Welcome back! 🎒 We're excited to see everyone return on Monday, January 5th. Hope you had a wonderful break! Let's jump back in with energy and enthusiasm. Here's to new learning, friendships, and great moments ahead! #WHeRoseTogether
Happy New Year from the RamFam!
As WHe welcome 2026, WHe want to extend our gratitude to our incredible community. This past year has been filled with growth, achievement, and countless moments of learning and connection, made possible by the dedication of our students, families, staff, and community partners.
We’re excited about the opportunities that lie ahead in this new year. Together, we will continue to nurture curiosity, celebrate diversity, and empower every student to reach their full potential. Thank you for your ongoing support, collaboration, and commitment to excellence in education.
May this year bring renewed hope, continued success, and joy to you and your loved ones. Here’s to a WHonderful 2026 filled with learning, growth, and endless possibilities!
With appreciation and optimism,
WHUFSD
#WHeRiseTogether
It's the MOST wonderful time of the year!!! Everything good about our school and our students wrapped in a bow🎁🤩❤️💛🖤💛🖤 #RamFam #WHeRiseTogether @whufsdrams #RamPride
Learning in action! 📚✨ From choir performances to phonics practice, from small group instruction to collaborative learning in the hallway—our students are thriving! Every space is a place to grow. #WHerRiseTogether
🕎 Happy Hanukkah to all celebrating the Festival of Lights! May these eight nights bring joy, hope, and brightness to your homes. We're grateful for our diverse community where we learn from and celebrate with one another. Chag Sameach! ✨
We're almost ready!!! So excited for our Winter Concert! 🎵 🎶🎹🎤❄️☃️🧤🧣☃️🧤❄️🎶🎼🎵🥁🎤#RamPride #WHe @whufsdrams
📚 Our December Literacy Newsletter is here! Discover how our students are growing as readers & writers, plus simple ways to build literacy at home this holiday season. From cozy read-alouds to recipe reading—every moment counts! #WHeRiseTogether https://tinyurl.com/56zyp8n6
Closing the Vocabulary Gap Through Independent Reading
As educators, we talk a lot about achievement gaps and opportunity gaps. But underlying many of these is something more fundamental: the vocabulary gap.
Research consistently shows that vocabulary knowledge in early grades is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension and academic achievement in later years. Students with larger vocabularies comprehend more, learn faster, and achieve higher outcomes across every subject area.
So how do we build vocabulary? Not primarily through vocabulary lists and weekly quizzes, though those have their place. The most effective vocabulary instruction happens almost invisibly—through wide, voluminous reading.
When students read extensively, they encounter words repeatedly in varied contexts. They develop an intuitive sense of word meanings, connotations, and appropriate usage. They build not just vocabulary, but the sophisticated language comprehension that separates strong readers from struggling ones.
The problem? Many of our students simply aren't reading enough. The average American student reads only 10-15 minutes per day outside of school. That's not enough exposure to build the vocabulary necessary for academic success.
Here's what makes a difference:
· Prioritize reading volume: Ten books at the right level beats one frustratingly difficult book
· Honor student choice: A book they'll actually finish beats a "better" book they'll abandon
· Count all reading: Magazines, graphic novels, audiobooks, online articles—it all contributes
· Create reading time: Make it non-negotiable, like brushing teeth
· Model reading: Let your children see you read for pleasure
This week, help your child set a reading goal—not based on difficulty, but on volume. Twenty minutes daily, every day. Track it. Celebrate it. Protect it from other activities.
Their vocabulary—and their future—will thank you.
"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." - Frederick Douglass
Let's give every child this freedom through the gift of words.
#WHeRiseTogether#VocabularyDevelopment #ReadingVolume #LiteracyForAl
As educators, we talk a lot about achievement gaps and opportunity gaps. But underlying many of these is something more fundamental: the vocabulary gap.
Research consistently shows that vocabulary knowledge in early grades is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension and academic achievement in later years. Students with larger vocabularies comprehend more, learn faster, and achieve higher outcomes across every subject area.
So how do we build vocabulary? Not primarily through vocabulary lists and weekly quizzes, though those have their place. The most effective vocabulary instruction happens almost invisibly—through wide, voluminous reading.
