On April 11, Village Elementary hosted their annual STEAM night. The parking lot filled quickly as over 400 people walked through the door excited to learn, create and explore the night’s activities. STEAM represents activities and education in Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.

This year’s theme focused on community collaboration and emphasizing the importance of sustainability through “reduce, reuse and recycle”. When this topic was introduced to our community the school was fortunate to receive enough donations of recycled materials to fully support the STEAM Night and fully functioning makerspace within our school. Students sorted and counted recycled items throughout the week to prepare for the big night.

With boxes of donated newspapers and over 100 egg cartons, Mr. Penley created seed bombs with students. Loose items were gathered for mystery bags and a printmaking activity for students to form their own creative masterpieces. Plastic bags were used to create flower prints with Baxter Memorial Library who attended for the first time this year.

Village School welcomed many new guests this year and was fortunate to have EcoMaine join in on the activities. Students enjoyed learning about sorting recycling through their relay game. In addition, Saco River Rehabilitation represented science and presented many wonderful hands-on visuals for families to learn all about Maine wildlife and create beautiful nature journals. Throughout the building laughter and excitement were heard, as well as hip-hop music from the gym where Atlantic Dance Arts represented the art of dance by teaching a fun routine to all.

This night was made possible through the generous 50+ volunteers who shared their knowledge and passion for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics with the Village community. The school is especially grateful to Cunningham Prosthetics, St. Germain, and Maine, Gold and Silver for returning this year with fascinating hands-on activities for students.