No School tomorrow due to the storm. We are also cancelling Wednesday Night Lower Elementary Parent Meeting and both Parent Meetings (Upper El and PGIA) for Thursday evening. Continue watching your emails, or the website announcement banner, twitter, facebook and WSTA for announcements relating to Friday.
School will open tomorrow (8/24) as expected. We will watch the 5:00 A.M. update and provide any updates by 6:00 A.M., but expect to proceed with school as scheduled. Remember no bus until Sep 8. See you soon!
Michael stopped by today to say hi and bye as he gets ready to head off to the University of Rochester on Sunday. Michael is planning to study Physics and Psychology. He was lucky enough to spend a month over the summer in an orientation program so is ready to rock and roll. He is such a great kid! Best of luck Michael!
Alex McFarlane, who will be entering 9th grade in the PGIA, was honored as MVP of the Latin America/Caribbean Regional Intermediate Baseball Championships in July. Alex's St. Thomas All Star Team, coached by Geary Smith and Kwodwo Brannigan, won the tournament and now proceed as the Latin America representatives to the Intermediate World Series in Livermore, CA beginning August 2. This is only the second time St. Thomas has made it to the World Series level! Huge kudos to Alex and the rest of the team. We wish them luck. ALEX, WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU! (I predicted this when he was eight months old spinning quarters on my kitchen table - ever the athlete!)
Zane Birnie is home for the summer after finishing his first year at Rider University. Zane is studying Arts Administration and hosted a Caribbean Music Hour on Rider's radio station, WRRC-FM The Bronc. Next year he plans to also host an Open Mic Night. Many of us have seen Zane perform Standup Comedy, right here on St. Thomas. He is indeed an LOL entertaining young man! Best of luck, Zane. Thanks for stopping by - we missed seeing your smiling face around campus this past year. Ahh, they grow up so fast!
The International Summer Academy (ISA) is well underway and continues through most of the summer. Please check out the fabulous offerings week by week for ages 3 through 16 on the ISA Website. Enjoy the photos below and see what's been happening so far. Thanks Ms. Helen and Ms. Barbara for getting together some fabulous offerings!
Discovery campers, ages 8 to 14, enjoyed making a variety of foods from different cultures around the globe. Tony Romano, who is a world renowned chef, was a guest at the camp and worked with the students to make pasta pomodoro, pasta ali-olio, caprese salad, blueberries with chantilly sauce - yum!
Imagination campers, ages 3 and 4, along with the Adventure campers created beautiful chalk murals under the Solar Awning, then headed up to the Pirate Ship for some good outdoor play - Aargh, Matey!
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.
Kai Bartlette stopped by campus today. It was so good to see her, I love when Alumni stop by to visit us! Kai was in our first IB graduating class, in 2011. She went on to Providence College and has just graduated with a major in Mathematics and a minor in Spanish. Kai is home for the summer, but will begin work on her PhD in Applied Mathematics this fall at Colorado School of Mines.
The purpose of the Latin Dance end session was to give students an overview of different Latin dances, their origin and cultural interconnection. The Latin dances explored in this course, included: Salsa, Bachata, Argentine Tango, Samba, Cha Cha Cha, Flamenco, and Bolero. Students gained a better understanding of Latin-American culture by exploring different dances and rhythms, unique to specific countries and regions within Latin America and the Spanish Speaking Caribbean. Participants also learned to dance and practiced these dances, along with exploring Latin Culture in our local environment by going to lunch to Cafe Amalia and Melt Mexican Grill. Team building activities and outings to the beach also helped students engage in this end session.
Twenty two very grown up looking pre-teens took center stage on Friday, June 12 for the Montessori Graduation Ceremony. This marks the completion of these students' Montessori years and signals the "Move up the Hill" to the IB program next year.
Speakers Soren Gibbs and Haley Rogers spoke eloquently and articulately, citing special memories of their Montessori years and giving special thanks to all of their Montessori teachers.
