School Newsletters »

December 13, 2020

Hello Red Fox,

Poetry Recital

One week left until the winter break. Our poetry recital is Friday, December 18th at 10:30am. We will be sending out the Zoom link for families Thursday morning. As with all our traditional celebrations and community events, this year is different. Families will be tuning in on Zoom instead of being in person. There will not be a community celebration following the recital. But the effort that our students have put into practicing and memorizing their poems has not changed. The excitement and nerves that our students are working through have not changed. And the joy of connecting with our community through verse and performance has not changed.

Community Health

Thank you for your continued consideration and commitment to the health of our community. Families have been choosing to keep a student home with a common stuffy nose or scratchy throat to keep us all healthy and enabling in person school to happen. Thank you. Please also remember to submit the daily health survey before 8am everyday. The morning is quite hectic as we welcome our students to school. And it is greatly appreciated to have our final list by 8am.

A new addition to monitoring our overall health is a monthly Covid test for our staff. We have partnered with Long Trail School to test our staff. This follows the surveillance testing the state has instituted for public school teachers. Our school is committed to keeping our community safe and has taken on this additional cost. We all participated this past week. The test was simple and the results were back to us in less than 24 hours.

Helmet Waiver: Please make sure to send me your helmet waiver as soon as possible. We can not allow students to go sledding on “the big” hill without one. You can find the waiver in the Parent Portal on the school website.

Housekeeping

Our holiday break starts at 12:30 Friday, December 18th and we return to school on Monday, January 4th. Please send your child into school on Friday with an extra shopping bag to bring home all the items in their cubbies! All items must go home for the break. Thank you!

Trial Remote Learning Day

While our school is committed to being in person this year. We need to make sure that we are ready for remote learning if it is required. As a staff we worked on this, during our professional development day on Friday. We are planning a trial remote day in January so that we can work out any issues that families and faculty might run into. Please make sure that you have signed into your student’s google classroom. The links that Sarah and Alley sent are in the Parent Portal. Meghann will be sending out a link to Spanish and Art by the end of next week.

Our trial remote learning day will be on Wednesday, January 13th. So students will stay home and follow the remote learning schedule that you will receive at the beginning of that week in an email from either Alley or Sarah.

Have a wonderful weekend. I hope every family celebrating Hanukkah has a wonderful celebration of light and miracles. We can all use some of both right now!

Sincerely,

MaryBeth

Owls have been learning about the history of the Winter Solstice and we will continue our study next week to connect with the science of why the days are shorter. We look forward to sharing our class poem about solstice and the movements we made up together to go along with the poem.

We are so excited for our Poetry Recital this Friday. Owls have been working so diligently at memorizing and performing their poems. Please have your Owl continue to practice their poem daily. When we practice at school we put our hands either at our sides or held in front or back, but not in pockets. Ask your Owl to practice reciting their poem with the introduction, “Hi, my name is_____ and I will be reciting_____by_____. We’ve also been practicing when to pause and take a breath.

As the recital is a special occasion, we are asking students to “dress up” in nicer clothes they wouldn’t normally wear to school. We brainstormed and found that “dress up” means different things to different people, and while a suit and tie is not required, a collared shirt/turtleneck/sweater and pants/skirts/dresses that aren’t stained/jeans/sweatpants/ would work. The recital will be held in the greenhouse, so layers are recommended.

The poetry recital will be a live zoom performance. We will also record the zoom meeting so it may be viewed later for those who cannot view on this Friday the 18th at 10:30.

Thank you,

Sarah

Eagles have been working hard on their performances and supporting one another. They also wrote thoughtful notes to include in their essential item bags for the community food cupboard. They reasoned that at some point every family needs help and this is one way we can help.

This week we will work on creating our mural for the crankie to go with our class poem. Crankies are an old storytelling art form. They are long scrolls that get hand turned. This video explains it better…http://www.thecrankiefactory.com.

The poetry recital is this Friday! Please feel free to send the Zoom link to anyone you think would like to watch. This year, due to COVID we are having our audience on Zoom. Thank you Maxine and Andrew for helping with the tech for this.

The recital starts at 10:30. Please send your children to school in regular clothes with poetry clothes to change into. Poetry clothes are generally fancier than regular clothes and your child can determine what fancy means to them. The greenhouse is a little chilly so please send a fancy sweater for them to wear as well.

After the show, the children will do a “Monster Truck Rally”. Monster Truck Rallies at RFCS have nothing to do with monster trucks but are all about cleaning. Be prepared for many things to come home.
I hope you all have a little light this time of year. Thank you for all your support this semester.

Progressive Education
Since this is poetry week, I thought I would share the poem that gave us the name for RFCS. The last two lines provided us with a good metaphor for learning. Mistakes and going in different directions are essential to learning. Mad Farmer Liberation Front

Warmly,
Alley

Red Fox Community School

1045 Kirby Hollow Road

Dorset, Vermont 05251

(802) 867-7539

December 6, 2020

Hello Red Fox,

It was great to get back into the swing of routine with the students returning from Thanksgiving break this week. Thank you for supporting the Community Share Project by donating items to our basket. If you want to do a little bit more for Community Share, please notice the angel trees set up at many of our local shops in Manchester and Dorset. All the items on the trees are necessities and some treats for families in our community who desperately need the support.

Calendar

No School this coming Friday, December 11th for the faculty Professional Development Day

Around Town

Riley Rink Opportunities:

The rink is renting ice for single family use. $50 for a half sheet per hour or $99 for the full sheet per hour. They also have Learn To Skate clinics https://www.rileyrink.com/page/show/6013387-registration

Covid Testing:

The state offers free testing at many sites throughout the state.

https://humanresources.vermont.gov/popups

Manchester Medical Center also offers testing with labs run onsite.

Here’s to hoping some of the snow sticks this weekend!

MaryBeth

Owls did such a great job practicing their poems this week! Thank you for continuing to help at home with memorization. Ask your Owl to practice reciting their poem with the introduction, “Hi, my name is…”. Next week we’ll work on how to stand and what to do with one’s hands while reciting. We will also learn a class poem to recite together.

Our coin drive was a great success! Owls and Eagles worked together to sort and count the coins. It was a good lesson in coin identification, skip counting, and working together. We raised $330.51, which will be used to purchase personal care items for the Manchester Food Cupboard. Next week, students will organize personal care packages using all the supplies.

The poetry recital will be a live zoom performance. We will also record the zoom meeting so it may be viewed later for those who cannot attend on Friday the 18th at 10:30. More details to come next week.

Next Two Fridays

12/11 No School: Teacher Professional Development Day

12/18 Poetry Recital at 10:30

Thank you,

Sarah

Eagles
Eagles have worked incredibly hard on memorizing their poems. Thank you for all the support you have given them in accomplishing this goal. Most of them are completely off book and the rest are very close. Perhaps even more importantly, they were all incredibly thoughtful and supportive in their feedback of one another. We will devote the rest of rehearsal time to working on performances. Last week, we looked for natural breaks in their poems, worked on volume and still bodies. This week we will work on adding expressions. Please have them continue to rehearse their poem at home (perhaps at the dinner table?)I am so glad that most Eagles reported thoroughly enjoying The Birchbark House. It is a challenging text but not out of anyone’s reading ability. In choosing this text, they can begin to work on slowing down in their reading. Most comprehended the text but some needed extra support particularly with the Ojibwe words. It is always ok to offer help when needed. All of them needed help in writing in full sentences (very normal for this age) and we devoted a great deal of class time to working on this skill. Please remind them that they will need to continue to write in full sentences.

Please see the Owls’ section regarding Friday, the Poetry Recital and the coin drive.

Progressive Education
This week, I am not attaching an article. I am copying a quote from Wendell Berry. Wendell Berry gave us the name for our school (another story for another newsletter). This year has forced us all to examine how we interact as human beings and it has underscored the human need for community. Berry’s words have been fading in and out of my head this week and I thought I would pass them along. He wrote,

A community is not merely a condition of physical proximity, no matter how admirable the layout of the shopping center and the streets, no matter if we demolish the horizontal slums and replace them with vertical ones. A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other’s lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves.

As we are restricted in how we can interact with one another this year, it is all the more important to make the most of the few and precious interactions we do have. It can be awkward to introduce yourself to another parent or student but I encourage all of us this week to reach out to someone in our community with whom you are unfamiliar and start the important process of connection. We are in charge of forging our community. Community is practice and work. The reward for asking someone how they are doing or having a child at our school know your name is connection and trust. RFCS belongs to all of us.

Warmly,
Alley

Red Fox Community School

1045 Kirby Hollow Road

Dorset, Vermont 05251

(802) 867-7539

November 28, 2020

Hello Red Fox!

I hope you are all having a wonderful restful Thanksgiving weekend. I can hardly believe we only have three weeks left until the winter holiday break.

Please remember that starting Monday morning you will be receiving a daily health check survey via email. This must be filled out everyday before 8am. Thank you for your continued vigilance and care for our school community.

I look forward to seeing everyone back at school!

Sincerely,

MaryBeth

Thank you all for the wonderful parent-teacher conferences this past week. I really enjoyed talking with each of you about your child’s development. The parent-teacher relationship is very important to me, so please reach out whenever you have questions or concerns.

This week Owls will continue to work on writing their haiku poem incorporating what they learned during our Monarch butterfly study. We will also work on learning how to recite a poem for our Poetry Recital–thank you for helping your Owl memorize his/her poem. This Friday Owls and Eagles will stay at school to work on classroom projects and our community service project. Please send in any coins you have at home for our coin drive.

Next Three Fridays

12/4 Regular school day

12/11 No school: Teacher Professional Development Day

12/18 Poetry Recital, details to follow

Thank you!
Sarah

Eagles
Thank you everyone for wonderful conferences. It was a joy to talk about your children. Thank you for all your hard work as parents.
I hope you all had a restful and delicious break. Though it was nice to be home I am eager to get back to the classroom.Eagles will be starting “The Birchbark House” by Louise Eldrich this week. From Zinn Education Network, “Omakayas, a seven-year-old Native American girl of the Ojibwa tribe, lives through the joys of summer and the perils of winter on an island in Lake Superior in 1847. This is the first in a series of young adult novels based on noted author Louise Erdrich’s own family history.

