Van Duyn Elementary - Syracuse

☀️🌴 Spirit Week Starts Monday! 🌴☀️

Our “Champs in the Sun” Spirit Week is almost here, and we can’t wait to see our students shine! 😎✨

📅 Monday: Sunshine & Smiles
💛 Wear YELLOW and receive a smiley face sticker!

Get ready for a week full of fun, school spirit, and summer vibes. Be sure to check the daily themes and join in the excitement each day!

Who’s ready to kick off Spirit Week with some sunshine and smiles? ☀️😊

Spirit Week — June 8–12
Families, join us in celebrating "CHAMPS in the Sun" with a meaningful Spirit Week! See the flyer for each day’s theme and encourage your student to participate:

Check out our June Newsletter to find out what is happening at Van Duyn in June!

June Family newsletter Check out this US Letter designed by Zakia Richardson.

CHAMPS in Action was on full display at Van Duyn Elementary’s amazing Family Night! ❤️✨

Tonight, we celebrated the incredible cumulative work our students completed throughout this unit. From thoughtful research projects to creative presentations, students across all grade levels showcased their hard work, self-expression, collaboration, and growing confidence as they demonstrated what it means to be CHAMPS in Action. 📚🎨📝

We are so proud of the dedication, creativity, and positive character our students demonstrated, and we are incredibly thankful to all of the families who joined us to support and celebrate their learning. Your partnership and encouragement mean so much to our school community! ❤️

The Syracuse City School District

At Van Duyn Elementary School, our Student Council partnered with Nottingham High School theater tech students to build four beautiful new flower beds for our school community. 🌱🌼

Thanks to the support and generosity of our VDES community, the DEB department and Nottingham High School, our students gained hands-on experience using measuring tools, drills, and teamwork to bring this vision to life. More than just flower beds, this project grew leadership, confidence, and connection. 💛

We are so proud of our students and grateful to everyone who helped make this project bloom! 🌷

The Syracuse City School District

Today our students stepped into their future at our Career Fair and absolutely shined! ✨👩🏽‍⚕️👨🏽‍🏫👷🏽‍♂️⚖️👩🏽‍🍳

From future nurses, engineers, architects, and lawyers to entrepreneurs, chefs, professors, teachers, custodians, real estate agents, healthcare aides, and special education professionals — our students explored careers, asked thoughtful questions, and showed us just how bright their futures are. 💼📚

Watching them dream big, dress the part, and learn about the many paths available to them was truly inspiring. The future is full of possibilities, and today proved that our students are ready to lead it! 🌟

This week we really “raised the (salad) bar” for our incredible teachers 🥗🍋💛
Our salad bar and lemonade bar were a small token of appreciation for the endless care, patience, and dedication they bring to our students each and every day. Thank you for always pouring your hearts into what you do — your impact is truly refreshing!

This Teacher Appreciation Week, our hearts (and sweet tooth 🍰) are full! A huge thank you to our amazing PFO for treating our staff to delicious cupcakes today. 🧁💙

To our teachers — thank you for the early mornings, endless patience, encouraging words, and the love you pour into our students every single day. Your impact reaches far beyond the classroom, and we are so grateful for all that you do to make our school such a special place. ✨📚