October 27, 2017

Mr. Hunt

Thank you to all who donated towards a gift for Mr. Hunt in celebration of his wedding and new house!  Alec (seated left) presented the combined gift with your names in kiva on Friday.  Congratulations to Mr. Hunt!

Swift House Theater Festival- This Thursday

Our schedule for Thursday afternoon/evening:

• 4:30 pm - Tempest Call- actors get into make-up and costumes
• 5:00 pm - RH Call- actors get into make-up and costumes
• 6:00 pm - The Tempest Performance
• 7:15 pm - Intermission  (the following times are all approximate)
• 7:25 pm - Robin Hood Performance
• 8:30 pm - Strike- Adult supervisors and student helpers needed.   Please click here to sign up.

Strike Details

We are trying a different strategy for our "strike" this year.  Strike refers to the process of cleaning-up the costumes, sets, stage, lights, sound, make-up and areas we have used.  We need to have everything picked up so we can resume our regular school schedule on Friday.

This year we are looking for adult and student volunteers who can stay after the show to really do a thorough job.  We recognize that some folks have young children who need to get home.  Please click here to sign up if you can stay after the show to pitch in!  The work goes quickly when everyone's on board.

Before going to strike assignments, students should change out of their costumes, bag up what they need to bring home and place it in the lobby. When one job is done, students could go to another area to help if they are able to stay.

Tickets Not Required

We thank you in advance for coming to support both shows!  No tickets required; simply show up earlier for closer seats.  If would like to donate towards the Swift theater program, look for the donation jar on your way into the auditorium.

Leslie working on caps for Robins Merry Band

Jasmine working on King Richard's tunic

Polar Express Volunteers

Sign up by Monday, October 30th so we can get your shirt order in and let the Vermont Children's Foundation know how many Swift elves to expect.

Click on the image below to sign up and/or read more information:

Homework Club

• Mondays (3:00-4:30) and Tuesdays (2:00-3:30)
• Late bus available to bring students home both days
• Please only send your son or daughter if they have homework to do
• Schedule may change or sessions may be cancelled based on supervisors' schedules

Fun Night Success!

A huge thank you to all of our parents and students who worked Fun Night on Friday night.  We entertained over 150 kids for 2.5 hours, raising at least $2000.  Wow!  Thank you for the time, food donations, prize donations and your hard work.

8th Celebration Trip to Ridin Hy Ranch 

WCS is continuing with a 2-day trip to the Ridin Hy Ranch in New York on May 24-25th. Last year, over 80% of our 8th grade students participated and had a wonderful time. The resort-ranch features tons of activities including: swimming (indoors and lake), fishing, pontoon boat rides, shuffle board, archery, organized games, and of course, horseback trail riding.

Key Information:

• Dates: May 24th-25th 
• Cost: $60 
• Behavior Expectations: Patterns of unsafe behavior can put a student's participation in jeopardy 
• Lodging: A variety of cabins Food: 
• Family style-very good! 

 Forms were sent home to 8th Grade families via Connect 5 this week.  Paper copies were also handed to Swift 8th graders with their Greensheets.

7th Grade Math

Swift 7th graders are looking for generalizations around adding and subtracting negative and positive integers.  They played 123 Switch, a game of strategy, to test their conjectures and look for patterns.

Costume Pieces

We are still hoping for a few items to help pull the little details together for our upcoming performances of Robin Hood and The Tempest. Please let us know if you have any of the following that we could borrow for the next couple of weeks.

• Red Union Suit or Thermal Long Underwear - Youth Size 10/12 or thereabouts
• Fake Apples - We will be making some of them look like taffy apples so if you don't want them altered, let us know.
• Medieval Looking Soldier/Knight Helmets

Thank you, and we look forward to seeing you very soon!

October 18, 2017

FAP Craft Show: Volunteer and/or Shop!

Save the date: The FAP Craft Show takes place on Saturday, November 4th, from 9:30 am – 4:00 pm at Williston Central School. There are over 100 crafters, artists and specialty food vendors participating. You'll find lots of amazing handicrafts, toys, artwork, jewelry, decorative items and yummy foods all made by talented crafters and artists.