A Broken Flute, a leading review of native experience in children’s books commends The Birchbark House as “the single best book of its kind,” for writing from within a native culture, rather than simply about it.”

The reading portion will be done at home and extension activities and discussions will happen in the classroom. Though it is tempting for them to read ahead, please help them read the assigned reading for the week so that we can enjoy the book as a community.

Please bring in change for the coin drive. We hope to be able to count it all on Friday.

Thank you for helping to memorize poems over break. We will spend time working on performances. Having poems memorized means we really work on the show.

Please see the Owls section for the December Friday schedule.

Progressive Education

This is an article written by Lucy Sprague Mitchell. Lucy Sprague Mitchell was a pioneer in progressive education and founder of Bank Street College in New York. She believed in educating the whole child as a way of building a progressive society. She wrote, “We hope to imbue students with an experimental, critical, ardent approach to their work and to the social problems of the world. If we can do this, we are ready to leave the future to them.” This article, “Young Geographers” has been so inspiring to me. In fact, I once got my way out of having my car towed by explaining to the tow truck driver that Young Geographers was on the passenger seat and I hadn’t finished reading it yet. His daughter had gone to Bank Street so he understood. Young Geographers It is lengthy and academic and well worth reading.

Warmly,
Alley

November 21, 2020

Dear Red Fox,

As we head towards our Thanksgiving holiday it seems appropriate that the top of my letter is about opportunities for caring for our community. While our community activities do not feel the same this year, I am very proud of our school and the wonderful ways we are contributing and helping our larger community this year.

Community

RFCS Coin Drive– Our students have written letters, have presented at the LTS morning meeting and are eagerly collecting donations. So they can purchase essential personal items like shampoo, soap and toothpaste to donate to the Manchester Food Cupboard. Please remember to send in your donation and to help our students reach out to their friends and family for donations. Every penny counts!

Community Sharing Project
Thank you for the great turn out of contributions. We still have a few items that we have not received. If you have to still bring in your items, we would like to have all our donations by Friday, December 4th.

Stratton Foundation
They have two great opportunities for us to help our local community. Please click on the links below to learn more about them.

http://strattonfoundation.org/feed-the-community

http://strattonfoundation.org/passiton

We will have a Pass It On bin at school for gently used outdoor gear. We will be collecting these items from November 30th through December 18th.

Parent Conferences and Distance Learning

Alley and Sarah look forward to speaking with all of you at the parent/teacher conferences next Monday and Tuesday. Please keep a look out for their emails with your Zoom links. This is an extremely important opportunity for parents and teachers to meet as a team to discuss our students.

We are also preparing in case our school has to move to distance learning for any period of time. Alley and Sarah are both sharing links to their google classrooms in their part of this newsletter. If you did not sign onto their classroom at the beginning of the year, please click on the link and do it today. Should we move to distance learning families will be informed through our emergency alert system. Alley and Sarah will follow up with emails with the specific information for their classrooms.

Parent Association Chair

First I would like to thank Bethany for chairing the Parent Association this summer and first semester of school. Every aspect of school life has changed this year and she was welcoming and supportive to both parents and our faculty. Thank you for leading with kindness and warmth.

At this time we are looking for a new chair or co-chairs of the Parent Association. It does not require a lot of time but it makes a huge difference for communication and community. While in years past the volunteer position has been filled with a lot of coordinating of community gatherings and activities, this year that has mostly been put on hold. So if anyone is thinking of trying it out, please let me know. Parents are an important part of our community and we need to have an organized effort for their contributions.

Website Parent Portal

Our parent portal is now live on our website. Danielle, our amazing communication, social media coordinator has created the portal. Now we have a space where you can easily find our Community Handbook, School Newsletters, Yearly Calendar and Covid protocols.

The password is : owlsandeagles2021

Around Town

Taconic Music will present its fifth annual Thanksgiving concert on Saturday, November 28 at 4pm, via livestream from the Riley Center for the Arts at Burr and Burton Academy. The live stream is free to access on Taconic’s YouTube channel (free-will donations are welcome). A link will be posted on the Taconic website and Facebook page.

SVAC continues to bring opportunities to our local community. Please click on the link to learn about the free winter membership program for local students.

SVAC Winter Wednesdays

Danby Village Marketplace and Shoppes:

Location: 12 North Main Street, Danby,

Hours: Friday 3pm -7pm, Saturday and Sunday 11am – 4pm

A new shopping/food destination has recently opened in Danby. In one building, the “Marketplace”, there is hot home-made Italian food (Mama Tamara’s), locally roasted coffee (Better Buzz), Chaga (ChagaDawg), baked goods (Nana K), and hopefully more joining soon. Across the street is the “Shoppes.” Our own Allison McGowan, Leo’s mom, has a toy store at the “Shoppes” , there is also a really cute home decor store and opening in Dec. a home-spun yarn and fiber arts shop. All will be selling great holiday gifts and Allison offers free gift wrapping.

We wish Allison great luck on her venture in Vermont. She had her own toy store in New York prior to relocating to the Green Mountains!

If anyone else in our community has fun news to share please reach out. We love to share information about all the different ways we are all a part of the community.

Finally, I wish to extend to our entire community a well deserved round of thanks. This year more than any other year has required flexibility, patience, trust and teamwork. I am very grateful this Thanksgiving for our school and all the individuals who make up our community.

Sincerely,

MaryBeth

I am so grateful to be part of the Red Fox community. Spending time with your children–getting to know them as individuals, learning and playing with them is a gift that soothes all the difficult moments this year. They are a joyful, creative, funny, and energetic group of children. Thank you for sharing them with me!

Our Thankfulness Day celebration was wonderful. While our hands were busy twisting a paper bag into a tree, we shared our true feelings about how difficult it is to miss those whom we love so much. It was an art therapy session for all of us! The conversations were thoughtful and touching. We sent home two activities that may be continued at home: Gratitude Chain and Paper Bag Tree. Please see below for directions and links.

Gratitude Chain

Write what you are thankful for on a strip of paper. Remember to be thankful for the big and small things in your life. Share what you wrote. Form the strips into loops and staple the strips together to make a chain to decorate your wall or table.

Gratitude Chain

Paper Bag Tree

On the leaves of your tree write all the names of family and friends that you are not able to see this Holiday season. Place the tree on a table or in the kitchen.

Paper Bag Tree

During our Community Meeting, Alley shared how research shows that naming things we are grateful for everyday produces hormones in our brain that make us happy. We all agreed to be thankful everyday, not just during the holiday season!

Poetry Recital
Our annual Poetry recital will be held on 12/18. Please see Alley’s section for details. Please help your Owl work on memorizing his/her poem over the Thanksgiving break.

Google Classroom
Please take a minute to log into our Owls’ Google Classroom if you haven’t already. Also, please review the Distance Learning Suppliesdocument that was shared earlier in the year.

Parent-Teacher Conferences
I will send out zoom invites for our parent teacher conference on Sunday evening. Please check your email for your invite.

I wish you all a relaxing and wonderful Thanksgiving!

Sarah

Eagles
Thank you so much to Bethany and Mike for hosting Lumi for the last couple of months. Thank you for shepherding her back and forth to school so that our students can have direct experience stewarding her care. Animals afford us all life lessons in patience, care and work. Thank you Stephanie and Perry for taking on Lumi for the next couple of months. It is so generous of you to help us make sure that Lumi has a home during COVID. If any community member is hosting Lumi for a long term visit, please reach out to me directly.I hope you all have a restful break full of outdoor adventures. The Eagles all wrote incredibly thoughtful letters to people in their lives they are missing this holiday. I mailed the ones that had correct addresses and sent the ones that needed addresses home to be mailed.
If you have not yet signed up for conferences, please try to do so by tomorrow afternoon. Tomorrow afternoon, I will send out Zoom links directly to you.

See you on Zoom!

Poetry
One of RFCS’ greatest traditions includes a bi-annual poetry recital. Poetry recitation aids in public speaking skills, memory building and builds a long lasting love of poetry. As I said to the Eagles this week, poetry is an interesting paradox in that it uses words to describe the things that can’t be said in words. Last week all students picked poems and yesterday they were all sent home. That copy is yours to keep at home, we keep a school copy for rehearsals. Over break please help your student(s) memorize their poem. It is always easier to work on poems after they have been memorized.

Google Classroom
Please sign into the google classroom if you haven’t done so yet. The link was emailed out. Thanks!

Progressive Education
Here is an older article from The Atlantic How to Teach Kids to Be Grateful: Give Them Less. It is particularly pertinent to this time of year. Happy Reading!

Warmly,
Alley

November 15, 2020

Hello Red Fox!

Thank you for our community’s continued diligence in caring for our community’s safety and health. Please remember to take your student’s temperature at home before coming to school and email the link from the Kinsa app before 8am. If you do not take your student’s temperature at home you must walk with them to the door of the school and wait until their temperature has been taken inside and you get the thumbs up from Meghann.

We are headed into our final week of school before parent/teacher conferences and a well deserved Thanksgiving holiday. There are no classes on Monday, November 23rd or Tuesday, November 24th. Those are our designated conference days. Please make sure to sign up on the Google sign up sheet that Sarah and Alley shared in last week’s newsletter.

On Tuesday, November 10th the State of Vermont officially paused updating the travel map and has mandated a 14 day quarantine for all travelers to Vermont and for Vermonters, on return from out of state travel. The Governor and Dr. Levine were clear at the weekly news conference. Our numbers are going up, along with the rest of the country. This is the time for us to step up our prevention efforts. The state is requesting that people do not travel at all. And gatherings should be limited to 10 people at the very most.

Please remember our overarching goal this year at Red Fox is to be in person at school. Every decision we make reflects that objective. If you do choose to travel you must let Alley and Sarah know by Tuesday, November 17th. Our teachers are amazing but we are a lean operation. They need this lead time in order to put together at home work for students who are in quarantine. A family’s choice to travel will not take precedence over our teachers in school work, with our students.

