December is filled with lights and music, and our VVE students had plenty to enjoy!  From our VVE Cardinal Choir and Percussion concert on campus, to their performance at the Domain, these musicians kept our toes tapping and helped us remember the importance of loving and supporting each other.  Then, as a VVE tradition continued, the WHS Madrigals came to lead us in holiday song, helping us laugh and dance along the way.  As usual, before our classroom parties, the staff (along with the help of Mr. Z) helped us sing-along to holiday favorites, with a special Fortnight Dance Off at the end.  Happy Winter Break to all!

Eanes Ed Techs led a Family Film Funshop today at Forest Trail Elementary for students in grades K - 8th.  Students and families were invited to attend a morning in which they attended four mini-classes on storyboarding, stop-motion animation, camera angles, and acting, and then they had about 30 minutes to create their own mini-film.  We then all gathered in the library and shared our creations.  There was lots of laughter, careful film-crafting, and the results (even in such a short period of time) were stellar.  We hope these budding film makers will consider creating a film for our 2nd Annual Festival de Eanes!

VVE fourth and fifth grade students explored with coding using our new Sphero SPRK+ robots.  Fifth graders had an opportunity to explore the Sphero EDU app during their library rotations time last week, and then with the help of Science teacher, Ms. Darling, worked on coding and STEAM stations in their Science Google Classroom.  Students worked in teams to complete two challenges per lesson, over the course of two weeks -- bowling with Sphero, painting with Sphero, index card building challenge, and water bottle flipping challenge (complete with data collection pages for determining the best size and fill-level for successful tossing).  Fourth graders only had one day to explore the STEAM centers (on the day Austin Energy came to share a lesson with students), and they explored 2-3 of four centers -- bowling with Sphero, painting with Sphero, coding Dash to move through a maze, and coding Sphero to move through a maze.  Play-based learning opportunities are fun and engaging, and we always look for more opportunities to use/share them!