Swift Flyer ~ October 30

• Mon, Nov 1- Picture Retake Day
• Mon, Nov. 22 - Fri, Nov. 26 - No School - Thanksgiving Break
• Thur, Dec. 23 - Fri, Dec. 31 - No School - Winter Break
• Every Monday & Thursday, 3:00-4:30- Homework Club*
  
  *We apologize for the last-minute cancellations of Homework Club in recent weeks. We are working to confirm coverage before the week begins however illness can impact our plans.

Picture Retake Day is scheduled for Monday, November 1st from 10:15 - 11:15 for any student who missed the original Picture Day, or wishes to have their picture retaken.

If you would like to have your photo retaken, you must bring in the entire photo package you received from the photographer.

We have available slots for Swift students in the Intergen Book Club! Please email Karen Olson at kao_wolverine@yahoo.com for more information. Thanks!

What is Intergen

A multi-age book club that brings together 5-8th graders, parents, and senior members of the community to discuss 5 books throughout the school year. We typically have 10 groups: 5 of 5th/6th graders; 5 of 7th/8th graders.

This Year's Schedule

Book groups will meet the 2nd Tuesday of the month:

• Oct 12, Nov 9, Dec 14, Jan 11, Feb 8, and Mar 8
• Grades 5-6 meet 1:10 - 1:50
• Grades 7-8 meet 1:50 - 2:30

This Year's Books

• Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson (free verse - concussion)

• The Last Human by Lee Bacon (science fiction)

• The Miscalculation of the Lightning Girl by Stacy McAnulty

• (realistic fiction)

• Chance: Escape from the Holocaust by Uri Shulevitz (graphic novel, history)

• Wink by Rob Harroll (humorous, touching)

We are so proud of our Swifties for their fantastic work in Macbeth and Robin Hood. There were so many unknowns going into this year's theater unit, but we are so glad we carried on. The degree of hard work and teamwork these kids put into the process is hard to capture. Here's just a sampling of moving parts:

• Actors learning their lines, cues, blocking, entrances, expression and how to project their voices
• Props crew finding, organizing props
• Tech crew learning how to fly-in flats and spike set pieces
• Lights crew programming all of the lights and operating them throughout the show
• Sound crew finding sound effects, learning how to use the soundboard, and cueing up sounds throughout the show
• Costume crew finding, repairing. creating, and organizing the colorful outfits
• Everyone creating program covers
• Everyone taking care of each other so all of these variables would come together on stage

Phew! Thank you so much for your patience throughout the production process and for being a fantastic, albeit small and socially-distanced, audience. We did capture both shows on video which you are welcome to share with family members who were not able to attend.

With our theater unit wrapped up, we are ready to begin our next literature unit. Students completed a survey to indicate their top book choices and we created the groups from there. This month's group will focus on the learning targets of summarizing our reading and analyzing authors' craft. Click here for a list of the books we're offering (the student version allows them to select their names as well).

We are excited to offer your child an opportunity to participate in Spark Enrichment, an after-school applied learning program for students in grades 5-8. Sessions will run for 5 weeks from 3:00 p.m - 4:30 p.m. with our 2nd session starting November 11th and ending December 16th. These small group classes will be facilitated by school faculty and staff.

Students will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities that can be found on the link below. Students are informed of the workshop they will be attending the day prior to the start of the session via their house TA or teacher and caregivers will receive an email informing them of their child’s assigned workshop. In order to take full advantage of this learning opportunity, students will need to make a commitment to attend all five Thursdays. If your child decides to not take part in this session after having registered please contact Julie Rogers so that others may fill the spot.

The after-school activity bus can provide transportation home for students in need of a ride home.

The dates of session 2 are: November 11, 18, December 2, 9, & 16. When registering, students will be able to rank their choices for better placement! Students will be placed on a first come first serve basis. Registration form and a listing of workshop descriptions. Contact Julie Rogers (jrogers@cvsdvt.org or 802-871-6022) with any questions.

Hi Parents of 7-8 grade basketball players,

Sign ups for Mini Metro tryouts are exceptionally low in the 7-8 grade. We have 9 girls signed up as of this morning. While technically 9 is enough to field a team, it is too small to run effective practices and too small to survive illness/injury.

Please ask your daughters to reach out to any of their friends who like basketball or who are particularly good athletes and see if they are interested in trying out for Mini Metro. The first tryout is today at 3:00, the second tryout is next Sunday at 3:00, both at CVU.

3 experienced, enthusiastic CVU alumnae (Meghan Gilwee, Nicole Eaton and Harper Mead) are looking forward to coaching the 7-8 squad this year. Please help us fill the roster!

Thank you,

Ute

Check out all of the other amazing programs we are offering this Fall:

• Oct 25 - Exploring Vermont Dairy
  

• Oct 29 - Youth Environmental Summit
• Nov 3 - Discover GIS
• Nov 13 - Intro to Virology, Microbiology and Drugs
  
• Nov 8 - TRY for the Environment (applications due)
• Nov 19 - VTeen Leadership Weekend
  
• Nov 30 - Radio Frequency Engineering & How It Relates to Climate Change
• Dec 14 - Digital Phenotyping; Leveraging Machine Learning,Statistics, and Creativity to Model Human Health

You can learn about all of these programs and register at the 4-H Announcements page: https://www.uvm.edu/extension/youth/announcements