We will have our 2nd book giveaway on Friday, January 15. It’s a great time of year to curl up with a good book and read with your child. All Flynn students will get to choose 2 books made possible from the Children’s Literacy Foundation’s generous Year of the Book grant. All books are for families to enjoy and keep at home. Remote students may contact Mrs. Priebe to arrange for their book pickup.
Burlington Electric Net Zero Energy Calendar Artists
The 2021 Net Zero Energy Calendar has been an annual collaboration between Burlington Electric Department and Burlington School District for 15 years. In October, 2020, members of the Burlington Electric Department team visited virtually with all the fourth grade classes in all six Burlington elementary schools to engage in a conversation about the important topics of energy efficiency, renewability, sustainability, and Net Zero Energy.
More than 125 of the amazingly thoughtful and talented fourth graders of the Burlington School District created beautiful works of art with their impressions of energy efficiency, renewability, sustainability and Net Zero Energy, 15 of which were selected for this year’s calendar.
Congratulations to 2 of Flynn’s Fourth Graders: Jane Curry from Mr. Mack’s class and Sailor Hadeka from Ms. Campanelli’s class!
Echo-Leahy Center for Lake Champlain
Starting Friday, December 12th, ECHO’s new schedule is:
Open Fridays – Mondays and Wednesdays
Visitors will choose from two time slots while ordering tickets: 10:00 am -12:30 pm and 1:30 – 4:00 pm.
Another exciting announcement is that ECHO has opened two new exhibits – Awesome Forces and Engineer It – located on the second floor. Awesome Forces offers visitors 11 interactive stations explaining the forces that have shaped the Lake Champlain Basin and our Earth. Engineer It highlights the engineer design process and provides opportunities for everyone to become an inventor. Engineer It includes seven interactive exhibits that let visitors conduct their own science experiments and test their engineering abilities.
We are still requiring guests to register and reserve tickets before their visit for contact tracing purposes. This means that your patrons will need to use a code online to reserve and pay for tickets, rather than bring the library pass to ECHO. The price is now back to $7 per person for up to 4 guests.
For your patrons to book tickets, we are hoping you will pass out a code when they want to check out the card from you. The code is “vtlib2020”. To use the code and receive the discount, your patrons will need to:
- Visit our Ticketing Webpage and select the blue ticketing link at the top of the page.
- Select “member tickets”, and the number of tickets needed (Maximum of 4)
- Click Next then Proceed to Payment
- Type “vtlib2020” in the Discount Code section and the price will be updated to reflect the discount.
*If you need to purchase more than four tickets, please purchase full price tickets first in a separate transaction
Have you heard the news?
After nearly a year-long artistic journey, we now have a beautiful new mural made by our own Flynn artists! We began the mural last January, when, with the generous support of a grant from Burlington City Arts, we had two visiting artists, Alissa Faber and Kate McKernon come and work with our students to create parts of the mural during art class.
Kindergarteners through third graders each made a clay “bubble” with a texture on it. Staff members were also invited to make a clay piece for the installation. Fourth and fifth graders posed for pictures that would later become life-size silhouettes on the mural panels. Once the figures were drawn on the panels, our older students painted them.
Unfortunately, the pandemic stalled our efforts at installation, but we are excited to have it finally up and brightening our library hallway. Special thanks to all of our Flynn artists and staff who participated in making this collaborative art piece. I am happy and proud that so many people were able to help create this very special piece of art. I can’t wait for families to be able to see it in person once life gets back to normal and everyone is able to join us in school.
Flynn Raises Black Lives Matter Flag
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In November, Flynn 5th graders organized and held a ceremony to raise the Black Lives Matter flag at Flynn School. The Flynn school community thought we should raise the Black Lives matter flag to show our support for the Black Lives Matter Movement. We think in the past years Black lives did not matter enough in America, so raising this flag shows how important we all now realize they are. We all need to be part of making the world a safer place for all people, especially our Black friends. All lives can’t matter until Black Lives Matter. We raised this flag with pride, joy and lots of love. But we are not just going to raise this flag; we are going to continue this in our everyday lives. Please join us!
Rowan, Keygan, Asher and Nala
Flynn 5th graders
Traveling Outside of Vermont: Important Guidelines to Follow
Are you and your family thinking about traveling outside of Vermont? If so, here is a link to the Vermont Travel map that shows cases per million; it is color coded and intended to be used to
determine if you need to quarantine upon return or not.