If you are hosting people at your home who are in quarantine (any person visiting from outside of Vermont) please make sure they follow the quarantine protocol – masks at all times, lots of handwashing, 6 feet distancing, cleaning of common surfaces, separate bedroom and bathroom if possible. Please read this article regarding Covid from Southwestern Vermont Health Care: Covid Pep Talk

I know that I officially sound like I am on auto repeat every week. But I know that our community understands the hyper-vigilance. I appreciate your support and continued consideration and cooperation. I am always here to help troubleshoot situations. Please, know that we are stronger together and our students learn better together. We can do this!

MaryBeth

Owls played, ate, read, made art and music, and froliced outside this week in the beautiful Indian Summer. Some of us loved the warm weather and some are ready for snow! Speaking of snow, please be sure to check your Owl’s extra change of clothes to make sure it A. still fits and B. is appropriate for cold weather. Also, please make sure your Owl has inside shoes (slippers, crocs, sneakers) every day at school.

We have added a “rose stem” to our Closing Meeting sharing routine (rose, rosebud, thorn–ask your Owl). The stem symbolizes something you are grateful for from the day, as the stem of the rose brings nutrients to the flower, just as having a grateful heart brings nourishment to our lives.

We also talked about our community service project. Owls and Eagles are having a coin drive to support our service project of supplying personal care packages to the Manchester Foodbank. Students will collect change from home and area stores, count the coins, purchase items, then package them up for donation. Please see the attached letter from the Owls.

Book Order Reminder:

Please have your Scholastic book order in the cart by this Friday Nov. 20. We have one school code for both classes, which is RBVZL. Please place all orders online using our class code. Here is the Scholastic Book Order link: Scholastic.com

Parent-Teacher Conference Sign-Up Reminder:

Please sign-up HERE for Parent-Teacher Conferences if you have not already done so.

Thankfulness Day

Owls and Eagles will work together to create meaningful crafts at school this week to celebrate Thankfulness Day. We will send home two writing activities that may be done at home as a connection to our celebration of all we are thankful for at home and school. Directions and supplies will be sent home on Friday for: a Thankfulness Chain and a Paper Bag Thankfulness Tree. These crafts make meaningful decorations or table centerpieces. While we are sad we cannot all be together, we will focus on all the ways we are able to show gratitude in our lives and our community.

Thank you,

Sarah

Eagles
Thank you to everyone who helped their Eagle make their pancakes. Practical work builds practical people.In order to move on to our next reading project of, “The Birchbark House” by Louise Erdrich, all books at home must be returned this week. Please help your Eagle find any school books to return so that we can begin our next project.The Eagles have been working hard on writing their own stories and are now mostly all at the editing stage of their story. They will learn to peer edit this week. They will also learn to synthesize their reading in order to find the heart of a text. Thank you Andrew for lending me the tiny synthesizer to help strengthen the metaphor! In math, each math group will continue their area of study this week.

On Friday, I was in the back of the hike with the children who walked at a slower pace. When I arrived back to the classroom, I found all the Eagles sitting in circle playing Mad Libs together. It was a heart warming and delightful scene to enter into. They are a particularly considerate and thoughtful group of children. Thank you for sharing them with me.

Book Orders
A final reminder that book orders are due November 20th. Book orders offer you discounted prices on great literature and help the school buy book sets which are vital to reading groups. The code is RBVZL on scholastic.com If you need recommendations of books to buy for your student(s) please ask Alley or Sarah, we are happy to help.

Conferences

Conferences are fast approaching. If you haven’t signed up, do so here: Conferences

Community Service Project
Both Eagles and Owls are working on a community service project for the Community Food Cupboard in Manchester. Please read the attached letters from the Eagles and Owls to find out more. Change can be brought in with your student from now until December 4th. Thank you so much for supporting our community!

Poetry
Twice a year all Eagles and Owls do a poetry recital. This week all students will pick their poems. Please help them memorize them over break.

Thankfulness Day
Please see the Owls’ section for information regarding Friday
Progressive EducationI promise not all the articles that I send out come from the NY Times but this one was too good to not share…

Yes, Your Kids Can Play Outside All Winter

Warmly,
Alley

Red Fox Community School

1045 Kirby Hollow Road

Dorset, Vermont 05251

(802) 867-7539

November 7, 2020

Hello Red Fox Families!
In this weeks newsletter you will find:
MaryBeth’s Corner
Owl’s Corner by Sarah
Eagle’s Corner by Alley
and pictures from this week

Hello Red Fox,

Thank you to our community for already dropping off contributions for the Community Share basket. Community Sharing Project helps over 160 local families have a more bountiful holiday season. Red Fox has always participated in this wonderful community event by supplying a complete basket for a family to have a holiday dinner and breakfast, with some extras as well. Thank you to Bethany for organizing the sign up. And thank you to everyone for dropping off contributions by Friday, November 20th.

With just two weeks left until Thanksgiving break, a lot of discussion about vacation and family gatherings and choices being made are at the forefront of our collective thoughts.

As I mentioned last week there are travel protocols for quarantine and testing that need to be followed to keep our families and community safe. Please see the attached update from the Vermont Department of Health that was sent out to all schools in Vermont. It reaffirms the protocols that I shared in last week’s newsletter.

Dr. Sterling notified me that as of November 9th, Manchester Medical Center will have the in house PCR test available. This means that after 7 days of nonsymptomatic quarantine a student can take the PCR test and find out that day if they are negative and can return to school. This cuts down the quarantine time from 14 to 7 days.

On a final note regarding health. Please continue to take temperatures every morning at home with the Kinsa thermometer and submit the results via email to dailyhealth@redfoxschool.org. We are changing the at school temperature check protocol. We have found, as well as other schools in the area, that the cold temperatures greatly affect the touchless thermometers. So in order to get an accurate reading, under Dr. Sterling’s recommendation, we are switching to oral thermometers using disposable sleeves and gloves and disinfecting between each use.

Thank you to the families who have already reached out regarding travel and quarantine for the holidays. Please remember if your family is traveling your child will be quarantining upon return to Vermont. Alley and Sarah need to be notified as soon as possible regarding time out of school, so that they can plan for a student to have work to do at home.

Have a wonderful weekend!

MaryBeth

Owls had another wonderful week! We read one of my favorite books, Louie by Ezra Jack Keats. We discussed how the characters talk to each other and the choices they made to show kindness to one another. The discussion was connected to our class rule to be kind to everyone. In Math Owls are working on skip counting by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s. Next week we will make flip-flop fact books to demonstrate the associative property of addition. In Literacy, Owls started working on the Explode the Code program in their individual levels to practice phonics skills during independent work times.

Sharing has been going really well–Owls are excited to share! They are working on how to be active and respectful listeners.

Next Two Fridays:

As with other events this year, our Thankfulness Feast will look different. On Friday 11/20, Owls and Eagles will take part in a writing activity to share what they are grateful for with each other and their families. Directions and supplies for a simple writing activity that families may participate in will be sent home next week.

This Friday 11/13, Owls and Eagles will go for a hike to explore the trails in the woods around school. We will enjoy this community time together and share gratitude for the beautiful landscape that surrounds us.

Lastly, we are collecting any old magazines or catalogs you might have available for some collage activities at school. Please drop them off at school to Sarah, Alley, or Meghann.

Thanks!

Conference sign-up: please see the Eagles section for information on how to sign-up for a time slot that works for your family.

I look forward to talking with you!

Thank you,

Sarah

Eagles
Thank you so much Perry and Jessica for chaperoning our beautiful field trip yesterday to Merck Forest. Field trips serve to give children direct experience with their learning. We learn by doing. We use what we learned on our field trip to influence the rest of the week of school. Everyone gained a deeper appreciation for hunters, deer and the forest. And! Our acorn flour pancakes were delicious.Speaking of acorn flour pancakes. We have a lot of leftover flour from our project. Part of homework this week is for the Eagles to make you breakfast with the flour. Please help them do this as independently as possible. Happy Eating!Please see Sarah’s section regarding Friday and the Thankfulness Feast.Conferences
Conferences are approaching! Conferences are a chance for parents and teachers to check-in. This year we have spread it out amongst two days, 11/23 and 11/24. Please sign up for a date and time HERE. If you have children in both classes sign up for both Alley and Sarah. Please indicate if you would prefer a Zoom or In-Person conference. If none of those dates and times work for you, please reach out to us directly.

Progressive Education
I came across this article and thought it pertinent for this week…

How to Talk About the Election With Your Kids

Warmly,
Alley

October 31, 2020

Hello Red Fox!

We had a wonderful Halloween and Día de Muertos celebration at school today. Thank you to everyone who helped make it a special day! Please don’t forget that the town of Dorset is hosting a drive by Halloween from 5-7pm starting on Meadow Lane. It may not be exactly the same as usual. But I am grateful that our larger community is committed to keeping up fun festivities while maintaining safety for our public health.

Just three weeks until our first big break from school for the Thanksgiving holiday. Please remember if you are traveling for the holidays to let Alley, Sarah and myself know ahead of time. This will give Alley and Sarah the opportunity to put work together for any student that will be quarantining.

Travel Quarantine:

Students with no symptoms can take a PCR test on day 7 of quarantine and once they receive a negative test result can return to school. Or a student can quarantine for 14 days with no symptoms and return to school on the 15th day.

Hosting Visitors:

Please remember that the Governor has asked us all to keep our gatherings as small as possible this year. If you have family visiting from out of state please follow the recommendation from Dr. Sterling.

Testing: Have any traveler take a rapid antigen test before travel and then take another one upon arrival in VT- if both are negative then:
Wearing masks as much as possible in the home
Handwashing as much as possible
Cleaning commonly used countertops, door handles etc…

If the visitor is here for more than 7 days, they should take the PCR test on the 7th day.

We are all making adjustments. Nothing this year is what we are used to doing. But the encouraging news for our community is following protocol for masks, handwashing, staying home if a student doesn’t feel well are all keeping us in school. Please continue to make the best choices for your family and our community.

