Saturday, November 30, 2019

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!

Monday, November 11, 2019

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.




Tuesday, October 15, 2019

One Planet October News

HAPPY FALL TO ALL!

     At One Planet, we have been taking advantage of our Vermont beautiful autumn in many ways.
Thanks to RASTA and Green Mountain Bikes a lot of students participated and loved mountain biking which ended last Thursday with a pizza party!
     We continue being outside as much as possible. Children love the newly constructed Gaga Ball Pit! 
     They also enjoy Forest Fridays program, riding scooters, playing soccer or basketball. And we walked to the Farmers Market almost every Friday.
     Our inside programs are very interesting too. For their "Around the World", they travel to a different country to learn about its culture and food. So far, we have made sushi (both savory and dessert ones!) and Indian ornaments so far. On Wednesdays, students venture into the field of movie making with our own wonderful music teacher.

     Halloween is coming up and once again, One Planet will host a Halloween Carnival with fun games, face painting, photo booth and snacks. Children are welcome to wear costumes. Invitations for this free event went home with all children - younger children can attend when they are accompanied by an adult. Please let us know if you and your children would like to join us. 
And it's not too late to sign up your children for our regular programs, the more the merrier!

Monday, September 9, 2019

Hello New School Year!

As always, summer went by too quickly but we all got memories of trips near and far, filled with new adventures. Everyone had something to share with their school mates. 

At One Planet, we, too,  heard a lot of exciting summer stories. And we started the new school year with our own exciting event. Thanks to RASTA, we were able to offer mountain bike program. All children were invited to sign up for either level I (developing basic skills) or level II (strong bike skills) led by RASTA instructors on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We are very thankful to have been presented with this opportunity - all the participating kids absolutely love it.

Soccer season started as well and once again we invite families to send their children to our program before their practices for a discounted fee. Please call/email for details. 

For the first two weeks we have ran a GAP program and other than biking, we spend a lot of time outside. Our enrichment programs will start on September 16th with registration forms going out very soon. Also, our first half-day field trip is coming up - we are planning to go to the Corn Maze - please check for permission slips to be sent with students on Tuesday. Thank you.

Thursday, June 6, 2019

One Planet Spring blog

We have had a good year, here at One Planet. 
As always, we have had many fun and educational
enrichment programs, field trips. We have also extended our help to families of students participating in sports and sponsored tutoring and Finding Our Own Stride program.

In the recent weeks, when our numbers got pretty high, we added two young teacher assistants - students relate so well to that model.

With a finally nicer weather, we spend a lot of time outside, even having our snack and reading under a beautiful cherry tree, right outside our door. Riding scooters is as always a big hit. 

One of our enrichment programs of the last session was about making a difference with art. During one class, students expressed their feelings about being kind to animals. Some of their posters were displayed at the Humane Society in Rutland - see here a photo of Fiona with her drawing. We were also awarded a "Students Rebuild Ocean Challenge" certificate after our enrichment program teacher, Anne Stiebing presented our students art to that organization. 
What a great way to finish the year!



Our last day will be Tuesday, June 11th and we'll celebrate with pizza and ice cream - all are invited!

We are grateful to our school's administration, staff, parents, guardians, our wonderful students and of course our great bosses, Carrie and Bill for making this past year a big success.

Monday, April 1, 2019

Spring is here!

March (and April) Madness...

With warmer days, snow is melting, sap is running and there is plenty of mud everywhere, including our school's playground. It is still wise to bring boots to school so when outside, students don't have to worry about getting their sneakers wet and muddy. 

We do go outside every day now, to everyone's delight! Finally, the area around the basketball hoop is dry so that's a popular activity. The playground structure area offers lots of muddy spots and what's more fun for kids than going down a slide and landing in the middle of a muddy puddle...with boots on, that is! So the spring fever is definitely affecting all of us, in a good way!

Since the weather is still quite unpredictable, we chose to go to Sugarbush Adventure Zone for our March 29th half-day field trip. Once again, we had a good number (26) of students sign up and we hope all of them had a good time. Bouncy houses were most popular but children also used the basketball and tennis courts plus some played ping-pong. 
We are hoping that for our next and last field trip this school year, in May, will be an outdoor one.

We would like to remind everyone about Find Your Own Stride program starting April 23rd. Please return the registration forms
soon so we'll know how many T-shirts, snacks and other items will be needed. It is also very helpful for the coach to know how many students to expect. Thank you!

Happy Spring to All!


Thursday, March 14, 2019

Spring will be here soon!

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Spring. Apparently bears are waking up and some people have spotted robins - first harbingers of spring!
So now the snow needs to melt, then we have to go through the mud season, all of this hopefully sweetened by the smell of maple syrup in the air.

At One Planet, our students still like to play in the snow so there is not many complaints there. We have started session III with programs like "Friendship and Belonging" with Susan Rule, "Lego Workshop" and "Fun Food Fridays" with Siobhan Neale, "Art for Change" with Anne Steibing and "Art Around the World" with Cynthia McPhetres. 
Finding Our Stride led by Mallory Figoras will start towards the end of April. Its mission is to build fitness, self-esteem and teamwork through running. As a culminating event, students will run the RASTA sponsored Sap Boiler Run on June 1st on the Valley Trail in Rochester. Separate registration forms for this wonderful program will be sent home last week of March.

When we need to be inside, students enjoy playing games, legos and creating imaginative art projects. For our "March Madness", half-day field trip we are planning to go to Sugarbush Kids Adventure Zone with a bounce house, games, toys, ping-pong and more. Permission slips to go home very soon!

Thank you for sending your children to our program, we are always happy to welcome new students as well. 

Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Another Snow Day

Another Snow Day!

Winter just does not want to give us a break! We got another major snow storm resulting in another snow day. Patience is what we need and of course ways to take advantage of the snow, like skiing our school is doing every week as well as ways to forget about all this white stuff and ice. 
That is exactly what One Planet students and staff did when we (all 20+) went swimming at the Upper Valley Aquatic Center with our Stockbridge friends and it was a lot of fun.

On our regular days, we still try to go outside to play in the snow or go ice skating. And we continue having our great enrichment programs. After working hard on making beautiful clay creations 
(it is amazing how many different things children can go with some clay using their imagination), our One Planet children like to unwind, play traditional games of UNO, color, paint or read gaining extra minutes towards their "I Love to Read" log. We have our own OP reading logs and children here record their time spent reading and we asked their teachers to add these minutes to their yellow logs.

Spring will come when it's ready and we will.start Session III after winter break with some new enrichment programs. If any of you, teachers and parents/guardians, has any skills/talent to share with our students, just once a week or even every other week, please let us know - we are looking for some new program ideas. Thank you.
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Friday, January 11, 2019

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

And just like that, we have entered 2019. We hope it will be a good one, full of new adventures, hopes and dreams for all.

At One Planet, we are striving every day to keep our students engaged and happy. We started this year by spending a lot of time sledding and since the skating rink was flooded last night - thanks to our Fire Department - we will be ice skating!

Half days can be a challenge for working parents so on those days One Planet plans fun programs. Our last one, on December 14th, was attended by 26 students! We invited our Stockbridge friends and together we watched The Polar Express, had popcorn and later played different games. Only a week later, we all happily adjourned for almost two weeks of winter break.

Our students are back, full of energy and we are happy to have them back. We are also always excited to have new students join our program so please give One Planet a try! And please stay tuned for news on our next half-day field trip - we may go swimming at UVAC!