October 24th, 2015

Ms. Laberge's Sub

From Ms. Laberge...

I am very pleased to be able to announce that my long term sub during my maternity leave will be Therese Schroeder, who has worked with our team for three years as a paraeducator. Therese has lots of experience working in the middle school setting, and best of all, she knows our team, our system, and our students. She is very excited for this opportunity, and we are thrilled to be able to work with her in this capacity. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Best,

Amanda & Swift House

Theater

We are approaching "crunch" time with our theater unit.  Students are focused on combining their lines, expression, blocking, music and props all into their performances.  Next we will add costume, sets and lights as we start our technical rehearsals this coming Friday, October 30th (12th Night) and Monday, November 2nd (Alice).  Please inform us of any planned absences, and we will all encourage hand washing to avoid any sick cast members.  It is amazing to see how much responsibility this young people take on as the production time approaches.

Please take note of the times for our production day, with both daytime and evening performances.  The daytime performances take place for the other teams at WCS and serve as a final dress rehearsal.  The evening performance is for you!  Remember, we are not selling tickets, simply offering "first come, first serve" seating and asking for donations at the door.

If your son or daughter still needs to bring in basic costume layers, please refer to the link here for details.

Thursday, November 5th 

10:30 - 12th Night School Performance
1:30 - AIW School Performance

5:00 pm - 12th Night- Arrive in Swift for make-up and costumes
5:30 pm - AIW- Arrive in Swift for make-up and costumes
6:30 pm - 12th Night Performance
7:30 pm - Intermission
7:45 pm - Alice in Wonderland Performance

WCS Engineering Challenge

The annual WCS Engineering Challenge will take place on Thursday, November 19th (5th and 6th graders) and Friday, November 20th (7th and 8th graders).  Students will work in groups to create machines to satisfy specific design criteria.  Events include an egg bungee, rubber band car, zip lines and marshmallow catapults.  After no more than five hours of in-school work time students will compete against the other teams in the school to determine a school-wide winner!  All competitions will take place on Thursday and Friday throughout the school day.

In preparation for building our machines, please save recyclable materials to donate to our Swift House construction efforts.  Save the items in a bag and send it into Ms. Skapof when the bag is full, or before November 9th.  Items of interest include: 

• Toilet paper and paper towel tubes
• Plastic bottles
• Bottle caps
• Old CDs
• Foam core
• Corrugated cardboard
• Cereal box type cardboard
• Anything else of these sorts

Set Building

Thank you for all of the fantastic help with set building and painting over the past two weekends.  We finished all of the "big" painting and building jobs, and now can focus on all of the smaller details.   We honestly could not accomplish the building and painting without you all.  Thanks so much!!

Work on the Alice flat

Lily, Claire and Ella paint trees

Henry and Zoey work on stained glass windows

Erin builds a nest for the pigeon

Isaac works the painter's tape

Grant and Ethan rolling the castle 

WCS at the TechJam

Swift House students, Ella B and Isaac G, represented Williston Central School at the Vermont TechJam in Burlington last Friday.  They shared games they created in their Technology Education related arts class with Leah Joly.

Ella shares her creating

Isaac shared his game with Burlington Mayor, Mr Weinberger

Scholastic Book Fair

The Scholastic Book Fair will be setting up in the WCS dining room the week of November 9th.  Swift House students are scheduled to visit the Book Fair on the following days:

• Monday, November 9th, 1:15-1:40: Mr. Hunt and Ms. Donnellty
• Tuesday, November 10th, 1:15-1:40: Ms. Skapof and Ms. Laberge/Ms. Schroeder

If your child is interested in purchasing a book at this time, please send them in with money on the appropriate day.  We will be highly encouraging the purchase of books or academic items over any small toys that may be available.

October 14, 2015

Set Building- Oct. 17th or 24th

Are you interested or available to help build and paint sets for our Swift Theater Production?  If so, please sign up on this page to help with building set pieces and painting for our upcoming productions of Twelfth Night and Alice in Wonderland. The more the merrier, so add rows as needed! Skilled adult help will be needed and appreciated, as well as those who are willing to take direction and help out with small projects and painting.

We will be sending out costuming needs early next week as well.  We ask students to bring in base layers from home, such as black pants and shirts.  We will supply the rest here at school.  You will be receiving an e-mail for the specific base layer needs for each student.

Finally, remember to mark your calendar for our performance Thursday, November 5th @ 6:30 p.m.  Students will need to arrive earlier for costumes and make-up.  We will not be selling tickets in advance, just asking for donations at the door.  Your generosity there helps offset the cost of paint and supplies.

Kiva Presentations

We are always looking for students to share their talents with the team.   Help us encourage those musicians to perform for us!

