VWCS News
SPECIAL
POINTS OF
INTEREST:

Class Pages
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Habitude
Leadership
Lesson

A U G U S T ,
S P E C I A L
2 0 1 5
I S S U E
Welcome Back from Ms. Irene
Parents’
Corner
SAVE THE
DATE:
Labor Day
SEPTEMBER 7th
I am excited and honored to welcome each and every one
of you. If our first day was any indication, it is going to be
an AMAZING year! Our returning students were excited
to reunite and eagerly welcomed all of the new members
of our community. I want to remind our parents to do the
same: don’t be shy, introduce yourselves to the new faces
and new parents should likewise take the initiative and
make introductions, too!
Thanks again parents for preparing your children for
school. It has been wonderful to see everyone settling in
to their routines. We are all going to have a great year
learning and growing together.
Irene Prue
Principal/Head of School
Blessings,
Ms. Irene
Extracurricular
Activities begin
SEPTEMBER 14th
Most of you have seen and been
served by our new Safety Patrol. They
are at our entrance every morning and
afternoon, ready to serve with smiling
faces! They are curbside to open
doors, and help with backpacks and
lunchboxes.
They truly desire to
LCF Launch for
ALL Committees
SEPTEMBER 16TH
provide assistance, please
follow the following guidelines:

PLEASE come all the way
to the curb and pull as
far forward as possible

Have your child sit on the
passenger side of the car
so that our Safety Patrol
can assist them the curb.

