My name is Hillary, I am an Island Institute Fellow who has been working with PIE and the Vinalhaven School since December. I jumped in with the Perspectives team and have been an assistant teacher within the program for the last few months. Perspectives meets twice a week, on Tuesdays with 3-5 graders and Wednesdays with k-2 graders. Each week we provide a different program. We’ve spent a lot of the winter doing arts projects and have even managed to get outside with Vinalhaven Land Trust. We’ve learned about storytelling, snowflakes, birds, animal tracking, robotics, yoga, making music, taking apart machines and so much more!
One of my favorite things about working with Perspectives is hearing kids exclaim “this is so much fun!” and “this is the best Perspectives yet!” It’s especially heartwarming when they come back the next week and say the same thing. It’s special to get to see kids develop skills and put them to use week after week. With the younger group, we get to see them practicing sharing and working together as a team. The older kids are really great at working independently and challenging themselves and have a pretty great sense of humor.
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her wonderful part of Perspectives is the volunteers that come in and help lead or lend support during programs. We have several community members who are stepping in and sharing their knowledge and skills with the students. We are hoping to do more of this next year, so if you have a skill or want to volunteer, please be in touch!
Stay tuned for the exciting Spring programs we have coming up. We’ll be working a lot outside as the weather gets better, with our partner Vinalhaven Land Trust and have some field trips planned as well.
The PIE Programs Committee is back and has started working on summer programming for kids. SCamps will be back again thanks to our partnership with Vinalhaven School. We’re very excited about what’s coming up and will share more soon!
Vinalhaven School Enrichment Committee is looking forward to Spring with a series of enrichment programs. Port Veritas, the poetry and performance group that was here last year, will be back on April 3rd through 7th. There will be a poetry slam and reading taking place at the end of the week.
And on April 6, the PIE New York Lobster Roll Reunion and fundraiser will take place. This will be a lot of fun and delicious, too!