Summer School?!

The thought of going to school during the summer automatically makes most kids' stomachs turn. The Expanded Learning Program aims to alter that image. The ELP staff at Robinson Elementary is proud to be a part of that change. This summer, for the first time, all five schools that are a part of ANESU are offered a chance to participate in the ELP summer program.  

Summer ELP started on July 5th with 24 eager students. The first day flew by and had kids wondering how it was already time to leave. It seems like we hooked them day one! They may not have been so willing if it was not for the incredible educators we have on-board this summer. Lydia Davison comes to us from Beeman and is taking a creative, inventive approach to literacy. We welcome back Nancy Hellen who has the kids catching water bugs down in Lewis Creek and testing out flying machines in the classroom. John Amory, a familiar face around Robinson is getting the kids moving in Health and Wellness. We also have a a group of rotating specialists teaching science, film, and theater! 

Sean Kimball can be seen here teaching students the finer skill of boom operation during filming. All of the students were able to take turns during skits. Hopefully they will be able to use the skills learned with Sean in combination with their skills learned during Theater!

 On Friday of the first week we took the kids to Lewis Creek and spent time exploring. Nancy led science class in the creek. John played group games in the field. Sean had kids dunking the GoPro underwater to film the flow of the creek. One of the best parts of Vermont is using the landscape around us to learn!

Summer Session at BES

Hello friends and families of our ANESU Expanded Learning Program students! We just wrapped up our first week at BES, diving into our theme and exploring "A World of Colors." Our incredibly awesome staff of Cathy Turner- Health and Wellness, Priscilla MQuade- Literacy, Heather Best- Math and Science created multiple games and activities surrounding colors, while also promoting learning and fun! When asking kids of all ages, they said they didn't even feel like they were learning, just hanging out with new friends and participating in some pretty cool adventures. One of our favorite times of the day is lunchtime, a time where we all regroup and talk about things we learned, share laughs, and eat delicious lunches provided by the free summer meal plan located at the high school.

This week we were lucky enough to have Ashleigh Millett and Skyler Goff teaching us how to become someone or something new through theater and storytelling. Each of our four groups performed a small skit for the rest of the program on Friday to show off what they learned. What a great way to wrap up our week! In these performances, appearances were made by a witchy-woman who could transform into a giant beetle, a sassy, strong-minded baby bear, an ax-wielding, guitar playing woodsman, King Gentle of the forty thieves, and many other silly characters all made up by our students.

Switching gears to Math and Science, Heather incorporated some all time favorite games like UNO and Mastermind. Not only did we play the classics, but also some homemade versions including more colors, shapes, and some new vocabulary words.


In literacy, Priscilla is reading us colorful stories, helping us to create poetry using all five of our senses, and inspiring us to paint with beautiful watercolors. Our students are exploring how different colors make us feel.

Health and Wellness has been focusing this week on how our foods can effect our mood and bodies. Self exploration and positive thoughts about ourselves and our friends creates a safe and loving environment, an environment that everyone can thrive in and individuality is encouraged.

Overall, we couldn't have asked for a better week. The teachers and leaders all feel truly lucky and special to be able to work with your children. This group is kids is wonderful, and we're looking forward to another colorful week.

Three Schools Meet at Monkton... Fun Ensues!

IMPORTANT LINKS

Summer Lunch Menu from ANESU Food Cooperative
Bristol BASK Schedule***

Monkton's first-ever summer expanded learning program is following in the footsteps of its successful school-year program with a great start to our five weeks together!

Our wonderful core staff Shelly Cota, Caitlin Gadhue, Phil Hall, Taylor Zimmer, and visiting specialist Charles "Mr. Wizard" Black have made the MCS ELP the place to be for students who attend Monkton, Lincoln, and Beeman elementary schools. We are also grateful to Steve and Isaac, the MCS custodial team, for making sure that our learning spaces were clean and ready for the Tuesday start.

"Anyone who doesn't like math should come here, where it's fun." --sixth grader

Inside the STEM workshops the kids have worked with shapes, symmetry, and math facts. We started off the week exploring the shapes that naturally occur around the beloved Monkton Pond. After our geometric discoveries we discussed what symmetry was and created our very own symmetric art pieces using plants and other pieces of nature we collected. We then ended our week playing some math fact racing games and some addition connect four. All in all we had a great time getting to know each other while exploring some fun math topics! Can't wait to see what the next few weeks have in store!