When students read extensively, they encounter words repeatedly in varied contexts. They develop an intuitive sense of word meanings, connotations, and appropriate usage. They build not just vocabulary, but the sophisticated language comprehension that separates strong readers from struggling ones.
The problem? Many of our students simply aren't reading enough. The average American student reads only 10-15 minutes per day outside of school. That's not enough exposure to build the vocabulary necessary for academic success.
Here's what makes a difference:
· Prioritize reading volume: Ten books at the right level beats one frustratingly difficult book
· Honor student choice: A book they'll actually finish beats a "better" book they'll abandon
· Count all reading: Magazines, graphic novels, audiobooks, online articles—it all contributes
· Create reading time: Make it non-negotiable, like brushing teeth
· Model reading: Let your children see you read for pleasure
This week, help your child set a reading goal—not based on difficulty, but on volume. Twenty minutes daily, every day. Track it. Celebrate it. Protect it from other activities.
Their vocabulary—and their future—will thank you.
"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." - Frederick Douglass
Let's give every child this freedom through the gift of words.
#WHeRiseTogether#VocabularyDevelopment #ReadingVolume #LiteracyForAl
As educators, we talk a lot about achievement gaps and opportunity gaps. But underlying many of these is something more fundamental: the vocabulary gap.
Research consistently shows that vocabulary knowledge in early grades is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension and academic achievement in later years. Students with larger vocabularies comprehend more, learn faster, and achieve higher outcomes across every subject area.
So how do we build vocabulary? Not primarily through vocabulary lists and weekly quizzes, though those have their place. The most effective vocabulary instruction happens almost invisibly—through wide, voluminous reading.
When students read extensively, they encounter words repeatedly in varied contexts. They develop an intuitive sense of word meanings, connotations, and appropriate usage. They build not just vocabulary, but the sophisticated language comprehension that separates strong readers from struggling ones.
The problem? Many of our students simply aren't reading enough. The average American student reads only 10-15 minutes per day outside of school. That's not enough exposure to build the vocabulary necessary for academic success.
Here's what makes a difference:
· Prioritize reading volume: Ten books at the right level beats one frustratingly difficult book
· Honor student choice: A book they'll actually finish beats a "better" book they'll abandon
· Count all reading: Magazines, graphic novels, audiobooks, online articles—it all contributes
· Create reading time: Make it non-negotiable, like brushing teeth
· Model reading: Let your children see you read for pleasure
This week, help your child set a reading goal—not based on difficulty, but on volume. Twenty minutes daily, every day. Track it. Celebrate it. Protect it from other activities.
Their vocabulary—and their future—will thank you.
"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." - Frederick Douglass
Let's give every child this freedom through the gift of words.
#WHeRiseTogether#VocabularyDevelopment #ReadingVolume #LiteracyForAl
Research consistently shows that vocabulary knowledge in early grades is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension and academic achievement in later years. Students with larger vocabularies comprehend more, learn faster, and achieve higher outcomes across every subject area.
So how do we build vocabulary? Not primarily through vocabulary lists and weekly quizzes, though those have their place. The most effective vocabulary instruction happens almost invisibly—through wide, voluminous reading.
When students read extensively, they encounter words repeatedly in varied contexts. They develop an intuitive sense of word meanings, connotations, and appropriate usage. They build not just vocabulary, but the sophisticated language comprehension that separates strong readers from struggling ones.
The problem? Many of our students simply aren't reading enough. The average American student reads only 10-15 minutes per day outside of school. That's not enough exposure to build the vocabulary necessary for academic success.
Here's what makes a difference:
· Prioritize reading volume: Ten books at the right level beats one frustratingly difficult book
· Honor student choice: A book they'll actually finish beats a "better" book they'll abandon
· Count all reading: Magazines, graphic novels, audiobooks, online articles—it all contributes
· Create reading time: Make it non-negotiable, like brushing teeth
· Model reading: Let your children see you read for pleasure
This week, help your child set a reading goal—not based on difficulty, but on volume. Twenty minutes daily, every day. Track it. Celebrate it. Protect it from other activities.
