September 12, 2015

Events this Week...

Picture Day- Wednesday, September 16th

If you would like to order photos, be sure to complete the order form and send it in to your child's core teacher, preferably before picture day.

Curriculum Night- Thursday, September 17th

• 6:00 pm- Auditorium
• 6:30-7:30 pm- Swift House
• 7:30 pm- Learning Expo (in front hallway)

The school-wide presentation in the auditorium will address the new Personalized-Learning Plans and portfolios that all Vermont 7th and 9th graders are starting this year.  To learn more about this new state Law, Act 77,  see the WCAX article from last year.  We're anticipating a smooth transition for Swift House students because we have been making personalized learning plans and portfolios for the past 25 years.

At 6:30 parents will head to their children's respective house(s).  In Swift we will review Google Classroom, Chromebook and homework expectations, curriculum for the year and our end of the year field-trip.  If you are new or newer to Swift House, please try to attend.  We totally understand how busy fall schedules are, but would love to be able to answer questions in person!

The Learning Expo provides an opportunity to speak with enrichment, music, sports and other teachers.  It is open-ended opportunity to see the many opportunities available at WCS.

Peace One Day

5th-8th grade students in Social Studies classes have been participating in Peace One Day activities.

"Peace One Day’s objective is to institutionalize Peace Day 21 September. Throughout the years, millions of people have been active on Peace Day in every country of the world, and hundreds of organizations have carried out life-saving activities in areas of conflict. Jeremy Gilley, the founder of Peace One Day, is an actor turned filmmaker, who in the late 1990s became preoccupied with questions about the fundamental nature of humanity and the issue of peace. He decided to explore these through the medium of film, and specifically, to create a documentary following his campaign to establish an annual day of ceasefire and non-violence.

In 1999, Jeremy founded Peace One Day, a non-profit organization, and in 2001 Peace One Day’s efforts were rewarded when the member states of the United Nations unanimously adopted the first ever annual day of global ceasefire and non-violence on 21 September – Peace Day." ~PeaceOneDay.org

Students are researching peace makers as part of a school-wide project which will culminate them making pinwheels for peace and putting them in the ground outside on the 21st.

September Science

Fifth-eighth graders have been studying the rock cycle and fossils.   Fifth and sixth graders experimented with replicating the rock cycle using crayons to create "sediment" and then applying heat and pressure to transform them into sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks.  The results looked something like this:

Seventh and eighth graders reviewed key vocabulary related to the rock cycle and are exploring why it is that we have fossils of a coral reef in Isle La Motte, Vermont!  To see their reading assignment on the topic, click here.

Please Remember...

*To ask your son or daughter about his or her Greensheet this weekend.  If a class has a circle instead of a signature, there is work missing that needs to be made up.

*To donate to the Williston Schools Annual Fund.  It paid for our campout and will pay for future trips to the Flynn!