We had a great first week of wellness here at MCS. We have started every workshop by reflecting on the food that we have eaten throughout the day. We place our breakfasts into categories (grains, proteins, dairy, etc.) and discuss the ways in which these foods are used to fuel our bodies. Based on the past week of sharing, our kiddos have been eating really well! It has been a very active week in wellness as well. We have learned new games such as Rock, Paper, Scissors Tag and completed personal fitness challenges based on individual goals. We have shared our favorite stretches and warm ups with each other, hiked to the pond, and had a chance to draw some of our favorite activities. We even had an awesome dance party with first and second grade group! It was a wonderful week of learning and having fun, we are excited for week number two!

Literacy workshops also explored the beautiful area of Monkton Central School. We visited the pond, read stories about frogs and made our journals for this summer adventure. We also spent time working in the school garden, harvesting kale and basil and working together to make a super batch or delicious pesto. We wrote the recipe in our journals, listed the steps we took to make our pesto, and enjoyed it as a special treat at our Friday lunch all together!

"Are we going to play science next?" --first grader

The Week One gang poses for a group shot after our Friday kickball game.

Our workshop leaders have decided to create a one-room schoolhouse (ORSH) on Fridays, where we will have an array of multiage activities that our whole crew can participate in together. We are very excited at this new way of looking at teaching and learning all ages! We started today with a whole-group kickball game and it was a blast. Look forward to more news about ORSH Fridays!

Enrollment is robust with new faces joining every day. If you are interested in sending your student, please contact Kate La Riviere Gagner at klariviere@anesu.org.

"I like coming to summer camp. There's always something new." --third grader

***Please note! Bristol BASK is only open to families who have made all of the prior arrangements with the Mary Johnson Children's Center. ANESU ELP paperwork is for our 8am-12pm program only!

In the Words of Porky Pig...

..."That's all folks!"

As we wrap up the 5th and final session of ELP (for 2015-16) at Robinson we look back on 30 weeks of learning.

I want to thank parents, teachers, and community members for supporting our program. We look forward to next year and the new, exciting opportunities that will benefit the children at Robinson.

We also look forward to summer at Robinson. ELP will run a 5-week summer camp. The dates are July 5th - August 5th, Monday-Friday 8:00 am to 12:00 pm. There is transportation available for pick-up and drop off. Breakfast and lunch will also be provided to students. Hours not long enough? Your student can be transported to Bristol for an extended camp day. Please direct questions towards me, my email is mcowette@anesu.org.

I will leave you with photos from the past year!

Best,
Megan

 
 

Session Five at LCS

This session we are lucky to be hosting three amazing workshops! Susan Mahony is teaching beginning violin to her small and focused group of two, on both Mondays and Wednesdays. John Amory is teaching Improv to two different groups of students, the younger group meeting on Monday and the older group on Wednesday. Lastly, Elliot Cluba is continuing to teach two groups of Tae Kwon Do on Tuesdays.

In Susan's Beginner Violin workshop, students start by learning the basics with “box violins” before being introduced to a real violin. Using a box violin helps to be able to see and learn the different parts of the violin, without the distraction of the noise of an actual violin. Students also practice body awareness by learning the proper stance to have while playing the violin, where to touch and how to hold the violin and bow, how to take a proper bow, and even how to march while playing! Susan's many years of teaching comes through with the various games and activities she uses to engage and teach her students. The small size of the class, paired with the focus of the students, has allowed the group to move forward quickly!

 As this is John's third workshop at LCS, the students have gotten to know and love him, which is evident by their shared excitement upon his arrival! Since there was so much interest in last sessions Improv workshop, we decided to offer two groups this session, based on age. Students start with determining what Improv is, and some basic rules of Improv. The workshop offers an outlet for the students' active imaginations, as well as a venue for working on communication skills, including speaking in front of a group and listening to peers. Students take turns being in scenes and in the audience, as well as offering ideas for the scenes and characters.

Tae Kwon Do continues to meet on Tuesday's, with a core group of commited students who have been participating throughout the year, and will continue on through early June. Students have shown both physical growth, as well as growth in other areas such as listening skills and self-control. Students were invited to attend a gathering with other students from across the state.  All participants were recognized and received medals for their efforts, which helped to boost self-esteem and confidence. The year-long commitment that students have made to their practice of Tae Kwon Do is commendable!

