Written by Lily Jeffries |  The second graders have been learning so much in their second grade class! They have been having so much fun having class with Mrs.Rischling. The kids always come to school happy and ready to learn! Mrs. Rischling has been taking over for the second grade class because Mrs. Horne has been on maternity leave. She should be back sometime in January. Mrs. Rischling stated, “My time in the second grade classroom has been a fun, fulfilling past few weeks.” Mrs.Rischling also mentioned that she went to college to be a PE teacher, so it was a new learning experience for her as it’s a completely different thing from PE and it has been a really fun time for her. The kids have been learning about the Greek Gods, and this week they started learning about the War of 1812. The kids favorite activity to do is drawing, whenever the kids have free time all they want to do is draw. Grayson Arbuck, a second grader, stated, “In class we did our reading assessments and Mrs. Rischling had to do five cartwheels.” Grayson has been loving second grade this year. I hope to learn more about what the second grade class is learning later on in the year.

Written by Lily Jeffries |  Mr. Perez, the band and choir teacher, has had the first-grade kids doing many challenging things. The first-grade class has been loving music class with Mr.Perez! The kids always come into music smiling, ready to sing and dance. Mr. Perez stated, “My favorite part about teaching is that I get to work with the kids and see what kids of all ages can accomplish.” The first-grade class is working on Christmas music for the concert, which they love because it gets them singing and jumping around. The first-grader's favorite activity to do in music class is to use boomwackers. The kids find it incredible how they can make music with just a plastic tube. Mr.Perez also mentioned, “I think this class impacts the elementary kids because it gets them exploring their musicality, moving around, and getting their brain working. Weston Yound, a first-grader, stated, “My favorite thing to do in music is to play with all the instruments and sing Get the Wiggles Out.” These kids enjoy going to music every day, and they learn how to make all kinds of music. I hope to learn more about what the first-grade class is learning in music later in the year. 

Written by Draven Payne |  This week the 5th grade class was chosen for the classroom spotlight. Recently, their class has been working on a fun project. For their project they each get to build a bridge that has to be made out of various crafting materials. Once they are built they are going to see which bridge can hold the most weight. The winner will receive some type of candy from Ms. Fousek. In class Ms. Fosek likes to hold a lot of group discussions on whatever topic they are talking about. One of the things she enjoys about teaching 5th grade is how they are pretty independent and how she can joke around with them. 5th grader Tommy Kallhoff, has really enjoyed this year so far and expressed that he really enjoys how they don’t have much homework. He also really likes how Ms. Fousek gives out lots of candy. Later in the spring the 5th grade class plans on going to the Henry Doorly Zoo and plan to have lots of fun learning about the animals at the zoo. We are proud of how hard the 5th grade class and the rest of the elementary school has worked and look forward to seeing what they accomplish throughout the year.

Written by Kierra Papik  | Monday was the first official day of Pack Partners. The elementary students have been highly anticipating Pack Partners. During this, the high school students get paired with four or five elementary students to do many fun activities. This week's activity was a scavenger hunt. Mrs. Kroll stated, “I think the first day went great and fun because the kids were active and very competitive.” This year we have 14 highschool students doing pack partners which is really good. Mrs. Kroll also mentioned, “I think Pack Partners help the younger kids that don’t have siblings, so it gives them someone to talk to.” While the kids did a scavenger hunt, they also got to know their group leaders and the group leaders got to learn more about the kids. The high school asked the elementary students about themselves. Afterwards, the elementary kids got to ask questions about the high schoolers. Taylor stated, “I joined Pack Partners to be able to work with the kids and build bigger bonds with them.” Having pack partners is a very beneficial experience to be a part of. The kids all really enjoy being able to hangout with the older kids and get to know them better. Overall the first meeting of Pack Partners this year went really well!

Written by Kierra Papik  | As a new group of students walk into the classroom, Mrs. Pettygrove adapts the new changes that need to be made. This year the kindergarten class has 12 students. This week we wanted to highlight how the start of the year has gone for them. When asked how the school year has been going Mrs. Pettygrove stated, “I think it has been going good. The children have had to adjust to having a full day of school instead of half days. The kids come to school everyday excited to learn.”  Each week the kindergarten class has been focusing on a new kindness challenge. These challenges range from giving compliments to helping a friend. The kids have been doing a great job on working to achieve these goals. This work with the kindergarten students would not have been possible without Mrs. Pettygrove’s consistent support. One of  Mrs. Pettygrove’s favorite subjects to teach her students is math. Though math time can be fun, some of the students said they enjoy recess and lunch. These students stated that their favorite school lunches are mini corn dogs, and crispy chicken sandwiches. We look forward to seeing the accomplishments this class achieves as the year progresses. Great job to  the kindergarten class!

Written by Lily Jeffries | Red Ribbon Week is an alcohol, tobacco, smoking, and other drug and violence prevention awareness week. During red ribbon week, the elementary classes do many different activities to help them better understand what Red Ribbon Week truly is. Kierra stated, “I think the week went great; lots of students and teachers dressed up.” During the week, the FCCLA members and officers try to get as many people as they can to dress up so it’ll make the week more fun. The FCCLA officers made a plan to have all the K-5 students come into the gym and do some fun activities to teach them about the dangers of drug and alcohol use. The FCCLA members had the K-2 do coloring pages, would you rather, and naughty or healthy questions. The 3-5 graders did bingo and would you rather go along with a word search. The kids had a lot of fun doing these activities, and we hope they learned something new. Mrs. Arbuck said, “We talked about all the reasons why drugs and alcohol are not good for your body and completed the lesson with a word search.” Overall, the Exeter-Milligan FCCLA Chapter thinks the week was very successful.