Congratulations to Sarah Luria, winner of the Woodbrook Spelling Bee!  Sarah will participate in the division spelling bee on Monday, March 1.

First grade students have been working on increasing their sight vocabularies. We have been playing sight word bingo, Go Fish with sight words, and most recently we have begun using an application on the iPod Touch. The students have found it fun and are highly motivated to increase the number of words they recognize.

Karen Quillen of All Things Pawssible Training Center and Doggie Day Care
volunteered her time to teach Woodbrook 4th Graders how to train a dog.  She also taught them about dog characteristics and how to be safe around dogs. This was a follow-up to animal genre novels in Literature Circle. Thank you, Karen, for taking your time to help us learn about "Man's Best Friend!" A big thank you to Dana, too, who was very well-behaved.

Fourth grade students have been learning about their new Kindle e-readers. They have had a lot of fun learning about some of the awesome features. They found they can immediately find the meaning of a word, highlight favorite parts, and with some books they can even have the Kindle pronounce an unknown word.

Fourth grade students completed a research project focused on various countries of the world and incorporated hands-on learning in the form of plants, games, and delicious food!  Students and staff alike benefited from the skills and concepts learned by our talented fourth grade students in our second annual World Fair.  Students highlighted native foods, sports, traditions, religions, and other important information and presented in an engaging manner.

Ann Friend Clark, art teacher at Crozet Elementary, came to Woodbrook to teach second graders the art of Chinese brush painting.  Ms. Clark has spent many years studying this art form. Students ground their own ink on specially cut stones and used real bamboo brushes.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Ms. Stephanie Brown orchestrated a record-shattering Can Drive that netted over 1,000 pounds of food for disadvantaged members of our greater Charlottesville community!  Thanks to Stephanie for making this a fun, engaging (and yes, competitive!) Can Drive once again surpassing previous records.

THE CAT AND THE HAT COMES BACK

A smiling Cat in the Hat is just one of many book characters participating in the Storybook Character Parade. Students, teachers, and staff dress as characters from their favorite books and stories.

THE TRIPLE C CHALLENGE

Woodbrook 5th graders conquer challenges together at Triple C Camp as part of an annual field trip. A big thanks to the Woodbrook PTO for their support of this effort!

 Students raised $1,684.58 toward the Haiti earthquake relief effort by donating coins in a three-day "Penny Challenge" sponsored by the Third Grade.

Fifth grade students work with Ms. Cass in the innovative Woodbrook First LEGO project.

Woodbrook students enjoy an assembly featuring Dean Alan, Dr. Seuss characters, and some enthusiastic volunteers.

The fifth graders were treated to a visiting artist, Christa Smith. Ms. Smith traveled from Williamsburg to be with us. She is a scratchboard artist who holds a BFA from the University of Kansas. Her talk centered on her career as a graphic artist, the history of scratchboard and her development as an artist from a young age. She demonstrated the technique of scratchboard and discussed materials and tools. You can see her work at http://christasmithillustration.tumblr.com/. Thanks to our PTO for funding this opportunity.