Thank you and Happy Halloween!

MaryBeth

Owls had a fun week that ended with a wonderful, snowy day in the woods with a campfire and dance party in the greenhouse! It was so great to see all the costumes and feel the excitement from everyone. This week we participated in LTS’s fire drill at 8:10 on Thursday. Owls did an excellent job following directions during the drill. We know not all RFCS students were at school for the drill and we plan to have our own fire drill next week when all students are in the building.

This week we said goodbye to our Monarch butterflies. Owls enjoyed watching a short video about a sanctuary in Mexico where the Monarchs winter every year. We are excited to look for monarch eggs on milkweed plants in the spring. Next week will use what we’ve learned about symmetrical designs to make butterfly wings out of felt.

I sent home a scholastic book order form last week. Please enter your order online using the school code: RBVZL. Please place your order by November 20th. Here is a link to the website: Scholastic.com

Coming up in three weeks we have our parent-teacher conferences. These will take place on 11/23 and 11/24. Next week, we will send out a sign-up for a time slot for an in-person or zoom conference, whichever works for your family.

This Friday, Owls will stay at school and work on our butterfly wings project.

Thank you,

Sarah

Eagles
Thank you so much to our wonderful Parents Association for putting together treats for our Halloween festivities. It made this strange year seem a little warmer.Last week, Eagles wrote poems inspired by the Bell Hooks book, “Skin Again”. In their poems they explored how skin only shows a fraction of a person’s identity. They learned about metaphors and used their new knowledge in their poems. They are hanging up in the hallway. Tomorrow, I will take pictures of them and send them to you.In math, I have been working hard to catch all the children up and online learning last year made it so each of them were in different places and had varying skill sets. They are all mostly in a good place to really begin to delve into newer concepts. This means that this week will mark a shift in how math has been and some of them might report some difficulty. Part of learning requires an appropriate level of frustration. Part of math class this week will include a discussion about the importance of perseverance in problem solving. To be clear, nothing we will do will be beyond anyone’s abilities. Mistakes are essential to learning.Eagles have been doing a great job with their homework. Their book covers are incredible and I can’t wait until our whole classroom is covered in children made book covers! Thank you for all your support at home. For the spelling homework, they need to pick one of the activities from the menu in their folder and do it. Please make sure they include that each week.Are there any hunters in our community who would like to spend some time teaching the Eagles tracking? We are looking for someone to teach us tracking on Friday. If not, I will teach them tracking but learning is always more meaningful if it comes from actual experts.Friday
Speaking of Friday! The Eagles are going to Merck Forest on Friday to practice tracking and hopefully make pancakes over my Coleman stove. They will make the batter the day before and plan to make extras to bring back to the Owls to share.The plan is to meet at school at 8:30 and return by 12:00 (in order to have pickup at 12:30). Please pack lunch, snacks and very warm clothes. If you can drive and chaperone please let me know, otherwise we will shuttle children in shifts to Merck.Winter
Winter has come to Vermont! Vermont winters have been known to last 6 or more months. A lot of children on Friday did not have appropriate clothing and reported being cold. Please take the weekend to sort through your winter clothes. From now on, children will always need…

Winter Coat
Snow Pants
Hat
Gloves
Snow Boots
Extra Layers
Change of Clothes

If you need help in sourcing any of those items please let us know. We are a community and are here to support one another. Many people probably have hand me downs waiting for a new home. We do keep extra clothes in the mudroom but they have been donated and tend to run quite small. If you have extra clothes that you can donate they will be much appreciated.

Please see the Owls section regarding conferences and book orders.

Progressive Education
Three people from various parts of my life sent me this article this week so we must be doing something right!

Classrooms Without Walls

Warmly,
Alley

Red Fox Community School

1045 Kirby Hollow Road

Dorset, Vermont 05251

(802) 867-7539

October 24, 2020

Hello Red Fox,

Every week I am so grateful for the community we have at Red Fox. This week I am especially thankful for the Perham family. Cameron came with a rather large piece of machinery on a rainy Tuesday morning. In no time he made the broken down garden bed disappear from our outdoor space. Adi and Cam thank you for your time, work and use of your equipment. You greatly improved the space and safety of our garden area.

One week until Halloween! This is always an exciting time for our students as we move into the middle of our first semester and head towards the holiday season. Please see below in Alley’s section about how we are celebrating Halloween in school on Friday, October 30th.

Around Town

The Dorset Chamber of Commerce has extended Red Fox a Halloween invitation. While the traditional door to door activities may not be the same this year. The Chamber has put together a fun drive by Halloween celebration from 5pm – 7pm on Saturday, October 31st.

Directions: Enter Meadow Lane from Route 30 and drive down to the Dorset Playhouse where you will see some ghouls and goblins and witches handing out candy to kids through the car window. Continue to Church street, drive up and stop along the way at different treat spots and then turn at the Dorset Union Store and the Dorset Inn to go back down Church street for a few more treat spots. All of this will be done with participants staying in their cars.

Medical Director Communication

Dr. Sterling shared the attached COVID guidelines for parents’ document to help us all better navigate the protocols to keep our families and our school community safe.

Mask Reminders

We are learning as we are living with our new normal at school. Our students are active and they are outside a lot. So our masks get wet and dirty and often need to be changed 2 or 3 times during one day. Please make sure students arrive wearing a mask and have at least 2 additional clean masks in their backpacks, everyday. Thank you for your help.

Have a great weekend!

MaryBeth

The warm weather this week was glorious, but also a little disorienting! The energy of the Owls was wonderful, but also overwhelming at times. This gave us a chance to remember what is important to our community about the way we act and speak to one another. We had discussions and reminders to listen respectfully to anyone who is talking and how to be safe with bodies and words. An important phrase that we use at school is “stop means stop”. Owls are learning the importance of respecting others’ space and feelings. As one Owl put it during Closing Meeting recently, “That should go not just at school, but the whole world.” I agree!

During Literacy time, Owls are working on letter/sound correspondence, handwriting, and short vowel sounds. They also learned that every word has a vowel and sentence starts with a capital and ends with a period. In Math class we counted many milkweed seeds–so many that we decided counting in groups is more efficient when dealing with a larger number. The Eagles helped us realize counting by five’s or ten’s is easier.

On Monday, Alley and I will send home a Scholastic Book Order. We have one school code for both classes, which is RBVZL. Please place all orders online using our class code. There are many more titles available when you search the website.

Here is a link to the Owls Sharing Calendar. Please see last week’s newsletter for sharing guidelines.

Sarah

Eagles
The Eagles worked hard last week thinking about how to see what is below the words of a text and what is not explicitly said to make inferences. They also learned how to activate their schemas (what you already know) to aid in active reading. They all thought about what they already know in regards to Abenaki people. This week we will think about how to ask questions while reading. In Math, all children will continue to work on multiplication. We have been using our study of multiplication to aid us in our acorn project.As we approach hunting season in Vermont, we will also consider Abenaki hunting traditions and current hunting practices. We are actively looking for a hunter in our community also to talk about hunting with respect and using all parts of the animal. If you know someone who would be interested please let me know.Book Orders
RFCS participates in the Scholastic book order program. This program allows you to purchase books at a discounted cost and each time you buy a book, the school earns points to buy books for the school.
On Monday, I will send a flyer home that has a preview of some of the books in it. The flyer is quite limited and there are way more books on the website. If you are looking for a specific book you can search for it in the search bar.In order to order…

Go to https://clubs.scholastic.com/home
Add books to your cart
The school code is RBVZL
Place your order by November 20th

This year we are trying to do one fall order so that you can get books in time for the holidays. Thank you so much!

Halloween
This Friday there will be a dance party, fun treats, fire building and students may wear costumes to school. This is a change from what we stated last week as we realize it will be easier for students to wear costumes to school. We could use up to four parent volunteers to help out that morning from 10:30-12:30. Let Sarah or Alley know if you are available to help.

Progressive Education
Here is an article about the benefits of being outside…

How Outdoor Learning Can Bring Curiosity and Connection to Education in Tough Times

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Warmly,
Alley

Red Fox Community School

1045 Kirby Hollow Road

Dorset, Vermont 05251

(802) 867-7539

October 17, 2020

Hello Red Fox!

We had another wonderful week in school. Our students had a wonderful day Friday, making homemade apple cider. Please check out our Instagram and Facebook pages for a great video of the event. This morning Alley, Sarah and I enjoyed dropping off the pumpkins to be decorated and treats to enjoy. Don’t forget to send in a picture or email me a photo of your decorated pumpkin to share with the class on Monday.

Dr. Thomas Sterling, our school’s Medical Director, came to our weekly faculty meeting on Friday. He was checking in with us to see how our first months of school have been. He will also share with us medical updates on topics relevant to our school community from Covid to tick borne illnesses, concussion protocols and more. We are so grateful to have our partnership with Manchester Medical Center.

Around Town

If you are looking to get into the spirit of Halloween, the Manchester Community Library is putting on a Virtual Costume Ball click here for details: MCL Virtual Costume Party

More Halloween fun can be found at the Manchester Arts Studio and Gallery. Manchester Arts Halloween

Have a great weekend!

MaryBeth

As an introduction to spatial awareness in forming letters, Owls had fun this week “Cracking the Code” to explore and think about where letters live on the lines. The code has three colors that signal where letters are placed on the lines. We will work more on this concept as Owls start their handwriting books next week.

In Math Owls learned about the line of symmetry that divides a design in half making it the same on both sides. We talked about how the abdomen of the butterfly is its line of symmetry. We now have two chrysalises formed in our mesh cage! We are patiently waiting for the butterflies to emerge. As part of any nature study, the cycle of life includes death as Owls discovered this week when two chrysalises did not fully form.

Next week we will start a new routine of sharing in the Owls room. We have discussed what sharing looks like and the rules we will all follow. A share for school may be:

Something you find in nature
Something you made
Something you can read or have written
A photo of something

Students may bring in objects that fit these rules or they may do a “talk share” and share about an event or experience.

