On May 2 the 8th grade class took their annual field trip to our state capitol to tour the State House, participate in a mock trial in the Supreme Court, and tour the Vermont Historical Society Museum exhibits. We were also able to see Addison Blanchard, 8th grade student from Woodstock who is serving as a Legislative Page during this final 6 weeks of the legislative session (photo below). Some of us were lucky enough to catch our 3 Windsor County Senators during a break in the Senate chamber where students had the opportunity to ask them questions. Before leaving the State House students were able to watch the House of Representatives begin their session from the galleries. The whole class was recognized from the House floor by Woodstock Representative Tesha Buss to a round of applause, before exiting for a class photo on the front steps and then boarding the buses to return home.
Last week, Mrs. Lessard's 7th grade English classes visited the library to pick out fiction free reads. This week, Ms. Piccoli visited Mr. Clifford's 10th grade classes to share books and online library resources with the students for their Vietnam projects. Next week will be a busy week in the library with the Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club meeting on Tuesday, May 7 during ARE time to pick up their summer reads and the Faculty/Staff Book Club meeting on Thursday, May 9 after school to discuss The Fury.
Please remember to return your overdue books, renew the books you need more time to read and check out some new reads for spring!
The Spring Plant Sale at the Woodstock Union HS/MS Greenhouse is coming up! The sale will run from May 1st-31st and be open from 9am-2pm on school days. We will be open late for school staff (until 6 pm) on Monday, May 6th.
We made a few really exciting changes this year. Students start more than half of our plants by seed but we do have to source some more difficult-to-start plants (think petunias and geraniums) from a nursery. This year, all of those plants came from a nursery that is neonicotinoid free (read more about the effects of neonicotinoids on pollinators here)! Students collected and sowed MANY native plants this year. Some will be available this spring and some will be available to pre-order for fall planting. See our full list of plants here.
This year, we will also be selling No Mow May signs and Fedco seeds for varieties that you may want to direct-sow in your garden.
We will be holding a plastic plant pot collection drive again. We can only reuse 4-pack and 4” square pots in good condition. We will accept other sized pots and broken pots (if they are #2 or #5 plastic) that we will recycle through a special program but they must be clean and sorted from the 4-pack and 4” pots that we can reuse. As always, bring cardboard boxes if you have them for transporting your plants to your car.
Please contact me with any questions.
Happy Spring!
Abbie Castriotta (Greenhouse/Garden Manager)
Earth Day 2024 was a perfect sunshiney day for students in grades 7-12 to connect with the earth and each other. For the last two hours of the day, students engaged in workshops that included: making reusable beeswax food wraps, crocheting a hanging plant hanger, doing bird painting with VINS, making art from fruits and veggies, making wildflower seed bombs, learning to grow and harvest microgreens, learning vegan cooking skills with Heather Wolfe, making their own eco-friendly cleaning products including a shoe deodorizer (hello spring athletes!), greening up campus, learning from Change the World Kids, and creating a new perennial pollinator hedgerow. Seventh graders hiked through the King Farm and a group of high school students helped five different classes at Woodstock Elementary School perform stewardship of their campus, Vail Field, and their outdoor classroom on Mount Peg. This was a tremendous effort where students and staff came together to create, pause, and practice stewardship. A huge thanks to everyone involved!
On Thursday, April 18, the Middle School and High School participated in the Dancing Through Barriers educational program with the Dance Theatre of Harlem. The Dancing Through Barriers program fosters teamwork and community building through dance and dance education. Participants danced their way through history from a movement exercise to understand the Middle Passage, small group work to connect to each individual’s heritage, the Great Migration and the Harlem Renaissance. Ms. Perkins commented that it was fun to be “moving as a community of many communities.” During the program, participants also learned about the founder of the Dance Theatre of Harlem, Arthur Mitchell, and the ballet company’s history.
One of the highlights of the High School program was the “Soul Train Line” where two dancers at a time dance down the center aisle formed by two parallel lines of people cheering the dancers on while waiting for their turn to dance, strut or bust a move!
A number of students provided testimonials at the end of the workshops, and they used words like “exciting,” “fun,” and “a great opportunity” to describe their experiences. And, in one very moving testimonial, Kiki Grillo-Chope stated, “I love dancing!” When asked what she thought about the workshop, Sadie Boulbol said, “It was enlightening to see how they put that story to choreography.” Clara Burkholder, who takes dance lessons, even performed her solo competition piece at the end of the workshop for the Dance Theatre of Harlem educators’ feedback and critique.
This programming was made possible thanks to a grant from Pentangle.
In this week's From the Library newsletter learn about the next Faculty/Staff Bookclub pick titled The Fury by Alex Michaelides, see a display of Holocaust memoirs that English 1 students will be reading, enjoy some photos from the Library Easter Egg Hunt and save the date for the workshops with the Dance Theatre of Harlem on April 18.
Please remember to return your overdue books, renew the books you need more time to read and pick out some new spring reads. Have a great spring break!
WUMS QSA students put hours of time and energy into a program they developed called, "Live Your Life". Big goal: To increase empathy and promote positive social interaction in our middle school by helping people get to know each other’s stories. They led a presentation each day during Connections Time this week to address tough topics with group activities. Students in the 7th and 8th grade were mixed into 7 different groups. They also designed and made buttons and a resource brochure. The Woodstock Inn supported our group by helping with the costs of white carnation flowers that were offered at the end of an assembly presentation to students. Three other important middle school QSA members were absent for the group picture.
This week, the library has hosted Middle School advisories and High School English, Spanish and French classes. And, on Friday, there was an Easter egg hunt!
The next Young Adult Diverse Books Book Club pick is We Deserve Monuments by Jas Hammonds and the next Faculty/Staff Book Club pick is The Fury by Alex Michaelides. Stop by to pick up your copy!
Please remember to return your overdue books, renew books you need more time to read and check out some new spring reads.
The Modern and Classical Language Department is thrilled to announce that the following students were recently recognized for creative excellence in the Annual Poster Contest sponsored by the Vermont Organization of Classics and Language Educators (VOCALE, formerly the VFLA).
Clara Burkholder earned 1st Place in the High School division.
Myra McNaughton earned 3rd Place in the High School division.
Isla Segal earned 2nd place in the Middle School division.
Jackson Fellows earned 3rd place in the Digital Category
(Open to all grades!).
All students received certificates and copies of their posters as notecards. Their original posters have been framed and will be hung near the MAC Language classrooms.