Baker playing violin for the kiva

Portfolios and Conferences

We are working with students to continually update their portfolios by reflecting on their personal goals and adding finished work as evidence.  This week students reflected on their values after completing a survey on the topic.  Our values survey mirrored the one given to all Vermont 7th and 9th graders, which asked them to think about which qualities are most important to them now as they plan for the future.  7th graders completed this form through the "Naviance" website while the rest used our regular Google Classroom tools. Students will use this same "Naviance" site all the way through high school as they plan for what comes next!

We have been asking you to look at these reflections each week on the e-Portfolio, hence your signature line on the greensheet.  Your son or daughter's e-portfolio is a great site to bookmark!  The first trimester ends at our November break, at which time we will complete class evaluations.  We will plan another round of conferences starting in December to look at student work and these evaluations.

SPARK Enrichment- Session 2 (from School Bell)

We are repeating this announcement due to the great popularity and interest in this program...

The second session of Spark Thursday After School Enrichment, an after-school applied learning program for students in grades 5-8, runs October 22, 29, November 5, 12, and 19. These small group classes will be facilitated by school faculty and staff. Please access the link to the sign-up form below by October 19th. Click here to read more about the Session 2 offerings. Click here for the sign-up form.

Plate Tectonics Modeling Projects

See more examples of 7th and 8th graders modeling the effects of plate tectonic movement below.  We're moving from the macro scale to the micro scale as our next unit focuses on elements and properties of matter.

FAPAC October 2015 Meeting Highlights Information

To: All Swift House Parents
From:  Sarah Forbes, FAPAC Representative

The FAP Advisory Council held its first monthly meeting of this school year on October 8th.  FAP is Williston's equivalent of a parent-teacher organization.  We meet each month, our meetings our open to all, and you will receive an email like this every month with highlights of the meeting and a link to the FAP website for the full minutes.  Check the full minutes in a PDF format by clicking HERE.  Below are a few meeting highlights: 

Administration Report:  Greg Marino, our District Principal, talked about communication strategies for our schools, including Facebook and Twitter, about SBAC results which families of current 4th-8th graders should have received in the mail in the last 10 days and the exciting new Disk Golf Course.  Please check the full minutes for more information on these topics.

Williston Annual Fund:  This fund pays for your children's school field trips, among other educational items.  Current donations total $10, 328, which is less than one-third of our target.  So PLEASE SEND IN YOUR DONATION TODAY or you can do it online by clicking HERE.

Educational Grants:  FAP approved nearly $7,500 in educational grants for enhanced learning activities in our Williston Schools.  Please check out the full minutes for more information on this.

24th Annual Craft Fair at Williston Central School -- Saturday, November 7th, 9:30 am to 4:00 pm:  This first big FAP fundraiser is attended by hundreds of area residents.  We welcome back both crafters who come year after year and many new crafters this year.  AND the Media/Book Sale is back, sponsored by Voyager House!  We also need your help with this event; opportunities to help SET UP, HELP CRAFTERS UNPACK VEHICLES, AND HELP SERVE FOOD TO CRAFTERS.  WE ALSO NEED HELP IN THE KITCHEN THIS YEAR!!  Please CLICK HERE if you can donate an hour or two of your time to this event.  THANK YOU!

Scholastic Book Fair in the Williston Central School Dining Room — Monday, November 9th-Friday, November 13th:  Look for more information on this important school fundraiser in the School Bell.  This event needs parent help too!  Whether you want to help set up, clean up or help with sales in 2 hour shifts during the week, whatever time you can dedicate is appreciated.  Here is the SIGN UP LINK.

Parent Presentation:  How to Understand and Reduce Anxiety in Children with Dr. Paul Foxman, Ph.D., Tuesday, November 10^th from 6:30 – 8:00 in the WCS Auditorium:  Join us for an evening with psychologist and anxiety expert, Dr. Paul Foxman, Ph.D., Founder and Director of the Center for Anxiety Disorders in Vermont, and author of The Worried Child and Dancing with Fear.  Dr. Foxman will help parents learn:  How, why and when anxiety develops in children: The different forms of anxiety; What parents can do to reduce stress and anxiety; and When and how to refer for professional help.  If you need additional information about this event, please contact Chris Ford, WCS Guidance Counselor at cford@cssu.org.

Our next meeting is on Thursday, November 12th at 8:15 am at Williston Central School.  We hope you can attend!!!

Please contact me at sarahforbesdesign@comcast.net if you have feedback or questions on FAP.  Thanks.

Friday, October 9

Book Surprise!

We actually managed to surprise Amanda with our books, so many beautiful books!  There were gorgeous new titles, familiar classics, handmade books, used books, books wrapped in construction paper, bath books and more.  Amanda opened them with the students who enjoyed seeing the many familiar titles and seeing her open their gifts. Thank you so much for your participation.  These books will certainly be read and enjoyed over and over by the Laberge family.

Where's everyone going?

Surprise!

The cake

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!! 