It’s not too late to turn in your Hopes and Dreams document for the school year for your Owl. This is important information about your child that I highly value. Please see the link below for the Google document.

Hopes and Dreams Document

Please see the Eagles section about information regarding this week’s field trip to SVAC and Halloween festivities.

Thank you!
Sarah

Eagles
The Eagles have been working hard on preparing acorns for flour. It is a long process and reminded me of the importance of doing work that requires perseverance and process. It’s a good task to understand the work that goes into the food we eat. In our society we seldom make time for quiet, repetitive and meditative tasks. It’s an important exercise in patience and community. They also spent time learning multiplication strategies based on number sense, they wrote stories and began their vocabulary workbooks. Thank you to everyone who helped with homework this week at home.Next week, Eagles will continue to work on active reading, they will further their study of multiplication and consider what they know and want to know regarding Abenaki people. Of course, there is still more to do on the acorn project!Friday
On Friday we are going to the Southern Vermont Arts Center. SVAC is a non-profit organization focused on multidisciplinary arts. Part of their mission is to provide education to the community to nurture the arts and continue to build a community of active artists. They reached out to us and invited us to come and explore their galleries. They have planned activities for us that directly relate to the art in the gallery.
Since this is a mostly inside field trip we ask that each class just have one chaperone attend. If you are interested in being a chaperone for either the Eagles or Owls please email Sarah and myself.On Friday, you have a choice of how to get to the trip. You can either meet us at the SVAC at 9 and pickup at 12 at the SVAC. Or, you can drop off your child(ren) at 8 at school and pickup at school at 12:30. Space in cars is limited for the school option. Please let us know your plan by Tuesday.The address is Southern Vermont Arts Center, 930 Southern Vermont Arts Center Dr, Manchester, VT 05254. It is off of West Road in Manchester (between BBA and town). There is a long driveway with many sculptures that you drive by on your way to the top. When you get there, park in the lot and wait outside until we are all gathered and checked in.Please pack and snack, lunch, water bottle and backpack for your child.Halloween
Halloween is fast approaching and we plan to have a fun day together on Friday 10/30. Halloween festivities will include a dance party, special treats from some LTS students, and fun in Roxaboxen. Halloween costumes are welcome, but please leave weapons at home and have your child dress in regular school close and bring his/her costume in a bag to change into at school.Also, please read the following recommendations when choosing a costume.

Is the costume racially, ethnically, or culturally based?
- If yes, it’s probably going to make people from those racial/cultural/ethnic groups feel unsafe and disrespected. If you are not sure, the names of the costumes usually make it very clear: “Hey Amigo Costume, Geisha Costume, Native Child Costume” etc…
Does your child belong to that group of people?
- If the answer is no, please reflect on what it means to borrow someone else’s culture or race for a day–because for many people it’s not a costume it’s their everyday lives.
If the costume is meant to be funny, why is it funny?
- If the costume is meant to be funny because it is making light of an ethnic or racial group then it is most likely a caricature and hurtful.
How would everyone feel if someone wore that costume around that group of people?
- If an Indigenous family were to welcome a child into their home wearing an Indian Child Costume, what would the impact be on everyone? What about wearing a Hey Amigo Costume around a Latinx family? A Geisha Costume around a Japanese family? If the impact is harmful on any given day then Halloween is no exception.

Source: @little_kotos_closet adapted from an article by Kat Lazo

Progressive Education
Here is a study from Harvard about the heart and science of kindness. At RFCS we actively teach how to be kind with the understanding that kindness is not a transactional action, rather it requires doing things for others without expecting anything in return.

Heart and Science of Kindness

Warmly,
Alley

October, 10 2020

I want to thank you for taking the time to read the newsletter every week. This week my corner is a bit lengthy! We hope through this one weekly communication we can share all the important information your family needs to know about our school and the upcoming week.

Welcome!

Welcome to our newest student and family! Hugo Nevin joined the Owls class this week. His parents are Michael and Elisabet and his grandparents are Mary and Raymond. We look forward to having the Nevin family in our school.

Thank you!

Thank you to all the families that were able to participate in our Curriculum night. It was a great night. I loved taking the time to consider the developmental stages that our students are in to better understand how they are approaching learning and life.

The next time our families will have a scheduled opportunity to meet with Sarah and Alley will be our parent/teacher conferences in November. Sarah and Alley will send out sign up sheets in November and this year will give the option for either in person or zoom conferences.

Harvest Festival – Saturday, October 17th

Hopefully you have all received Bethany’s email with the link to the sign up genius. This first Saturday school day is a wonderful tradition at Red Fox. Families gather together to celebrate fall and community. We look forward to seeing everyone there! Please reach out to Bethany to help or if you have questions.

Holidays

This weekend is a three day weekend to celebrate Indigenous People’s Day. We will return to school on Tuesday, October 13th. We hope that you have a wonderful long weekend.

Travel and Testing

With vacation in mind, I would like to remind everyone that if your plans include travel outside of Vermont to a yellow or red zone a seven day quarantine is required upon return for anyone with no symptoms. On the eighth day you can go and take a test and with a negative result return to school. Vermont Travel Map – The travel map is updated every Tuesday. Please consult it to find out the zone designation of your travel destination.

Please see the new guideline that our Medical Director, Dr. Thomas Sterling sent us regarding testing:

Due to the online recommendation just recently being revised on the DOH website, the antigen test is no longer an option. A PCR test must be taken to return to school prior to a completed 14 day quarantine with no symptoms.

Unfortunately, currently there is anywhere from a 2-7 day lag in results for the PCR test. So a family can choose to take the PCR test on the 8th day hoping to receive results in under 14 days. Or do a full 14 day quarantine with no symptoms and return to school.

The good news that Dr. Sterling shared with us, is that Manchester Medical Center is expecting to receive a COVID/RSV/Influenza A/Influenza B in-house PCR test next month. This test gives a response in as little as 35 minutes!

The bottom line is if you travel and have no symptoms you must either quarantine for 14 days or on the 8th day take a PCR test.

Please reach out to your physician or Manchester Medical Center if you have any medical questions regarding Covid protocol and quarantine. Families who are making travel plans must share the information with Sarah, Alley and myself so that we can plan for your child to stay connected and engaged in school during quarantine. And always feel free to reach out to me directly if you have any questions.

Calendar Update

We will be sending out an updated calendar next week to reflect two faculty professional development days that are not listed on the original calendar: Friday, December 11th and Friday, March 12th.

Blog Updates
You can now sign up with email through our website to get automatic updates for our classroom blog. These are usually updated weekly. Once you sign up with your email you will get a notification everytime the classroom blog is updated. It’s a great way to keep up with your child’s writing and read about what we are doing in the classroom that week. See the picture below for where the signup is located:

Around TownPlease see the attached SVAC flyer for Halloween on the Hill! This is always a great event. As with everything this year, it will be run a little differently. So if you are interested in attending, make sure to sign up!

Bromley is offering discounted seasonal full day or seasonal afternoon (12:30-4 pm) passes to students at local schools. These passes are usually discounted $100 or more from the rates listed on the website. This offer ends October 30. Fill out the attached form, submit the form and payment directly to Bromley. This is not the JISP pass. We are still waiting to hear from the BOC on the status of the JISP program for the 2020-21 ski season. As soon as I have that information, I will pass it along.

Have a great weekend!

MaryBeth

This week we welcomed a new student, Hugo to our Owls Classroom. Everyone did a great job helping Hugo and explaining our routines to him. Our community is definitely coming together as we continue to learn about each other and how we can support each other.

Owls continue to work on their Self Portrait books. Next week will put all the pages together and share the books with each other. In Math we are working on problem solving together and next week we will explore the concept of symmetry in connection to our butterfly study. Fingers crossed that we’ll come back on Tuesday to a few new chrysalises in our mesh cages so we can get these Monarchs on their way south for the winter.

The weather is getting colder especially in the morning, so hats and gloves are important items to add to the gear list. I have also noticed lots of dry hands from all the hand washing–mine included! If you’d like to have your child keep some hand balm or lotion in his/her cubby that would be helpful to use during the day.

For this Friday we are planning a field trip to Smokey House Center in Danby. We will let you know as soon as details are finalized if this trip will happen or not.

I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

Sarah

Eagles
The Eagles learned this week about the history of Columbus from the perspective of the Arawaks. We read an excerpt from, “A Young People’s History of the United States” by Howard Zinn. We had a long discussion about what it means to discover something, the role of perspective in history and about how we choose to honor people with holidays. They were all extremely thoughtful in their comments. Here is a link to the Zinn Education network if you would like to read more… https://www.zinnedproject.org.We also spent time yesterday gathering acorns to make acorn flour. Acorns are an important Abenaki crop and tie in nicely to our study of Abenaki people. We will use the acorns next week to embark on the long process of turning them into flour for pancakes!Please help your Eagle remember to bring in his/her homework every Thursday and to also bring back their bag and folder.Next week we will continue to work on money in math, write haikus about indigeneous plants and make acorn flour.I hope you all enjoy the 3 day weekend, get some much needed rest and celebrate Indigeneous Peoples’ Day!Field Trips
Unless otherwise noted a parent/guardian is always welcome to join us on our field trips. The only reason we would limit folks is if we are going to a place like a museum where they have certain number restrictions. Sometimes, some dynamics between parents and children limit children’s full participation in the community. If Sarah or I feel that it is best for your child to have some more independent time we will communicate that. Thank you so much again for helping us give students authentic learning experiences!This Friday we may or may not be going to Smokey House Center to do some community service. If we do go, we will need drivers to get us from school to SMC in Danby.If the trip does not pan out, Eagles will be using the day to further their Abenaki study and Owls will use the day to further their Monarch study.The next trip is to SVAC on October 23rd. You can either meet us at SVAC at 9 or school at 8:30. We will send out more details regarding the trip next week. If you are interested in chaperoning please let us know. Due to the density in the building we can accommodate 2 chaperones (one Eagle and one Owl).Progressive Education
Here is a great TED Talk about the importance of play Stuart Brown: Play Is More Than Just Fun. It reminds me of the quote from Fred Rogers who said,

“Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children, play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.”

