VCS Summer 2022 Magazine

THE MURAL

VILLAGE COMMUNITY SCHOOL • SUMMER 2022

LETTER FROM JEN

Welcome to The Mural

We launch The Mural at a time when so much feels new at VCS: a new building, buzzing with student life; new possibilities for our students and our program; even a (somewhat) new Head of School. In this inaugural issue of our new school magazine, you will have a chance to see some of what this historic year has brought to VCS, including the opening of our long-awaited addition, the Eve K. Kleger Wing Our expansion represents a remarkable feat of collective determination and effort— and the realization of the vision of my predecessor, in whose name the addition is dedicated. It’s only appropriate, then, that this achievement becomes the focus of our first edition of The Mural, that we use words and images to open the new front doors to our far-reaching community of VCS students and families past, present, and future.

Our physical campus isn’t the only place VCS continues to grow. Our Mission is to prepare students “for their futures in an increasingly complex and dynamic world”; as that world evolves, so too does our program. The stories teachers have volunteered for these pages reflect the sense of forward momentum that characterizes the student experience. The world inside the school building is just as dynamic as the world outside it, and I am so excited to have this platform to showcase all the ways we are innovating, experimenting, and forging paths into the future.

Just as important are all the ways VCS is staying the same. Familiarity and history are more relevant to our lives at school than ever; three years into a global pandemic, having had many of our basic routines disrupted, it is this community’s shared commitment to our fundamental school values and continuation of long-standing traditions that ground us among all the change. The past, too, is celebrated throughout this issue—even the name of the magazine was chosen as a nod to the school’s tradition of student-inspired murals. By expressing the vibrant life of the school’s interior, those murals were always a way of bringing the inside out—and so is this Mural. I hope you will enjoy it.

The Murals

In a 1970 New York Times article announcing the opening of Village Community School, the first students of VCS were reported to have “brought records, books, old shoes, hats and puzzles as their contributions to their new school.” It’s a funny image, especially given the extensive resources—technological, literary, and otherwise—available to our students today. Nevertheless, VCS children still know they each have something special to offer their school, and are invited to develop an appreciation of their individual value in many ways.

One of the ways this idea has historically been cultivated is through students’ participation in the creation of collaborative murals. Many alums will recall working on one of the murals on the Big Yard wall, and some may even remember murals in the “Little Yard” originally located behind the Front Lobby of the 2003 building.

Our most recent Big Yard mural, featuring audio waves of students saying “We Love VCS” in Spanish, Mandarin, Latin, and English, was recreated on the wall of the new Sky Yard, where it continues to serve as the bright backdrop for student play. Unlike earlier murals, the “We Love VCS” mural was painted by professionals; but by taking recordings of every student as its theme, it perfectly captures the spirit of our mural tradition: every voice matters.

Shaping Graduates Through School Traditions

By Helen Huang

When I came to VCS 13 years ago, I started the school year the way everyone new does: at the Opening Assembly. Hearing children singing familiar songs of welcome, the 8th Graders introducing themselves and new students and staff, and the cheers for the ringing of the bell, I realized this school was unlike any I had been in before. I remember thinking, “Wow. Everyone is all in at this place.”

What impressed me so much at that assembly was how personal it felt, like everyone was comfortable sharing themselves with the whole school. And as I continued through that first year and beyond, I learned that sense of openness was a constant. It was brought out inside the classrooms, but it was also created through traditions like the Opening and Closing Assemblies, the Upper School Overnight, and Big Buddies/Little Buddies. Each of these activities creates a sense of belonging and comfort, while also encouraging students to consider their own identity in the context of the communities to which they belong— the class, the grade, and the school.

As the Upper School Student Life Coordinator, I am able to see how VCS students evolve in the years leading up to Graduation, and I’ve come to believe these traditions aren’t just memorable, but transformative. They are a large part of what makes a VCS education unique, helping our students feel truly at home. And feeling comfortable isn’t just a bonus in education: it’s the foundation from which meaningful learning happens: social-emotionally and academically.