Special recognition to Ms. Jeanette Feracho in honor of her 46 years of passion and dedication to the students of VI Montessori School. A "Ms. Boyle and Ms. Feracho Child" from each grade level plus her youngest son Malik, representing the Alums, presented Ms. Feracho with a red rose, ultimately creating a lovely full bouquet - and hopefully a nice start to her retirement.
This is the culminating project for the Documentary End Session Group, under the mentorship of Mr. Williams. It is a MUST SEE. Hysterical. Kudos all.
In the capable hands of Mr. Marc Corbeil, the PGIA Scuba End Session group attained their PADI certifications in Open Water as well as Advanced Open Water Scuba. Turtles and sharks and fish, oh my!
Great underwater video. How amazing that we have all of this is our backyard! Our beautiful island in the Caribbean Sea.
Click to view photo slideshow of peter pan, created by karen gauriloff
The Drama End Session put on their performance of Peter Pan on Friday. This was the first play to be done on our Solar Awning Stage. It was a great venue! We had over 200 people attend - there was plenty of space, the concession stand was open and worked well. I sat in the first row of chairs behind all of the younger children, who decided to sit cross legged front and center. While up and running about during set changes, they were quick to pop back in their seats when the curtain went up - and seemed mesmerized throughout.
Kudos to Ms. Bump and the cast and crew!
End Sessions are just swimming along. Here is an email just received from Ms. Elger. She and Mr. Elger have the Women's World Cup - Canadian Cultural Experience End Session. Sounds like all is well and kids are happy!
“Good afternoon, everyone,
I hope this finds you well. I apologize I haven’t sent an update. The WiFi at our hotel was a bit spotty the last two nights. We are currently on the train from Quebec to Montreal.
Short story, everyone is fine. A few of us are getting a little sick, but we’re managing it with Advil Sinus, EmergenC, fluids and rest. We think it has a lot to do with the temperature change. It’s been cold and we had rain today, so we’re all adjusting to Canada from our sunny STT. Since the last email, we have seen sights, shopped, ate, went to a hockey game, and ridden buses and trains.
Long story, your students are just amazing! Joey and I have been inspired by their abilities to take risks. Each of you would be very proud. On Sunday, we started our day with discovering a beautiful bakery. The food was just delicious! It was an inspiring way to begin our glorious day. We took the bus to Old Town, and students had a few hours to explore and shop on their own. We then took the funicular to a plaza where we were entertained by a street performer. We had breath-taking views of the St. Lawrence River and got to see the Chateau Frontenac, one of the most photographed hotels in the world and where Churchill and Roosevelt planned the D-Day invasion. We then ate poutine for lunch, while a few students went to a Creperie. We ventured back to the hotel, had some downtime, and left for the hockey game. The Memorial Cup was amazing! The students really enjoyed their first live hockey game. It went into overtime, and the ending was very dramatic! It was a great game. We had lights out when we returned to the hotel, and everyone was tucked safely and soundly in their beds. The following day, the group went to an amazing market. Many of the students enjoyed the fresh tomatoes! Our plan was to go to a museum about the French/Indian War, but the restoration that should have finished in April was still on-going. So, we just enjoyed playing in a huge field. A few students rolled all the way to the bottom. We got some great videos of this! Afternoon naps and downtime at the hotel followed. We then left for our “fancy” dinner. What fun!! Everyone looked so precious all dressed up. Our waiter was fantastic, and the food was out of this world. Our party ordered everything from steaks to pate to rabbit to liver to truffles to homemade sodas and several things in between. Everyone really enjoyed themselves and each other. We then returned to the hotel for downtime before lights out at midnight. We knew today would be cold and rainy, so we planned a day inside at a local mall. Students shopped to their hearts content and ate from all the options at the food court. Mr. Elger and I saw an IMAX film in French and gave the students Krispy Kreme doughnuts. We took a bus back to the hotel, grabbed our bags, took a bus to the train station, and boarded the train. We will arrive in Montreal around 6:00 and check into our hotel. Tonight will be an easy and relaxing one. Tomorrow, we will be sight-seeing and spectators at an MLS game. The next day, we will be at an amusement park.