What are the quarantine guidelines when returning to Vermont?
- If traveling by personal vehicle to a county with less than 400 active cases per one million residents of COVID-19 (GREEN area on the map) , you do not have to quarantine once returning to VT.
- If traveling to a county with more than 400 active cases per one million residents of COVID-19 (YELLOW or RED areas on the map), you must quarantine for a total of 14 days or 7 days with a negative COVID test.
- Traveling by airplane, regardless of the color of the place you are traveling to, is considered high risk and the same quarantining guidelines should be followed as traveling to a RED area.
What if the color changes in the county you’re visiting before you return to Vermont; what do you do?
- If the color changes — Please use the color of the county on the day you leave VT to help you determine whether or not you need to quarantine when you return to VT.
- What does this mean?
An example: You plan to travel and are leaving today. You check to see what the color of the county you’re traveling to is and it’s GREEN. It is now Sunday and you’re planning to travel home but you notice the county you have been in all weekend is all of a sudden red. As long as you have traveled in your personal/private vehicle, you do not need to quarantine once you’re back in VT since the color was green when you left VT.
Are you hosting friends/family from another county and are unsure as to whether or not your household (not your guests) should be quarantining as well?
- Hosting friends/family members from outside of VT — While your guests may need to quarantine based on what color the county is that they’re traveling from, you and your family who reside within the household do not need to quarantine as well. Quarantining guidelines are only applicable to the traveler, and therefore students CAN still come to school when someone in the house has traveled from any other area.
- This also applies to family members who may have traveled. The family member who traveled should follow quarantine guidelines. Those who stayed home can still go to school and out into the community as usual, but the person who traveled should not.
Please note: Be sure to maintain at least 6-feet distance from those who have traveled and wear masks when in common spaces (even inside your home) where social distancing is not possible. Remember to frequently wash your hands as well as frequently touched surfaces (e.g. bathroom, kitchen) until the end of the quarantine period (either 14 days or 7 days followed by a negative COVID-19 test).
Information for Families Return to School Following Illness
Info HERE
Principal Coffee December 10th
Principal Coffee
Thursday December 10th 8:15-9:00 am
Follow this link to join the coffee:
Phone Numbers
(US)+1 224-701-0029
PIN: 323 012 351#
Burlington School District is looking for Substitute Teachers
Information Here
Year of the Book
Crazy back to school schedules and a crummy weather forecast didn’t stop Children’s Literacy Foundation Executive Director, Duncan McDougall, from visiting J.J. Flynn students to share details CLiF Year of the Book grant that the school was awarded. Small groups of students met under the tent outdoors to listen to storytelling and learn more about the exciting features of the Year of the Book grant. Hybrid schedule “A” day students attended the kick-off presentation on September 17 and “B” day students will attend October 2.
CLiF’s Year of the Book provides $25,000 worth of literacy programs, support, and new children’s books over one school year to help build a culture of literacy in elementary schools across New Hampshire and Vermont. This program targets schools that have a high percentage of students scoring below proficient in literacy assessments, and a high percentage of students receiving free/reduced lunch.
“CLiF awarded the Year of the Book grants in February 2020 to schools submitting applications with high levels of commitment and excitement coming from teachers, librarians and administrators. Those qualities we recognized in the applications are needed more than expected as we work through these challenging circumstances. CLiF appreciates the Flynn community for their efforts to maximize the grant to still make reading and writing fun in a different learning environment,” said CLiF Program Director Meredith Scott.
The grant includes multiple author visits and literacy activities, 10 books for each student to choose and keep at home, smaller grants for teachers, and $1000 for the school and public libraries. CLiF is working closely with its partners to deliver this programming in meaningful and safe ways, making the most of live opportunities outside and distanced while the weather allows.
About the Children’s Literacy Foundation (CLiF)
CLiF is a non-profit organization whose mission is to nurture a love of reading and writing among low income, at risk, and rural children up to age 12 throughout New Hampshire and Vermont. Since 1998, CLiF has supported and inspired 250,000 young readers and writers through its literacy program grants and has given away more than $7 million in new, highquality children’s books. For more information about CLiF, visit www.clifonline.org.
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