Swift Flyer: March 19, 2018

Rotary Presentation

A few Swifties did an incredible job presenting their work to the Williston Rotary Club last week. They had created "Found Poetry" from the text of their literature book, Hidden Figures, while exploring the themes of the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Rights Movement and the Space Race.

SBAC Schedule

All Swift students will take the SBAC standardized test after April break, starting on Tuesday, May1st. The SBAC tests include Math and English Language Arts for all students. Fifth and eighth graders will also take a science assessment later in May.

As always, we'd love your help with a few details:

Click here for our snack sign-up - kids have so appreciated the healthy snack donations in previous years!
Check that your son or daughter has headphones/earbuds at school
Click here to check the schedule and try to avoid scheduling other appointments during school that week

Trinkets for Fun Night

We are looking for donations of trinkets for our prize table for the April 14th Fun Night fundraiser. These can include any small gadgets, stuffed animals or toys, that would appeal to K-4th graders. This is a great opportunity to clean out your clutter!! Donations can be delivered to our project room or the front office.

Girls Science Discovery Day

The University of Vermont College of Medicine’s Chapter of the American Women’s Medical Association will be hosting their annual Girls’ Science Discovery Day on Saturday, May 5th, 2018 from 9:00am to 3:00pm at the UVM College of Medicine in Burlington, VT.

WCS has been invited to bring three girls to the event. The day consists of a keynote address, interactive workshops run by faculty and medical students, and an ice cream social. Workshops from previous years have included learning about the immune system, medical imaging, and anatomy. Activities have included viewing human organs, casting an arm and drawing blood from a dummy. Any girls interested in attending should complete the Google Survey found here before Thursday, April 5th.

Further questions can be directed to Amy Skapof at askapof@cssu.org. If we have more than three interested and enthusiastic candidates we will draw names on Friday, April 6th. Those chosen to attend will be contacted by April 9th with more details.

Big Basket Raffle Fun Night

We are a month out from our last fundraiser of the year – the Big Basket Raffle Fun Night happening on Saturday, April 14th from 5:45 – 8:00pm. Here is the google doc for volunteer sign ups. We have decided to let 5th graders attend as well, which may mean bigger numbers so we definitely need help. Two things to note: · I know some of you are really creative, so I left two spaces blank for activities, so if there is a game you want create and do, please sign up for it and let us know what it is. I’ve attached a link to game ideas as well. · I need one person to agree to help be point person for the night – please let me know if you are interested. I will be there to help set up and clean up. Thanks!

Thanks everyone!
Shelly Masson FAP Swift House Rep

Basket Raffle Themes

We are also contributing to the school-wide effort in gathering donations for the many baskets raffled off the evening of the event. Please see the core themes:

CVU Summer Camp

The CVU Summer Camp is an exciting summer camp experience where incoming nineth graders have a chance to learn the layout of CVU and meet CVU Faculty while participating in daily activities lead by experienced upper class students. This camp will help students to grow relationships with other students from all the sending schools. Students can choose different interest groups that they will participate in new and exciting activities lead by their upper class members. Along with fun daily activities such as tie dye, capture the flag, and karaoke battles, snacks, lunch and a camp T-shirt are included in your camp fee.

Scholarships are available upon request. Please take some time to review our website via the links below with important info about the daily schedule, interest areas and other program information. Please follow the link below to register your student.

CVU Summer Camp Website
CVU Summer Camp Registration

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out! We look forward to sharing this once in a lifetime opportunity! "The CVU Summer Camp is amazing! It allowed me to meet so many new people that I then was able to know on my first day at CVU so it made all the difference!" - Jensen Marrott

Rick Kinsman
CVU Summer Camp Director Transition Coordinator
Special Services Department
Champlain Valley Union High School
CVSD

CVU Summer Theater

CVU Theatre is very excited to promote our second summer musical: The Little Mermaid! All rising CVU freshmen and sophomores are encouraged to audition. The cast will be working with Ben Recchia (Artistic Director), Carl Recchia (Music Director), and many other CVU Theatre alumni (and friends and family), to produce this full-scale musical in just three weeks. Our primary goal is to welcome underclassmen to the rich and diverse arts opportunities at CVU. Our program is structured very similarly to last year, and all of the program information can be found on our website.

I have also included a link to the trailer from The Lion King last summer as a sample of our past work. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIGci4kmCzI As always, you are welcome to share any questions or thoughts with our team. We look forward to seeing you at auditions!

Advanced Coder Camp

This new, advanced coding camp at Vermont Technical College – Williston Campus provides an opportunity for campers ages 11 - 17 with some programming background to dive deeper into programming. The camp will be held July 23-27, 2018. Campers will learn to develop simple Android applications using Java and xml. Smartphone apps, robots, video games, small business—the world runs on code. Whether you dream of becoming a Google developer or want to launch your own mobile game startup, your coding path continues here. Cost is $150 – plus many scholarships available. Contact: Zoe McDonald at zmacdonald@vtc.vsc.ed
Click here for further information

Science Update

5th and 6th graders are using "naked eggs" as a model for cells. After 48 hours in vinegar the shell has dissolved off, leaving the inner membrane in tack. Students explored the effects of soaking the eggs in vinegar, corn syrup and salt water, learning about how a permeable membrane allows materials to pass through.

"Naked" Egg

Naked Egg in Vinegar vs Corn Syrup

7th and 8th graders have been learning about genetics and now the effects of natural selection on the traits of populations. They experimented with isolating the DNA from a strawberry after desiccating its cells.