Whether you want to shop or not, we need YOU! This is one of the biggest Families as Partners fundraisers, and the proceeds from the show help fund events, activities and grants that benefit all students in the Williston schools. Please share some of your time and volunteer for a shift to set up (Friday afternoon, Nov 3) or during the show on Saturday.

The sign-up link is here: http://signup.com/go/tEwkhqs (You will need to enter your email address to sign up for a shift but will not need to set up an account with Sign-up.com).”

Conference Schedule

Wondering about the conference schedule?  We completed goal setting conferences starting in August and ending just recently.   We will be setting up student-led conferences again in late Nov/December as the first trimester ends.  Your son or daughter will share his or her work in relation to PLP goals and we will review class-specific reports as well.

Polar Express

Saturday, December 9th from 3:30 - 8:00 pm 

Last Year's Polar Express

Swift House has a long tradition in helping with The Polar Express, which raises over $100,000 each year for the Vermont Children's Trust Foundation. Last year we brought 70 elves to the event!   We have a blast and we support a great cause.

We will meet at the downtown Burlington train station. Shirts and elf hats are provided if needed. Gary Howard, our beloved retired Swift Facilitator, will be the "Santa" on this day. Please note that we need all elves to stay through the entire shift.

Click here for further details and the sign-up form.  Check with your child to see if they have signed up already.  If duplicate sign-ups occur it's not a problem; we will delete duplicates before submitting our final elf count and t-shirt order.

Sign-up by October 30th to secure your spot.  Thank you!

NYC Field Trip Forms

We are excited to being planning for the Swift House trip to NYC.  This three night trip focuses on creating a personalized learning experience for all interested students in the Big City.

Detailed letters and permissions slips for the Swift NYC trip were stapled to your child's Greensheet this week.  Some important details include:

• Trip open to all Swift 5th-8th graders
• Trip dates: May 29th-June 1st, 2018
• Project Commitment: Students complete a research project related to the city starting in February, 2018
• Fundraising Commitment: Families- both students and parents- are asked to commit to at least three of our major fundraisers.  See details on Fun Night below.

Also note, this trip is optional.  Typically 20-30 students of all grades chose to stay in Williston and form the "Home Team."  We will have a special project-based unit of study with local field trips while others are away in NYC.

For detailed information please see the forms attached to Greensheets this week, or linked below:

• Parent Letter
• Permission Slip
• Behavior Contract
• Medical Form
• Fundraising Commitment 

Please e-mail your child's core teacher with any questions.

Fun Night- Friday, October 27th

Many more volunteers needed for our first field trip for the Swift NYC trip.

Our first Fun Night fundraiser is coming up soon – Friday, October 27th from 5 – 8:30 pm (students will be arriving at 5:30 and leaving at 8). We need lots of folks to help make this event successful – you can sign up to help with set up, clean up, bringing in supplies or by participating in running some of the activities. It’s a fun night (no pun intended). The kids really enjoy it ~ Please sign up to help out here:

Fun Night Sign Up

Thank you so very much!! You support and participation are truly appreciated. Please let me know Shelly Masson know if you have any questions, suggestions or thoughts.

Yearbook Purchase

The Williston Central School yearbook is on sale now through February break.  Click here to order them online at your convenience.

Theater Updates

Performance: Thursday, November 2nd @ 6 pm

Students should have brought in their "base" costume this week.  We are busy outfitting them with all of the needed accessories here at school.

No tickets are required for the night of the show.  Show up early for a great seat.  Bring cash or a check if you would like to donate to our theater supply fund on the way in the door.

Soldier (Jonas) and Will Scarlet (Candace) practice their swordfight

Science Update

In 5/6 science we've been studying the forces within the Earth that causes changes on the Earth's surface.  Students modeled the layers of the Earth with scale diagrams.  They also researched natural resources and the forces which cause them to form.

The Earth's Layers

In 7/8 science we've studied how scientists piece together the puzzle of the Earth's plates through a variety of evidences, such as fossils, rock strata, and glacial tracks.  We have focused on using specific pieces of evidence to support a claim.

