One week of testing down and our students did amazing! They came into school each day prepared and ready to try their best. The VT CAP is a new assessment for grades 3-6 put out by the state in place of SBAC. This is a new format for both students and staff, but we are so proud of everyone for trying something new and doing their best! Students in grades 3-6 will take the ELA portion of the test next week.

Dates to Remember:)

5/2 Ms. Stack's Class to Studio Y

5/2 VT CAP grades 3-6

5/3 VT CAP grades 3-6

5/4 Ms. Paula's Class to Studio Y

5/5 All School Meeting (Ms. Sullivan's Class) @ 8:30

5/8-5/19 Bike Weeks

5/8 &5/9 Map Testing K-6

5/10 Early Release; 11:45 Dismissal

5/11 & 5/12 Dena's Class to Studio Y

5/16 6th Grade Visits BFMS

5/17 & 5/18 VT CAP Science, 5th Grade Only

5/23-5/25 Ms. Sullivan's Class to Studio Y

5/25 Spring Concert; 6:30

5/29 Memorial Day; No School

6/22 Last day of school for students

WCS will hold our bike weeks the weeks of May 8th and May 15th. Students will learn or continue their learning of bike riding during PE class. We partner with Local Motion in Burlington who provides a bike trailer with bikes to use for these weeks.

If your child would like to use their own bike, you can drop it off in the morning by the gym entrance.

Come join a great group of teachers and parents to discuss needs of the school and plan opportunities for our students!

We meet every third Thursday at 5:00 in the library. Our next meeting is Thursday, May 18th at 5:00.

See you there!

WHEN

Friday, April 28th at 8:00am

WHERE

In the Gym entrance

MORE INFORMATION

Come join me, Mrs. Harty, for coffee. Bring questions, concerns, suggestions or just come to chat! We will meet outside and can move in between the gym lobby doors if it is too cold:)

Earth Day was last Saturday so we learned about how we can help take care of our Earth and made an Earth Day art project.

Knowing that soon we will be working in the school garden, we began learning about parts of a plant. We experimented with how celery gets its nutrition through its strong stem. Using colored water we were able to track and document how the colored water made its way up the stem into the leaves.

This week First Graders have been working on Opinion Writing pieces. They were asked the question "Which is the better pet, cats or dogs?". Students then came up with solid opinion statements and strong reasons to support their opinion. We will continue working on these next week to add a concluding sentence that restates our opinion.

Life is certainly sweet for Second Grade as they helped Miss Bunny Batter save The Sweet Tooth Extravaganza this week at Studio Y. This event, which celebrates all the local businesses and services of Miss Bunny's community, was about to be canceled. Fortunately, the Story Adventurers quickly hopped into action by creating themes and designs that would make The Sweet Tooth Extravaganza the talk of the town. These young adventurers certainly realize the importance of honoring businesses and services within a community. Their problem-solving and teamwork were amazing to watch. It was truly a sweet experience!

Stay tuned for more adventures at Studio Y!

Third grade’s study of force and motion has continued with designing and testing ramps as well as exploring magnets. We’ve discovered how friction and incline can impact the path/distance traveled of a matchbox car. We have also learned about the invisible force field of magnetism as well as the strength of various magnets.

Fourth-graders enjoyed playing a choice of math board games this week after our testing time was done. Checkers (and another challenging version called Laskers), Chess, and SET are three of our popular games.

5th grade students started a new writing unit, which fosters literacy through art. The Picturing Writing Research- Based Animal Stories introduces research skills in a way that is user friendly and engaging to students. Students are in the beginning process of researching their animals, organizing their story, and painting their setting pictures.

How do you keep sixth graders quiet and occupied when they finish standardized testing? The answer is playdough! We are so proud of our students for their patience, perseverance and hard work as we did VTCAP this week. This new test came with a lot of unknowns, but sixth graders really stepped up to the plate and helped make the process pretty seamless. One of the most challenging part of these types of tests is the need to remain quiet during testing time. We decided to give each student a small tub of playdough to use as stress relief during the test and for quiet play after. They enjoyed it so much, I am fairly certain some kids didn’t want testing to end!

Talk of middle school transitions has our 6th graders wanting to get the most out of recess while they have it. Here a team of kids take to the sandbox to build ramps and gravel pits while others laze in the sunny fields. We are so lucky to have such an awesome playground!