Express Yourself!

VFS Weekly Update

for the week of 9/17-9/21

The weather was perfect for our Adventure Monday this week at Laurelhurst park. We spent time playing together, bonding, and some took a trip to visit the duck pond.

In the beginning of Project Time on Tuesday, we tried out our first Cohorts meeting. As time goes by, we will get into the rhythm of checking in and setting goals with our cohort staff and peers.

We’ve been getting a lot out of our new dress-up clothes as well as costumes brought from home. As a community, we show up to school in so many different ways, and we have the freedom to express that in the things we wear as well as the ways we participate in school culture. Students seem to be more motivated than ever to come up with new project ideas and find momentum to follow through with these ideas too! We’re also starting to get a lot more use out of our vault this year. We’ve set it up as a recording & music studio, a spooky space for scary stories, and a quiet area for drama club to rehearse.

Some class highlights from this week were learning about magnets in Bill Nye Science, making Egg in the Basket at Beginning Cooking, spinning yarn in the All About Wool class, P.E. running on the track, and soccer club getting to take it to the park for the first time! At our All-School Meeting this week, we made it through several lengthy discussions and proposals. Perhaps most important of all, we voted to unban popcorn!! We also celebrated Mark’s 8th birthday with yummy rice crispy treats on Tuesday!

Have a great weekend!

VFS Staff

P.S.

Last week, we were treated to an amazing performance by Amy Conway’s new improv group, Magic & Wonder! This fantastical improvised show uses your child’s imagination to inspire a brand new fairy tale that will premiere right before their eyes! For those that enjoyed the show and want to see another one or those that would like to have the experience for the first time, the next shows will be:

• September 23, 30 and October 7 (Amy will be at this one!)
  2 pm to 3pm @ Deep End Theater
  $5 per child and parents/guardians attend for free
  http://www.deependtheater.com/shows.html

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New Plans!

VFS Weekly Update

for the week of 9/10-9/14

We visited the Central Library in downtown for our first Adventure Monday and picked out a bunch of books for our Fall classes and personal projects. We’ve started the Fall Standing Plans, and we are starting to figure out our new schedule which is fully packed with so many interesting classes!

Rachael and the students in the Beginner Cooking class spent some time coming up with a plan for what they will learn to cook. Aurelia and Anaya have been teaching other students to use Scratch to program games and other interactive online activities. During “I ❤ Math hour,” Kathy supported students of all ages. Justine and David are co-teaching Spanish this term! The Forensic Files class, led by Drake, began to delve into the forensic sciences. Kids relaxed while they digested some big topics in Noppawan’s “Stories & Solidarity (and Tea Time!)” class. Justine and Maia hosted their first “Life After VFS” class! Students thought about their options for the future and what steps they might take to reach their goals. Topics discussed included college, standardized testing, jobs, resumes, Peace Corps, and more! Vincent & Heywood have started offering a Weekly Game Tournament. This week they offered Chess!

During Project Time on Tuesday, we helped students who hadn’t yet completed their Cohorts & Mentor Surveys. We are all working hard to form a support system that accommodates all of our diverse needs. Every Tuesday, we will have the All-School Meeting where we discuss proposals and vote to make decisions for our school, hosted by the “Student Couch” (our student council body). This week, we voted to try a one-week long trial of Clean-up time starting at 3 pm so that students who have to leave early can still participate in taking care of our school. For the week, we’ve been cleaning at 3pm, having last snack at 3:30, and having “Clean Up Your Own Mess” at 3:45.

Ryan celebrated his 9th birthday! Yay! We ended the week with a special performance by Amy Conway’s improv troupe! The kids really enjoyed the show and they even got to join in!

 

Have a great weekend!

VFS Staff

First week of school!!

VFS Weekly Update

for the week of 9/4-9/7

Welcome to the first Weekly Update of the 2018-19 schoolyear!

We were all excited to come back to our new space and start our first full school year here! It’s a lot of fun seeing how our community changes and grows as we welcome new people and feel the culture constantly shifting.

