Important Dates:
- Monday, January 19 – Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service; see info below.
- Thursday, January 29 – Forward to 5th, 4:00 PM
- Friday, January 30 – Parent Coffee, 8:30 AM
- Friday, January 30 – Freedom Friday
- Friday, February 6 – 11:30 AM Early Dismissal for Winter Long Weekend
- February 9 and February 10 – No School for students, February 10 – Teacher Professional Development
Click the link below to stay up to date on more whole-school events!
Forward to 5th is coming up, and we would love to see you there! Mrs. Wallace, our 5th-grade teacher, will share about all of the fun, influential, and inspiring things your child will do in 5th grade. If you’re on the fence or just curious about next year at WCDS, we would love to have you join us at 4:00 on Thursday, January 29th. Aftercare is available for your child during that time at no cost, but they may also join the discussion as well. If you are planning on coming, please reach out to Mrs. White or Ms. Stella to let us know.
4th Grade Deep Dive Field Trip to the Smart Center – Our class enjoyed a great field trip downtown at the SMART Centre. This trip was based around their current science deep dive, where they are learning all about energy. This field trip was purely hands-on, and the students were active participants in their learning. What a great partnership to have! Check out the pictures below to see what they were up to.
MLK Day of Service – Thank you for already sending in many items for this special project! For our day of service, the 4th-grade class will be collecting non-perishable food items to donate to The House of the Carpenter. We are requesting single-serve packs of food, such as boxes of individually wrapped granola bars, packets of individual applesauce, fruit snacks, crackers, or any other healthy snack available in individual packets. Please try to avoid cookies and high-sugar items. These items will be used to pack to-go lunches/dinners for area children to bring home on the weekends. The 4th graders will sort and deliver the food to The House of the Carpenter on a later date. Items may be sent with your child to school by Monday, January 19th. We appreciate your help and generosity.
ELA – This week, students were busy learning and growing! They explored adjectives and learned about the climax of a story, helping them better understand how authors build excitement in their writing. Our 4th and 5th graders continued their literature circles with thoughtful discussions, and we were proud to see 100% participation from grades 3–5 in the spelling bee. What a fantastic show of confidence and a growth mindset!
Math: The students continued practicing the process of 2-digit by 2-digit multiplication. They are getting the hang of it! Knowing their multiplication facts makes the process go much smoother. They use box grids to properly place each number. We will move them away from these boxes as they become more comfortable with the process.
Digital Discovery – Students continued working on emailing this week. They are enjoying communicating with both their teachers and especially you during the school day! We hope to continue having them email you each Friday with details about their week! If you are not getting them, please send in an email address that is more convenient for you. Their faces light up when they realize they’ve gotten a reply for you. It is super special to see!
Character Ed – This week, we held an SEL-based school assembly where Mr. Joe discussed our MLK Jr. day of service coming up. Each grade shared what they are doing, along with the items or supplies they hope to collect. That was followed up by the incredible Mr. Ron Scott (Cousin Ron), as the kids refer to him now. Mr. Scott discussed the importance of one of our WCDS values, respect. Through his playful and engaging storytelling, the kids learned about respecting others, materials, and themselves. We are extremely grateful that our kids were able to learn from him this week and hope to welcome him back soon!
Deep Dive: Energy and Light w/Mr. Rouse and Mrs. Buck –
Students conducted hands-on experiments to discover how light interacts with different materials. By observing how light is reflected, absorbed, or passes through objects, they made predictions and recorded their results. These investigations helped students build a deeper understanding of light and strengthened their scientific thinking skills.
Spelling Bee – Congratulations to Lily Kurtz (2nd Place Elementary) and Willa Saxe (3rd Place Elementary). Lily and Willa will move on to spell with the WCDS middle schoolers next week. A HUGE shoutout to ALL of the 4th Graders for giving the spelling bee a try! We know this can be a very nerve-wracking and intimidating event – it’s fantastic that they tried!
Monday Morning Flagpole Meeting – Beau and Amelia presented what they learned in Character Ed
SMART Center Field Trip!