Again, I cannot tell you how fantastic your children are being. They are so polite when we are on any form of public transportation, always offering their seats to locals. They open doors for each other. They’re just really great young people. I know y’all miss them, but thank you for letting us have this experience with them.
Please text or email if you need us.
Take Care,
Elizabeth”
This is an update that was received from Mr. Gever, who is traveling is Peru with Ms. Weichman and the Spanish Immersion End Session Group. Enjoy! Hopefully more good pictures to follow.
We have done tons of walking at very high altitude, 11,000+ feet, and it's freezing cold (for us) but there has not been any significant grumbling.
We met a lady the other day on one of the tours and asked her if her hotel had heating, as our apartment doesn't. (You have to muster up all your courage just to go to the bathroom.) She said she wasn't sure if there was heat or not in her hotel and added, "Why would you need it?". She's from London.
This is really an amazing place to visit. The natural landscapes are amazing. We went through the Sacred Valley yesterday, a long, narrow valley boxed in by steep mountains on both sides and occasional towering peaks, some permanently covered in snow. Blending in in a very organic way, ancient Incan agricultural terraces and ruined cities. It's also fascinating to think that the rushing rivers draining to the east feed into the Amazon jungle. We are just at the edge between the Andes altiplano and the Amazon rainforest. Next week we are going to Machu Picchu, which I think actually lies within the rainforest.
We went to a village yesterday where we were shown how traditional weaving and dying is done. All the Quechua-speaking ladies were dressed in their traditional garb (but not just for the tourists). One of them had actually learned enough English to explain everything to us in English. (Unfortunately, the tour was not in Spanish.) She had a really cute accent, and even made jokes. It was amazing to see the variety of colors they can extract from different plants and the cochineal insect. They showed us how pure cochineal gives a black color, but when mixed with lemon juice it produces an orange color.
I also learned in a private discussion with our tour guide, that all those hand-made alpaca sweaters us tourists love to buy are not really alpaca wool. She said a pure alpaca sweater would cost about $100, which is why most Peruvians don't wear it. If it's "baby alpaca" (first cut), double the price The best quality wool is from the vicuña, which is what the Incan emperors used. These days a sweater made of this type of wool would cost upwards of $500! The guide also told me that cochineal is extremely expensive and is not used for dying any ordinary garments.
Skyler Anspacher shows off his robotic cobra, built in the STEM End Session led by Mr. Palmer.
It was a hugely successful year for the PGIA class of 2015. Students received over $6 million dollars in financial aid and 100% of the graduates went to 4-year institutions. We are very proud of these students and their hard work and perseverance. GO PGIA!
Virgin Islands Montessori School and Peter Gruber International Academy presents, "A Cultural Mix for the World to See"
Students in the PGIA Biology classes explored marine life and evolutionary traits of animals by doing squid dissections in Ms. Zakers' classes.
Both Readers Theater and the 10th grade class performed at Pistarckle's 14th annual Shakespeare Festival. Excellent MacBeth performances by both groups. Kudos to Ms. Pamela for her Readers Theater efforts and Ms. Bump for her direction of the 10th graders.
The Reader's Theater group under the direction of Ms. Pamela New performs Shakespeare's MacBeth.
The 10th grade class under the direction of Ms. Bump performs MacBeth as well.
Virgin Islands Montessori School and Peter Gruber International Academy - a Montessori and International Baccalaureate Toddler through grade twelve private school in the beautiful U.S. Virgin Islands. Ask for Admissions 340-775-6360.
VIMSIA 6936 Vessup Lane, St. Thomas USVI 00802 info@vimsia.org Phone: 340.775.6360 Maps and Directions Staff Portal