Their vocabulary—and their future—will thank you.
"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." - Frederick Douglass
Let's give every child this freedom through the gift of words.
#WHeRiseTogether#VocabularyDevelopment #ReadingVolume #LiteracyForAl
Closing the Vocabulary Gap Through Independent Reading
As educators, we talk a lot about achievement gaps and opportunity gaps. But underlying many of these is something more fundamental: the vocabulary gap.
Research consistently shows that vocabulary knowledge in early grades is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension and academic achievement in later years. Students with larger vocabularies comprehend more, learn faster, and achieve higher outcomes across every subject area.
So how do we build vocabulary? Not primarily through vocabulary lists and weekly quizzes, though those have their place. The most effective vocabulary instruction happens almost invisibly—through wide, voluminous reading.
When students read extensively, they encounter words repeatedly in varied contexts. They develop an intuitive sense of word meanings, connotations, and appropriate usage. They build not just vocabulary, but the sophisticated language comprehension that separates strong readers from struggling ones.
The problem? Many of our students simply aren't reading enough. The average American student reads only 10-15 minutes per day outside of school. That's not enough exposure to build the vocabulary necessary for academic success.
Here's what makes a difference:
· Prioritize reading volume: Ten books at the right level beats one frustratingly difficult book
· Honor student choice: A book they'll actually finish beats a "better" book they'll abandon
· Count all reading: Magazines, graphic novels, audiobooks, online articles—it all contributes
· Create reading time: Make it non-negotiable, like brushing teeth
· Model reading: Let your children see you read for pleasure
This week, help your child set a reading goal—not based on difficulty, but on volume. Twenty minutes daily, every day. Track it. Celebrate it. Protect it from other activities.
Their vocabulary—and their future—will thank you.
"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." - Frederick Douglass
Let's give every child this freedom through the gift of words.
#WHeRiseTogether#VocabularyDevelopment #ReadingVolume #LiteracyForAll #EducationLeadership
As educators, we talk a lot about achievement gaps and opportunity gaps. But underlying many of these is something more fundamental: the vocabulary gap.
Research consistently shows that vocabulary knowledge in early grades is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension and academic achievement in later years. Students with larger vocabularies comprehend more, learn faster, and achieve higher outcomes across every subject area.
So how do we build vocabulary? Not primarily through vocabulary lists and weekly quizzes, though those have their place. The most effective vocabulary instruction happens almost invisibly—through wide, voluminous reading.
When students read extensively, they encounter words repeatedly in varied contexts. They develop an intuitive sense of word meanings, connotations, and appropriate usage. They build not just vocabulary, but the sophisticated language comprehension that separates strong readers from struggling ones.
The problem? Many of our students simply aren't reading enough. The average American student reads only 10-15 minutes per day outside of school. That's not enough exposure to build the vocabulary necessary for academic success.
Here's what makes a difference:
· Prioritize reading volume: Ten books at the right level beats one frustratingly difficult book
· Honor student choice: A book they'll actually finish beats a "better" book they'll abandon
· Count all reading: Magazines, graphic novels, audiobooks, online articles—it all contributes
· Create reading time: Make it non-negotiable, like brushing teeth
· Model reading: Let your children see you read for pleasure
This week, help your child set a reading goal—not based on difficulty, but on volume. Twenty minutes daily, every day. Track it. Celebrate it. Protect it from other activities.
Their vocabulary—and their future—will thank you.
"Once you learn to read, you will be forever free." - Frederick Douglass
Let's give every child this freedom through the gift of words.
#WHeRiseTogether#VocabularyDevelopment #ReadingVolume #LiteracyForAll #EducationLeadership
Level Up Your Vocabulary (Without Flashcards!)
Secret weapon for better grades, stronger writing, and sounding smarter? READ.
Every book you read teaches you new words in context—which means you actually remember and use them, unlike those vocab lists you cram and forget.
Mystery novels, graphic novels, fantasy series—they ALL count. Just read something you enjoy and watch your word power grow.
#WHeRiseTogether#VocabularyGoals #ReadMore #SmartReading #BookPowerLevel Up Your Vocabulary (Without Flashcards!)