BIG BUDDIES/LITTLE BUDDIES

When an 8th Grader becomes a Big Buddy, most of them aren’t sure what to expect. Even those who were once Little Buddies themselves recognize the experience will be totally different for them this time; now they are the students who once seemed so much older and more mature. Big Buddies are exciting company for Little Buddies just by virtue of their age and their position as school leaders, and 8th Graders tend to be happily surprised by the speed and ease with which their partnered Kindergartener or Kindergarteners develop affection for them: wanting hugs and high fives, joyfully showing them their classroom and their work, presenting them with cards and crafts. These unexpected gestures not only help 8th Graders appreciate their special position in the school and their responsibility to the community but also feel more closely tethered to the community after Graduation. Our Big Buddies head off to high school knowing they are remembered and missed by many at VCS—including their Little Buddy.

OPENING & CLOSING ASSEMBLIES

Assemblies are often seen as a purely practical part of school life, but VCS’s Opening and Closing Assemblies are not a time to make announcements or hear from a speaker, but to share in the spirit of community with songs, greetings, and cheers. However old you are when you attend your first Opening Assembly, it teaches you that your life at school is inseparable from its community and traditions, including the seating of 8th Graders on the stage. This tradition recognizes our oldest students’ place as the student leaders of the school, but it also suggests what types of leaders they are expected to be: welcoming and kind. They begin the year by introducing themselves, incoming Kindergarteners, and all new to the VCS community, and close the year by leading the audience in an invented cheer, including all assembled in the joy of their achievement.

By participating in these and other school traditions, students develop a finely tuned sense of right and wrong and the ability to act as leaders when appropriate, as well as an understanding of when to let others exercise leadership. They become more comfortable exploring and sharing their authentic identity, making mistakes, and engaging in complex conversations.

All these qualities drive the natural pursuit of learning that is so central to our school’s Mission; they are, in fact, the essential qualities of a VCS graduate.

UPPER SCHOOL OVERNIGHT

In taking students away from the school building, the Upper School Overnight allows 6th, 7th, and 8th Graders to loosen any ideas they may have about how they fit into the social structure of the school. They are not only mixing with fellow Upper Schoolers in new mixed-grade configurations, but also in new contexts— completing obstacle courses through the forest, collaborating on improvisational skits, preparing meals together. This creates a sense of familiarity and trust that students will carry with them into the year ahead and beyond. I’ve been on 13 Upper School Overnights—including one on Zoom—and every time I have seen the Upper School leave the experience differently than they entered it: more curious about and compassionate towards their fellow students, closer with their teachers, and less intimidated by unfamiliar activities. The sense of ease we establish with one another out in the woods is brought back into the school building with us when we return.

VCS SPACES

K.

Wing: 30,000 square feet of new, light-filled spaces where students themselves expand, growing into young scientists, designers, linguists, artists, athletes, and craftsmen. With this three-story addition, designed by Marvel Architects and funded by the VCS2020 Campaign, VCS gained a youth regulation-sized Gymnasium, state-of-the-art Science and Language Labs, dedicated math and language classrooms, a sprawling Sky Yard for play, and a Library stocked with over 12,000 titles and situated at the very heart of the school. Seamlessly blending with our original structures, the completion of our new building in 2021 fulfilled Eve’s long-held vision and marked the beginning of a new era for VCS.

The Eve

Kleger

WORKING

GATHERING

like the new hallway because it’s very comforting. It has new colors and we have little places to sit instead of just sitting on the ground or the old benches.”

— JULIA, 3RD GRADE

“I really like the Library because there are comfy chairs. We also do Latin in there, so that’s fun too.”

— POPPY, 7TH GRADE

“I

— LAILA, 8TH GRADE

“I like the Sky Yard because it reminds me of the Big Yard and I like being active. It gives me a whole new place to play.”

— KIYAN, 6TH GRADE

“My favorite place in the new building is the Language Lab, because I like being able to learn in a smaller environment. We use it for certain classes, but we can also just do work in there.”

Re-envisioning Reading for Everyone

By Chris Gollmar

My student Joie shared these words on a September morning, as her 1st Grade class discussed why people read. She articulated this idea carefully, giving them a sense of importance. With a thick, blue marker I wrote her words on a large piece of poster paper. As if subconsciously trying to model this mindset, I misspelled “read,” crossed it off, and tried again.

