School news
8th Grade State House Field Trip
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.
EARTH DAY
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!
Works by ecoart students on display at SculptureFest
A hidden world, a sunken ship, an abandoned picnic, an immersive web and an abstract expression of moving water… These are just some of the ideas expressed at the Land Trust trail by 16 talented Eco-Art students.
The pieces created are a part of SculptureFest and the community and artists enjoyed an art reception on Sunday. This environmental exhibit is always open to the public, stop by anytime on the trail located between Prosper Rd and the King Farm to enjoy their installations.
An excerpt from Aleks Cirovic’s artist statement about her art piece Stability:
“I wished for this piece to represent a part of myself, a part that I have lost. One that has balance, respect, and curiosity surrounding the past. The surrounding space represents what surrounds me.”
Heather Wolfe still cooking
Heather Wolfe, dietician and nutritionist at Dartmouth Hitchcock and author of the cookbook Sustainable Kitchen, returned this week to the school kitchen where she took her first cooking class and decided her career path. Heather joined this year’s middle school cooking class to share her passion for healthy, sustainable living, and some recipes from her book.
Students made hummus with her and were able to sample homemade kale chips, energy balls, aquafaba meringue cookies, and watermelon basil water. No leftovers! Here you see two photos of Heather in the WUHSMS teaching kitchen - one from 1997 (making homemade pasta) and the other with this year's ms class! (More connections - some people will remember Heather’s mother, Karen Hawkes who taught French at Woodstock for many years. Heather is married to Woodstock social studies teacher Nick Wolfe.)
Holocaust survivor presents to ninth graders
On Tuesday, June 13th, the 9th grade team capped off an interdisciplinary unit about the Holocaust with a virtual presentation by Ms. Fay Malkin. Ms. Malkin is a Holocaust survivor and activist with connections in the local community. She shared her incredible story with the ninth graders, telling them about the two years she spent in hiding with her family in a hayloft in Sokal, Poland (now Ukraine). Ms. Malkin's incredible story helped to underscore the depravity of the Holocaust and the resiliency of those who survived it.
Ms. Malkin was joined on the Zoom call by her daughter, Debbi Schonberger-Pierce, who shared her own perception of how the Holocaust impacts generations of people, as survivors and their descendents search for normalcy in the wake of genocide.
Students were moved by the presentation, and when asked why survivor stories matter, Sophia Rosenbach shared that it is essential to learn from survivors so that we do not repeat mistakes of the past. Ms. Malkin also conveyed one more piece of advice to her young audience: "talk to your grandparents." After all, she said, everyone has a story worth sharing, and we should learn from each other while we still can.