W-E Schools District Focus December, 2013 | Page 7

W

e have had a busy year already
at Grant Elementary School! The year has gotten
off to a great start! We kicked off this year with an
addition to our school wide positive behavior system (PBS). This year our theme is “Bucket Filling”.
This is based off the children’s book, Have You
Filled a Bucket Today?, by Carol McCloud. The
students have been doing an awesome job filling
each other’s buckets! We fill buckets by doing
nice things for others, complimenting others or
helping others. After each class fills their classroom buckets with different colored pom-poms, we
put all of the pom-poms into a huge school bucket. When the school bucket is filled, we do a
school-wide incentive. So far this year, we had a
school-wide dance and an extra recess.
In addition to our “Bucket Filling”, we also
emphasize the importance of our REACH program.
With this program, we discuss the importance of
being Respectful, Engaged, Accountable, Cooperative and Honest. At Grant Elementary, students
REACH for the stars everyday by exhibiting these
positive character traits.
All students have been working hard to
complete their MAP (Measures of Annual Progress)
testing. Students have been focusing and taking
their time to do the best they can on these important tests. Initial scores from these tests are
looking great and just proving how hard our students are working. The students will take these
tests again in the winter and spring to show all the
academic progress they have made throughout the
year.

At Grant Elementary we are very proud of
our Bulldog Band, under the direction of Mrs.
Lauren Audino. There are 52 members in the
band. They have all learned five notes just since
the start of October! They recently played solos for
each other in rehearsal. Last week, they finished
learning “Mary Had A little Lamb” and this week
they are beginning to work on “Jingle Bells”. They
hope to have a few Christmas songs learned so
they can perform for the school at our school SingA-Long before holiday break. Some of our band
students also participate in a program called Band
Karate. This is a neat program Mrs. Audino offers
to the kids in the Bulldog Band. It is optional but
about 50% of the kids are currently working on
earning belts. They have to practice five songs at
home and then come play them for Mrs. Audino by
themselves and during their lunch time in order to
earn a belt. We have one student, who is already
a Red Belt, only two steps away from being a Black
Belt! Keep up the good work, Bulldog Band!
We have had some exciting visits from the
Willoughby fire department this year. The fire department visits all kindergarten through 4th grade
classrooms to discuss the importance of fire safety. The students really enjoy these important visits from our local heroes and learn a lot from
them, too.

Students have also been working on Compass. This is an internet based computer program
which is tailored to the needs of individual students. Teachers can create assignments for students or students can work on assignments of
their choice in most subject areas. The students
really seem to enjoy the interactive activities on
this program and can access this program from
home, as well.

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