Some months later, Joie’s words—and my misspelling— are still posted prominently in the classroom. The poster reminds me and my students that we are each on our own path toward becoming better readers.

What does it mean to become a better reader? Like most institutions, VCS’s reading instruction in the early years is built around five key components: comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, phonics, and phonemic awareness. In any given classroom, students show a range of skills in each of these five areas. Generally, the range is quite broad in Kindergarten and 1st Grade, where fluent readers may sit side-by-side with classmates who are still mastering letter-sounds.

As was the case with nearly every area of students’ lives, the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted some of our core practices in reading instruction. Before March 2020, many K-3rd Grade students left their homerooms during reading time, traveling down the hallway to separate reading groups organized by skill level. But the protocols we put in place to safely re-open in-person instruction meant we could no longer mix students between classes. How, then, would we ensure each student could learn and practice the right skills at the right time?

In the spring of 2021, a group of Lower School teachers came together to envision a new system for reading instruction and support. Our goal was to improve upon our previous approach by offering a mix of differentiated and individualized instruction alongside a shared scope and sequence of reading skills. Whereas VCS’s previous reading groups were, broadly speaking, homogeneous—that is, students of similar skill levels were grouped together—our new system would be a mix of homogeneous and heterogeneous groups. Every week, students spend time learning and practicing reading with the whole class and with peers who are working on mastering similar reading skills.

Our new system has three components, with slight variations across grade levels. I’m thrilled by the work we have done together to re-envision reading at VCS, and I’d like to share with you what each component looks like in my 1st Grade classroom.

Whole-Class Reading Instruction

When we meet as a whole class for reading, I often begin by leading a short lesson to introduce and practice phonics and phonemic awareness skills. I don’t spend the whole time with systematic phonics instruction, though.

“I LOVE marshmallows,” I read, “They’re my favorite food!”

The class giggles and groans at this last line. We’ve been reading a King and Kayla book together, and they know that King, a lovable golden retriever, has a new favorite food once or twice every chapter. Our shared book has become an introduction to character traits, an informal study of narrative structure, and a rich time to practice reading words with consonant blends.

“Not everyone can read, but everyone can learn how to read.”

“Not everyone can read, but everyone can learn how to read.”

On another day, a poem by Gwendolyn Brooks connects us to Black History Month while also giving students practice identifying rhymes and visualizing. In this and many other ways, students learn to stretch their reading skills while surrounded by their peers at all skill levels.

Small-Group Guided Reading

Two days a week, we shift to working in small groups of 3-6 students. While one group reads with a teacher, the others work on differentiated word study activities, read with a partner, or write about a book. Students who require additional support at the moment may work with a reading specialist, though the format is the same—a small, guided reading group in the classroom—normalizing the range of reading skills across the class.

Though I tend to think of these as homogeneous groups, it is no surprise to me that even within a small group of students with similar reading skills there is quite a bit of variation! As I listen to the group read a shared book,

I give each student individual feedback. While one student is working on reading words with the “silent e” pattern, another is working on monitoring their reading for mistakes, and another is adding expression to their voice.

One of the joys of teaching 1st Grade is that students learn at different rates and along their own paths. This means that our guided reading groups change several times throughout the year, giving students the opportunity to learn alongside new friends.

Community Reading

We have an additional period twice a week for students to choose reading activities that reinforce the skills we’ve learned and practiced as a group. If you were to peek into 1C or 1D during Community Reading time, you’d see some students reading on their own, some students reading to a partner or a teacher, and the rest playing games to practice reading and writing. Students who need an additional level of support may have Community Reading time with a reading specialist,

once again reinforcing the idea that we all follow our own paths as growing readers while avoiding the potential stigma some students may feel about being pulled from class.

In addition to engaging games, I always have a listening center, where students can explore books and audiobooks on their iPads. I love noticing what students are interested in. Graphic novels are popular, but my 1st Graders are equally likely to research topics that interest them. Recently, there has been a group of kids in 1C that are becoming experts in trains, while another trio has focused their attention on books about cats.

