February 20, 2015

The FAP Big Basket Raffle 

Collections for the 15th Annual Big Basket Raffle and Silent Auction are underway! This is one of FAP’s biggest fundraisers of the year, with proceeds funding FAP programs that support all WCS and ABS students, families and staff. Items donated by our Williston School District families will be made into beautiful themed baskets that will be raffled off at the BIG BASKET RAFFLE on Saturday, March 28th, 2015. We ask each family to donate one (or more) item(s) that relate to your class theme:

Donations are voluntary, and every donated item, large or small, is greatly appreciated. Price is not a factor, and all donations are anonymous. If you have more than one child in a house, it is perfectly acceptable to donate one item per family. Students may also join together to donate a larger item. We are also seeking donations from local businesses for gift basket items, gift certificates, and silent auction prizes. If you have a connection with a local business you think would be interested in supporting this school fundraiser, please contact Lisa Wong at lisawong177@comcast.net

SBAC

Please take note that we have scheduled our testing days for the SBAC.  The tests will take place on March 24, 25, 26, and 27 with both morning and afternoon sessions.  Please avoid scheduling other appointments for your son or daughter during this time if possible.  Thank you!

Successful Marko Fundraiser! 

Thanks to the efforts of many of you, and your attendance at the event as well, our net profit on Friday night for Marko the Magician was $1924.50 (We made $1619.00 from ticket sales, and $305.50 from concessions.). Great work, everyone!

Volleyball at WCS

If you think your child may be interested in playing volleyball, please have them sign up ASAP. Ms. Oakes is in the process of coordinating schedule for practices and games with other schools, many of which, already have teams getting ready. This is an opportunity for kids to start learning the basics of volleyball and hopefully get some fine tuning by the time they arrive at CVU. Did you know?: Volleyball is the second most popular sport in the world today, exceeded only by soccer. Many of us are looking forward to having Vermont catch up with this statistic! You can tell your middle school aged children that playing volleyball may increase their chances of making friends at the beach during their next vacation at the beach. Please let Ms. Oakes or I know if you have any questions. and would you mind forwarding this to anyone you know you may be interested? Gracias in advance, Julieta

Student Led Lit Groups in Action

February 6, 2015

Marko the Magician

Marko the Magician is quickly approaching, and Swift has not sold many tickets yet. This is an important fundraiser for our Washington, DC trip, and we are hoping that kids going on the trip can try to sell as many tickets as possible ahead of the event. Students received order forms from their core teacher last week, and can get more from Mrs. Barland at school if they need more. Kids can ask friends, neighbors, older siblings, etc., and they can plan to come themselves!

Also, we've attached a flyer here that we are hoping parents of kids going on the trip can print (in color or B&W) and post up somewhere around town by this weekend to help advertise the event.

We still need concession donations as well, so please sign up on the Google Doc if you can help out.

Thanks, and we look forward to seeing many of you next Friday!

Open House

Thank you so much for attending the Open House.  It is wonderful seeing all of you parents listening to presentations from so many enthusiastic young people.  Parents, you need to know how hard students work when they know you are coming in to see your work.  Your influence is undeniable- they want to show you how much they know!  We will have another Open House in June for all students; we will see 8th Grade Challenge projects, Washington DC reports and regular life studies projects.

Penguin Plunge

Help support Eric Couture and his Penguin Plunge Team.  The team still needs to raise more money for this Special Olympics fundraiser. They are trying to reach their goal of $2500. Help them get there! Please go to this link to donate to our team.

Also, please come down to the Burlington Waterfront this Saturday (Feb. 7th) at noon to cheer on Ms. McClintock and 15 brave students as they dive in the freezing waters of Lake Champlain!

If you have questions please talk to the student captains: Eric Couture, Maggie Warren, and Noah Townley or email Jennifer Townley at j.e.townley1@gmail.com or Alice Fothergill at Alice.Fothergill@uvm.edu. Thank you for supporting the team!

Testing Eachother

Students using Kahoot for a "create your own Midterm" lit assignment. They created their own midterm questions and tested eachother using Kahoot as the vehicle.

Volleyball Club

WCS is planning to have a co-ed volleyball club for middle school students in grades 6-8. We will meet for the month of March every Monday and Wednesday starting the 4th of March from 3 - 4:30 in the new gym. Julietta Rushford has volunteered to be our adult coach but if anyone else is interested in working with the club we would love to have you help out. We are also trying to add a Thursday practice day in if we find a knowledge adult to help as we already have some CVU players willing to come in and help instruct.  Contact Jenn Oakes at joakes@cssu.org if you are interested in helping out.

Books Needed & Literature Groups

We are in need of 6 copies of the book City of Ember by Jeanne Duprau for a literature group that is starting on Monday! If you have a copy that you are willing to let us borrow, please let us know via email and send the book in, clearly labeled with your name, on Monday. Thanks so much!

Our new student-led literature groups start on Monday.  There was great enthusiasm as students signed up to read books under the guidance of their classmates.  Each group will be supervised by a Swift Facilitator, however the students truly are running the show!