HOOT HOOT HOORAY

HOOT HOOT HOORAY! Go Owls!

UPHOLDING EXCELLENCE AT THE WOODS

Our Lower School educators and Learning Specialists are officially trained in the Orton-Gillingham Approach. The Orton-Gillingham Approach is a direct, explicit, multisensory, structured, sequential, diagnostic, and prescriptive way to teach literacy when reading, writing, and spelling does not come easily to individuals, such as those with dyslexia. It is most properly understood and practiced as an approach, not a method, program, or system. In the hands of a welltrained and experienced instructor, it is a powerful tool of exceptional breadth, depth, and flexibility.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS APPROACH HERE

Congratulations to the following teachers on this milestone! ■ Christina Phelps 2nd Grade Teacher ■ Stephanie Chapman 3rd Grade Teacher ■ Erica Vassos 3rd Grade Teacher ■ Stephanie Clark 4th Grade Teacher ■ Katya Pilong Director of Lower School ■ Kelly Nalls Learning Support and Curriculum Specialist ■ Kate Fogarty 1st Grade Teacher

MASTERS COMPLETE

4th grade teacher Stephanie Clark completed her Masters in Educational Leadership and Administration in the Spring of 2021 from George Washington University.

CHESS CLUB

Congratulations to our Chess Club who finished in 1st place at this year’s Knights of Columbus Fall 2021 Charity Youth Chess Tournament! A special congratulations to 6th grader Thomas B. who went undefeated and finished 1st place in the 6-8 section.

OWLS COMPETE WITH ROBOTICS

The Woods Academy Upper School students competed in this year’s First Lego League Challenge and did superbly! The FIRST® LEGO® League guides students through STEM learning and exploration. From Discover, to Explore, and then to Challenge, students understand the basics of STEM and apply their skills in an exciting competition while building habits of learning, confidence, and teamwork skills along the way. Below is the list of Woods teams that were a part of this year’s competition and their results. All of these teams should be immensely proud of their accomplishments! After five and a half months, each group had a unique solution to the innovation project – focused on how to improve the transportation of products – and had built and programmed a robot to successfully complete a variety of missions. Additionally, all four teams showed wonderful core values. They embraced the challenges, looked for innovative solutions, strove to have a positive impact on others, practiced teamwork, and had fun. Congrats to these Mighty Owls! Owls EAT (6th and 7th graders) won the Core Values Award. This team displayed extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit, knew they could accomplish more together than they could as individuals, and showed each other and other teams respect at all times. Mechanical Marvels (8th graders) scored 5th in the robot board missions with a score of 255. They received very positive feedback from judges – “like brothers” and “future of STEM”. Amaze-On (6th and 7th graders) was given positive feedback for their innovative claw design on their robot and scored high on their core values as they discussed how they overcame challenges that ran into over the course of a few months. Kermit the Bot (6th and 7th Graders) were given high marks in core values and robot design. The judges’ accolades included “demonstrating that you all had fun and grew through this project! On top of that, taking time to help the fifth graders was remarkable and showed that you had an impact in some way.” During the judging session, this group was recognized for its inclusive nature and ability to let every member participate and shine in their own way.

Thank you to Mrs. Megan Mullally and Mr. Matthew D’Ercole for leading the charge with our robotics teams.

SCAN THIS QR CODE TO SEE THE MECHANICAL MARVELS IN ACTION AT FLL.

SCRIPP’S SPELLING BEE AT THE WOODS ACADEMY

The Woods Academy hosted the Scripp’s Spelling Bee on February 22nd and we had a big group of brave spellers who represented the Woods with tremendous sportsmanship and grace throughout the entire competition. Congratulations to 8th grader Alex Farmer on winning this year’s challenge! The winning word this year was RENOWNED. Here were the finalists for this year’s Spelling Bee: ■ Alex Farmer 8th Grade-1st Place-Competing in Nationals! ■ Thomas Byrne 6th Grade-1st Runner Up! ■ Philip Moyo 7th Grade-2nd Runner Up! Thank you to Mrs. Kelly Tanzi who organized and led the Spelling Bee as well as our judges Mr. Matt D’Ercole and Mrs. Colleen Kish. Leading up to the final Spelling Bee, each grade level hosted their own competition. Below are the finalists and runner ups for each grade level. Note the finalists in each grade then moved on to the final one in the MPR! ■ 8th Grade-Finalists Mason Gaszner, Alex Farmer, Eliza Virgin, Jason Odibo ■ 8th Grade Runners up Caden Campbell, Sami Farmer ■ 7th Grade Finalists Philip Moyo, Sami Ozan ■ 7th-Runners up Connor Goodfallow, Ben Scalafani ■ 6A Finalist Carina Radolinski ■ 6A Runner up Dylan Rhein ■ 6B Finalist Thomas Byrne ■ 6B-Runner up Andrew DeLuca ■ 5A Finalist Sean Madden ■ 5A-Runner up Ian Farmer ■ 5B Finalist Lilly Kerpen ■ 5B Runner up Wills Byford ■ 5C Finalist Olivia Monaro ■ 5C Runner up JJ Shaban

TAKING IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL!

A group of The Woods Academy teachers completed their Google Certified Educator Level 2 Certification this year. This certification validates our teachers’ expertise and advanced technology integration skills with the Google platform, which is used in our classrooms. Congrats to Megan Mullally (5th and 6th Grade Science Teacher), Bob Kalas (5th and 6th Grade Social Studies Teacher), Stephanie Clark (4th Grade Teacher), Kristen Chrobocinski (5th and 7th Grade Teacher), and Jodie Shoemaker, Assistant Head of School.

WE LOVE OUR ALUMNI!

Just because our students move on to high school and college doesn’t mean they leave our lives. Our alumni remain highly connected, with each other as well as with our faculty and staff. Former students return regularly, to hug and thank their teachers and talk to students about what life has been like for them after The Woods. We are looking to engage with our alumni more in the future and would love to stay connected. Scan the QR code opposite.

www.woodsacademy.org/community/alumni