Spark Academy Newsletter

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Our Spark Academy after-school program had an amazing first week. All of the students are getting to know each other’s interests, familiarizing themselves with the program, and are exploring their activity areas. We are excited to see the program continue to grow as the school year progresses!

STEM

During orientation, students were introduced to all the exciting STEM activities available at Spark. This week they engaged with Cubelets. These robot blocks help teacher important problem-solving skills such as collaboration, engineering, design, and computational thinking. Next week, we will bring out the microscopes to explore their environment at a microscopic level!

Let’s Get Physical!

Towards the end of each day most of our students spend their time on the field or under the Solar Awning. They are allowed to choose a sport or join in on a staff facilitated activity. This week student added a new challenge to soccer using the scooter boards.

Arts, Crafts & More

Students have free but monitored access to a plethora of art supplies. The VIMSIA School T-Shirt competition sparked an interest in design. The younger students were introduced to Magic Model clay - a unique lightweight modeling material.

Reading

To our delight, we found that every student in our program has already developed a love for reading. They were thrilled to see that we were located right next to the library and had free access to it! One of the highlights for the week was watching the older students willingly and patiently assist the younger students with navigating the library and checking out books.

What’s to come?

We will be starting on our garden after Fall Break! Students have already begun brainstorming and it will be the epitome of biodiversity with all their great ideas.

VIMSIA After-School Sailing Program

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Peter Holmberg, Virgin Islands own Olympic silver medalist, America's Cup Skipper, and Match-Race World Champion, will be joining the after-school sailing program as a coach!

Sailing at the St. Thomas Yacht Club (STYC) is an after-school program available to Lower and Upper Elementary students on Wednesday afternoons.

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Thursday Theater with Ms. Christensen

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A note from Ms. Christensen:

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I had a wonderful time with these students!!! They catch on really fast and are enthusiastic!

I did mention that there is optional homework this week. 

If appropriate for each individual family, I told them to watch one or all of the following:

  • •Newsies (on Netflix) for the song “seize the day”

  • •Annie for the song “it’s a hard knock life”

  • •The greatest showman for the song “This is me”.

We’ll be working on those songs with scene work and choreography and hopefully present them in a final performance.

Sewing Class: Recycle T-Shirts into Chew toys!!

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Ms. Stephanie’s After School Sewing Class

Ms. Stephanie’s After School Sewing Class

A note from Ms. Stephanie: For our class, we partnered with the Human Society of the Virgin Islands to take discarded T-shirts and make them into dog toys.  I am going to donate these back to Donna at the Humane Society.  The kids had so much fun and we’re going to do it again before the semester is out.

Girls On a Mission

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March 15, 2018 - You've heard of girl power and independent young women, but we bet you haven't heard of Maya Livingston and Amalie Zucker. These two Upper Elementary students at Virgin Islands Montessori School and Peter Gruber International Academy decided they wanted to start up a cheerleading after school and made it happen!

After asking their teacher Caroline Morrison for guidance, 10 year old Maya and Amalie took it upon themselves to write a formal proposal for Business Director, Peggy Hunt and find volunteer coaches to get the program started. Determined to start an athletic after school program, both girls presented Hunt with a very detailed and well-written proposal specifying dates, times and practice locations. "I was beyond impressed by these two young ladies. They are the true definition of a Montessori child - independent, risk-taking and determined. The administration fully supports their idea - they've basically already done all the work” says Hunt. Maya and Amalie mentioned that this was their first time writing a proposal and "it required, a lot of changes.... a lot!"

After attending a cheerleading camp over the summer, Amalie told Maya all about how wonderful cheerleading is and how it requires various athletic abilities. "One day we were on the playground and we decided we wanted to do something fun for after school" said Maya.

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The girls are thankful to have the help of coach Keri Landry, Lower Elementary Teaching Assistant, as their after school cheerleading coach! Besides being a well-rounded athlete, Landry strives to empower youth and support her local community. "Cheerleading was an activity I was involved with from junior high all through college. In college is where I actually started competing. I also got involved in an all-star team. Both teams traveled around the country to compete. I agreed to help the girls out because being part of an athletic team is important and anything I can do to support growth in the community.. I will do it" says Landry.

Both Maya and Amalie mentioned how impressed they were with their first practice and how much they were able to accomplish. The girls hope that this will make people aware that cheerleading is not just girls with pom-poms and big bows rooting on sports teams, but a highly athletic and physically demanding sport. 

Congratulations Maya and Amalie!

 

Spring Magic Recital - Brava, Bravo, Bravi!

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The Spring Magic Production: a Celebration of Music and Dance was a true success. Ballerinas, tap dancers and jazz dancers dazzled the crowd.  Piano players also performed melodiously and were a wonderful addition to this year's celebration. 

Our programs begin in September and continue through May.  The students meet once a week to learn a specific dance genre and work towards creating a showcase at the end of the year to share their newfound skills.  

We have an amazing group of talented performing artists sharing their gifts with our VIMSIA youth.  A special thank you to our instructors: Jessica Alvarado, Mary Capellas, Katie Zaytoun, Luba Dolgopolsky and Artistic Director Helen Sidiropoulos for putting this magical production together. The instructors would also like to thank all administrative staff for supporting the programs, teachers and students throughout the school year.  It takes a village!

