Book Fair Diner at Hodge Rd.
By Stephanie Dixon

Mrs. Gogel’s third graders stopped by the book fair at Hodge Road Elementary.

Students rushed in the media center to browse the selections. Before heading over to the book fair, there was a brief overview and lesson of the day. The Pawsome chant was recited and off to browse the book fair diner. A jar of jelly beans sat on a table for a guessing contest, the winner would receive the jar of candy. Students enjoyed the free time to make a wish list or a purchase if mom sent the money.

East Regional Library
By Chris Gosek

A group of teens in Knightdale are putting their heads together and what they are coming up with is fun filled activities for themselves and other area teens to enjoy at East Regional Library.

The group called, “Teen Library Core (TLC),” formed about four years ago and has grown from just a few members and a couple of people showing to events they came up with to a much larger group and very good event turn outs since the inception. The group meets to plan events and then decide how they will put the gathering together.

They were just preparing for their “A Minute to Win It,” event, which teens would compete in contests much like the television program of the same name. Coming up they plan to hold a “Twilight Night,” an Iron Chef competition and another event involving the Nintendo Wii.

Original group member, Adeem Tahira noted that the group has grown since the beginning and said her favorite part of TLC is that “all types of teens, from all over the area can come together and have fun at the library.”

All About Me
By Chris Gosek

Letting their artistic side show, the students in Ms. Walker’s class at East Wake Middle School have been hard at work to describe themselves through designs and words in their “Me Posters.”

The project has the kids using 30 words that they have cut out from different mediums that best describe them. The words are then arranged into designs or even a picture, which would also represent the student in some way.

Perfection at Knightdale Elementary
By Chris Gosek

While perfection is something that is not often achieved, several Knightdale Elementary School students were recently honored for having perfect attendance during this past school year.

Receiving perfect attendance awards were, John Hernandez, Kylie Smith, Kylah Loftin, Kaylin Moss, Ellana Milliken, Gavin Wall, Daliris De Los Santos, Tuan Le, Dylan Page, Elizabeth Yulko, Jayla Moss, Ian Neptune, Dijon Pulley, Tamaria Moore, Edgar Navarro, Malaika Nzau, Deja Haywood, Saianish Tankala and Christopher Vico-Chavez.

Movin' to the Head of the Class
By Chris Gosek

Hands on activities are the name of the game in Ms. Ellis’ resource class at Lake Myra Elementary School. Students take part in fun activities, all the while improving their reading, social and physical skills.

A favorite of Ms. Ellis’ kids is their “movement activities.” During this time, the kids choose cards from a deck, each of which show and spell out a physical activity the kids must act out. “We incorporate fun, while addressing their needs,” Ms. Ellis noted, “the kids just work so hard and I’ve seen so much progress in them this year…it’s so exciting.”

Wendell Claims District Title
Starting their run with a convincing 18-4 win over Wake Forest and never looking back, rolling over Wilder’s Grove (18-2) and again meeting and handling Wake Forest by a 12-2 count in the championship game, the Wendell 13-14 year old boys baseball all star team won the 2010 District 6 Tar Heel League championship.

The team as a whole was on fire at the plate the entire tournament. Brock Waynik led the attack, batting nearly .700 for the tourney. Another note on offense,

Jordan Maye blasted his first career home run at the district tournament. Strong pitching from Paschal Ammons, Tucker Denton, and Brock Waynik set the pace for the title run that Wendell enjoyed. Cameron Brewer, Luke Jones, Rick Tant, Jalen Neal, Cody Alford, David Mitchell, and Avery Fergerson all contributed throughout the tournament to aid in bringing the trophy home to Wendell.

The team went on to compete in the state championships, winning two games by thrashing Coats by a 14-4 margin and Johnston County by a count of 14-1. The team lost a tough 6-3 game against Siler City and took home a fourth place overall finish after losing a tough battle against Martin County.

Ms. Millsap’s eight grade students at East Wake Middle School are developing a business plan in a project that will eventually see them “creating” their own restaurant.

The project, that can be done either by an individual or in a small group, has the students tackling all of the tough tasks that would normally go into the process of opening a restaurant business. The kids are expected to decide on a location, draw up a floor plan, and figure in all overhead costs including food, employees and furniture. They also are to come up with a target audience that they would try to attract to their new restaurant. Eventually, they will plan their overall budget and finally they will present their business plans.

Chopping Vegetables to the Beat

Learning to listen to and follow a rhythm has never been more fun than in the pre-kindergarten music class at Lake Myra Elementary, as they “chopped vegetables” to the beat.

Using both their own hands, clapping along and then rhythm sticks, students learned patterns and listening skills along to the song “Chopping Vegetables.” The kids took turns stirring and chopping during the tune and were delighted to do so.

Family Fun with Books

Hoping to raise funds for new books at the school library and promoting the fun that children can have by reading a book, Hodge Road Elementary held a “Family Fun Book Fair,” and even got a little help from their friends.

All classes in the school came out to the book fair, which had all the recent favorite books for any ages, from toddlers right up to adults. At night time, families came out to support the library and get some new reading material as well.

School Librarian, Rachel Anderson, noted that all the help from parents and volunteers and the generosity of the people at Green Pines Church, who donated many books to the fair helped to make the event a success as they try to raise funds for 100 new library books at Hodge Road.

Getting Ahead in Reading at Hodge Road

Prior to jumping into a new book, Ms. Petty’s third grade Title One reading group, takes a peek at the new story’s vocabulary and makes predictions based upon the words they learn and their background knowledge.

The kids’ first look at the vocabulary words and define them. Once that is accomplished, they try to predict how each word will play into the story, with their focus being on character, setting problems and events. The prediction may be based on the picture on the book’s cover or possibly from some background knowledge that the student has of the words. Then, finally, they read the new story and see for sure if their predictions were correct or not.