If you must get out of
your vehicle, please pull
into a parking spot.
VWCS.org
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2
Ms. Yvette’s K4 Class
The first two weeks of school have been fun and exciting for our K4 students. They are having a great time with each other—we may be watching the beginnings of lifelong friendships
right here at VWCS! It brings my heart great joy to see them being loving and kind to one
another.
The students are all showing great interests in our Bible lessons on Creation,
Noah and Abraham. I love that they are able to add so much during our discussions time.
In this short time, I have started to see some of the gifts that the children
have—they are a very creative bunch and they LOVE to sing.
Elizabeth giving her
“best friend” Kalyn a
hug during recess.
We spend a lot of time enjoying books together, but we also enjoy FREEPLAY,
which is just as important as reading time for four-year-olds. Children learn
how to share, sort, socialize, converse, practice self control and dream through
playing. All of these are important lessons that they will need throughout their
lives.
“Capital ‘E’, Little ‘e’, e-e-elephant”
Walk through the hallway or
pop in to visit, and you will
hear the children working on
short vowel sounds in class.
This is how we begin working
on letter sounds in Phonics.
While working on the letter
“E”, each student takes a turn
holding our elephant so that I
can hear them individually.
They are doing great! Practice
this cadence with them at
home or in the car. Mastery
of the short vowel sounds is an
important building block to
reading and they are well on
their way!
Practicing Penmanship
By the end of K4, our students
learn how to write their
names in cursive! Right now,
they are having a wonderful
time tracing the cursive letters
I and U. Eden likes to stay
inside the lines and Eli loves
the house that the letters
“live” in. Before you know it,
they will be working on writing words. There are so many
VWCS
NEWS
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benefits to writing in cursive—
click here to read an article
about some of them.
The children are also working
on doing their “best” coloring,
and it is getting better each
day. Encourage them to color
neatly at home, too.
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Ms. Debbie’s K5 Class
We are getting our year off to a
great start by learning about
health, safety, and manners. We
are learning to take turns, say
please and thank you, and wash
our hands after we use the restroom. The students have
been hard at work learning
their routines and they are eager to help do jobs around the
room. When we learned in
Bible class that God made the
Earth and we need to take care
of it, London reminded us to
recycle because, "It's our
'sponsatility to keep things
clean!" We have also talked
about fire safety and what to do
in an emergency. I was so happy
to hear that many students have
a fire safety plan in place at
home. They told me about
where they should meet in the
yard in case of emergency and
neighbors they could ask for
help. They were so excited for
our first fire drill last week! We
spent time practicing our line,
learning our exit route and locating all of the fire alarms. Our
returning students had a great
time making the fire alarm noise
so the new students would recognize it. Be sure to ask your
little one if Snappy the Turtle, a
favorite stuffed toy, made it out
ok. They were certain we
should not leave him behind on
our fire drill!
“Is it nap time
yet?” --Isabella
“The best thing
Kid Conversations...
is that I get to do
is play with
London let us know he was excited for Friday because "It's
the last day of school!" Lily and Brielle assured him it wasn't
because there's at least 20 or 30 days of school. Of course
London already knew this, he meant the last day of the
week. And, he pointed out that actually there was really like
"100 or maybe 2oo days til the last day." At hearing this,
Nathaniel said, "You mean we are coming here for 100 or
something times?" At this point chatter broke out about how
school is forever until you're old. I guess this means they are
in it for the long haul!
brother at
recess.” --Iyin
Super Scientists
We have started our first science unit on the five senses: taste, touch,
smell, sight, and hearing. We are using our senses to explore and discover
things in our world. This is called being a scientist! Scientists use their senses to observe, record information, make smart guesses, test those guesses
and find things out. The kids love the process and having a great time
working in our super fab lab just like “Sid the Science Kid”. Be sure and ask
your child what they saw, heard, touched, tasted, and smelled at school
today. It's amazing all that we can see and do here
at school. Make observations with them on your
car rides, around the house and in your neighborhood just for fun! Look for your child's "All About
Senses Book" coming home soon. Reviewing this
fun activity book is a great way to help your child
study for their first science test.
London, Enzo & Kezia are having a
GREAT time playing together at recess.
VWCS.org
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4
Ms. LaTosha’s 1st Grade
First grade is starting the year off great! There is an
excitement to know more about God’s plan for our
lives. Since school has been in session, we have been
studying God’s creation. God is our role model. He
showed us the importance of working and resting.
Everything we do should bring glory to God. That is
why we work 6 days a week and spend extra time in
worship with Him on the day we rest. We know on
the Sabbath day, we don’t spend it sleeping.
God’s Creation
Day by Day
The Elephant
Text @b90213 to 81010
to receive messages and
reminders from Ms.
LaTosha through the
“Remind” app .
Have you heard your child recite
“The Elephant”? Our class has
been doing an excellent job
memorizing the poem in class—I
hear that many of them are also
practicing at home.
Stay tuned for videos of them
reciting “The Elephant” together.
Our Class Dojo
Have you logged into our class on CLASS
DOJO? Check your child’s yellow folder
for your login information. Click the Class
Dojo icon to see how your child is doing!
VWCS
NEWS
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Ms. Doris’s 2nd Grade
In our 2nd Grade Class, one of the things that
we do is work together in teams to help each
other, collaborate and share what we have
learned.
In this picture, classmates are sharing what they have
learned in a recent lesson about plants. They learned that
most plants need sunlight, water, air and food from the soil
in order to grow.