A sincere thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers last Friday evening who helped to ensure Fun Night was a huge success. Your efforts proved invaluable as we earned over $2800 in funds towards our Spring 2016 trip to NYC. Our gratitude goes out to all those who helped with check in, running concessions, making donations, supervising games, the prize table, gymnasium activities, craft tables and finally clean up. We could not do this without the gracious support of our Swift families.

Parent Retreat- Input Requested

Each year Swift House facilitators and parents meet to discuss topics specific to our team and students. We generate topics based on the "Parent Satisfaction Survey" from the previous year. We also open the floor to any other topic parents would like to have more information or input on.

In addition to discussing topics, we bring food to share so we can eat dinner together as we start our meeting. It is always a nice way to make and strengthen connections among Swift House folks!  Please click here to complete the survey about potential dates and topics for the Parent Retreat.

Save the Date

Shrek, the Musical Parent/Student Information Night
November 9th @ 6 pm

Geography Gallery Walk 

Students in 7/8 geography class examine their classmates homemade globe projects during this week's gallery walk.

Student Globes

Adam Z shows globe features

Gallery Walk

St Mikes Lacrosse

Last spring Joe was connected to the men's lacrosse team through a non profit called Team Impact. They match up kids with needs with college athletic teams to give them a team experience and friendship. Joe was drafted onto the team and given a uniform. He attended practices and home games. Joe has made wonderful connections with some of the players and continues to be connected to the team. This fall he attended an alumni game at St. Michael's where this year's team played against alumni players. Click here to read an article about his connection.

Joe and Mr Hunt at an Alumni Game

Joe at St Mike's Lacrosse Game

Spark Thursdays- Session 2 (From School Bell)

The second session of Spark Thursday After School Enrichment, an after-school applied learning program for students in grades 5-8, runs October 22, 29, November 5, 12, and 19. These small group classes will be facilitated by school faculty and staff. Please access the link to the sign-up form below by October 19th. Click here to read more about the session 2 offerings. Sign-up form

HOW ARE FIELD TRIPS PAID FOR? (From School Bell)

Has your child been on a field trip this year? Did you know that these trips typically include an hourly busing fee in addition to entry or ticket fees?
What does a field trip cost? 
· Flynn: $10-$15 per student.
· Upper Grade Team Building: $20 to $25 per student
· Shelburne Farms/Echo Center/Apple Orchard/Pumpkin Patch: $10 - $12 per student
· End of Year Picnic: $6-$10 per student
Who pays for these trips? 
· These trips and other house activities are paid for by FAP through your contribution to the Williston Schools Annual Fund and are not included in the regular school budget.
Why does Williston fund field trips this way? 
· Provides equitable field trip opportunities across grade levels.
· Promotes thoughtful planning of trips. · Reduces money request to once per year. · Eliminates fundraising across all grade levels for these in-state trips.

Please do your part by making your tax deductible contribution to the Williston Schools Annual Fund of $30 per child in grades EEE-4 or $45 per child in grades 5-8 by clicking here.

October 2, 2015

Anti-bullying Curriculum

Ms. Pioli (Mr. Hunt's mom) came in to teach a lesson from her curriculum "Banish Bullying!" which is implemented in upstate NY. The students in Mr. Hunt's literature class learned about different forms of power and how to become caring allies to targets.

Last Day of Literature Groups

Friday was the last day of our current literature groups.  Students shared projects and self-evaluated their performance in class using our standards-based reporting system.  These reports will be part of the November portfolio.

Next up is our theater unit with auditions on Monday.  Ask your son or daughter which play they signed up for and what type of role they are interested in.  Visit our theater sign-up form to see the options presented.  Those students who wish to be on stage without speaking lines do not need to audition on Monday.  The bottom line is, there are parts and places for everyone!

Students celebrate finishing How to Eat Fried Worms

More celebration, with some realistic looking gummy worms!

Pinwheels for Peace

In Social Studies students created "Pinwheels for Peace" to commemorate their commitment to Peace in celebration of Peace One Day on September 21st. The students wrote their ideas about how peace could be achieved on one side of their pinwheels and illustrated their ideas on the other. The pinwheels were then put in the ground in the shape of a peace sign!

Students placing pinwheels

Pinwheels Peace Sign

The Rock Cycle

Fifth and sixth graders finished their rock cycle investigations last week and are currently mapping the locations of earthquakes, volcanoes and plate boundaries around the world.  We're looking for the connection between plate boundaries and activities on the earth's crust.

Griffin's Rock Cycle Cartoon

Seventh and eighth graders created videos modeling plate tectonics this week.  They were asked to demonstrate activities at the plate boundaries with video and 3D models.  Please see some results below:

 Hugo S explains tsunamis

Aaron D explains volcanoes

Picture retake day will be Monday, Oct. 19th

In case any students missed school photo day.  Our school photos will be sent home soon!