The Saplings Times

Welcome (or welcome back) to the Saplings class! We are so excited to be starting a new school year and are looking forward to adventures with friends new and returning. You will receive these newsletters throughout the year for an update on what's going on in our classroom and at MVCS. Here's to a great year!

Hi, everyone! My name is Dawn, and I am the lead teacher in the Saplings classroom. This is my 9th year with the Saplings, and my 10th year at MVCS. Teaching at Mountain Village allows me to honor my philosophy of whole child education. I developed a passion for nature-based education while in grad school at Antioch University New England, which brought me to Mountain Village. Once I was here, I quickly developed a connection to Montessori education and felt that the philosophy perfectly aligned with my own. It has been an amazing 9 years of learning and growing, and I'm more excited than ever for this year's journey!

When I'm not teaching, you'll most often find me in my vegetable garden listening to an audiobook or relaxing at my camper in Vermont. My interests include cooking, swimming, traveling, and anything related to animals. I love animals and would love to some day have my own small rescue farm! For now, I have one sweet cat named Brann who is great company. I also love music of (almost) all genres and spend a lot of my free time attending live music events. A love of music is something that I enjoy sharing with my students and hope to inspire at least some of them to become music lovers themselves. My friends and family are the most important part of my life, and I try to spend as much time with them as possible.

Please feel free to reach out to me any time with questions or concerns. The best way to get in touch with me is via email at dawn@mountainvillagecharterschool.org. Please note that I don't tend to check school email on evenings and weekends.

Hello! My name is Pauline, and I am the assistant teacher in the Saplings classroom. I have been at Mountain Village in various capacities since the school's beginning. I have three children who have graduated from MVCS. I recently completed training to earn a Lower Elementary Montessori Diploma through the North American Montessori Center. I am also the art teacher for Lower El!

For fun, I enjoy growing crazy big flower gardens, reading, and doing all kinds of art. I also love spending time in nature, seeing friends, swimming, and drinking tea. My dislikes include loud machinery and littering! At home I have 2 dogs, 1 bearded dragon, and 1 Russian tortoise.

I'm looking forward to a great year with the Saplings! If you need to get in touch with me for any reason, I can be reached at pauline@mountainvillagechartersschool.org.

We have the big dream this year of updating our classroom library to ensure that our collection is current and relevant to student interests. We are hoping that our community can help us with this dream as it's a big one! We have made an Amazon wish list of books that we are looking for to add to our collection. Books do not need to be purchased through Amazon! We welcome books in good condition from any source. Thriftbooks.com has many of the titles, and it's always helpful to have an eye out at your local thrift store. All we ask is to please not donate any books that aren't on the list without checking first to see if it something we can take. This wishlist was made in response to the numerous kind inquiries we receive each year asking if there's anything we need. This year, it's books! Thank you in advance for your support with this big project!

https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/3C054KYU6O6CU?ref_=wl_share

For the first day of school, please make sure that your Sapling has:

snack

lunch

plenty of water

rain gear (just in case!)

a change of clothes

We'll see you all on Monday!