Warmly,
Alley

Red Fox Community School

1045 Kirby Hollow Road

Dorset, Vermont 05251

(802) 867-7539

October 3, 2020

Another great week has been had at Red Fox. We have officially been in school, in person for one month! Congratulations and thank you to our entire community for making this possible. We can do this with our continued vigilance and adherence to the guidelines set forth by the Vermont Department of Health and the CDC. Our community is making great choices that protect all of us. So thank you!

Our team is constantly evaluating and often making changes almost instantly to meet the needs and the protocols of our COVID school world. Our priority is always the safety and health of our students. We are grateful for your flexibility when plans get modified or when it takes some extra time to get information communicated. We appreciate that we all have had to make changes in how we do everything in our work, family and social lives to adjust to this new normal.

Grandparent’s Day postponed

As discussed at our Parent Orientation last week, we have decided to move Grandparents’ day from October to March this year. Typically Grandparents’ day is a wonderful opportunity for grandparents to join their grandchildren for a morning at school to do projects and activities together. Unfortunately, this year due to COVID this is not possible. So we would like to take the time to work on a great virtual experience so that everyone, grandparents and Red Fox students are safe but still get to connect with each other. More information will be shared as we get closer to the event.

Curriculum Night

We are looking forward to sharing with our families all that has been happening in school this past month and what to look forward to for the rest of the year. The event is an in person meeting on Tuesday, October 6th at 5:30 pm at school. We ask that only one parent attend the meeting for density and social distance protocols.

Fall Harvest Festival

Mark your calendars! Saturday, October 17th from 10am – 1pm is our annual celebration of the fall season. This annual event is run by the PA and has included activities like pumpkin carving, making apple cider, art projects and country games. Check in with Bethany and the PA to find out how to volunteer to make this a great community event.

Around Town

Attached please find a flyer for SVAC’s story walks, a great way to spend some time outside as a family up on the hill.

Also attached please find the Vermont deer hunting calendar. Remember people and pets should have some bright orange on whenever going into the woods from October to mid December.

Enjoy this weekend! It looks like it’s going to be a perfect fall weekend.

MaryBeth

Our week in the Owls Classroom was filled with molting and mud. We watched a Monarch caterpillar molt in real time just seconds after reading about it in one of our books! It was so amazing. And what fun we all had in the rain and in the mud in Roxaboxen this week. Keep the rain gear, boots, and extra clothes coming into school every day!

We opened the workbench this week. Each owl was able to take a turn sawing a piece of wood and hammering a nail. Each week on M, T, and W we have Work Time during which Owls may choose to use the workbench after they submit a plan and check in with me. We are now accepting any scrap wood pieces you may have at home, especially soft woods.

Lastly, we read a book called All the Colors We Are and learned where different skin tones come from. Ask your Owl to tell you the three reasons we all have different skin tones. Then Owls experimented with different shades of skin tone colored pencils before sketching a self-portrait. Next week we will work on putting together Self-Portrait Books.

This Friday we will stay at school with the Eagles and enjoy some community building time.

I’m looking forward to talking with you on Curriculum Night Tuesday at 5:30 at school.

Thank you!
Sarah

The Eagles had a fantastic week learning about old growth forests and beginning our Abenaki study. Thank you to Jess, Monty and Perry for coming with us on our trip to Giffords State Park. I really appreciate your help in getting the Eagles out of the classroom and into the world.

This week we are working on money in math, textual connections in reading and paragraph writing in writing. We will continue to work on practicing growth mindset, developing kind and effective problem solving skills and enjoying the beautiful fall.

Friday
This Friday we are staying at school to continue our Abenaki learning of the forest. We will also be joining the owls for some forest play. As always please send your child with appropriate clothing, snack and lunch.

Warmly,
Alley

Red Fox Community School

1045 Kirby Hollow Road

Dorset, Vermont 05251

(802) 867-7539

September 26, 2020

This Week
This week at Red Fox we ignited our creativity and imagination with music and nature. Taconic Music presented an incredible outdoor performance for us on Wednesday. And Friday was a Forest Friday visiting the magical Cutler Memorial Forest right down the street. Thank you to everyone who attended our Zoom Parent Orientation on Wednesday. Our next school evening event is our Curriculum Night on Tuesday, October 6th at 5:30pm.Outdoor Gear!We are explorers at Red Fox and mud is our very messy, very fabulous friend. We find it in our garden, we find it in Roxaboxen. We jump in it, we rub it on ourselves, we cook with it. We get wet and we get dirty. So please remember waterproof footwear is essential for school. And indoor shoes are also needed. And an extra change of clothes is always a good idea!Student Newsletters
Each week our students write newsletters and draw a picture relating to something we did that week. You can find the last two weeks of newsletters on our blog here:Week of September 14th
Week of September 21stAround TownAttached please find SVAC’s flyer for after school classes coming up.Don’t forget this Sunday, September 27 at 4pm, Taconic Music will present Led Zeppelin tribute band Better Off Led at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester Center, Vermont. The concert will be held on the lawn with marked, designated areas for seating (BYO lawn chairs/blankets) and masks required. In the event of inclement weather, the concert will be moved inside the Arkell.Admission is $25 per person. Seating is limited, and reservations are required. Visit taconicmusic.org.Have a wonderful weekend!

MaryBeth

What an exciting week we had! During Morning Meeting on Thursday, a flash of movement caught my eye and I gasped, “Our monarch is coming out of its chrysalis!!” It was so amazing to watch and we all stood up and rotated around the mesh cage to get a good look. The Owls were delighted to watch the butterfly finish emerging. We have many more larva we are observing as they fatten up into caterpillars and spin their own chrysalises. So stay tuned for more exciting moments! Next week as part of our Monarch Butterfly study, we will investigate symmetry found in butterfly wings and create symmetrical designs with pattern blocks.

We also finished creating our classroom rules. After lots of discussion and input from each Owl, we turned a long list of rules into the following five:

Respect materials and supplies.
Remember the 3 W’s.
Clean up after yourself and others.
Be responsible inside and outside.
Be kind to everyone.

We will continue to discuss these rules and what they mean to our community as the year progresses.

In other exciting news, Owls started Art and Spanish classes with Meghann this week. They all loved doing art outside and sitting under the tree practicing counting to 20 in Spanish.

This week Owls will be staying close to the nest on Friday. We will have our regular outside time in Roxaboxen. Please remember that all students need to bring all outdoor gear to school every day. This includes boots! Also, be sure to refresh the extra change of clothes, especially socks.

Thank you!
Sarah

This week the Eagles worked on developing their writer’s voice, they started to create their dream bedrooms in math and they discussed growth mindset. They also made corn husk dolls in art class with Meghann. It was so inspiring to watch them use their imaginations and creativity all week. They are working really hard on kindness and encouraging one another.

Thank you for supporting your Eagle in accomplishing his/her homework. Each week I will send out new homework on Monday and it is due Thursday. Please send your Eagle to school with both their folder and homework bag. If your Eagle forgets on Thursday please send it on Friday. Each week I will add one more task of homework until they have 4 tasks for the week. Homework should be easily accomplished at home and should take no more than an hour for the whole week. If your child is needing extra support please let me know. The goals of homework include building healthy study habits, fostering independence, practicing work already taught and working on projects.

This week Eagles will continue their math bedroom project, we will work on developing new strategies for close reading, continue cursive and learn about old growth forests.

Whittling
This week whittling was opened up to RFCS students. As part of our immersive outdoor philosophy we believe strongly in teaching children how to use tools. We teach students how to use saws, hammers and drills in the classroom and once students understand the safety rules for those tools they are able to use them with supervision to further their learning. Similarly, we believe that a pocket knife is a useful tool. Students are allowed to bring a knife from home provided the following;

They have passed the “knife test” with a teacher and
They bring the knife to the teacher in the morning to be kept safely until supervised whittling time outdoors.

If a student neglects to follow the rules, the knife will be confiscated and a plan will be made for how to earn back that privilege.

Field Trip
This week the Eagles are going to Giffords Woods in Killington. The trip is about an hour drive. It would be great if we could leave by 8:15. Please drop off your Eagle on Friday at 8 (if you can) to allow us to leave promptly. We will be back by 12:30 for pickup. For this week, I am pretty sure we have enough drivers to make the trip already. Thank you Jess and Monty!

As part of our yearlong Abenaki study we are beginning our study with an understanding of old growth forests and how landscape affects peoples’ culture, diet and conception of the world. Giffords Woods is one of the few old growth forests that remain in Vermont and will offer us a special experience into this unique ecosystem.

Please pack lunch, snack and good walking shoes!

Progressive Education
Here is a link to experience and education by John Dewey. It is long but provides the philosophical underpinnings of RFCS:

Experience and Education by John Dewey

Warmly,
Alley

September 19, 2020

Thank you for a great second week of schoolAM. We are starting to get into our new rhythm and we appreciate everyone’s support with starting our days on time at 8:30.

Our goal with the weekly newsletter is it is the place you will find all the information you need for the upcoming week. So please read it all the way through. And of course if you have any questions reach out to Alley, Sarah or myself.

We appreciate the great job everyone is doing with our daily health checks. Our community is showing great respect for our health contract. Many families have chosen to keep a student home with sniffles or a funny tummy knowing that in pre-covid school years, those students could have gone to school.

The continued vigilance of our communities overall health and safety keeps us in person in school! Families have also made plans for the proper quarantine protocol when students or family members residing with our students travel to red and yellow zones. Please keep up this amazing effort. Here is a link to Vermont’s guidelines for quarantine. Vermont Travel Guidelines If you have any questions or need to discuss a specific situation, please contact me. Alley, Sarah and I are here to help.

As many of you know Dr. Fauci was a guest at Governor Scott’s daily briefing this past Tuesday. He said about our little state, “This should be a model for the country, how you’ve done it….it should be the model of how you get to such a low positivity that you can actually start opening up the economy in a safe and prudent way.” The same can be said of how our Red Fox community has been on top of our health protocols and state guidelines.

