March 1, 2010

Keeping up with our usual pace, things are moving right along here at Vaughan Elementary. We have held several important events at our school over the past few weeks. The first was the “Keep Books” Kick-Off on February 16th. Students in pre-k through grade 2 participated in this event. Students recited a reader's oath, listened to a story and showed off their decorated shoe boxes. First, second and third place ribbons were awarded for each grade level for the best decorated shoe box. The shoe boxes will serve as a storage container for the “Keep Books”. Students will receive a “Keep Book” and read with a buddy each Friday after lunch. This project is the result of a grant written by Mrs. D. R. Foster entitled “It's Mine For Keeps!” The grant was funded by Halifax Electric Membership Corporation through their Bright Ideas Grant program.
Another important event that was held recently was our annual Science Fair which was on Friday, February 19. This year there were over 85 projects displayed in the categories of experiments and demonstrations/models. The projects covered a wide variety of topics. The judges for this year's fair were Mrs. Kay Beaver, Mr. Stan Brothers, Mrs. Carolyn Hawkins, Mr. Gary Holtzmann, and Mrs. Barbara Rowlett. The experiment winners this year were first place, Taylor Williams, “Battery Power”; second place, Brandon Barners, “Electricity from the Garden”; third place, Alize Kuster, “Curious Crystals”; honorable mentrion, Anoglia Richardson, “Best Whitening Toothpaste”. The winners in the demonstration/models category were: first place, Shawn Jordan, “Electricity from Oranges”; second place, Mark Taylor, “Balloon Magic”; third place, Tatiana Harvey, “Naked Egg”; honorable mention, Andrew Hrisanthacoupolos, “Salt Water to Fresh.” Thank you very much to our community members who served as our judges for this event.
On Tuesday night, February 23, we held our annual Black History Program in conjunction with our PTA meeting. Mr. Greg Holmes led our third through fifth grade students in a musical play about the life of Booker T. Washington. The program was absolutely fantastic! We learned that we have some very talented actors/actresses and singers in our school family. A special thanks is extended to Mr. Holmes for all of his hard work on the program. We all thoroughly enjoyed it. That same night, Vaughan held its school-wide spelling bee. There were 12 contestants competing for the title of Best Speller. Coming in in first place was Dale Jomo, second place, Zianne Richardson, third place, Leontae Francis, and 4th place, Rekila Garcia. We are so proud of our super spellers! We look forward to hearing them spell well at the County-wide Spelling Bee on March 18.
This week we have been celebrating Read Across America Week. Each day students have answered Dr. Seuss trivia questions for prizes. This year “Green Eggs and Ham” turned 50! In honor of this, students designed a new cover for the book. These will be judged this week and the winner will have his/her design enlarged into a poster that will be displayed in our school lobby. On Tuesday, March 2, students wore red for Read Every Day and we had some wonderful community members come in to read to our school over our school news program. We thoroughly enjoyed Mrs. Roberta Scott, Mr. Steve Hyman and Mr. Archie Evans sharing a Dr. Seuss book with us. A special thanks is extended to all three of these for taking time out of their busy schedules to come and share with us.
We have numerous reminders that need to be shared with our parents and others in the community about ongoing and future events at Vaughan School We are currently in the midst of a Spring Fundraiser with items from the Candy Man. Order forms are due back on Monday, March 8. . Many of our students are eager to sell thirty items which will allow them to ride in a limo to lunch. Thank you in advance for supporting our school by ordering from our students.
Our last Family Reading Night of the school-year has been rescheduled to March 25. We moved it back one week to allow everyone to be able to support our spellers at the County Spelling Bee on March 18. Because of Snow make-up days, March 26 will now be a regular full day. March 29 will be a snow make-up day and will now be a 1:00 pm dismissal day. Spring Break will begin on March 30. Students will return to school on April 6. Also, an early release has been scheduled for March 11 to allow for Staff Development to occur. Thank you for your cooperation in these changes