One Planet's Fall/Winter Session

                                               It's Almost the End of the Year 2021!

We are so pleased to say that we have been open every day of these first 3 months of the school year. As always, we have been spending a lot of time outside.  It is amazing to see how innovative our students can be with what Mother Nature has given us. 

When indoors, students have really enjoyed programs like drumming with Mr. Hall. Again, it is amazing to see the progress they have been making from just using the sticks to actually making music! It's literally music to our, the staff, ears! Genny from the Arts Bus brings different activities every week. Lately, students made "pumpkins on the shelf" and holiday scratch art ornaments. 

Starting next week, we will be creating more holiday theme objects. We will start with making our space look festive by stringing paper chains and lights. Children will also make pop up cards and other ornaments. And we can never go wrong with decorating cookies while sipping hot chocolate.

Upcoming Events:

• Dec. 6-21 - GAP program
• Friday, Dec. 10 - Holiday Event 12-3 pm
• Tues. Dec. 21 - Solstice celebration with Ms. Braun

Next OP session will start after winter break. Please do not hesitate to email me at jlabejsza@wrvsu.org for info.

                                    
HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM OP FAMILY TO ALL!

 

 One Planet News

We are doing really well in our Afterschool Family. This fall session offers some interesting and fun programs like drumming, soccer, outdoor education and pathfinders. As always, we spend as much time outside as possible, enjoying beautiful fall weather. On our "free days", we give our students choice in picking an activity for the afternoon. They usually like to ride scooters or explore our school's wonderful outdoor space. 

Our first field trip to the Hathaway Corn Maze was a lot of fun! Trying to find a way out of the maze and playing in the corn pit never gets old. All students got to take a pumpkin home on top of that! 

Upcoming events:

• Friday, October 29 - Early Release Day - NO ONE PLANET
• Tuesday, November 2 - the Arts Bus is coming! This will be a 5 week program - it was very popular in the past and we hope to see more students join us.
• Friday, December 10 - Early Release Day - One Planet will host a Holiday Event between 12 - 3 pm.  A separate form with more details will be sent home. 

Please remember that it is never too late to enroll your child in any of our programs - email jlabejsza@wrvsu.org for payment information. 

Thank you and enjoy this beautiful fall weather and scenery.

 Good bye for the summer!

At One Planet, we did our best to make our students happy and safe in spite of all the difficulties of that past year and we all persevered and had a good time.  

Most of our afterschool programs were focused on the outdoor activities, like sledding and ice skating in the winter, then biking, gardening and the forest adventures as this what the children wanted and needed most. When the weather did not cooperate, we played basketball, rode scooters, made planes, kites and enjoyed what the Arts Bus offered: music, puppetry and of course unique arts and crafts. 

What has been really special in our program is how the children enjoy being together and how they have formed a great team, getting along, being compassionate and attuned to one another. 

The last day of the program we took a walk to the Farmer's Market. We had our creemees on the park and visited the stands. 

I would like to thank you for everything. Have a relaxing and enjoyable summer!

One Planet January 2021 blog

Happy 2021!

We all have hopes for a better 2021 since 2020 was strange, to say the least. However, we learned to adjust to new guidelines and the new "normal" as well as we could. What we can pride ourselves on is how we have been striving to help our children deal with this new reality and to have joy in their lives. Our school was open to in-person education until winter break and it was so good to see students happy and engaging with their peers and staff.

The Afterschool program had to make some changes as well. We needed to move to the gym and arrange all furniture and supplies to fit the new space and comply with health guidelines. Snacks were still served, homework time was available and we spent a lot of time outside - something that all children were happy about! We hosted two big events: Lights On Halloween Carnival and a Holiday Event, both very well attended. 

Now, we are very pleased to be able to offer a full and interesting schedule for our winter term. Students can sign up for programs like basketball skill building, STEM workshop, outdoor adventure, ice skating, sledding, snow shoeing and folktale and storytelling. Registration forms were emailed to families and paper copies will be available at the school. 

We are all eager for school to start. Please consider signing up your children for one or all of afterschool programs so they can have some fun and learn new things at the same time. 