A recent hit in Pods 1C and 1D has been the “book shopping” center, when students visit the classroom library to pick up new books to read. There’s a certain buzz of excitement in the room when a student discovers that a book that they found too challenging just a few weeks ago is now just right!

Everyone Can Learn How to Read

Children are often keen observers, and I know they notice the wide range of reading skills within their class community. We’ve worked hard to cultivate a classroom climate where all students can feel comfortable growing as readers following their own paths. In Joie’s words, “everyone can learn how to read,” and they show their dedication to this idea every day.

Kids Love to Work

An Interview with Judy Kashman

What brought you to VCS?

I was working at Walden Lincoln, and Walden Lincoln was closing. And the Art teacher there told me about two positions that were opening: a Woodshop position [at VCS] and a Woodshop position at Little Red. And I interviewed here for the Woodshop, and the minute I walked in the door of that two-car garage I fell in love with the Woodshop and thought, ‘I have to work here, this is an amazing place, I have to have this job.’ And that was 30 years ago.

Did that two-car garage serve the goals of the Woodshop program well?

In 2006, that shop had gotten pretty dilapidated—it was really starting to fall apart, and I called Eve up and I said ‘Eve, you should come on down here’—it was raining pretty hard—‘and bring an umbrella—because water is leaking into the shop.’ And we renovated the shop and basically kept the same footprint.

And when Eve and I sat down to discuss this Woodshop, what was in the forefront of my mind was that we should design this new Woodshop so that it had multi-use tables… not just tables for the youngest of our population but have tables that could be for 6th, 7th, and 8th Graders. And we now have that. We have a wonderful space and we are creating an environment where both younger kids and older kids can work in the shop; if we pivot to having Woodshop classes for older kids, it’s ready to go. It’s ready for anybody to work in the shop.

Has the curriculum stayed the same—the projects for each age group?

The curriculum has been fine-tuned over the years. I’m more clear these days—probably in the last 15 years of the 30 (laughs)—it probably took me 15 years to really get what everybody loves to do. I think I have a pretty good idea now what kids love to do and what’s appropriate and what they’re capable of. I’m able to set high expectations, knowing that kids are capable of a lot: they’re hardworking, they come in ready to go, they don’t want to have long demonstrations, they want to get to work.

But this program is really meant to be a mix of some required work at the beginning of the year and a choice project in the second part of the year. Because by that point kids should have the skills they need to design something—you might want to make a birdhouse, I might want to make a table, this person over here might just want to make a small sculpture, and there should always be a part of the program where kids can make a choice about what they’d like to make based on their own personal life and needs.

What are some favorite Woodshop projects?

I like making musical instruments with kids, and that can be anything from bottle cap shakers to a spinoff of a four-string instrument or ukulele. We’ve made xylophones, usually with 1st Graders.

And puppets—kids will come who have older brothers and sisters and say ‘Oh, you know, my brother or my sister made that puppet’—so the puppet is kind of a tradition of this program.

We’ve done a lot of interdisciplinary work with Social Studies classes over the years—one year I think 2nd Grade was studying the Dutch, they made a Dutch house in their room. One year 5th Grade was studying Japan, the kids and I and my assistant planned a Japanese tea house with a sliding door, we built that in a 5th Grade room. Wigwams, covered wagons, Henry Hudson’s boat…

Most of the work we do comes from kids’ ideas. I think it’s important to honor students’ voices and you learn a lot from really listening to what they want to do. You know—they like making birdhouses, they like making chairs, they like making benches, they like making utilitarian objects, they like making useful things. They like making boxes, they like making toys. So all the things we make are based on things I know are sure hits.

What’s your favorite thing about teaching Woodshop? Seeing the most joyful response in all ages of children when they realize they have the ability to build things out of wood.

One of my favorite things is watching the Kindergarteners when they learn how to nail for the first time, that’s pretty amazing to watch kids that young set up their own workspace —they all learn how to set up their own workspace, get the tools that they need from the tool wall and be independent.

Kids really love to work. Kids love to work. They just have an enormous amount of energy, they can’t wait to get in here, it’s hard to stop them. It truly is meeting their needs as a whole person—they just want to handle tools and materials and make something that is meaningful to them.

