Bobcat Bulletin: Moretown School's Blog: March 2022

Friday, March 25, 2022

Bobcat Bulletin 3/25/22

Water is amazing! Water is Life...

Week one was amazing... we have 3 more to go!

Every morning students have been met with provocations, invitations to think about and interact with water...

Ms. Jenny's Maples rocking the color mixing...

Marbelizing paper in Kindergarten

School News:

Read this week's HUUSD bulletin.

A couple of announcements:

Congratulations to Lindsey Vandal for the birth of her lovely new baby Elsie! Lindsey has decided to take a year and be home with her newest little one. She looks forward to joining us again for the 2023-2024 school year!

Congratulations Terry Hopper, for being included in this year's list of Vermont Outstanding Teachers! She is an amazing teacher among amazing teachers here at Moretown School, and within the HUUSD district. Terry celebrates the diversity among the learners who sit in front of her, and joyfully guides them on their journey into the middle school experience. Her meaningful connections with students and colleagues is notable, and her positivity is contagious.
For more information about Vermont's Outstanding Teachers, check out: https://www.uvm.edu/cess/doe/outstanding-teachers-day-and-vermont-teacher-year

I Heart Art

How do you make a 2 dimensional piece of paper 3 dimensional? ART of course!

On April 5th and 12th, I will be collaborating and co-teaching with Artist in Residence, Rachel Mirus in Art classes!

Here is Rachel’s website:
https://rachelscybercabinet.works/

Tissue Paper Printing and Ice Painting:
Tissue paper printing uses watercolor paint and tissue paper shapes to create colorful patterns by leaching the tissue paper dye while also interacting with the watercolor paint. In the past I have used fish shapes as a water-themed subject, but other water themes could include aquatic invertebrates, water molecules, human watercraft, or anything of interest to students! Watercolor paint allows students to experiment and explore properties of water like flow, diffusion, mixing, and evaporation all while playing and making something colorful and beautiful.
Ice painting uses colored ice cubes to make an abstract painting based on patterns of melting. Students make patterns and stacked sculptures with the ice, add extra color and complexity by spritzing with liquid watercolor in spray bottles, and then wait for the result. I also set up time lapses so that students can watch how the melting process happened over time. Because of the waiting aspect of this project, students naturally anticipate and make predictions about what their melting sculpture will do, which becomes a testable hypothesis when they see their finished project.

Students will have the opportunity to experiment and design individual and collaborative final paintings. The collaborative pieces will be matted, framed and hung as a permanent display in our building!
Thank you Jenny for connecting with Rachel and developing this special experience for our school.
We are thrilled to explore these new water & ice painting concepts, as we continue to expand our knowledge through and with WATER.

Sincerely,

Heather

School Counselor's Corner

Hello Moretown Families,

Many of you have begun making plans for the summer, which may include sending your child to a summer camp or similar enrichment program. With this in mind, I wanted to share some resources with you.

Mad River Valley Summer FUNd
From the fund, “Summer is coming and summer activities and camps provide kids with opportunities to socialize and meet new friends, develop new skills, get outdoor exercise and have some fun. It's an experience that most kids enjoy and with such a wide variety of camps, it's easy to find one that suits your child's interests. Unfortunately, it can be challenging for parents to send their kids to these programs due to the high costs involved. The MRV Summer FUNd is here to help ensure that any child in The Valley who wants to participate can. This is a collaborative effort between the Mad River Valley Interfaith Council, the Mad River Valley Community Fund and Hannah's House. Organizers have created a google form that parents can complete in confidence. Members of the group's board will review each request and work together to fund as many as possible. Here is a link to the form: Summer FUNd Application.
All inquiries are welcome. Full and partial scholarships are available. Requests will be managed in strict confidence. Camps fill up quickly, and every effort will be made to process requests within one week. Contact Patty Giometti at pattygiometti@gmail.com with any questions. For a partial list of summer camps in the area, use this link: Summer Camps.

ECO this week

5/6 up in the forest with Rudi and Ken- getting back into ECO

Community News/Opportunities

Please note that the opportunities/events listed below are not specifically endorsed or screened by school staff. As always, families should use their own standards and review processes to determine appropriate activities.