Knightdale All Stars Take Third

The Knightdale 10U girls’ softball all-star team finished with a respectable third place finish at their recent District 6 championship tournament held in Louisburg.

After starting out with a tough loss to the eventual state champion, Wendell, the girls bounced back with their strongest effort of the tournament, upending Louisburg 13-8. Knightdale rapped out 21 hits in the victory, with Melody Prichard, Taylor Edwards, Niya Boone, and Katelyn Alford all swinging red-hot bats in the game. Nicole Bertrand, Autumn Whitley, Lauren West, Erica Edwards, and Julia Massing also crushed the ball, paving the way for the Knightdale win. (Taylor) Edwards and Cassie Tyson pitched their hearts out in the win. Bailey Murray and Treasure Rouse played fantastic defense behind their pitchers to aid in the victorious effort also. Knightdale dropped game number three to Youngsville. Coaching the Knightdale All Stars were Kelly West, Tonya Prichard, Bridget Massing and Jessica Fuller.

Mad About Science

The young scientists in Ms. Jones first grade classroom at Carver Elementary learned about balance and motion through a trial and error process in which they used different items to help them balance a pencil.

The students, dressed in white scientist lab coats and wire rimmed glasses, tried to use clips to first balance their pencils, but eventually attained their goal by using metal wire and some clothespins for weight. The trick was to keep the clothes pins beneath the pencil to counter balance it. Kids balanced their pencils on books, tables and some even on their own noses!

Movin’ and Shakin’ at Carver

Getting familiar with all possible movements and getting a good work out while doing so; first graders at Carver Elementary were having some fun in Ms. Hajnos’ Physical Education class.

Dividing up into several lines, the group took turns walking, running, skipping, galloping, jumping and crawling, much to the delight of all students involved. Adding to their enjoyment, the kids even got to act out different animal movements as well.

Expanding their vocabulary and polishing their reading skills, Mr. Hough’s second grade class at Carver Elementary has been hard at work during reading group time. With their “vocabulary draw” exercise that has the children read a sentence and draw what they have just read, students enjoy learning to strengthen their comprehension skills.
 
Mr. Hough also directly works with the students as needed during this time, helping to sound out words and encouraging the kids to read and focus on one line at a time as they strive to improve.

Soil Investigators

Ms. Lane’s third graders at Hodge Road Elementary are working on the second phase of their science unit, finding them investigating the properties of soil.

After first tackling the properties of sand, the groups now are investigating clay and they will finish the unit looking at humus. The students are using their senses of touch, sound, smell, and sight to conduct their investigations. Once they finish, they will record their observations and findings with their partners.

Sound is All Around

Coming to the end of a science unit on sound, Ms. Hogue’s second graders were treated to a fun filled discussion by Scientist Davis from High Touch High Tech Science.

Learning and becoming familiar with vibration, pitch and volume during this unit, the kids listened intently as their guest explained the ins and outs of sound, involving them in the presentation often. A tuning fork was introduced to show that sound can travel through both air and objects. The children also built “ear drums” out of cups and beans and “sound putty” to help demonstrate what they have learned.

Sweetening the Scientific Process

Learning the first few steps of the scientific process has become somewhat of a sweet event for Ms. Rubish’s class at Lockhart Elementary as the students chart their data through the use of M & M candies.

Starting with the first three steps of the process, observe, compare and classify, the students were asked to use their eyes, nose, fingers and mouth to collect and record data on the baggie full of M&M’s that each child received.After recording their information, the kids were rewarded, as their last step in observing, comparing and classifying the candies found them eating the M &M’s.

Volleyball for All

With the middle school fall sports season right around the corner, many girls at East Wake Middle School are taking advantage of the after school intramural volleyball program to tune their game up or just to have a little fun amongst friends.

Over twenty girls were on hand to learn the basics of the game including bumping and setting. They were also practicing in real “live” match play, to prepare the players for when different situations occur over the course of the season.

The after school volleyball also allows for sixth grade students, who are ineligible to play on the East Wake team to participate. Ms. Vinson, who coaches the program noted, “This is to teach them a little bit about volleyball…and it gets the sixth graders that wouldn’t normally have a chance to come out and play, too.”

Wendell Girls Take State Trophy

Behind some very strong pitching and a potent offensive attack, the 14U Wendell Girls Softball all Star team rolled over all comers on their way to becoming state champions.

Wendell outscored their foes by 54-6 in the four games they played at the state tournament. Their run began against Granite Falls, with an 11-1 win behind the dynamite pitching of Kelsie Hocutt. The great pitching continued in game two, as Parker Brantley went the distance for a complete game 12-0 shutout win over Johnston County. Katy Holt duplicated the shutout effort, also tossing a complete game in Wendell’s third contest, earning a 10-0 win. This set up the state championship game against Granite Falls and Aubrey McLeod, Cassie York and Kelsie Hocutt combined on the mound for another great effort, as they rolled to a 21-5 victory and the state championship.

The power from top to bottom of the Wendell lineup played a huge roll in their rise to the top in state tournament play, too. Annabeth Watkins, Jayla Perry, Samantha Smith, Erin James, and Jasmine McAbee all contributed at the plate to bringing the trophy back to Wendell. Phil Hocutt, Brian James, and Dallas Seagraves coached the team.

What’s Your Name?

At Lockhart Elementary, Ms. Reed’s kindergarten students have been hard at work perfecting how to spell and write out their names.

Finishing up this very important unit, the kids all were given a paper with their name written out on it. They then took a second piece of colored paper and tore it into tiny pieces. Tracing their names in glue, the children then spelled out their names in the colorful paper which they will proudly display in the hallway for the remainder of the kindergarten year.