Woodshop is the original STEAM. You have all of these things combined—you have math, engineering, technology—in different kinds of ways—science, art. Like three times this week someone has said to me, ‘my sander’s hot’ or ‘my wood is hot.’ So they are making these discoveries…if you’re building

something and something is tipping over, that’s engineering. And there’s always measuring, which we probably do more measuring in this Woodshop than most of the students do all year in their classrooms. And you can see it’s hard for kids to measure precisely.

The Woodshop is—I’m sure it always has been—a big draw. I can’t tell you how many people over the years have said to me ‘when we saw the Woodshop, we decided we wanted to send our child to VCS.’ So many people just walk into the shop and go, ‘Oh! This smells like wood!’ It’s a magical, intoxicating smell for anyone that walks in; they’re mesmerized by the smell of wood.

“The minute I walked in the door of that two-car garage I fell in love with the Woodshop and thought, ‘I have to work here, this is an amazing place.’”

— JUDY KASHMAN

The Woodshop

“I was encouraged to feel limitless and to truly think outside of the wooden box, which often equated to me making things that were too big to bring home, but the takeaway was that I could do absolutely anything I put my mind to….shout out to Michael Falcone, my former Woodshop teacher, for instilling the belief in this little brown girl that she was capable of doing anything she put her mind to.”

— SHAUNA KAMIEL, CLASS OF 1995

“I also loved Woodshop. I made a kid chair for a family member. Also, I created a Kwanzaa Kinara seven candle holder as a gift for my older brother who celebrated Kwanzaa.”

— NATASHA HUGGINS LEITCH, CLASS OF 1993

“As I progressed through my years I returned to Woodshop as one of my electives in 7th Grade. During this elective period, I remember building a cradle for my sister who was pregnant with my first nephew. I also built a checkers/chess table with a drawer to store the pieces. My mother stenciled this table and it is still in our family today.”

—

LABAN CABRERA, CLASS OF 1984

“My favorite place was definitely the Woodshop. I have so many amazing memories there; and I still have a lot of projects I did there actually. I built bulldozers, and boxes, and I think a lot of the beginnings of my creativity and my confidence expressing myself artistically came from VCS.”

—

EVA ZUCKERMAN, CLASS OF 1997

“There was this one spoon I made; it took a ton of sanding, I would literally like walk around just sanding this spoon because it had to be really smooth. It was really time consuming, and it took a ton of patience and it really taught me how to be more patient myself because I was always the type of person who just wanted to just get something done as quickly as I could because I wanted to get that satisfaction quickly. But learning that sometimes things take time to make it as good as it can be, and to put in that effort and put in that time and in the end when I finally finished sanding everything and I was able to glaze it or put the finish on it, it looked so nice and it felt really nice and it was all smooth.”

— LIAN BENZ, CLASS OF 2022

“At Harvard I was President of the theater organization; I was doing a lot of producing and logistical work but I also did a lot of costume design, set building and even puppet design on one show. VCS’s theater program—and Woodshop!—prepared me well.”

—

MAGDALENE ZIER, CLASS OF

2008

“My mother would not let me wear heels, and I was determined to have high heeled shoes. I decided I could make them in Woodshop by attaching some carpet to a couple of pieces of wood and gluing it all together. This was probably 1981? I was advised by the teacher that ‘it doesn’t work that way.’”

— ERICA TRIPARD, CLASS OF 1985

“Throughout life, I have always thought of it whenever I smell wood chips and am grateful for the ability to be at least a little ‘handy’ because of the skills learned there!”

— SARAH YARDENI, CLASS OF 1986

A Day in the Life

OF THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

8:15 a.m.

Downstairs for one of my favorite parts of the day—Arrival! It has been so nice seeing families get back in the building for in-classroom drop-offs this spring, and I love starting the day with so many warm hellos—from families and dogs.

8:30 a.m.

My first meeting of the day is with our Director of High School Placement, who has final updates on where our 8th Graders will spend their high school years. I’ve been seeing lots of our soon-to-be-graduates wearing their high school swag around campus, and love how excited they are for this next chapter. Most of them are off to their first-choice schools!

