Elementary Happenings
Wapello Elementary
Brett Nagle – Principal
We are off and running for the 2018-19 school year. We have been very busy, very productive and this has continued to be one of the best starts to the school year in this, my seventh year hear at Wapello. The staff is focused and working great together, the kids are working hard, and things are off to a great start.
This week, ahead of the home Varsity Football, game on Friday vs Wilton the High School Cheer Squad will be hosting their annual Cheer camp for the elementary students. Then, on Friday at the game, they will be joining the Cheerleaders for some cheers in front of the big crowd. This is always a fun event and a great way to get the younger students involved in the High School activities, learn about the sports, and participate.
The elementary school will host Parent teacher conferences on October 2nd and October 4th. If you have questions about your conference times, please call the elementary office and we can help you find the time you are scheduled, or, find an alternate time if there are conflicts in your schedule. This is a new, earlier time on the calendar, but, we hope we can get in front of any issues that have come up to start the year, and get some solutions in place so we can get on track. Conference are a critical component in the success of your child and the communication that should be happening between school and home.
During the elementary conferences, the Elementary Library will be host to the Scholastic book fair as well. This is a great opportunity to get your hands on some new books for kids to read, and at a good price. The great thing about the book fair is that the school gets excellent rewards for the more books we sell, we in turn get credit to use to purchase books for our own library. Last Fall’s book fair generated nearly $2000 to use to buy books for our own library here at the school. It is a great thing to have, and even better is it help the school too!
This is a critical time of the year for many reasons. We want to get off to a good start in all aspects of our school day, get routines set, and get a jump on the goals for the rest of the year. Some of the important assessments and screeners we do are in this time of the year. We are in the midst of our FAST assessments and the MAP assessments at the elementary right now. These are both very important, for many reasons, but especially this time of year because it helps us determine what supports and interventions, or enrichments students need for the rest of the year to make as much growth as possible. The FAST assessments are actually reading screeners and they are required in grades K-3 by Iowa Law, as part of the Early Literacy legislation. The MAP assessments are district wide and are for reading, math and language. This is valuable time spent, but the information gained is invaluable as we plan instruction to meet students’ needs.
Looking forward to a great rest of the fall and the rest of the 2018-19 school year!