Paxton's First Lego League, Jr. team would like to send a huge thank you out to former PHS teacher and astronomer, Dr. Wayne Wooten, for the generous gift of personal beginner scopes for each of our elementary team members. Dr. Wooten taught science at Paxton from 1970-74 and reached out to coach Sheryl Evans after he heard about the team's participation in the World Expo earlier this year. Thank you for your generosity and giving back Dr. Wooten! Submitted by Kalli McMillan
MSE 5th Graders Celebrate!
May 25, 2019
MSE 5th graders celebrated their completion of elementary school on Friday with an awards program and fun-filled reception! The faculty and staff have enjoyed teaching and knowing these Little Warriors and wish them the best of luck in Middle School! Submitted by Krisy Spence
Summer Bridge at Walton Middle School!
May 24, 2019
The Summer Bridge program will take place at Walton Middle School the following dates: July 8-11, July 15-18, July 22-25 (8:00-12:00 each day). Free lunches and bus transportation to and from designated DeFuniak Springs neighborhoods will be provided. More details coming soon!
Submitted by Kristen Nelson
Braves Baseball Closes An EPIC Season!
May 24, 2019
Congrats to Walton High's Braves baseball team & coaches for an EPIC season and finishing in the Elite Eight!
Submitted by Christy English
BES First Grade Spelling Bee!
May 24, 2019
Bay Elementary First Grade held a Spelling Bee on Thursday and we're all a buzz by these unBEElievable spellers!
Congratulations to Queen Bee/1st Place Winner, Ruthie Snyder!
2nd place, Serenity Agney
3rd place, Noah Sutton
2 Finalists from each class:
Anderson- Brooks Locke, Sutton Lowell
Hill- Jonah Provinse, Penelope MacKinney
Lessig- ileigh Hogg, Serenity Agney
Perk- Layka Lincoln, Ruthie Snyder
Tucci- Jonah Grunklee, Noah Sutton
"Walton In"10"sity School of Excellence celebrates the Class of 2019 during their ceremony on May 23, 2019. Congratulations graduates!
200+ WHS Students Earn Industry Certifications!
May 24, 2019
Congratulations to the 200+ Walton High School students who earned industry certifications this year! These students were treated to lunch and a party on May 23 at the Wee Care Park to reward this exceptional accomplishment. Way to go, Braves! Submitted by Christy English
Trevor Simpler is recent graduate of Walton High School, but before he graduated Monday night, over the weekend Trevor competed in the Special Olympics Florida 2019 Summer Games at the Disney’s ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex. Trevor participated in the 1500m run and the 800m run athletic events, receiving a Silver medal for the 1500m and a Gold medal for the 800m.
Trevor has been a Special Olympics Florida Walton County athlete for the past nine (9) years. He has participated in stand up paddle, powerlifting, bowling, swimming, and basketball. Trevor has competed in all of these sports at state level at some point in the nine (9) years, and has received from a bronze to gold medals in these events.
As an ESE student within Walton High School, Trevor has worked hard over the past 5 years to get to that amazing moment of graduation. There have been struggles along the way, but he overcame, and walked across that stage on Monday night with pride.
Trevor will continue growing as a person and an athlete within Special Olympics Florida Walton County over the summer by practicing for stand up paddle and swimming and hopefully preparing to compete at State level again.
Congratulations to Trevor Simpler for both his graduation, and his success at the Special Olympics Summer games!
Thanks to Jennifer Barber with Special Olympics Florida for the article and pictures!
WDE 3rd Grade Students Study Economics!
May 23, 2019
Ms. Thomas’s class at West DeFuniak Elementary has been learning about economics and how it affects people. As a culminating project to their economics unit, students had the opportunity to become producers and consumers by participating in a classroom marketplace. Students designed each of their own shops by coming up with a shop name, slogan, commercial script, product description, product price, interest inventory, and consumer comment box. Their products could only be made from paper and each student had a consumer spending log to keep track of how much money they had left to spend. Students were able to apply their knowledge of supply and demand, scarcity, and trading to successfully sell out of each of their products. Students took their roles seriously and came away with a real sense of accomplishment!
Submitted by Jessica Dawkins
Ms. Thomas’s class at West DeFuniak Elementary was introduced to the life changing impact of wind power using a Lego STEAM challenge and a bit of inspired reading. Their class read “The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind”, which is the story of William Kamkwamba. William grew up in a small village in Malawi that was devastated by famine and drought. Forced to leave school, he used donated books in the village library to teach himself how to build a windmill and create electricity. He was responsible for providing his village access to electricity for the first time ever.
Inspired by William’s story, the students were given a challenge to build wind racers, or wind powered cars that could be used for transportation in remote areas where there is not access to other fuel sources. They could only use Legos, a 4x5 piece of paper for the sail, and a biodegradable straw as their mast. Students collaborated with one another in teams of two to create unique team names, design their sails, and construct their wind powered cars. Then, they took the challenge one step further by racing their cars to see which design would be able to transport valuable resources between locations the fastest. Students learned how the weight, height, balance, durability, and other characteristics of their projects affected the distance and speed they were able to travel. The winning design was able to travel three yards in under twelve seconds!
Submitted by Jessica Dawkins
Group: (Top Row Left to Right) Heaven Hogans, Cathy-Mae Fullwiler, Garrett Hansen, Kenneth Ingram, Zoey McHenry, Dakota Day (Middle Row Left to Right) Hayden Dunham, Zanieh Stuckey, Trey Simmons, Karma Olson-Morgan, Madison Melcher (Bottom Row Left to Right) Garrett Frymire, Tyler Betts, Tyler Baker.
Winning Team: Zoey McHenry & Dakota Day