WCE is the Place to Be, Because We Care

“Caring” is the character education word of the month for November.  The students and staff at Willard Central have fully embraced showing how they care for others this month.  Last Friday, was Hats on for Community Service (an idea shared from Willard East).  Each student and staff member could wear a hat for the donation of a quarter or more.  All donations where to help our very Miss Heather Abney and her son Stephen with related expenditures from his cancer treatments.  Together, we raised $300 to bless their family. 

WC also showed they cared through our student council holiday food drive.  Dried and canned foods, toiletry items and cleaning supplies were donated by students and collected by student council for the Willard Food Pantry.  About $1000 in items were donated in our 4 day drive.  It is wonderful to be part of such a generous and caring school community and to see our students embracing helping others in need.

Enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with your family and loved ones.  May we live out “caring” this holiday season as our students have modeled it for us.

All-School Book Club

The Willard Central Legion of Superheroes conquered a busy week full of Red Ribbon Week activities, Book Fair, and Student-Led Conferences last week. A heart-felt thank you to Mrs. Gromer and Mrs. Roth for all of their extra work organizing the festivities last week and to our PTO for providing a wonderful dinner for our staff during conferences. All of these everyday heroes working together make Willard Central a truly special place for kids.

Friday morning WC kicked off our all-school book club. Teachers introduced our story, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo, at Community Time with pictures and passages from this wonderful story. Every family and staff member will receive a copy of this chapter book to read and share together. We will be keeping track of our own “Edward Tulane” as he goes on a miraculous journey around Willard Central as well. We will celebrate this book together at our Family Reading Night on December 10th. Happy reading and enjoy this story together with you families.

Here are the schooled events for November:

Monday 9th – PTO Meeting 6:00

Tuesday 10th – 2nd Grade Concert 7:00

Thursday 12th – Mr. Z’s PTO Fundraiser Pickup 3:30-6:00

Friday 13th – Hats ON for Community Service – Make a donation to wear your favorite hat to support our Heather and Stephen!

Friday 20th – WC Student Flu Shot Clinic 12:00-3:00

Wednesday 25th – Friday 27th – NO SCHOOL! Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy this beautiful November weather! ~ Shane Medlin, Principal

1st Quarter Celebrations

WC celebrated students hard work from the first quarter at Community Time this week. We recognized students with perfect attendance and awarded the coveted Special Area Superhero Capes to the classes that best demonstrated our character education words. We also honored Ms. Joe Venzlauf and Mrs. Tina Laturno for their countless hours of service in volunteering at WC as our 1st quarter Everyday Heroes.

Our 3rd grade had a busy week performing their musical concert On the Radio. This wonderful program shared songs throughout the decades starting back in the Great Depression. A very special thank you to Mrs. Chatman and the 3rd grade students for such an amazing evening. The 3rd grade students then geared up the next day to head to Diamond, MO to visit the George Washington Carver State Park and Museum. It was an excellent educational trip and the students represented our school and community very well.

We will be packing a full week of activities into next week:

Oct. 27/29 – Student Led Conferences
Oct. 26-29 – WC Book Fair and Red Ribbon Week
Oct. 30 – No School

Stay dry and healthy! Shane Medlin, Principal

Thank You PTO Volunteers!

It has been a busy week at WC.  Thank you to Nurse Tammy Dock for helping organize a successful health screening on Tuesday for our students.  All of her hard work and the time and energy from our volunteers is greatly appreciated!  We would also like to thank our PTO parents for their support and work in providing our Fall Parties this afternoon.  The students had a wonderful time and enjoyed the mental break at the end of the day from all of the hard work this week!

As we look ahead to the coming weeks, please be looking for information on our next all school book club.  This year we will be reading The Miraculous Adventures of Edward Tulane.  This is a wonderful story that our home and school family will be able to enjoy together.  One book will be provided for each family at Student-Led Conferences.  Look for reading activities to follow as we share in Edward’s miraculous journey together.

