenter. Students and teachers took the stage to show their talents in Irish dance, singing, magic, stunts, jokes and more! All the acts were impressive and it was so much fun to cheer on our classmates and teachers!
Following Cabaret, we celebrated our annual Spring Carnival. Families enjoyed carnival games, prizes, bouncy house face painting and the infamous dunk tank, where we had the chance to dunk our teachers, Head of School and 8th grade graduates!
To kick off our annual Food Drive, Vermont Day School was honored to welcome two Board Members from the Shelburne Food Shelf to our all school assembly. The Board Members spoke to students about food insecurity in Vermont and the important work of the Food Shelf in helping our community. Students asked questions and the 4th/5th grade class shared our school goal to collect 750 pounds of non-perishable food and hygiene items by the end of March. Donations can be brought to school. Representatives from the 4th/5th grade class will be in the front hall every morning at drop off (until March 28) to accept donations. Thank you in advance for supporting our Food Drive! Let’s go VDS!
This week, VDS Students celebrated Fallas, a traditional festival originating in Valencia, Spain. To prepare, students learned about the important traditions of this event and made creative sculptures in Art and Spanish class. At our celebration, students performed skits in Spanish, explained the significance of this holiday to audience members and let go of the sculpture they had made! It was very special day of experiential learning!
This year’s Vermont Invention Fair was full of creativity and problem-solving! The young inventors did a impressive job of coming up with an innovative idea to solve a real world problem. Congratulations to all the participants on a job well done, and an additional shout out to Shannon Capps, Theo Gonyaw and Whitaker Newton for being selected for the next round of competition at the U.S. Nationals! Thank you to Harbour Industries for being the Visionary Sponsor of the Vermont Invention Fair and to Portable Mini-Golf for providing family entertainment!
The Middle School just returned from a week long trip to Québec! They spent 4 glorious days doing winter outdoor education at Jouvence. Snow tubing, snow shoeing and meeting other students from Canada were just some of the highlights. The trip culminated in an overnight in Montreal! In the city, they enjoyed a special celebration dinner and a visit to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. All in all, it was a spectacular experience for our students and Faculty!
The Vermont Day School 4ht-8th grade performed Annie! at the Black Box Theater in Burlington in late January. Not only did students perform all the classic lines and songs from this beloved musical, but they also created the choreography, sets and costumes, with guidance from our Music and Theater Director, Kendra Gratton. It was a wonderful performance all around!
Be sure to stop by the Pierson Library in Shelburne to view this year’s gingerbread structures! All the structures relate to the theme: “Imagine the Future!” We hope you enjoy these fun and imaginative creations! Thank you to our judges from Vermont Teddy Bear and Mysa in Shelburne.
On December 7th, the VDS Community gathered for our annual Winter Concert event at the beautiful Shelburne Town Hall. All students in PreK-8th grade performed musical pieces that they had rehearsed this Fall, and we heard a debut from our Middle School band! The music was accompanied by inspiring messages of peace, hope and light for the winter season ahead!