October 13, 2017

Long Term Sub: Emily Brewer

Hello Swift Families!

My name is Emily Brewer. I am so excited to begin working with Swift as the substitute for Mrs. Donnelly! I have worked as the WCS Part 2 After School director for the past two years and have gotten to know WCS and many of its amazing students in the process. I graduated from UVM with a degree in Middle School ELA and Science. After UVM, I spent a year in Santiago, Chile teaching English and working on farms learning about Permaculture. I am a huge believer of hands-on learning and will do my best to get to know your kids, to help make their learning experience as personalized as possible.

In my free time I enjoy traveling, exploring Vermont, skiing, and cooking. I am looking forward to getting to work with all of you. Please do not hesitate to introduce yourselves or to ask any questions that you may have!

Best,
Emily

Costumes Needed for Theater Unit

Please see the document linked here for a list of items that we are hoping your child can bring from home for his/her role in the upcoming theater unit by Tuesday, October 17th. If you don't see your child's name, it is because he or she is in a technical role that does not require a costume. Please let us know if you have any questions.

Patrick Clow blocking the opening scene of the Tempest

Support with Theater Unit: Painting and Building

We are all working hard on the Swift theater unit, and we always look forward to the help that parents provide with painting our flats (backdrops) and building large set pieces. We are hoping to get some of this year's projects done during the school day next week (10/16-10/19), with a full morning on Friday (school is not in session that day) to finish up. Please use this link to sign up if you are able to help. We will have a list of projects to be completed by the end of the day this Friday. Thank you so much for considering, and we look forward to working with you!

Support with Fundraising

Hello Swift Families,

 Hope you are all doing well and enjoying our Vermont summer! First and foremost, please consider supporting our FAP Annual Fund – the FAP funds go to help support all students in the school and some were used to pay for our Swift Campout. A big thank you to folks who came out to our meet and greet and help brainstorm ideas for fundraising. For those of you new to Swift, each year the students have the option of going on an “end of year” trip that is also connected with a research project and school curriculum. Past locations have been Washington, DC and NYC. NYC is the anticipated location for the June’s trip. (FYI – students do not have to go on the trip and instead get to be part of the “Home Team” doing a lot of great activities during that time.)

 Currently, our plan is to sponsor:

• 2 Fun Nights – one coming up October 27th and one in the spring (hoping for Big Basket Raffle night) 
• A New Year’s bottle drive (we made the most money with this one last year) – Saturday, January 7th
• Marko the Magician – hoping to do January 19th 
• Selling food concessions during the play in the Spring 

 We would also like to have a few “Dining for a Cause” nights at local restaurants. Some other ideas included: Silent Auctions Raffling off an item at the November 4th WCS Craft Fair – I have an idea of an item that I’m researching but would welcome other ideas. Calcutta or Group Bunco event for the community Spaghetti Dinner for the community Car Wash Pie/Bake sale I’ve put together a list of the events we know we need to do and I am looking for a person to take charge of coordinating each one. If you are interested, please put your name next to the item you would like to help coordinate and I will be in touch with forms, etc to make it all happen.  Please click here for sign-up form.

AND, if you have an idea or something you would like to take charge of – add it to the list!! Together we can make it a great “fun” year! Thank you all so very much! Please let me know if you have any questions

~ All the best, Shelly

Advertise in the Swift Theater Program

Would you like to advertise your business among Swift House families while helping support the team?  Advertise in the Theater Program for a win-win.  The funds would all go directly to Swift House programing and your business will be featured in the program handed out on the evening of the show.

If you're interested, please contact Lisa Barland.  We ask for:

• A minimum $20 donation to advertise
• Image/text that we can copy in black and white
• Payment and submissions by Friday, October 27th

Thank you for considering! 

8th Grade Challenge Kickoff

Eighth graders are in the initial stages of planning their year-long 8th grade challenge projects.  They are submitting their "Kick Off Form" by October 27th which includes details about the topic, subfocus questions, a mentor and the community connection.

For more details and due dates see the Swift website here.

Change Round Up

$2300
All Breed Rescue and Florida grade school