10:00 a.m.

Every morning includes a meeting with the Educational Council: Dean of Students Ruben Parra, Academic Dean Jessica Romero, and Dean of Faculty (and VCS parent) Sarah Williamson-Broadman.

These three have a combined 60 years of experience at VCS; Ruben and Sarah both started their careers here as Kindergarten teachers, while Jessica originally served as the Upper School Director. No one knows everything that’s happening around the school like this group, and I meet with them every day to discuss all school business, from the Lower School Sing-Along to changes to next year’s Social Studies curriculum. On today’s agenda: planning new mixed-grade experiences as we continue our straight-grade homeroom model in K-4th Grade next year.

11:00 a.m.

I take every opportunity to come into classrooms and check out what students are working on—or share something I love with the students. In the fall, I visited K-2nd Grade classes for read-alouds of some of my favorite children’s books, and read Gaia Cornwall’s Jabari Tries to each Kindergarten Pod. Now, I’m making the rounds again with another Jabari story for our youngest students, perfect for the upcoming summer: Jabari Jumps! One of my favorite moments from my time with KA was when students told me about their morning message, which they read together as part of their Morning Meeting routine. Throughout the year, as students become more aware of writing mechanics and rules of reading like punctuation, sight words, and digraphs, they begin to independently apply those rules to the message. It’s wonderful to see the different ways classroom communities connect on a daily basis.

12:25 p.m.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be moderating a conversation among a panel of 8th Graders who will discuss their experience of the K-8 education they received at VCS. The students participating on the panel have all been here since Kindergarten, so they each have 9 years of memories to draw from. I wanted to make sure I met with them ahead of time to get a sense of the areas they really wanted to speak about, and share some of the questions I know parents will be eager to hear their thoughts on, like the high school placement process, student leadership, and how things changed as they moved through their time at VCS.

1:15 p.m.

It was KB’s day for a spring read-aloud too, and after we finished Jabari Jumps, I asked each student to tell me one thing they were really happy about. My favorite answer was from the student who said simply, “life!”

Before the end of the afternoon, I saw KB again—they came by to drop off the most beautiful thank you card, which still hangs in my office today.

3:30 p.m.

The amazing Community Service Committee has organized a school-wide service opportunity benefitting Food Bank for New York City. Earlier today, Upper School students met with representatives from the Food Bank to discuss nutrition and food insecurity, then packed healthy snack packs for an in-school pantry on the Lower East Side. Now, it’s K-5th Graders’ turn! By the end of the event, students in K-8 had packed over 1,000 pounds of food for fellow New Yorkers.

After I say goodbye to families on the Sky Yard, I’m heading back to my office to work on my Graduation remarks—the Class of 2022’s Graduation Ceremony will be the first to be held at VCS since 2019!

“I take every opportunity to come into classrooms and check out what students are working on—or share something I love with the students.”

—Jen Mitchell, Head of School

BIG BUZZ: POWERING LEARNING IN THE LOWER SCHOOL WITH ROBOTICS

By Lindsay Kent

In the VCS Lower School, educational robotics serve as tools for providing students with an introduction to programming and computational thinking in a playful and interactive way. The vertically-aligned robotics program grows with students as they continue to expand and build upon their knowledge each year. Other content areas—such as Mathematics and Social Studies—are connected to students’ robotics work to create engaging interdisciplinary learning experiences. This early introduction to robotics fosters the development of essential skills including teamwork and perseverance while engaging our students’ cognitive and creative potential.

A VCS student’s robotics journey begins in 1st Grade with Bee-Bots, colorful and easy-to-operate robots designed for the youngest learners. Students begin by making a connection between their knowledge of sequencing from literacy to computer programming. They discover how to program their Bee-Bots using a series of simple commands including moving forward and backward and turning left and right. By doing so, they gain fluency with planning, testing, problem-solving (debugging) and directionality. Working in partnerships, 1st Graders take on the roles of “navigator” (plans the program using command cards) and “driver” (programs the Bee-Bot by pressing the buttons). The students tackle two challenges: programming their Bee-Bots to follow a sequence of steps to do a “bug dance” and programming their bots to navigate a shape maze.