See you soon!

Happy New Year!

Here, at One Planet, we were fortunate to have had a great 2019 with exciting, educational and fun programs, including our Rockbridge summer camp - such a good way for children to spend 6 weeks of their summer vacation. We are already working on camp themes for this year so stay tuned.

We said good-bye to the last year with yummy gingerbread houses, made from scratch by our students. It was quite a challenging but sweet experience!

WHAT'S NEW THIS YEAR
Session II is in full swing with more and more students signing up each week for our enrichment programs. Ice skating is very popular and so are: indoor soccer with our own PE teacher, Casey Grimes, game clubs, junk drawer science and more.
We are also happy to say that a lot of students are taking advantage of our tutoring programs and basketball players spending time with us before their practices and games.

Great News: we applied and were awarded a mini-grant for a financial literacy program developed to by the VT State Treasurer's Office and VT Afterschool, Inc. The program builds on the successful platform of Reading is an Investment, a K-6 financial education. It will run on Thursdays during winter and spring so please call/email us if you would like your child to learn how to manage their piggy banks, a skill that will be very useful now and in their future.

First Half-day of the Year: we will be going swimming to UVAC, a very popular activity with all.

It's cold out there! We go outside most days so please remember to send an extra pair of gloves, if possible, with your child as they often get them wet during recess. Thank you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here, at One Planet, we hope everyone is enjoying this long Thanksgiving weekend. It is so nice to share a turkey feast with family and friends, followed by perhaps watching football games or partaking in some other fun activity - some of us could have already got a start on holiday shopping.

On Monday, One Planet will start its Session II. Registration packets went home with all children but if they cannot be located, the Office has extra copies or they can be requested by emailing Jola, the site coordinator at jlabejsza@wrvsu.org
Please make sure to call school's office Monday morning if you would like your child to join the afterschool program but have not submitted the forms yet - it is not too late.

Also, if you would like to have your basketball playing child spend that hour before practices with One Planet it will only cost you $4 or $2 per day and we will provide some outside time, a good/healthy snack and help with homework. And we will make sure that your child gets to practice on time.

Please remember to send your child to school with warm clothing - an extra pair of gloves is very helpful as usually students get them wet during recess and as we all know it doesn't feel good to put on wet gloves. It also is a good idea to have  outdoor clothing labeled so we know who it belongs to in case children leave it behind - it's especially true with black snow pants
(many of those around!). Thank you so much.

Enjoy the rest of this wonderful weekend!

We have been so busy lately! 

FIRST, it took a couple of weeks for students and staff to get ready for our Annual Halloween Carnival, a part of "Lights On Afterschool Alliance Program". All that hard, but fun, work paid off as over 40 children plus some families partook in games, munched on delicious snacks (thank you, parents!) and had their photos taken with creative face paints on. 

Did you know that according to Afterschool Alliance research over the past 20 years, law enforcement leaders across the country have relied on high-quality afterschool programs to provide supportive, stable, and enriching environment with caring adults that keep children and youth out of trouble and safe, while supporting their academic success, and social and emotional development.

Another fun event was a half-day field trip to Bowlerama.  We were so proud seeing how our

older participants helped the younger ones with not so light balls and how they all cheered one another! It was such a heartwarming and telling testimony to One Planet's mission of promoting the notion of our program being yet another kind of family, caring and compassionate.

Then snow came and kids were so excited! All they wanted is to be outside - it worked out perfectly since on Fridays we have Forest Fridays program. After painting in the snow, children were happy to relax playing a board game while sipping hot cocoa. What a fun ending to a busy week!

Speaking of snow and colder temps, please remember to send winter clothing with your children. It would really help if they could have a second pair of gloves/mittens for the afternoon, if possible, as they often get them wet during their school day recess. Soon we will go snowshoeing and ice skating and we'd like to keep your children warm. Thank you!

REMINDER: Session I of our program ends on November 26th; Session II packets coming soon. All Session I fees are due by that time.

Thank you for signing up your children with One Planet.