We had lots of big conversations to start out the school year. In our Values meeting we learned that this year our top 5 values as a school are: Care, Community & Culture, Learning/Accomplishment, Freedom & Autonomy, and Evolution. We also discussed how the school can hold the students best using cohorts or mentor relationships. We’ve created a google form for students to fill out so that we know everyone’s preferences and we can do our best to meet their needs.

Thanks to everyone who brought in smoothie supplies for helping us have our smoothie party! We ended our week with that and the Make It! Competition, where makers used whatever craft supplies they wanted to represent themselves as animals. It was awesome!

Have a great weekend!

VFS Staff

Last Week of our 2017-18 School Year1

VFS Weekly Update

for the week of 6/4 – 6/8

Thank you all for another wonderful school year! Our last week has been jam-packed full of pillow fighting, augmented reality art, parks, Harry Potter, Batman Trivia, a splash pad, spontaneous performances, Aurelia’s 11th birthday, a hike, picnics, arcade games, an inflatable tree, a potluck party, and more!!

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Take a look at these photos for a peek into our magnificent last week of school!

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Have a wonderful summer, we’ll see most of you next year, and good luck to those moving on to new adventures!

VFS Staff

We’re almost there!

VFS Weekly Update

for the week of 5/29 – 6/1

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This week we have been winding down our classes and projects to get ready for next week’s adventure week!

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The Bill Nye Science class made potions and learned about chemical reaction. Room A Cooking made chocolate chip cookies! Leif taught an amazing Philosophy class special just for this week.

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Home Ec. Class had a burger cooking competition and provided hot lunch at the same time!

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Community Clean-Up Day went great! The space is looking good and we even got a visit from llamas at the park! Big, super, duper, special, amazing thank you to parents who were able to help us out cleaning. Also thanks to all the students who came and did an awesome job. We had a great turnout and were able to get our whole space into good shape. After clean up, some students dressed up super cutely in Heathers costume!

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Martin will be graduating tomorrow. Congratulations to him!!!

Have a great weekend and see you next week for our last week of the schoolyear!

VFS Staff

Make a Wish!

VFS Weekly Update

for the week of 5/21 – 5/25

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It’s hard to believe our Spring term is almost over! Our schedule has been packed with many fun activities and individual projects. We started off on Monday learning about the importance of recycling with Ashley from the organization Trash for Peace. With her help, we made a new recycling bin out of plastic bottles! After that, we made wishes at the Wishing Tree and played at Irving Park for the rest of the day.

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We have been making lots of art, cooking, and finishing final projects.

We had visitors from The Frazier Community School on Friday morning. We gave them a tour and took some time to chat with them about our school and theirs.

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In Room A Cooking we made miso soup! Yum!

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We had a Spring Gardening Class Feast at the park on Friday afternoon. We ate vegetables that we grew ourselves, turning them into salad rolls with yummy almond butter sauce!

Have a good weekend

VFS Staff

VFS Artsy Week!

VFS Weekly Update

for the week of 5/14 – 5/18

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We’ve had a great week after our amazing All School Sleepover! We hope everyone who attended had a great time and got some rest afterward, during the long weekend.

We had an easy start to the week, staying here on Monday for a visit from the owner of Fingerbang! Nail Salons & our alum Miranda, who came to visit and give a makeup tutorial.

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Zoe Keller, a local artist came in on Thursday to host a drawing workshop, and share animal and habitat themed art with us. She even left us with some books she made and illustrated!

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In DIY Everything class, students made some string nail art with Rachel and Karl!

They look so beautiful!

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In Zoology, students have started working on their final projects. They are currently studying vertebrates.

The Bill Nye Science class learned about Food Chains. Did you know that all food chains begin with the sun?

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On Friday, Chorus Club went to KBOO to record their hit single! It was so much fun. We learned that becoming a musician really takes a lot of patience and practice. It took us more than 10 takes to complete a song! Soon our VFS song (debuted at the Grand Reopening) will be featured in the website and our very own Podcast!

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Have a good weekend

VFS Staff