Another Great Week at WHE !!!

We have had another great week at White Hall Elementary. Our Second Grade class put in a full week with our new reading series. The students are really moving forward in their grammar, vocabulary and reading skills.

Mrs. Winters has been teaching the class some new art skills as we learn about some famous artists who have influenced much of our culture. We have been talking about rescuing animals and read a story called "Harbor Seal Pup Grows Up." Our vocabulary unit has included words like rescue, mammal, veterinarian and others. We wrote a two paragraph story about taking care of a pet and many of the students wrote and drew some GREAT publications.

Our ants came this week and we have been excited to see their progress as they build tunnels and small colonies in our ant hill. Buddy the frog gets bigger everyday and he has been a source of attraction (or distraction) for many in the school.

We are going to talk about emergency workers in our next reading unit and celebrate Halloween at our party on Friday. A parade is scheduled for 10/27. We've been talking about some great costumes and look forward to seeing everyone Monday at the parade and fall fest.

Leaves and more!!!

We have had a couple of short weeks at WHE. With a teacher's institute, Columbus Day and an SIP day, students at White Hall have enjoyed the fall weather with a few days off. Our reading series has taken us on a journey of plant exploration. We have had the good fortune of celebrating fall with a fun leaf collection and seed sprouting. We have seen both sides of the life cycle of a plant.



Our class pet, Buddy the frog, has fully evolved and we watch him grow every day. We have several visitors from other classes who are "studying" Buddy also. The PTO has concluded the fall fundraiser of pizza sales and it looks like another great event. We are raising money for some new playground equipment.



Our first round of reading assessments started this week. Morning "Guided Reading" time has been a little different as we prepare for the second quarter of reading groups. The students are showing a lot of growth in their word decoding and vocabulary skills. Our reading series "Treasures" has centered on some new skills that will guide us through the rest of our learning years.



We look forward to Halloween parties next week along with our fall celebration and costume parade.

Autumn starts at WHE

We have had another great fall weather week at White Hall Elementary. Our language arts unit has focused on immigrants and their contribution to our country. We used many vocabulary words like language and culture. Our main reading selection was about girl named Yoon who moves to America from Korea.

Our tadpole "Buddy" has transformed into a small frog and we will chart his growth over the next few weeks. The class has had a lot of fun watching the transformation. This week also saw the 8th annual Jump Rope For Heart activity. You can view all the pictures on the WHE website.

We also kicked off the PTO fall fundraiser. We had an assembly showcasing the prize package and the pizza sales brochure. We look forward to "Fire Safety" week next week. We also had a substitute this Friday as I attended a conference in the Quad Cities. The best part of the conference for me was the drive home. I drove through the wind turbine fields of central illinois and saw over 100 giant wind turbines. I took a lot of photos and hope to use them in a science unit very soon. One picture is posted here. It was really interesting to think about this alternate energy source.