Please mark your calendars for the following events:

Oct. 20 3^rd Grade Music Concert at 7:00
Oct. 27/29 Student Led Conferences
Oct. 26-29 WC Book Fair
Oct. 30 No School

WC Legion of Superheroes to the Rescue

Staying with the theme of this school year, the Willard Central Elementary Legion of Superheroes arrived on the scene during Community Time today on October 2.  During an assembly, super students displayed their specialized abilities in a brief demonstration for students and staff.  The fearless Super Guy (AKA-Shane Medlin) appeared on the scene and encouraged students to build on their strengths, show a unity of purpose and be empowered with responsibility.  After Community Time, the entire school had their picture made.  The whole school was arranged in this year’s school symbol of Superman, which was taped off on the gym floor.  Be sure to look at Willard Central’s blog for future pictures of this great event!     Presented by:  Libbie Hampton (Administrative Intern)

As we look ahead to the month of October, please mark your calendars for these important dates:

Oct. 12 – PTO Meeting at 6:00

Oct. 16 – Fall Parties at 2:45

Oct. 20 – 3^rd Grade Music Concert at 7:00

Oct. 27/29 – Student Led Conferences

Oct. 26-29 – WC Book Fair

Oct. 30 – No School

Love & Logic Parenting Nights

The Willard Elementary Schools will offer the six hour video series BECOMING A LOVE & LOGIC PARENT  Training Course.   Facilitators will be Mrs. Gromer, Mrs. Perryman, Mrs. Woodall & Mr. Anderson. Each family receives a FREE Handbook for attending. If you are ready for some practical ideas for raising responsible kids who feel great about themselves, then join us TUESDAY NIGHT OCT. 6, 13, & 20 FROM 6:00-8:00 PM AT THE WILLARD CENTRAL LIBRARY. 
~ Mrs. Debbie Gromer, WC Counselor

A Wonderful Week at WC

It has been a super week at WC!  I have truly enjoyed seeing the learning and teaching taking place in each classroom this week.  From kindergarten students writing descriptive stories full of details about family visits to the pumpkin patch to observing 4^th grade students measuring the height of 1^st grade students and graphing the information together, the building has been abuzz with the sounds of learning.

We kicked off our PTO fundraiser at Community Time on Thursday.  We are blessed to have such wonderful community support through these fundraisers to help purchase playground equipment, interactive SMARTBoards, school t-shirts and so many other things make school so enjoyable for students.  Thank you in advance for all you do for Willard Kids! 

As we look ahead to the coming days, please mark your calendars for the following events:

Sept. 25 – NO SCHOOL – Teacher Professional Development Day
Sept. 29 – Picture Day
Sept. 29 – Mr. Z’s PTO Fundraiser Packets Due
Oct. 2 – HS Homecoming Football Game

 Have a great weekend and don’t forget to Dare to be Heroic!  ~ Shane Medlin, Principal

PTO September Newsletter

Thank you to all of our parents who support education by being a part of the WC Parent-Teacher Organization.  We enjoyed seeing serveral new faces at our last meeting and we hope many more of you can join us.  Together, we accomplish so much for our students!  Your help is invaluable to our school and greatly appreciated.  If you have not been able to join PTO yet, we still value your partnership in education and we would love to have your support.

Click here for the September PTO Newsletter PTO_September09_NL (2)

Willard – A Model School District

The Willard District is in the last year of the Missouri Reading Initiative.  This professional development training has allowed for job-embedded training with experts from across the state on best practices in reading and writing instruction.  Kindergarten through 6th grade teachers have collaborated together to bring the best instructional resources research has to offer to improve the literacy skills of Willard students.  On Thursday, administrators from across the state visited our district for the MRI Administrator’s Meeting.  These principals toured WC classrooms and collaborated together to identify ways to best meet student and teacher needs.  As they toured the building and classrooms, they were very complimentary of the district, our teachers and our students.  I want to pass these compliments along to our staff, parents, and community.  Like you, I am proud of our district and the hard work of teachers and students each day to continue learning.  Willard is a model school district with much to celebrate.

Learning is Investigating

It is hard to believe that we are already off and running into September.  School is fully underway and it is exciting to see the learning taking place in the classrooms.  This week I enjoyed the opportunity to see 2^nd grade students fully enjoyed in math station activities through our new math series.  It was wonderful to see 5 different math activities taking place at the same time as students traveled from station to station solving a variety of problems.  This experience reinforced that the brain is truly an amazing thing!!  To see students sitting at the same table solving the same problem with the same manipulatives in completely different ways was a joy to observe.  Even better, was listening to them explain the thinking behind their answers to justify their thought processes.  This math class is a great analogy for life.  There is not one set way to solve problems in life and I am encouraged to see our students becoming critical thinking problem-solvers rather than assuming there is only one correct way to reach a desired solution.  As we go through this school year with this new math series, we must remind ourselves that while this change can be difficult, the reward will be life-long learners and problem-solvers in math and all other areas beyond.

As WC looks ahead this month, please mark the following dates on your calendars:

Sept 7^th – No School for Labor Day

Sept 14^th – PTO Meeting at 6:00

Sept 25^th – No School for Teacher Professional Development

Sept 29^th – Picture Day