Andrea’s Summer Holiday
Andrea presenting her Journal entry to the class.
I had a wonderful summer holiday. Over the summer I went to
Florida to see my grandparents. My cousins came too. We had
fun! One day we went to Fun Town and to a restaurant called
Fridays. I ate ribs. I forgot what my cousins ate, but we still had
lots of fun. On another day we went to Disney World and we
had so much fun, but my cousin Naomi went to sleep. At Disney World, I was on the dance floor dancing. And the day before school began, I went to my friend Talie’s house for a pool
party. -Andrea Pullen
Counting Money
We ended our first week of school on a high note—with a
party celebrating these three birthday buddies! Happy Birthday Amaya, Jaden & Phillip!
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6
Kudos to Christina,
Sakayra & Eric for
their participation in
the Summer Reading
Competition!
Ms. Dezi’s 3rd Grade
O Happy Day! 3rd Grade began
academic year 2015-2016 with
resounding BANG! These
Awesome Angels, some of
whom have had a sensational
summer and others whose
holiday was simply serene, all
returned to school ready for
all of the exciting new undertakings that the Third Grade
has to offer. We have had so
much fun in the first few days
of the new school year! Already a family, we are completely committed this year to
worshipping earnestly, learning
effectively, playing robustly,
existing harmoniously and
“finishing” ardently…. Together!
Third grade is such a pivotal
year in the students’ lives
where they are “reading to
learn” and emerging from
lower to upper elementary
school. To celebrate the beginning of this amazing transition, we have just enjoyed our
first Ice-Cream Social, assisted
by one of our parents, the
marvelous Mr. Le. On an even
more phenomenal note, we
are expeditiously becoming
fervent readers and keen writers. Third graders have already
begun to earn Accelerated
Reader certificates for their
hard work during the summer
vacation! I am so very proud
of them! They are also learning
to adapt math games and activities to new concepts being
learned and previous concepts
being reviewed with great
vivacity! We are having a fabulous time getting to know and
learn from each other. Neverthe-less, whether we are writing, spelling, dancing or singing,
we are happily bringing Christ
daily into all that we do! We
can’t wait to see how the rest
of our school year unfolds!
STAR Corner
This month we are featuring two remarkable writers who utilized the Capitalization
and Punctuation Rules which we have recently learned in Language Arts:
Ronnie Wright and Jada Maneice.
“My summer vacation was fun. I went to Philadelphia and saw Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell and the U.S. Constitution. I also learned about Benjamin Franklin. Finally I went to
Virginia. I went to the Jamestown Settlement where I learned about the Powhatan Indians
and our Country’s history.” – Ronnie Wright.
“Last Sunday we went to church and afterwards we made a trip to Ikea. We went there to
get desks and chairs for Taylor and me. I enjoyed my whole weekend! It was awesome!”
– Jada Maneice.
“Swatting”
even & odd
numbers
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NEWS
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Ms. Michele’s 4th Grade
Last week in our Shurley English lesson, students learned several new vocabulary
words. The word “Encourage” was one of the words that really stuck out to me,
especially as we begin the new school year. The students were asked to write a
poem using the word and below are a few samples of the wonderful work I
received. I love the opportunity I have daily to encourage the students in their
school work but more importantly in Christ our Lord.
Sports are fun but hard
Sometimes you win
Sometimes you lose
But not matter what
Parents are always there to encourage you
Encourage
Keep going
Encourage is nice
Never give up
Encourage is sweet
Play your best.
Everyone needs a little encouragement
-Joshua Oliver
Every once in a while
It is a good feeling to have
You should always encourage other people
You can switch somene’s day around by
encouraging them.
-Kendall Washington
One day I was riding my bike
I saw someone afraid to ride
I encouraged him to ride
And he listened to me
He started to ride
He said it was the best day of
his life.
-Nathaniel Adeojo
en·cour·age·ment /
inˈkərijmənt/
the action of giving someone support,
confidence, or hope.
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8
“It’s not how much
we give, but how
much love we put
Ms. Tracy’s 5th Grade
For their first journal assignment of the school year, the
fifth graders were asked to
write about a favorite gift
they received. They were
asked to write why they
received the gift, the reason
the gift meant so much to
them and who gave it to
them. I read many great stories. Some students wrote
about a favorite toy or book,
other students wrote about
a bicycle and game, but these
two journal entries were the
ones that warmed my heart.
When we think of gifts we
immediately think about the
material things; the toy cars,
the dolls, the computer
games. We neglect to think
of the important people in
our lives or the first time we
accepted Jesus into our
hearts as gifts, but they are
truly great gifts.
had great insight into what
matters in their lives. They
were able to look beyond
the norm and appreciate two
of the greatest gifts there is.
What a wonderful reminder
that the things we sometimes
take for granted are the
most precious gifts we could
ever have. Hats off to Donovan and Kummi for this
sweet reminder.
Donovan and Kummi really
into giving.”
-Mother Teresa
Donovan’s Best Gift
My best gift is my dad. I love
him so much. He wants me to
get good grades for every year
that I’m in school. My dad is
so much fun. Tomorrow, he
will take me to Six Flags. I like
playing games with my dad.
Sometimes my dad will wake
me up very early to go to
school. Then, before he takes
me to school, we eat at Chick
Fil A. I get the chicken minis
and he gets them with orange
juice.
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NEWS
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Kunmi’s Best Gift
The best gift I ever got was
Christ. As soon as I heard
about Him, I wanted Him in
my heart. I asked my mom
questions for three weeks
straight. Then my mom told
me to accept him (so I would
get off her shoulders).
As I grew up, I started to learn
more about Him. One day, I
finally let him in. That was the
best gift you could ever ask
for. He’s still in my heart, my
church teacher opened me up.
That’s my story.
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SEPTEMBER 2015
Schedule of Events

