School News

As part of their year-long study of Community, the K/1 class is now focusing on what it means to be a school community. Their culminating project was to create a birthday calendar to showcase in our school lunchroom. This required them to learn the months of the year, interview classmates and teachers to find out their birthdays, graph the birthdays according to month, and design and create the actual birthday board. Not only did they create a wonderful product, but they also learned a lot about problem-solving and collaboration along the way. Way to go K/1s!

As part of a STEM unit on botany, students have designed and created plants with unique adaptations to different biomes around the world. This required them to apply their knowledge of plant structure and growth, and put their problem-solving and creativity skills to work!

 

Our first day of winter PE at the Shelburne Field House was a big success! Students enjoyed playing soccer and kickball, and everyone went home tired! During the winter months of January and February, students will be traveling to the Field House for indoor PE once a week.

Congratulations to all our of students on a fabulous winter music performance. Your “stage strong” presence was impressive, as was the music! The songs and instruments brought smiles to all of our faces. Thank you to all who attended, and to Helen Weston, our amazing music teacher.

 

This week in Spanish, students have created a supermercado (grocery store). They have priced the food, created VT Day School currency, made signs, coupons, receipts and even sale items. It has been a great way to practice Spanish vocabulary and conversational skills (math too!).

As part of our fall CLIC week, students participated in a series of fun, engaging and educational compost related activities. Highlight from the week included an interactive presentation by Rhonda Mace, from Chittenden Solid Waste District, on the importance of composting. With Rhonda’s assistance, the students learned to use tools and build an outdoor bin out of pallets. They designed and painted indoor compost bins and signs, and created group presentations to describe how compostable food should get from our lunch room to the outdoor bin. They put their knowledge to the test on Friday during a compost relay race, during which they needed to sort food into appropriate piles (recycling, compost and waste). Not only was this week a great way to green up our school, but also an ideal opportunity for real-world problem-solving!

This fall, the 2/3/4s have participated in an in-depth exploration of Ancient China. They have created a timeline of important historical events and a map of geographical features, learned paper-making and calligraphy techniques in art, tasted Chinese moon cakes, and practiced informational reading skills in literacy. On November 3rd, the students will present their collaborative book on Ancient China to parents.

 

       

For our October Professional Development Day, a representative from Valley Communications held a training for our faculty on integrating Smartboards with learning and teaching. We learned a lot of new tools and are excited to continue to use our Smartboards to promote student learning and engagement.

As part of their year long study about Communities, the K/1 class is currently engaged in a project-based unit on Tree Ecology. These budding ecologists each adopted a tree in our school yard, and have been learning about what trees need to grow. Lots of opportunities to connect this learning with their concurrent Family Tree exploration in Global Studies!

 

On August, 26th, VT Day School’s first-ever students arrived. We are thrilled to launch the school with thirteen wonderful students and families aboard. It’s going to be a fantastic year ahead!

The exterior of the school received a make-over this summer, with the installation of new playground equipment. Thus far, students (and teachers!) of all ages seem to be enjoying the new structure.