The 1st grade teachers at Washington School would like to express our sincere gratitude to Bud LeFevre from Distinctive Gardens for helping to educate our students. Bud so graciously came to our school and shared with our 1st graders about different types of trees, a variety of seeds and what plants need to grow. Each 1st grader was then able to plant a cutting into soil and take it home to watch it grow.
Thank you Bud and Distinctive Gardens for your time, patience and knowledge. Thank you for bringing a field trip to us! We greatly appreciate your kindness.

Every March at Washington School, the first grade students get to walk into the rainforest.  Every teacher dives head first into the facts and mysteries of the rainforest for a two to three week adventure that the students will not forget any time soon.  All nine of our teachers come up with extremely interesting and informative lessons that grasp the students’ interest and hold it throughout the unit.

In my classroom, I like to display pictures of plants and animals, maps, and giant posters showing, in detail, the four layers of the rainforest and some of the animals occupying them. As soon as my students walk into their transformed classroom on the first day of March, they are fascinated by all of the strange looking animals.  I choose to spread the unit over three weeks to be sure the students grasp the concepts and information concretely.

On Thursday, April 12, members of Cub Scout Pack 196 performed an outdoor flag raising ceremony for the second and third graders at Lincoln School.  Cub Scouting is a year-round program designed for boys who are in first through fifth grades.  Parents and leaders work together to teach character development and good citizenship to the scouts.  Part of this work involves learning how to fold the flag of the United States of America and participating in the flag raising ceremony.

BLUESTEM Book Celebration

Jefferson students once again celebrated the reading of books nominated for an Illinois Readers' Choice Award. Those 4^th and 5^th grade students who read four or more of the nominated BLUESTEM books joined together to cast their votes for their top choice. Their votes will be included with all the other Illinois 3-5 grade students who also voted. Jefferson's top choice was SIDEWAYS STORIES FROM WAYSIDE SCHOOL. Students excitedly await the announcement of the state winner later this month!