Mr. Young's class celebrating their 2nd month as the Golden Garbage-can award, recognizing their efforts to keep their classroom clean, working together with our terrific custodians, Joe Robinson and Roy Yoder, to keep our school looking good.

Dear Friends and Families, 
      Thank you to everyone for making time for family conferences this week.  ALL of us are more successful when we share our goals, our hopes and our challenges with those close to us.  The focus for these conferences is to collaboratively set a goal for the next few months. Selecting just one or two goals does not mean that we won't continue to focus on growth across all areas; rather, these goals are an opportunity for students, families and teachers to together reflect and prioritize.   In some cases, these goals may be social/emotional; these skills are integral to success across areas and instruction and support in them are an important part of our curriculum.  Please see below, from last week's kindergarten blog post, as an example:
" In the midst of all of this team work we had a very insightful class discussion about what makes a good team member.  What kind of person do we hope to have on our team when we are working in a group?  Children said they would like someone who is kind, someone who is willing to listen to and consider everyone's ideas.  They also appreciate teammates who are helpful and "don't wreck other people's work"- we decided we could call this respectful.  Finally they said they want somebody who will stay focused,  do the work, and not give up- someone who is engaged and has perseverance.  We then considered which of these qualities we might have, and which ones we could try to work on so we can all be good team members." (see http://annbeattie.blogspot.com/  for the full post) 

         
It is with great sadness that I share that Bub (Arnold) Burbank passed away this past week. Bub served our community in a variety of capacities, including as a part-time custodian here at Waitsfield Elementary in past years. Many know Bub through his role as  chief of the local fire department. For many students, this meant he was the smiling face that supported them being served icecream and getting to check out the firetrucks every year, as part of the local fire department outreach efforts. Others, like our preschool students, may know Bub for the beautiful wooden toys he crafted. (Bub is also responsible for the "just-right" sized picnic benches on our preschool playground.) Bub's sense of humor and easy-going nature were a pleasure to be around. Additionally, his quiet but strong leadership in the fire department, where he encouraged and supported others and put himself forward to serve his community with dedication and grace were an inspiration to me. Our community has been bettered by his presence, and he will be greatly missed.
Respectfully,    
Kaiya

    
Remember this fall's artist residency with Eddie Merma and Palo Coleman? We at last have some video footage and slideshow of these great experiences. Video of the playhive project can be found here  http://www.sculptureschoolvt.com/waitsfield-play-hive. A slideshow of both experiences can be found here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jQdJUCcs8k&feature=youtu.be

                       

 Have you signed up to work the Ski & Skate sale yet? Did you know that volunteers get to shop EARLY (before everyone else- 7:30 - 8:30!) on the day of the sale? And working the sale is actually fun?
        We still have many empty spots (approximately 60% filled thus far); this is our ONE fundraiser of the year-- and we need everyone (and their neighbors and friends!) to pitch in to make it happen. You can sign up in the lobby or online.