During library rotations today, our fifth graders worked on the concepts of perseverance and teamwork as they worked on a tower challenge.  Dr. Moore gave them a challenge to build the tallest tower they could using only 20 pieces of spaghetti, 1 large marshmallow, one foot of tape, and one foot of string.  We had some successes, some failures, and opportunities to experience a beautiful oops.  Through it all, fifth graders planned, shared ideas, tried different strategies, and worked together.  

Author Sheila Turnage came to speak to VVE and FTE fifth graders today.  She shared with us the process of writing, and how an author moves from an idea to a finished book, and included information on all the people it takes to make that dream come true!  She reminded us that writing takes a lot of work, but when you have an idea that won't let go, it is worth the effort.  Keep writing, Cardinals!

We had a blast laughing and learning today with Mr. Hooker!  We had a great turn out and are so grateful to Booster Club for hosting this event.  Special thanks to Mr. Hooker, Director of Digital Innovation in Eanes ISD, for chatting with us about parenting strategies to best support our 21st century learners!  

Students across Eanes ISD have been working hard to create films on the topic of Social Emotional Learning.  At VVE, the lovely Ms. Abell and the amazing fifth grade teachers worked with students to share about story structure and film composing, and all fifth grade students had access to a Showbie class filled with the Festival de Eanes contest rules, expectations, rubrics, and submission guidelines.  Students then wrote their scripts, planned their scenes, filmed, and edited using iMovie. They had some special requirements, including using a fish somewhere in their film, including the line, "Jeepers, how did you do that," and including extreme close-up and perspective camera angles.  We were so excited that VVE had TWENTY-FOUR film submissions to the festival -- the second highest in the district of all the campuses, only one behind Barton Creek Elementary (25 entries).  Our VVE Cardinals are creative! After submission, the films were then sent to off-campus judges for scoring using a special film-scoring rubric.  The families of winning film-teams for top-scoring narrative film and top-scoring stop-motion animation films were emailed recently.  The winning films will then be shown at the Alamo Drafthouse in late May, and moving-going attendees will vote on the final overall district winners.  Because VVE had so many film entries, we were lucky enough to have THREE winning teams.  Check out their award-winning stories below.  Stay tuned for links to all the VVE Film Fest entries!

Narration: A Thief's End 
Animation: Homebound 
Wildcard (Narration): The Rumor

We are so excited to welcome our future Kindergarten VVE Cardinals this week!  To help them and their families prepare for what Kindergarten is like at VVE, we made a little video.  Check it out below!

Today we celebrated many educators at VVE who make our school such an amazing place of learning.  Most Fridays, VVE holds school assemblies in which students receive awards from their teachers, outlining what is special about each learner.  On this special day, we take a few minutes to do the same for a few of our educators -- both VVE staff members and community members who contribute in meaningful ways to our learning environment.  This year, we celebrated 10 Eanespiration educators.  Educational Impact Awards went to Ann Manikham, Erin Finch, Nicki Kennington, & Jennifer Wolff.  Heroes Awards went to Brooke Anderson, Jacci Grossman, Lauren Cobb, Jennifer White, and Quen White-Ramos.  A Good Samaritan Award went to Dr. Genevieve Shepherd Ali.  Read more about all our Eanespiration winners HERE.  

VVE Educator of the Year Nominees include:  Pam Alden, Cindy Brown, Becky Canelos, Kena DiNardi, Tate Douglas, Erin Finch, and Morgan Menichini.  Teachers nominated colleagues and then the school voted and this year's VVE Educator of the Year who will represent our school at the district level in 2018-19 is Pam Alden.  See our "Director's Cut" video with information about each nominee, special messages from family and friends, and footage of the school-wide assembly below.  VVE celebrates you all and we are ever grateful for the meaningful contributions you make in the lives of students, families, and colleagues!  

Our students have been practicing spelling using a program called Scientific Spelling (as mentioned in a previous blog post).  To aid students in this process, second grade teachers have started recording little videos that allow students to go back and review a rule at any time.  They used the app Showbie to house the videos and students can view them during Reader's Workshop time.  Students are also assigned little practice activities they can access throughout the week.  In the future, we look forward to even having students create some of their own videos explaining their understandings of how a certain spelling rule or guideline works.