9/4—Jeans Friday for Missions

9/7—Labor Day, VWCS Closed

9/9—Chapel Service led by 5th Grade
8:30AM

9/11—Jeans Friday for Missions

9/14—Extracurricular Activities Begin

9/15—Picture Day

9/16—Chapel Service 8:30 AM
LCF Committees Launch
Meetings, 6:30 PM

9/18—Jeans Friday for Missions

9/23—Chapel Service 8:30 AM
Noon Dismissal
Parent/Teacher Conferences
12:30-6:30 PM

9/24—Noon Dismissal

9/25—Jeans Friday for Missions
Crazy Hat Day
FAMILY FUN NIGHT
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
1
2
3
4
5
Jeans Day
6
7
VWCS
8
9
10
Closed
(Labor Day)
13
20
14
21
28
12
Jeans Day
15
16 Parent
Picture Day
Committee
Meetings
22
23 Parent
17
29
18
19
Jeans Day
24
Teacher
Conferences
27
11
25 Hat Day 26
& Family
Fun Night
30
Reading Aloud to Children from “The ABC’s of School Success” by Wesley Sharpe, ED.S.
Reasons to Read Aloud to
Young Children (Ages 1-5)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Daily read-aloud sessions
promote language development in young children.
Children who are read to
learn to read more easily.
Reading aloud increases your
child’s vocabulary.
Reading aloud is a way to
boost your child’s school
achievement.
Reading aloud expands your
child’s imagination and stimulates curiosity and creativity.
Children who are read to,
begin to make the connection between reading and
writing.
Reading promotes values and
higher-level thinking.
Reasons to Read Aloud to
Older Children (Ages 6-9)
1.
Reading aloud increases the
older child’s enjoyment of books
2.
Reading aloud makes difficult
books more interesting and easier to
understand
3. Reading aloud helps children
learn how what they read relates
to life.
4. Reading aloud helps children
check for missed, skipped, and
mispronounced words.
5. Reading aloud helps kids enjoy
the excitement of the unfolding
story.
2.
3.
4.
6 Ways to Explore Books with
Young Children
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Make a reading place
Visit the library
Buy board books.
Buy books the child can touch
and explore
Encourage the child to participate
Get silly, be an actor!
7 Read-Aloud Do’s and Don’ts
1.
Do become familiar with a large
quantity of books on topics that
interest the child. Be certain
VWCS.org
5.
6.
7.
your child is exposed to
high-quality literature.
Do preview the book.
Will your child understand the book’s concepts and vocabulary?
Do show the illustrations to your child, and
stop reading once in a
while to answer questions. Give the child
enough time to study the illustrations.
Don’t read stories you hate. Your
dislike of a book will seep through to
your child and might turn him/her off
from reading.
Don’t choose books that will overwhelm your child. Select read-aloud
that will entertain and teach ideas at
his/her intellectual, emotional, and
developmental level.
Don’t answer questions that stop the
story’s flow or give away its plot. Let
the suspense build as your child anticipates the ending
If he or she gets too wiggly, take a
break or end the session with a goodnight kiss. Five or ten minutes may be
all he/she can take at one reading. If it
happens regularly, ask yourself, “Is this
book the right level for my child?”
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Habitude of the Month: The Iceberg
The Iceburg represents your leadership. The 10% above the water is your skill. The 90% below
the water is your character. It’s what’s below the surface that sinks the ship.
We use Tim Elmore’s Habitudes Leadership Lessons to teach our students that character matters.
Each month a different leadership lesson is emphasized in a chapel lesson, as well as in class throughout the month. This month’s Habitude is THE ICEBURG.
Summer Reading Competition
Congratulations to the 17 students that participated in
our Summer Reading Competition! They combined to
take and pass 419 AR Quizzes and read an astonishing
1,800,000 words!
Our individual winner was Rebekah Creary who passed
58 quizzes and our FOURTH GRADE was the top class.
GREAT JOB, everyone!
VWCS
NEWS
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Extracurricular Activities
Our extracurricular activities all begin
meeting during the week of Monday,
September 14th. Some of our activities
have limited capacity, so don’t wait to
enroll. Please select the icon to the right
for more information on each program.
All activities begin at 3:45PM and end at
4:45PM.
Here is our schedule:

MONDAY: Rockin’ for Christ
Piano

TUESDAY: Builder Bunch LEGO
Club

WEDNESDAY: Happy Feet Soccer

THURSDAY: Ballet
Drama

FRIDAY: Jazz
Karate
5905 Brook Hollow Parkway
Norcross, GA 30071
Phone: 678-684-2030
Fax: 678-684-2031
VWCS.org
Parents’ Corner
Learning Community Fellowship Launch Meeting
Our 2015-16 Service, Social and Support Committees will
meet on WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 16th at 6:30PM.
ALL families encouraged to attend! Our Committee Chairs
need YOUR ideas & feedback. Please plan to attend!
180 Days of Prayer
Don’t break the chain! Please sign up to specifically pray for
VWCS students, families, faculty and staff during the school
year. Click here to sign up.
Spirit Night
Family fun ahead at VWCS Spirit Night on
Friday, September 25th at JUMP-JUMP
indoor playground! Please save the date
and be on the look out for details. It will
be an evening of fun for all!
VWCS.org