On December 8th, 2015, Will Rogers took part in a global initiative to get students K-12 involved in computer science, called "The Hour of Code." Every single Will Rogers student spent at least one hour of their school day coding on December 8th. "Coding" is a type of computer science that involves learning how to write programs, so learning how to code is basically learning to speak the language of computers! Our 5th, 1st, and Kindergarten classes even had special visitors from Ventura High Sch...

On Monday November 23rd, California state senator Hannah-Beth Jackson came on a very special visit to see environmental science in action at our school. Fifth graders Boden, Sinthia, Lizajane, Diego, and Alonda R. hosted the tour and showed off their fifth grade garden experiment where they are comparing the growth of radishes in both organic and conventional soil. The students also took Ms. Jackson to our science lab, where they described lessons they’ve done such as building solar cars, wind ...

This year's jog-a-thon took place on Wednesday, October 14th. All students participated in a special Jog-A-Thon obstacle course complete with hurdles, bean-bag tossing, and hoops to jump through set to fun and energizing music. Students and families raised over $24,000 through this health and wellness related event! This met the school-wide $20,000 goal which triggered an all-staff minion dress-up which occurred on Friday, October 30th. The class who raised the most was Ms. Garcia's who raised o...

The second annual Dia del los Muertos celebration took place on Thursday, October 29th. The cafeteria was decorated in festive colors with multicolored Papel Picado banners and balloons. All classes/grade levels created colorful, authentic altars. Entertainment provided by the Sal Avila Trio and taco's were served by Sabor. Approximately 200 people attended. Parents and families donated a wide variety of baked goods for the bake sale. Popcorn was also sold. Attendees played loteria, decorated a ...

This year Will Rogers hosted its first ever family STEaM Night! STEaM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Technology. Friday night June 5th the Will Rogers cafeteria was transformed into a fun-filled fest of hands-on STEaM activities for the whole family! Also on display were all science fair projects, as well as the amazing environmental science theme projects that students worked so hard on throughout the entire year to complete during class time. UC Santa Barbara's REEF also...

Congratulations to all of our participants and winners of our 23rd annual Science Fair here at Will Rogers! For the first time, students were able to enter projects into three distinct categories: Experiment, Research, or Engineering. This expanded the range of projects students were able to do, as well as increased the creativity level! Additionally, this was also the first year students were asked to explain their projects to live judges. Our judges included Dr. Susan Johnson, science educatio...

The brand new Will Rogers running team of 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students took 2nd place for VUSD and 3rd place overall in elementary division at the Summerfest 3,000 meter run on Saturday May 30th! Over 50 Will Rogers students were represented at the race. The running team students have been training every Tuesday and Thursday at lunch for the past 6 weeks with coaches Ms. Jacobs, Ms. Esquivel, Mrs. de Witte, and Miss Vicki. Their hard work paid off! In addition to the running team students, s...

In May, Mr. Soles' 5th grade class went on a special field trip to the UC Santa Barbara Chemistry Lab. At the lab, UCSB Chemistry students and professors led the 5th graders through several different hands-on and educational chemistry activities. Students learned what a chemical reaction truly is by making them happen! Students lit methane bubbles on fire, shattered flowers in liquid nitrogen, made "golden" pennies, and much more. They also had the chance to talk with University students and tou...

On April 23rd all four of our Kindergarten classes took a trip to the Santa Barbara Zoo! Upon arrival, all students got to experience a special "Animal Senses" class where Zoo educators led students through all of the ways animals use their senses to survive. Students got to see and hold creepy crawly critters, simulate the ways that animals use their sense of smell, play a predator vs. prey game, and learn all about lizards and their skin. After that, students got to spend the entire afternoon ...

Although we celebrate our planet everyday at Will Rogers, Earth Day was an extra special day to celebrate environmental science! All first, third, and fifth grade classes went to the cafeteria for a special Harvest of the Month food tasting to celebrate the amazing fruits and vegetables our Earth provides us to eat. Seven classes participated in a special Earth Day Recycle Relay where students had to run in teams to correctly sort waste into Recycle, Trash, and Compost. At lunch, all K-5 student...