In 2nd Grade, students’ robotics work continues as they graduate to Ozobots, small and versatile educational robots that offer a multimodal approach to programming and opportunities for independent and shared exploration. At this age, students focus on screen-free programming,

using markers to draw color codes the Ozobots’ sensors respond to. By experimenting with different combinations of these codes, students control the movement and trajectory of their robots, all while learning the fundamentals of coding. Students make connections between the input of a sequence of colors and the output of direction and speed. After completing assigned challenges, they have an opportunity to engage in self-guided discovery by taking their bots on a “road trip”; using a blank sheet of paper, they draw their own pathways and apply what they’ve learned about color codes to change their bot’s movements, speed and direction as it travels from a starting point to a final destination. These student-designed paths range from race tracks for some friendly bot competition to vocabulary words that the Ozobots can “spell” out. Ozobots also make an appearance in a 2nd Grade math lesson where they assist students in practicing their coin counting skills. Students collect coins as their bots pass them on a color-coded track and then find the sum of their earnings.

In Technology class, 3rd Graders review color codes and begin using the OzoBlockly online coding editor to advance

their skills to block-based coding. After creating a program in OzoBlockly, students send it via Bluetooth to their Ozobot. Next, 3rd Graders explore the programming concept of loops as they program their bots to move in different patterns. An integrated math activity gives students an opportunity to apply their knowledge of 2D shapes and multiplication while working with their Ozobots. Students program their bots to randomly select a number of units for the length and width of a rectangle, then use the numbers to draw the rectangle on grid paper and find the area by multiplying the length by the width.

More complex programming concepts including conditionals and variables in OzoBlockly await students in 4th Grade, where young programmers begin by playing a game of Ozobot tag in which they program their bots to react to their hand movements using conditionals. Next, in a maze game challenge, students apply their knowledge of conditionals to program their bots to move through a maze, respond to obstacles and rewards, and celebrate reaching the finish line. As an integrated project with 4th Grade Social Studies

during Black History Month, students learn about Dorothy Vaughan, a Black pioneer in computer science, and simulate work she completed as a programmer at NASA using Ozobots. Students are introduced to functions in programming and use variable blocks in OzoBlockly to have their bots model a rocket with enough force to take off.

Robotics with Bee-Bots and Ozobots in the Lower School is a launchpad for the exciting work students will engage in during STEAM class in both 5th Grade and the Upper School, when their robotics work will expand beyond programming to encompass engineering as students build robots from scratch and experience the joy of hands-on creation.

Next time you’re walking through the hallways of VCS, listen carefully for the buzzing sound of a Bee-Bot, an Ozobot cruising along at “turbo” speed, or the cheers of students celebrating their bots successfully completing a maze. You’ll be hearing tomorrow’s innovators at work.

Class of 2022 Acceptances

Avenues The World School

Berkeley Carroll School*

Brooklyn Friends School

Collegiate School

Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School*

Dwight School

Dwight-Englewood School*

Elisabeth Irwin High School – LREI* Essex Street Academy

Ethical Culture Fieldston School*

Faith Christian School*

Forman School

Frederick Gunn School

*Indicates school choice

Friends Seminary*

Grace Church School* Hewitt School

High School for Language and Diplomacy Kent School

Léman Manhattan Preparatory School*

Marymount School of New York

Millbrook School

Nightingale-Bamford School

Packer Collegiate Institute*

Pennington School

Poly Prep Country Day School* Riverdale Country School*

Saint Ann’s School*

St. Bernard’s School*

Spence School

Stuyvesant High School

The Brearley School*

The Calhoun School*

The Chapin School*

The Winchendon School*

Trevor Day School

Trinity School*

United Nations International School

York Preparatory School

Colleges and Universities Currently Enrolling VCS Alumni

Amherst College (3)

Babson College

Bard College (2)

Barnard College (2)

Bates College (2)

Bennington College

Boston College

Boston University

Bowdoin College

Brown University (3)

Bryn Mawr College

Bucknell University

Carnegie Mellon University

Case Western Reserve University

Chapman University

Colgate University Colorado College (2)

Cornell University (3)

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