Parent Orientation September 23rd 6pm
In order to continue to do our part supporting the health of our community we will be conducting our parent orientation meeting via Zoom next week. We will be sending out the Zoom link to the meeting on Tuesday.

Our next parent meeting is our curriculum night on October 6th. Our current plan is to have that meeting in person at school and we will request one parent representative per family to reduce the density of the meeting. This is a meeting where seeing the space and seeing the work being done in the classroom is an important part of the meeting.

Around Town

This past Thursday night was a very special evening at SVAC where our own Maxine Linehan, Andrew Koss, Rebecca and Grabriel Koss, all performed outside in the rain to a very grateful socially distanced audience. It was a beautiful event and for everyone who braved the weather, we were well rewarded!

Taconic Music, Better off Led bring Zeppelin tunes to SVAC

On Sunday, September 27 at 4pm, Taconic Music will present Led Zeppelin tribute band Better off Led at the Southern Vermont Arts Center in Manchester Center, Vermont. The band will perform an outdoor, 75-minute set of Led Zeppelin fan favorites and deep cuts from the iconic band’s eight studio albums. The concert will be held on the lawn with marked, designated areas for seating (BYO lawn chairs/blankets) and masks required. In the event of inclement weather, the concert will be moved inside the Arkell. Admission is $25 per person. Seating is limited, and reservations are required. visit taconicmusic.org.

Have a wonderful weekend!

MaryBeth

Owls’ first full week of school was a great success. I am thoroughly enjoying getting to know your children–they are wonderful little people! During Morning Meeting Owls are working on listening to each other and politely asking if needed, “What’s your name again?” to greet each other. We talk a lot about how tone of voice and word choices make all the difference when expressing feelings and asking questions. Owls are doing a great job learning the routines of the classroom and they are so helpful–especially when there are lots of directions to follow. We made lists of things we can do and learn about this year and then Owls chose a topic to focus on for their hope for the school year. We look forward to sharing these with you soon.

This week we introduced our first unit of study: Monarch Butterflies. We had a special delivery of Monarch larva which we will watch grow and transform into butterflies. Owls helped collect some milkweed and we found some more eggs!

Owls did an amazing job yesterday on our Mountain Day hike–I was so impressed by their effort and enthusiasm. Please see the Eagles corner of the newsletter for details on this Friday’s walking field trip to Cutler Memorial Forest in Dorset.

A few reminders: make sure your Owl has all the appropriate outdoor gear for time outside everyday. Boots are especially important for our Roxaboxen time. It is also helpful to have inside shoes that are slip-on.

I look forward to seeing all of you at our Zoom meeting Wednesday at 6:00pm for Parent Orientation.

Thank you!
Sarah

A huge thank you to everyone who came with us on Mountain Day! It was an awesome adventure and we appreciate your support on the trail! Adventures like the one we had remind me of how important it is to teach children how to take risks safely, how to navigate the forest and how to notice their surroundings.

Last week the Eagles worked hard to create their class rules. What started out as nearly 40 rules was democratically and carefully narrowed down to the following class rules;

Respect Materials
Be Kind to Yourself and Others
Respect Nature and the Outside Boundaries
Clean Up After Yourself and Others (except for vomit)

These are great words to live by and we will continue to reference and revisit our rules throughout the year. Eagles also learned how to embroider this week and they all tremendously enjoyed it.

This week the Eagles will be having a more formalized writer’s workshop, learning about Growth Mindset and starting a math project around designing their dream bedroom. Homework also begins this week. Homework will be sent out Monday in a tote bag and is due Thursday. This week, Eagles need to create their study space. More instructions on how they should do that will be in the homework folder going home on Monday. Please help them to remember to bring back their homework on Thursday.

We have been enjoying spending the majority of our time outside, as the weather changes please continue to dress your Eagle in appropriate clothing for being outdoors. Wet feet can be dangerous as it gets cold, therefore waterproof boots are required as we move forward.

Friday’s Trip
This Friday both Eagles and Owls will be going to Cutler Memorial Forest. It is a short walk from school. We will meet at school at 8:30 and be back by 12:30. We do not need drivers this week as we are walking. Please dress your child appropriately for being outside all day. There is a beautiful creek and we would love for the children to be able to explore it so please send them in waterproof boots. If you need boot recommendations Sarah and I are happy to help. As always, pack lunch and snack!

Progressive Education
This an article from UVM on the history of Progressive Education in the United States. It is short and gives a good overview of our historical background. If you would like some more reading material on our history, I am more than happy to provide you some. Here is the link Progressive Education. Next week, I will send out an article by John Dewey.

Warmly,
Alley

September 12, 2020

Gratitude

Thank you for helping us to keep our community healthy and in school. All of us following the guidelines and routines outside of school is what will keep us in school. The students and faculty have been doing great this week with handwashing,mask wearing, social distancing, and daily health checks. Let’s keep it up!

Round of applause for some special community members – Thank you Jim J. for putting together our shelves and securing our cubbies and all that garbage removal! Thank you Terry for helping us put together the tent and to Mike for magically appearing to secure our tent! Thank you to Barbara (Mack’s Grandma) for making our classroom curtains! We appreciate all our community members and all the wonderful things you do to help our school!

Reminders

One Call Now please email me and let me know if you want to receive all school immediate communication via text, voicemail or email.
Immunization Records We are doing great! There are just a few left to receive, so thank you! Don’t forget to upload the record directly to TADS.
Community Signature Page We also have almost all our signature pages. I am waiting on a few more to be submitted. Please bring in the hard copy or take a picture of the signed page and email it to me.
Masks! Please make sure that students have at least two masks every day. We have a very limited supply of masks to give out and we have had a run on them this week!

End of the Day Routine
Please allow extra time due to the current road projects on Route 30. Pick up is at 3pm Monday – Thursday and 12:30 on Friday. Please make sure to check in with a teacher that your student is leaving with you. It can be a wave from by your car or from across the field for our Eagles. But we can not release a student until we have made confirmation of the adult taking them home.

Vermont Weather
Vermont has been known to have all four seasons in one day, especially in the fall! It can be quite chilly in the morning and full sun and hot in the afternoon, with some rain in the middle! We go outside everyday multiple times throughout the day in all weather. Please send students to school with all the clothes and layers they may need for a day in Vermont.

Daily Health Checks
Everyone has been doing a great job with our Kinsa App. Thank you! If you want to email us the results before leaving home please remember:

Please email it before 8am
After you answer the symptoms questions you scroll down to click on the full report then you will see a share button at the top of the screen and you can email it to dailyhealth@redfoxschool.org

If you are showing us the results in person please have the green thumb icon on your phone screen. It is much easier for us to see than to try and read the screen.

Troubleshooting: We have heard from LTS as well as some of our parents that the app has had some issues. If you have trouble and your student is healthy and has no fever, you can bring them to school and we will run the health check while you wait. We have communicated with Kinsa about the issues. Hopefully, it was just the first week of school working out the kinks.

Around Town
I post in this section of the newsletter whenever we hear of fun opportunities for our families outside of our school. Please feel free to forward me information, I can post in this section!

This week SVAC has shared an after school program with us for any 5th/6th graders interested in doing some acting! Please see the attached flyer.

Welcome
Please welcome Nina Wright to the Eagles! Nina is the child of Kate Blesdoe and Amy Wright. Please help them feel welcomed, included and cared for! We are so happy to have their family at RFCS this year.

Have a wonderful weekend!

MaryBeth

We had a great first week in the Owls room! We are so thankful that we are able to be together. The first six weeks of school are an important time to work on getting to know our environment and each other. Through guided discovery we have opened up our block area, our library and our supply boxes. The Owls have done a wonderful job learning all the extra routines we have this year, especially staying 3 feet apart, which can be challenging. Ask your Owl about our “3 W’s”.

Next week we are looking forward to opening more spaces in our room and writing our Hopes and Dreams for the school year. Please make sure your child wears masks that fit snugly over the mouth and nose. If a mask is too big it will not function properly. Lastly, please refer to the Eagles section for details on our first field trip this Friday to Owl’s Head.

Thank you!
Sarah

Eagles Nest
It has been a sincere joy to get to know each and every Eagle this week. Thank you for sharing your children with me.The first 6 weeks of school are spent intensively working on establishing routines, creating rules and setting expectations. We spend time making sure children know how to use materials and tools so that they can forge ownership of the space. Last week, we opened up writing, math materials and art supplies. The Eagles wrote detailed plans for a goal they have for the year and created a symbol to go along with it.This week fiber arts will be opened up in the classroom and we will create class rules among other things. Creating class rules is a multi-day project that is done with great care and democracy.Field Trips
Often Fridays are spent on field trips. Sometimes field trips occupy the whole day, sometimes they take a portion of the day and sometimes we go to a place further away and need to use another day other than Friday to account for the distance. If we are going within 10 minutes of school drop off and pickup will be at our destination. If we are going somewhere further we will coordinate drivers via this newsletter. We love chaperones and we are also mindful of carbon emissions so we try to be as efficient as possible with the amount of cars on the road. Thank you in advance for your help driving!Mountain Day
This Friday is Mountain Day! Mountain Day is always our first field trip of the year. Both Eagles and Owls will hike Owls Head in Dorset this year. In the past this community day has been open to everyone to join. This year to decrease our density on the trail, we respectfully ask that only one member of your household join us. Please join us if you can.We will meet at 8:30 at the trailhead and aim to be done by 12:30. Please pack a snack and a lunch for your child. It is super helpful when hiking for your child to have a backpack to carry his/her things in, a full water bottle, sturdy shoes, and extra layers.Directions to Owls Head:

Off of route 30 turn onto Black Rock Ln (just North of the Quarry)
Go about 1 mile down the road and turn right to the Owls Head Trailhead. It is a dirt road.
Go down the dirt road and park at the trailhead.