Join Moretown Library and Living Tree Alliance for a fun afternoon learning about and helping our feathered friends. Build nests, visit the farm animals and share in stories and songs about birds as they return from a winter away to nest in our fields and forests. Families will also build a nest box to take home and enjoy or install at the farm or Moretown Rec Fields. This workshop is free and open to all however space is limited so register to reserve your spot. Sign up Sheet https://forms.gle/L9yysDWU7bCimxtP9

https://livingtreealliance.com/build-a-bird-box/ or call Cory at the Moretown Library at 8024969728

TRIP Dance Company Annual Fundraiser
The TRIP Dance Company is presenting its annual fundraiser at the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center on April 2nd at 3pm & 7pm. TRIP is a non-profit competitive youth dance company associated with the Stowe/Mad River Dance Academy. Don't miss seeing local dancers perform their award-winning dances! Tickets can be purchased in advance through the Spruce Peak Performing Arts Center at www.sprucepeakarts.org or 802-760-4634. TRIP has an online streaming option for watching both performances with access also through www.sprucepeakarts.org. Donations may also be made direclty to TRIP and through an online auction at tripdancecompany.betterworld.org from March 18th to April 3rd.

LOCAL SUMMER CAMP GUIDE
Susan Laskaris at WES has put together a listing of summer camps in the area that we are aware of -- you can find this guide by clicking here. Please note that the opportunities listed are not specifically screened or endorsed by HUUSD staff. Please let us know if there are camps you'd like added to this resource.

The MRV Summer FUNd Summer is coming and summer activities and camps provide kids with opportunities to socialize and meet new friends, develop new skills, get outdoor exercise and have some fun. It's an experience that most kids enjoy and with such a wide variety of camps, it's easy to find one that suits your child’s interests. Unfortunately, it can be challenging for parents to send their kids to these programs due to the high costs involved. The MRV Summer FUNd is here to help ensure that any child in the valley who wants to participate can. This is a collaborative effort between the Mad River Valley Interfaith Council, The Mad River Valley Community Fund, and Hannah’s House.

We welcome all inquiries. Full and partial scholarships are available. Patty Giometti will be managing requests in strict confidence. Please note that camps fill up quickly. Requests will be processed within one week. To apply for a scholarship please complete this google form.

For a partial list of summer camps in the area, please use this link: https://sites.google.com/huusd.org/summer-camps-2021/home Please reach out with any questions. Thank you for your support,

Monday, March 21, 2022

Bobcat Bulletin 3/21/22 (saved it until Monday)

“Water is Life”

at Moretown Elementary School

Preschool - 6th Grade

Funded by the

Robbins de Beaumont Foundation

March/April 2022

Hello Moretown Elementary School students, staff, teachers and community members!

Moretown Elementary School will begin the "Water is Life" project on Monday March 21st with an invitation to investigate, wonder and explore water at the main entrance to our school. This exhibit will evolve over time and we will continue to expand this interactive water provocation throughout the next 4 weeks. A small group from our 5th and 6th grade leadership team have shared ideas and started the planning for our exhibit. A special thank you to Russ Bennett along with Ira Shadis, Jenny Lyle, Nancy Willard and Ken Benton for contributing ideas and planning time with students to make this happen.

On Tuesday March 22, 2022 Rudi (Dan Ruddell) a watershed scientist from the White River Partnership will be working with students all day during ECO time. Rudi will start with the 3/4 ECO and then work with the 5/6 group. March 22, 2022 is also World Water Day and all students will begin engaging in the study of water in Moretown. We also have Andrew Schroth helping us access watershed resources from UVM. Andrew Schroth is a parent and water scientist who will be supporting this project as well.

We will use our ECO framework and ECO experts to help support children's learning and interest in water. We look forward to investigating water, wondering why water is relevant to Moretown and building connections with water over the next several weeks.

The last two weeks of this project, we will work with Rachel Mirus and Heather O'Hare exploring artistic expression with watercolors, tissue paper printing and ice painting. We are fortunate to have this artist in residence experience for pre-k through 6th grade. These two full days with Rachel will culminate with a collaborative art collection, which will be professionally framed and installed in our school as a legacy of the Water is Life project.

We look forward to our school community coming together and building an important relationship to water as we learn about and explore this amazing resource. On the last Tuesday, April 12, 2022, we are grateful to host Vera Longtoe Sheehan from the Elnu Abenaki Tribe. Vera is an Abenaki culture bearer, master artist, educator and activist. Vera serves her community as director of the Vermont Abenaki Artists Association. Vera will be working with each ECO group for 30-45 minutes each on April 12th. Vera has supported the 5th and 6th grade leadership team over the last several weeks creating our Moretown School Water Ceremony. The Abenaki word for water is NEBI and over the course of the next four weeks we hope to be inspired by the Abenaki traditions and ceremonies and create a ceremony to celebrate our relationship to water.