The Wise Owl 🦉 Newsletter

This is our final week of the first academic quarter/ grading period of the school year. The end of the 1st grading period will be Friday, October 9th. Report Cards for the 1st quarter will go home with students on Friday, October 16th.

Please also mark your calendar for our end of the quarter Teacher Workday at WAAS on Monday, October 12th.

We are off to an awesome start Owls, we are proud of you!

Congratulations to the cast and crew of Something Rotten! Jr.! You were talented, energetic, funny, and impressive from beginning to end. Your hard work, preparation, teamwork, and dedication were evident in bringing this show to life. Thank you for sharing your talents and making us all so proud to be WAAS Owls! Please see some of the pictures collected to share this weekend, and we anticipate more will be shared via the Drama Club in the days ahead.

Full Weekend Photos and Headshots- Mrs. Henderson

Something Rotten Jr. Pictures From 10/2 and 10/3- Mr. Morris

Thank you to our incredible athletes, parents, and coaches for helping take WAAS Track and Fitness to new heights this week! We had some awesome finishes in our first ever Cross Country meet, racing against most local middle schools.

We are so proud of all of our athletes who challenged themselves and competed with determination in what was a very competitive 2 mile race at Long Leaf Park. Below are our top 3 WAAS athletes from each division. We are looking forward to our final race of the season, the local Middle School Championship Race, on Tuesday, October 13th. Go Owls!

Girls Junior Varsity-

1) Ann Wang- 5th Grade- *3rd Place Overall- 14:56

Boys Junior Varsity-

1) Elliott Moore- 4th Grade- 15:20

2) Aaron Evans- 4th Grade- 15:22

3) Paul Evans- 5th Grade- 17:36

Girls Varsity-

1) Audrey Moore- 6th Grade- 14:50

2) Kellum Miller- 6th Grade- 15:36

Boys Varsity-

1) Everett Thomas- 6th Grade- 14:52

2) Jackson Groller- 8th Grade- 14:57

3) Andrew Pryor- 7th Grade- 16:21

WAAS will host our 2nd Annual Student Led Conference Event on Friday, October 30th! On this Teacher Workday students and parents are asked to visit at their designated time to be a part of the Student Led Conference experience. Participation is expected for all students. We anticipate conferences will take about 40 minutes in total.

Please see the detailed information in the infographic below, along with a copy of our Student Guide and assigned times by student/ grade level. Our teachers will spend time discussing the student led conference expectations for their class over the month ahead.

Student Guide

Assigned Conference Times

This past Friday our 4th and 5th Grade classroom transformed into Camp Green Lake to celebrate the completion of the classes' novel study on Holes by Louis Sachar. The students and teachers had a blast enjoying snacks, drinks, and reptile friends representing the story!

WAAS Picture Day is Tuesday, October 20th! Picture day will follow the expectations of a “Friday Dress Down” Day. 4th-7th grades may wear their choice of attire for Picture Day, but are encouraged to “Dress to Impress”.

8th graders should wear their planned formal graduation attire. Students will be provided an opportunity to change after their picture if they would like to. Our picture day schedule is below, and ordering information will be shared once the photos are provided to us by our photographer, Ms. Jackson.

Picture Day Schedule 2026

WAAS students are invited to help volunteer at the Holly Tree Elementary Fall Festival. Holly Tree has enjoyed having our students help out at the past few events. The Fall Festival is the evening of Friday,10/16. There will be someone there dedicated to getting them checked in/out and their community service logs signed.

Use the following link to sign up: https://signup.com/go/DojUQOC

This week our 4th and 5th graders put our growth mindsets into practice. Each student was tasked with building the tallest tower that they could in 5 minutes. We took the time to fix our mindsets before the activity and monitored them throughout. We worked through frustration when towers fell, novelty of a challenge they'd never attempted before, and the process of figuring out how to adapt and improve their structures in subsequent rounds. We focused on GROWTH instead of WINNING.

WAAS is very excited to offer a field trip opportunity to see Wicked at the Durham Center Performing Arts Center in the Spring of 2027! The show will be Sunday, April 11th at 1:00 pm. This Field Trip is open to all interested students and parents, grades 4th-8th. In preparation for the show, Wicked will be at the center of an Arts Explorations class unit of study this Spring.

If you are interested in joining the trip, and have not already done so, please use the commitment form below. The form also provides additional details on this field trip. As of 9/30 we have 17 tickets still available that can be reserved in our ticket block.

Wicked Field Trip Commitment Form

Cooler temperatures are right around the corner! Now is a good time to get your winter apparel orders in to Mercury Printing. Sizing Charts are available on the website, but we also encourage you to lean toward a larger size so students have room to grow into the apparel. Once your order is placed, delivery takes place directly to your home in approximately 10 days.

Mercury Printing WAAS Apparel

We are very excited to announce a November WOW Community Service opportunity at Peaceful Pastures! This service event will be Friday, November 20th from 3:30-5:30 pm. Students will have the opportunity to remove cut tree/ limbs, paint the finishing coat on swings, rake trails, groom horses and clean the barn/ huddle hut. Please use the link below to sign up.

Sign Up Here

Maximizing Student Success at WAAS

This Huddle is especially helpful for new WAAS parents and families, but all families are welcome! It’s a great opportunity to reconnect with our Back-to-School message, WAAS learning philosophy, and our “Playbook for Success” as we wrap up the first quarter and look ahead to the rest of the school year.

Post-WAAS High School Options
This Huddle is primarily designed for parents of current 8th graders as they weigh their high school options. However, families with younger students who want to begin looking ahead to the high school years are also welcome to attend.