Progressive Education
This is an old article and it is particularly pertinent to our first outdoor adventure. It is written by my mentor, David Sobel and speaks to our philosophy of outdoor education at RFCS. Below is an excerpt and here is the link to read more Look, Don’t Touch

This is the kind of environmental education that I believe leads to environmental values and behaviors in adulthood — education that originates in children’s innate play tendencies in the natural world; supports and allows wild nature play; recognizes the importance of hunting, gathering, collecting, and, when appropriate, consuming the natural world; encourages adults and children to explore and learn together so adults can model attention and respect; and supports children’s appetite for imagination and fantasy.

Warmly,
Alley

August 14, 2020

Hello Red Fox Families,

Thank you to everyone who was able to participate in our first community day of the 2020-21 school year, on August 1st. Parents, faculty and students helped to clean up our garden space, organize our books, assemble furniture and clean our classrooms. We still have more to do, but this was an excellent start! We have blocked off Wednesday, August 26th and Thursday, August 27th as days when we would love some more help with projects in the school. As we get closer to those dates, a sign up sheet will be circulated.

Immunization/Health Records:

Please upload your student’s health records to TADS. We need to have everyone’s paperwork in the system before the first day of school. If you have any questions with the process please call the TADS family support line: 800-477-8237

Academic Calendar:

Please find the updated academic calendar attached to this email. Governor Scott put out an executive order that all schools public and independent would open for the first day of school on Tuesday, September 8th. So some of our dates in September have been moved back by a week. So please take a look.

Community Handbook:

Please find the school handbook attached as well. This is a great guide for all our families to become familiar with our school policies and expectations. You will see that a health pledge has been added to the handbook this year. At the end of the handbook is a signature page that indicates you have read and agree to follow the guidelines of our school community. Please print out and sign this signature page and bring it with you on the first day of school. That along with a green light on the health check will be the entrance ticket to school.

Welcome and Welcome Back Picnic:
August 25th 5-6:30pm (rain date September 1st)

Every year our Parents Association coordinates many activities for our community. Along with our community days, the welcome back picnic is the first of these events. You will be receiving information about the picnic from Bethany Jenkins. Typically this is a potluck event but as you will see with many things this year, we are reinventing how we do it. Think of the picnic as a camping ground, or the circles they have drawn in the lawn of Central Park! We will have our spots for our families’ picnics, but we will be able to socialize and meet each other from a safe distance.

Family-Teacher Lunch/Brunch Dates:

Please be on the lookout for a sign up sheet being sent by Alley and Sarah. Again another Red Fox tradition of family-teacher dinners, has been altered this year. Every year our teachers enjoy the opportunity to have individual time with each family prior to the first day of school by sharing a meal together. This year the meal will still be shared but outside at our school. This has the advantage of also being a time when the parents and students can tour their classroom and get to know the Red Fox space. Make sure to sign up! This is an invaluable opportunity for families and students to connect with our teachers.

Assistant Teacher:

This year we are very excited that Taheem is joining us as an assistant teacher. Some of you may remember meeting Taheem at the community day. He was part of the Johnston family team and was a huge help that day. Taheem is currently a junior in college and studying early education. Sometimes this pandemic has afforded us creative opportunities. And one of those is the fact that Taheem will be attending school remotely. So we are fortunate enough to have him here in Vermont and the newest member of the Red Fox team. Taheem will be one of the first people to greet our students as they start their day, checking them in with the health check app. Making sure everyone has taken their temperature at home and answered the health questions. He will then be assisting Sarah and Alley throughout the morning. Welcome Taheem!

I realize that I have bombarded our community with a lot of information in this newsletter. So please take your time to jot down important dates, print out the attached calendar and read our Community Handbook.

I look forward to seeing everyone at our welcome back picnic.

Sincerely,
MaryBeth

June 10, 2020

Hello Red Fox Families!

I was so happy to connect with many of you at our first summer community meeting last Thursday, July 2nd. Communication is our most important tool in preparing for our upcoming school year. As always, I am happy to speak with you or email with any family directly. But for your planning, here are the upcoming summer dates that I will be reaching out to our whole community:

Newsletter Emails: July 24th, August 7th, August 21st

Community Meetings via zoom at 6pm:July 29th, August 19th

Our Welcome Back Potluckis scheduled for August 25th from 5-6:30pm. As we get closer to that date, our PA co-chairs, Danielle and Nori will be in contact with how we will be running this event. As with everything we are planning, patience and flexibility will be key.

Updates and Information:

Enrollment

As of Monday the Owls’ classroom has students actively on a waitlist. We still have some spots open in the Eagles but I am very busy fielding new inquiries every week.

Healthcare Partnership

I am very pleased to announce a new partnership that Red Fox will have with Manchester Medical Center. We will be contracting with MMC as our school health care coordinators and support this year. MMC nurses, doctors and paramedics will be a phone call away and 10 minute drive from us for anything from a bug bite, playground accident to helping us manage COVID care. I will send out more specific information in a separate email. But I am extremely excited about this partnership, not only during this time of high concern regarding COVID but also in general for the overall health and care of our students and faculty.

Lunch

We have loved being a part of the Long Trail lunch program. This year Long Trail will not be offering a lunch program. So on our list to prepare for school this year, families will need to add making lunches. We look forward to the return of the program next year.

Buses

Long Trail will not be running their buses for the first weeks of their school year. They have not determined how they will be restarting the bussing program in September. The BRSU has also not released it’s plan for bussing this year. So until we hear back from LTS and the BRSU, it would be prudent for families to make transportation plans for the first month of school. We will work on connecting families from the same towns or general areas who are interested in carpooling.

Family Contract with our Community

A Health Commitment Letter will be added to our community handbook this year. Every family will receive a copy prior to school opening. On the first day of school every family will be required to bring in the signature page indicating that you have read and agree to the policies of the Red Fox Community School family handbook.

Daily Health Checks

As I mentioned in our community meeting, the 1st and most important gate for maintaining our communities health is at your home. At home a daily health check of your student will be required. If a student is not feeling well, overtired, sniffles, sore throat, cough, fever, tight chest, they must stay home. Families must take a student’s temperature before leaving the house for school. A 2 degree change from someone’s regular temperature is considered a fever. So if your child’s temperature is typically 97.8 then 99.8 is a fever. Manchester Medical Center will be giving us daily questions that must be asked at home and then will be asked again as we welcome our students into school everyday.

We are waiting on some information from Long Trail regarding an app that families will log temperatures in at home. If we use the app each family will receive a bluetooth thermometer for individual homes. If the app is cost prohibitive, we will set up an alternate way for families to log in their student temperatures with school in the morning. Temperature taking at home will cut down on our staggered arrival times and wait for entering school at the beginning of the day. Most importantly it informs a family before coming all the way to school, if they should be keeping their child home that day. The daily check must be done at home and logged in with the school before arrival at school. A student will not be admitted into the building without a reported temperature for that day. We will be able to do the occasional morning check for someone who has forgotten, but it will not be the daily process.

We will have a clear list of health routines that we will be asking every family to commit to, as well as the protocols that we will be using at school everyday.

Masks

Faculty will be wearing masks or full shields throughout the day when inside the building. Students will be required to bring a mask to school. They will not be required to wear the mask all the time. However, an occasion may arise where they will be working in close proximity with another student or faculty, and they would be asked to put the mask on. If this is uncomfortable or challenging for the student an alternative will be given to the student. Although we will be self-contained in our classrooms. We also need to have masks in case a student needs to go into a Long Trail space. LTS is requiring masks for everyone all the time.

Planning for Back to School at Home

Have your child pick out a mask and practice wearing it. There are many kid friendly options.
Outdoor gear: we know for sure our time outside will be increased this year. One of our school mottos comes to mind, “There is no bad weather, only bad clothing”. So keep an eye out for foul weather and cold weather gear.
Start thinking about snack and lunch preparation – have your kids brainstorm menus and think about how they can help prepare their food each day.

I know that this is a lot of information and that this is just the beginning of developing all of our routines and protocols for safely opening our school on September 1st. Please make sure to attend our next zoom community meeting at the end of July. As time moves forward the picture is starting to come into play, but it will remain a moving target. The best part of all the work Sarah, Alley and myself have been doing over the summer has been our teamwork. I am very proud of our faculty and our parents who have all been stepping up to work together. I am very grateful for our school community.

Sincerly,
MaryBeth

June 6, 2020

Happy Summer!

I hope you have been enjoying this wonderful weather and spending time outside! This is my first official note for the 2020-21 academic school year. I am so grateful to say welcome and welcome back to all our Red Fox families!

New Space!
Our big news for the upcoming year is our new space at Long Trail. Our Eagles will be moving directly across the hallway from our Owls classroom. And my office will be moving into one of the offices directly connected to the new rooms our Eagles will be in this year. We are excited that our students will all be together. Over the next few weeks, we will be reaching out to coordinate the move with parent volunteers.

Calendar
Please find our 2020-21 academic calendar attached to this letter. Our first day of school will be September 1st. Returning families will see some changes due to COVID-19 guidelines. Our camp out is not scheduled for the fall. We look forward to a community camp out in the spring. Grandparent’s day will be a virtual event looking toward the spring for an in person event. The biggest change is the extended winter holiday break. We would have typically come back on January 4th. But this year we will be returning to school on January 11th. This is in coordination with Long Trail School. The school will have the same deep thorough cleaning to reopen the spring semester, that it will have for the opening of the fall semester.

COVID-19
Our faculty is working throughout the summer to ensure our plan is ready for the first day of school. This is the most important and serious prep work we have had to do for a new school year. On June 17th, the State of Vermont released it’s health guidelines for re-opening schools. We continue to use these guidelines along with our coordination with Long Trail School, the BRSU and other independent schools in our area, to develop our process and protocols for the upcoming school year. Keeping our community safe is our first priority. And the first line of defense is communication. To that end we invite you to our first community meeting via zoom on Thursday, July 2nd at 6pm. Please find the link to the meeting below.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81399305432Meeting ID: 813 9930 5432

I look forward to seeing you all on July 2nd. I will be sending out notes throughout the summer to keep our community informed about our opening of school. If you have any questions, prior to our meeting on the 2nd, please send me an email at marybeth@redfoxschool.org .

Sincerely,
MaryBeth

Family Portal Menu: