Virtual Listening Tours with SVUUSD Board Members
You’re invited to join Slate Valley board members on February 15th and 16th at 6 p.m. virtually for an informal discussion about district reorganization and the FY23 budget.
Tuesday, February 15th, 6 p.m. - Join Benson, Fair Haven, and West Haven board members with Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/agk-rrsj-zye or by phone (US)+1 415-604-0589 PIN: 253 194 976#
Wednesday, February 16th, 6 p.m. - Join Castleton, Hubbardton and Orwell board members with Google Meet: https://meet.google.com/gyn-ybfw-vva or by phone (US) +1 318-745-9141 PIN: 849743902
Please note that you are welcome to attend any of the meetings regardless of what town you reside in.
Universal Preschool Screening is coming up next month! Please see the flyer for details.
The Agency of Education Special Education Team will be hosting two Parent Information Sessions on Special Education Rule Changes. Please see the flyer for more information.
Since we have so many kids who like to eat snow outside, we collected snow samples from the school’s property and made predictions as to the locations of the cleanest and dirtiest snow! It was such a great day to do some outside science!
St. Valentine’s Day
Benson Village School redefined St. Valentine’s Day in 2019 to make it more appropriate for school-age children and align it to our district nut-aware policy. Teachers will use St. Valentine’s Day to create a day of appreciation. The focus for the school day will be showing gratitude and appreciation rather than the love/favorite implication of St. Valentine’s Day. With that simple re-adjusting of the day’s mission, teachers will encourage kids to use St. Valentine’s Day to communicate, verbally, what they really appreciate about each of their classmates. These genuine expressions of kindness from peers really make children feel special and valued.
Students will not be having parties or participating in card exchanges but teachers will leave the end of the day open for student choice to create meaningful messages for family members and share authentic declarations with peers. Simple, reciprocal gestures help kids learn one of life’s greatest lessons: that true kindness can make a difference in the world.
BVS Spirit in Benson Families!
In anticipation of the SVUUSD Annual Meeting (February 28) and Town Meeting Day (March 1), we have created a web page with all of the FY23 Budget information in one place. For your convenience, please visit: https://www.slatevalleyunified.org/page/budget
Thank you to all of our School Counselors, School Based Clinicians, and School Psychologists!
National School Counseling Week 2022 is Feb. 7-11, to focus public attention on the unique contribution of school counselors within U.S. school systems. National School Counseling Week highlights the tremendous impact school counselors can have in helping students achieve school success and plan for a career.
We are fortunate in Slate Valley to have a talented and committed group of school counselors, school based clinicians, and school psychologists to support our students and our school community. Please join us in extending sincere gratitude to all of these folks!
Kinder sight words with play dough
Students used strips of construction paper to figure a way to share 3 fruit strips between 4 girls. They split each fruit strip into 4 equal pieces and shared them into 4 piles to discover that each girl would have 3/4 of a fruit strip.
3rd Grade applying their knowledge of liquid volume to estimate how many groups of 250ml will fit into a larger container!
There will be no practices or athletic games in Slate Valley tomorrow (2/4/22).
Good Afternoon,
All schools in the Slate Valley School District will be closed tomorrow, February 4th due to the weather. Stay safe and enjoy your weekend!
Brooke Olsen-Farrell, Superintendent
Good Morning,
All Slate Valley Schools will be closed today, February 3rd due to the weather conditions. The back roads are all icing over. Please stay safe and enjoy your day.
Best,
Brooke Olsen-Farrell, Superintendent
Murfree the therapy dog paid us a visit with his human, Linda Barker. BVS will be hosting one of Linda Barker’s dogs each Friday!!!!!
Number Corner learning in Kindergarten with Mrs. Thurston.
Beach Day Lunch at BVS. Thank you Chef Mellisa for a WARM & wonderful meal!
Rutland Herald
January 28, 2022
BENSON — Students at Benson Village School are answering some big questions in a new podcast.
Beginning this month, the school’s sixth-grade class will launch “Ask the Benson Bears,” a podcast that will answer questions posed by fellow students and community members.
Students will work together in pairs to research answers and present them in a series of 10- to 15-minute episodes, which they will produce themselves.
School librarian Anne Marie Witt, who took a podcasting and education course at Castleton University last summer, thought the medium would be a good way to engage students and apply research, writing and communication skills.
“Podcasting includes technology skills as well as communication skills that students will find helpful in both their educational careers as well as their future employment careers,” she said. “As a school library media specialist, I look to help them develop lifelong learning skills that include reading, technology and communication.”
In addition to doing research, students will write outlines and scripts for the episodes, as well as learn how to use podcast production software and audio-recording equipment. Witt credited proficiency-based learning coach Abigail Wald and Principal Amy Roy, as well as other teachers and students with helping to pull the project together, calling it “a team effort.”
Sixth-grade teacher Elizabeth Schuyler said the project will help students learn transferable skills like collaboration. She noted it would build a foundation of skills students could take with them outside the classroom and into middle school and high school.
Student Madisyn Wilkinson, who recently listened to a podcast about what sound a giraffe makes, said she is looking forward to working on the project.
Student Ada Mueller, who is currently listening to a podcast about soccer, said she is excited to answer people’s questions. She said she is also eager to learn how to edit audio and use new technology she might encounter again in the future.
Witt said she hopes the project will inspire students to start podcasts of their own someday.
Principal Amy Roy said she likes how relevant the project is to the current types of media students encounter outside of school.
“I just think it’s imperative that we build these skills for kids to use in any way they want — to use it for entertainment, to use it for education,” she said.
She’s also excited to see what kind of questions students will be asked to answer.
“What we really want is to keep building that bridge with our local community and let them know the students are here, they’ve got valuable information, they’re eager to research what they don’t know and be able to bring it forward,” said Roy.
Questions submitted for the podcast, which so far have focused on science and nature, include: How does an octopus change colors and make their skin bumpy? How cold is Antarctica? What does whale blubber feel like? Where do insects go in the winter? Why is snow white? What causes sound? How does the meteorologist predict the weather? How is losing a tooth in Africa different from losing a tooth here in Benson? and how much colder is Pluto than Earth?
Roy added that the podcast is a way students can reconnect with the community after nearly two years of relative isolation due to the pandemic.
“Really, anything we can do to get community members to realize school is still happening, kids are still here. They’re learning, they’re growing,” she said.
Visit the Benson Village School Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BensonVillageSchool for links to new episodes of “Ask the Benson Bears.”
jim.sabataso
@rutlandherald.com
BVS Spirit is strong!!
BVS 4th-6th graders constructed molecules while learning about the Periodic Table of Elements!