VIMSIA's Chess Team takes 9th Place at National Tournament

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VIMSIA students Amir, Aidan, Kinze and Chris competed at the U.S. Chess Federation National Championships over the weekend.  As a team, these two 4th years and two 6th years were competing against Middle and High School teams from around the country.  There were 1,460 players at the event. The VIMSIA team competed against about 30 teams that were in their section.  They came in with a solid 9th place - with trophies awarded up to the top ten finishers.  Looks like we are going to need that big  trophy case!  Way to go Volts.  Interesting factoid - these four students are also USVI Territorial Soccer Champs.  IB Learning trait = "Well Balanced", and so many more!  

 Kudos to our Chess-letes and thanks to Mr. Allen, Mr. Wilkinson and Mr. Gever for being there for them.

Shout out to 5th year Annabelle , who was also to attend but was unable to make the event due to travel difficulties - you'll get 'em next time Annabelle!

Chess Tournament Update

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The St. Thomas/St. John Chess Club members are in the midst of their first day of competition at the U.S. Chess Federation Scholastic Nationals in Atlanta.  

Mr. Gever is sending us updates as they come in.  Looks like a good first round for Chris.

There are 38 states with close to 1500 students participating!  

One more round today, 3 rounds tomorrow and 2 on Sunday.  We will try to keep you posted!  

Bon Voyage - Chess Athletes Off to Atlanta

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Bon voyage and bon chance to our St. Thomas - St. John Youth Scholastic Chess Club members that are off to Atlanta Georgia this morning for the U.S. Chess Federation National Championships.  

17 V.I. students, five of whom are VIMSIA students, will be participating in the event.  VIMSIA will also be representing the V.I. in the team competition.  Kinze, Amir, Aiden, Chris and Annabelle - Upper Elementary students, will be testing their skills against other chess players from around the country.  Huge kudos to Sinclair Wilkinson and VIMSIA Coach Darryl Allen for mentoring these students and providing this great opportunity.  We will keep you posted on results! 

Daily News Post

Thursday Art Club a Big Hit!

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Ms. Ferguson's Thursday Art Club started off with a bang last week.  Her students did beautiful leaf rubbings and paintings - they look so proud, don't they!

The Thursday Art Club is for Full Day Primary and Lower Elementary students.  Wednesday Art Club is for Upper El and PGIA.  Anyone that may still be interested in joining either of Ms. Ferguson's Art Clubs, please let Ms. Hunt know.

Spotlight: Amir and Kinze Chess Champs

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Congratulations to our VIMSIA chess players and Coach Allen.  We had several students participate in the interscholastic chess tournament held January 16.  Kudos to Amir, who took first place in the 12 and under category,  Kinze who took second place in the 9 and under category and Keo who took third place in the 12 and under category.  Go chess!

After School Program Registration Open to VIMSIA Parents/Students

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After School Program online registration is now open for VIMSIA students.  Check it out!  We have the great programs we have so happily offered for many years, plus some great newbies!

New offerings include PGIA Drama Club with Ms. Pamela New; PGIA Robotics with Mr. Andy Palmer, Spanish Culture and Cooking with Senora Santiago y Senora Santana, Elementary Basketball with Mr. Stocking, Upper El and PGIA Martial Arts with Grand Master Edward Scott, MMUN Prep with Ms. Morrison and Ms. Batten.  Lots of great new offerings.

Some changes:  Gymnastics will be split into three levels instead of two, if there are enough signups.  Ms. Ferguson is picking up the Full Day Primary and Lower El Art Club, in addition to her Upper El and PGIA Art Club - look for great works!  Ms. Mary is taking the Jazz and Modern dance and it will be back to back with Adv/Intermediate Tap on Wednesdays.  Ms. Helen is back with our little ones for Wed afternoon Pre-Ballet for 3 and 4 year olds.  These students can come out of BEC, or for those of you that pickup at 11:30, feel free to bring them back for the class.

PGIA has added a plethora of new academic support options through their academic ATTACK program.  See the schedule for Spanish, Science, Math and Writing Attack offerings.  Ms. Butler continues her oh so successful Academic Circles for Math and Reading at the Elementary levels.

Ms. Ferguson's art clubs

Ms. Ferguson's art clubs

We also have some excellent new talent for individual music lessons.  In addition to James Anderson on guitar and Mike Barr for trumpet and brass, Ms. Luba Dolgopolsky is offering piano and voice lessons, Mr. Sheldon "attiba" Bernard is offering flute and bass lessons.  You can contact them directly to schedule:

Home school students over the age of 5 may be able to participate in our after school programs depending on space availability and instructor discretion.  Please contact Ms. Hunt or Ms. Huttel at VIMSIA - 775-6360 - if you would like more information.

Media-Smart Youth Video: Eat, Think, and Be Active!

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Media-Smart Youth is an after school program that focuses on building skills in media analysis and media production to help young people ages 11 to 13  understand the complex media world and how this influences their health and decision making in regards to nutrition and physical activity. 

This video is our school's Big Production.   The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), a part of the National Institutes of Health within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, created Media-Smart Youth to help empower young people to think critically about media and make thoughtful decisions about nutrition and physical activity.

This partnership was made possible by our sponsor WUVI AM 1090 Radio Station.  Huge thanks to our VIMSIA Teen Leaders Harsha Ramchand and Ca-Jani Fahie;  VIMSIA Staff Scott Williams and Erika Gomez; WUVI Radio Manager Christina Chanes.