Friday Newsletter - December 16th
This has been one long week! The flu of the month is making its way through the building and we are doing our best to keep to business as usual. We’ve managed to remain open, unlike some area schools, but only because of the ways people are chipping in to help out. As adults, we know that every now and then we are expected to help out in a pinch, we expect that there will be moments when we are doing somebody else’s job in order to keep things running smoothly. And, that definitely has been happening a lot lately. But, even more commendable, the students are doing their part as well. When we needed help in the cafeteria, Camden, Brayden, and Owen helped clean up a mess during the lunch line. Avery, Brayden, Aiden, and Sean helped set up the gym for the middle school basketball games last night. Gwendolyn helped me out with the bus list yesterday. And, Chloe helped deliver the mail from the office today. It does my heart good to see how we are pulling together to keep WDES going in times like this.
I’d also like to celebrate the amazingness that is our 21st Century After School Program. I visited the Gingerbread House celebration this week and was able to see some pretty cool stuff. The middle schoolers made Orbots, and the parents and friends who came to the gathering got to see them in action. I was thoroughly impressed with the presentation made by the builders ahead of time and loved seeing their hard work shared with our wider community.
I visited the Third grade this week and got to read the books they have written and illustrated. Yes, that’s right they wrote and illustrated their own books! And, they are magnificent! What vivid imaginations and artistic talents they have!
I got to read a Christmas story with Kindergarten and we made some special recipe reindeer food after. If you have a kindergartener in your house, check their backpacks for some fancy food for those hungry hoofed creatures.
The 5th graders built model castles after reading The Castle in the Attic. I remember reading this book with my class a long time ago. I have to say, the models look exactly the way I imagined the castle in the book to look. They are fantastic!
The Grinch has been sitting on Mrs. Thompson’s shelf in front of the main office and his heart has grown at least three sizes this week. This could only happen if kids in the building have been taking it upon themselves to commit random acts of kindness throughout the day. I sincerely hope that we discover he has the most gigantic of Grinch hearts by the end of next week.
There’s a lot of good happening here, in spite of the sniffles and coughs, tummy aches, and fevers. We are plowing through, and next week we shall do the same.
Have a great weekend and enjoy the snow that’s coming!