The Saplings Times

Hello, Saplings families! We hope that you have all had a wonderful summer full of fun and relaxation. It's time for another awesome year at Mountain Village, and we are so excited to get started. Read on to learn about our new teaching team this year. This newsletter will be the place where you can get an inside look at our learning and growing throughout the year. As always, please reach out with any wonderings as they come up. Here's to another great year!

Hi, everyone! My name is Dawn, and I am the lead teacher in the Saplings classroom. This is my 11th year with the Saplings, and my 12th year at MVCS. Teaching at Mountain Village allows me to honor my philosophy of whole child education. I developed a passion for nature-based education while in grad school at Antioch University New England, which brought me to Mountain Village. Once I was here, I quickly developed a connection to Montessori education and felt that the philosophy perfectly aligned with my own. It has been an amazing 11 years of learning and growing! I consider myself very fortunate to be a part of the MVCS community.

When I'm not teaching, you'll most often find me in my vegetable garden listening to an audiobook or relaxing at home with my little dog, Peanut. My interests include cooking, swimming, traveling, and anything related to animals. I love animals and would love to some day have my own small rescue farm! I also love music of (almost) all genres and spend a lot of my free time attending live music events. A love of music is something that I enjoy sharing with my students and hope to inspire at least some of them to become music lovers themselves. My friends and family are the most important part of my life, and I try to spend as much time with them as possible.

Please feel free to reach out to me any time with questions or concerns. The best way to get in touch with me is via email at dawn@mountainvillagecharterschool.org.

Hi, everyone! My name is Caro, and I am thrilled to return for my second year as a paraprofessional in the Saplings classroom! Mountain Village Charter School hold a truly special place in my hear; I am both an educator here and an MVCS parent. My children were in the school's very first classroom when its door initially opened! Today, they are continuing their journeys in college: my son, Santi, is a junior at UVM, and my daughter, Luna, is a freshman at Bryn Mawr College. I am originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, where the rest of my family still resides. At home here, I share a busy and happy life with my husband, our cockatoo Chloe, our cockatiel Cocoa, and our dog Mac-Ewok. When I am not in the classroom, I love traveling, exploring new cultures, cooking, and practicing yoga. On beautiful sunny days, you will almost always find me out on the boat with my husband, relaxing in the middle of the lake with a good book and some great music. I am so looking forward to another wonderful year of supporting your children as they learn, play, and grow!

We often receive messages asking if there is anything that we need for our classroom, which is so appreciated! Between Montessori materials, outdoor learning materials, and every day supplies, the needs of our classroom are great, and we will take all the help we can get! Last year, we had a large focus on updating our classroom library, and we are SO grateful for the many books that you all provided. This year, we are shifting our focus to build our collection of woodworking and cooking tools.

This wishlist will be updated regularly throughout the year and included in each newsletter.

Thank you, in advance for your support!

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3C054KYU6O6CU?ref_=wl_share

For the first day of school, please make sure that your Sapling has:

snack

lunch

plenty of water

indoor shoes

rain gear (just in case!)

a change of clothes

sunscreen is a good idea-students must be able to apply themselves

We'll see you all on Monday!