21st Century Learning for Pre-K-8 in Shelburne, VT
As part of an integrated Global Studies & Art unit, the 4/5 class created mixed-media art pieces, along with accompanying quotes, that display their personal beliefs about human and civil rights. The Art Exhibit, titled “Messages of Human Rights” is currently on display at Folino’s Pizza in Shelburne (through the month of May). Be sure to stop by to check it out!
On May 6th, parents and teachers gathered to help green up our school. It was a fun morning of planting flowers, mulching garden beds, raking and assembling a new outdoor shed. A big thank you to all who attended and to our fabulous Parent Committee for organizing this event!
As part of our Spring CLIC week, Vermont Day School recently teamed up with Seventh Generation, a mission-focused company that creates sustainable products for families and homes, for an all school project. To initiate the project, students visited the Seventh Generation headquarters in Burlington, where they toured the facility, learned about the company’s mission, and observed green chemistry experiments in action. On the visit, students also received their challenge from the company’s Marketing Director: to create a line of youth products that are targeted to children and good for the earth. Throughout the week, students worked in small groups to follow the steps of the design process and create their prototypes. On Friday, we returned to Seventh Generation headquarters to present product ideas, which ranged from multi-layered rainbow soap to an eco-friendly kids’ car wash kit. It was a phenomenal week of creativity and innovation. Several of the student designed products are currently on display at the Williston Library.
As part of their year-long study of Vermont, the 2/3 students selected an influential Vermonter to research ways he/she has impacted our state and culture. As a culmination of their learning, the class created a Wax Museum to teach others about these influential Vermonters. Visitors to the museum were encouraged to push the “wax statue’s” button to hear the person’s biography.
The 4/5 class at Vermont Day School has been immersed in an integrated Global Studies and Art unit, called Messages of Human Rights. Learning about the Declaration of Human Rights, the US Bill of Rights and the Civil Rights era, the project helped students shape their personal beliefs and viewpoints. As a culmination of their learning, each student created a mixed-media piece of artwork to express his/her own personal idea, belief or message about human or civil rights. The art pieces were on display for the school and parent community to view at our all-school project based learning share last week.
As part of their exploration of Inuit culture, the K/1 class made “soap stone” carvings to add to their museum gallery. Through reading fiction and non-fiction text, they learned that the Inuit created carvings for a variety of reasons. The purposes might be functional, such as for fishing hooks and sewing needles, or more spiritual, bringing good luck to hunters.
Did you know you could taste books? Rate books? Neither did the 2/3 class at Vermont Day School. A book tasting is when a person is looking for a new book and might need to try a few before they decide. The 2/3s were trying to choose a series of books and they did so by tasting a few.
The tables were set, the books were displayed, the rating cards were standing by, the taste of a snack was ready to go. Seats were taken, books were chosen and finally “you may read” rung through the air. With the timer set at three minutes per book, patrons were asked to taste a book and then rate it. While reading patrons were served a taste of a snack. They did this four times before they decided on a series to read!
As part of their current Chemistry unit, the 2/3 class is exploring matter, practicing how to measure and categorize matter, and learning about the three main states of matter: solids, liquids, and gases. They brainstormed similarities and differences between the states using Venn diagrams, and had a lot of fun (and got really messy!) testing out Oobleck to see if it acts more like a solid or like a liquid. The students were intrigued to find out that sometimes it acts like a solid (it retains its shape when you hit it hard) and sometimes it acts like a liquid (it takes the shape of the container it’s in). Next up….investigating how matter can change from one form to another!
The 4/5 class is excited to launch a new project-based unit in Math focusing on geometry and measurement, and requiring students to apply their computational skills in a hands-on, collaborative project. Their driving question is: How can we design, build, and map 3-dimensional prototypes for a future Vermont Day School?
Over the course this project students will learn, practice and apply a variety of mathematical skills including: creating 3-dimensional polyhedra from 2-dimensional polygons, finding area, determining the reasonableness of solutions, managing a budget, using tables to organize data, mapping our school design on graph paper, using coordinate planes to plot points, representing 3-dimensional polyhedra as nets and learning geometric vocabulary.
All are excited to embark on this rich, engaging learning experience in math. Stay tuned for more photos and details about the prototypes they create for a future Vermont Day School!
Last week, the K/1 class presented Navajo inspired short stories to the their schoolmates, as well as to their parents. The stories were creative and imaginative and incorporated information that they had learned about the Navajo culture. Students practiced reading their stories aloud and recorded them on iMovie to share with others. Well done, K/1s!
Over the last month, the 4/5 STEM students learned how to apply their knowledge about the human body systems to diagnose a patient. The STEM class hosted a mock “health clinic” during which patients (i.e. teachers) presented their symptoms to our budding physicians. The young doctors learned how to take a pulse and use a stethoscope. They used this information, along with the patient symptom report, to diagnose the patient and create a treatment plan. Students created Google Slides presentations to demonstrate their findings, and presented these to our parent community last week. Great investigative work 4/5s!
Last week, we took a school-wide ice-skating field trip to Cairns Arena (on our new bus!). It was such a fun excursion for all skaters- new and experienced. Thank you to our amazing parents for providing such delicious snacks to keep us energized!