Secret weapon for better grades, stronger writing, and sounding smarter? READ.
Every book you read teaches you new words in context—which means you actually remember and use them, unlike those vocab lists you cram and forget.
Mystery novels, graphic novels, fantasy series—they ALL count. Just read something you enjoy and watch your word power grow.
#WHeRiseTogether#VocabularyGoals #ReadMore #SmartReading #BookPower
Secret weapon for better grades, stronger writing, and sounding smarter? READ.
Every book you read teaches you new words in context—which means you actually remember and use them, unlike those vocab lists you cram and forget.
Mystery novels, graphic novels, fantasy series—they ALL count. Just read something you enjoy and watch your word power grow.
#WHeRiseTogether#VocabularyGoals #ReadMore #SmartReading #BookPowerLevel Up Your Vocabulary (Without Flashcards!)
Secret weapon for better grades, stronger writing, and sounding smarter? READ.
Every book you read teaches you new words in context—which means you actually remember and use them, unlike those vocab lists you cram and forget.
Mystery novels, graphic novels, fantasy series—they ALL count. Just read something you enjoy and watch your word power grow.
#WHeRiseTogether#VocabularyGoals #ReadMore #SmartReading #BookPower
BEGINS TODAY
📚 Book Fair Alert! Join us Nov 18-20 at @CornwellAveES & @WHGWashington schools. Bring cash/check or load your eWallet via QR codes. Let's celebrate reading together!
Questions? Contact Martha Banks & Lakeefah Campbell at 631-493-7652 🌟📖
@WHEPTA #WHeRiseTogether
📚 Book Fair Alert! Join us Nov 18-20 at @CornwellAveES & @WHGWashington schools. Bring cash/check or load your eWallet via QR codes. Let's celebrate reading together!
Questions? Contact Martha Banks & Lakeefah Campbell at 631-493-7652 🌟📖
@WHEPTA #WHeRiseTogether
Want to boost your child's vocabulary? The answer is simple: more reading! Students learn 90% of their vocabulary through reading, not direct instruction. Every book is a vocabulary builder. #WHeRiseTogether#WordPower
TOMORROW
📚 Book Fair Alert! Join us Nov 18-20 at @CornwellAveES & @WHGWashington schools. Bring cash/check or load your eWallet via QR codes. Let's celebrate reading together!
Questions? Contact Martha Banks & Lakeefah Campbell—631-493-7652 🌟📖 #WHEPTA #WHeRiseTogether
📚 Book Fair Alert! Join us Nov 18-20 at @CornwellAveES & @WHGWashington schools. Bring cash/check or load your eWallet via QR codes. Let's celebrate reading together!
Questions? Contact Martha Banks & Lakeefah Campbell at 631-493-7652 🌟📖
@WHEPTA #WHeRiseTogether
📚 Book Fair Alert! Join us Nov 18-20 at @CornwellAveES & @WHGWashington schools. Bring cash/check or load your eWallet via QR codes. Let's celebrate reading together!
Questions? Contact Martha Banks & Lakeefah Campbell at 631-493-7652 🌟📖
@WHEPTA #WHeRiseTogether
From whiteboards in @CornwellAveES classrooms to laptops in @wh_secondary school, our students are mastering the art of making meaning. Watching literacy come alive across our district reminds us why we do what we do! 📖💙 #ProudEducator #WHeRiseAbove
From a Kansas shoe repairman's vision to a national tribute: Alvin King believed ALL veterans deserved honor, not just WWI heroes. His 1953 push transformed Armistice Day into Veterans Day—a time to thank every American who served. 🇺🇸 #VeteransDay
What an amazing fall parade at @CornwellAveES! 🎃👻 Students brought their creativity with incredible costumes—from superheroes to witches, dinosaurs to angels! So much joy and excitement as they paraded around the playground. Love seeing our community celebrate together! 🧡💜
WHUFSD & That's My Brick created a legacy walk at the @wh_secondary athletic complex gateway. Show your #RamPride by purchasing a personalized brick! Info: https://www.whufsd.com/article/2471164 #WHeRiseTogether