As this is the last session of the year, we would like to thank all of the teachers and students who have participated, making the program a success, as well as the teachers and staff who volunteered their classroom space. We are looking forward to continuing the program next year, and are always open to ideas for workshops!   Thank you!

Old MacDonald Had a Farm...

I often talk about how lucky I feel getting to organize Expanded Learning Program workshops for students at Robinson Elementary. As Session V, our final session of the school year, has gotten underway I once again find myself lucky. This time I am lucky because I am learning right along with the students.

Kerry Kurt, owner and operator of Unbound Grace at Sentinel Farms in Starksboro has opened her barn doors to our students. I get to travel along as the chauffeur and chaperone. We showed up to the farm on Day 1 and the only way I can describe the excitement of the students is as if they had entered the Champlain Valley Fairgrounds for the first time. They had the attention spans of gnats. Kerry, who has upwards of 15 summer campers took everything in stride.

Our first task was learning how to groom a horse. Our test subject was Charlotte. She was very patient while the little hands learned which brushes to use and in which order to use the different brushes. Dylan, a 3rd grader, was psyched about brushing her tail and couldn't wait to braid it when he was finished!

On Day 2 the attention spans grew, by a few seconds. They were even excited to learn how to clean out a stall. Think shoveling poop. (I opted out of this learning experience). Kerry took us on a tour of the property where we were able to get up close and personal with 4 calves. We also saw all 15 of her horses, including her yearlings.

The students involved in this workshop are lucky to have Kerry as their leader. As we went on our walking tour Kerry shared many of her reasons for opening her farm to students. As we watched the four students run as fast as their legs would carry them towards the calves she said, "They need this. They need to run without structure." How true. In a world where we have allowed strict schedules to rule our lives and our children's lives it is refreshing to have an adult who understands the bigger picture.

BES is already cruising along in our 4th session

Bristol Elementary School is excited to start their fourth session of the extended learning program. We are excited to be hosting the 4–5-6 grade play this session we have about 31 kids signed up for that. The play is the "Granny awards". Sounds like it's going to be a lot of fun for all involved. The play will also run through our next session until the opening night.

      The kids are very engaged in the workshops we have offered the session.             We are offering tai chi with Nancy McLaren for kids in kindergarten through second grade it is a large group but all involved are excited to learn a new thing.

    As always we offer a scholarship club for kids in third grade through fourth grade they get to do their homework and reading. When they're all done that they do some fun experiments and exciting things that they can learn and have fun with.

       We are excited to have Shawn Kimball back with us the session teaching film production for four through six graders they are learning what it takes to put on a whole film production/ movie with the lighting ,sound effects ,makeup and much more I'm excited to see what they come up with for their end product. 

       Mckinzie Gilbert the dance team coach at Mt. Abraham  has graced us with her presence this session teaching dance team to two different groups. Fourth through six and K through third graders. They are having fun learning the choreographed dance routines and all the different moves with fun music. The smiles and giggles coming from dance team tells me they're all having a great time. 

        The jewelry club is making beautiful jewelry for the age group of kindergarten through second grade learning dexterity with fingers and patience I'm getting beads onto small wires is a good skill to learn. They are coloring their own beats and then making jewelry out of that. This little group enjoys taking jewelry home for their families. 

       The trivia club is conquering some hard questions. By the end of the session they hope to be able to answer many questions that most people don't know the answers to. They like to challenge themselves and they are coming up with questions of their own to be able to challenge other with their knowledge. 

        We have been blessed to have Bertha Allen had bestowed her kitchen knowledge on our children throughout our four workshop so far. She is doing kitchen exploration with three through six graders and they seem to be having a great time in the kitchen making delicious things to take home and try. 

       In a collaboration with the Bristol recreation department we are offering Thursday pottery. At the clay studio in Bristol.

     We are already busy filling up the workshops for our last and final fifth session for this year. We will be having some repeats like dance team trivia scholars club. We hope to have a lot of new and exciting things to try to. The play also will be going through our fifth session. Look forward to seeing more and more kids join our program for us for more exciting learning opportunities.