James W. Smith Elementary

08/30/2026

👋💙 Level Up with us as we welcome Mrs. Kay—our newest staff member and Blue Jay! 🎮✨
This school year, she’ll serve as a Personal Needs Assistant at James W. Smith. We’re grateful to have her on our team! 💙

08/28/2026

🎮✨ First Week Recap! ✨🎮

What a week at James W. Smith! Students, teachers, and staff leveled up from the very start—meeting new challenges, conquering new levels, and reaching new heights through hands-on learning. 💪📚

From playing music & keeping rhythm 🎶 to STEAM experiences that sparked curiosity, and collaborating in PE, to third grade cursive writing practice, our Blue Jays worked hard every day. ✍️✨
They also made new friends, jumped into classroom routines, and explored real-life learning—like full-blown science experiments in the hallway to help students visualize and understand. 🔬👀

We’re so proud of our Blue Jays for pushing through new things, trying their best, and growing together. 🌟

Here’s to an amazing start—let’s keep building momentum! 💙💛

Photo credit 📸 Craven County Schools!

08/27/2026

🚍💙James W. Smith Bus Evacuation Practice Day! 💛🚍

Yesterday, our students at James W. Smith put their learning into action during Bus Evacuation Practice Day! They reviewed the expectations for being safe, responsible, and respectful on the bus—because great choices matter and help everyone ride with confidence. ✅

After watching safety videos, students practiced important evacuation safety moves, including how to exit and evacuate through the back of the bus with the assistance of our awesome bus drivers! They listened carefully, worked as a team, and showed what this will look like. 💪👏

Today, we’re celebrating how they leveled up by practicing what they learned—and we couldn’t be more proud! 🎉

Parents, if you are unsure what the expectations and consequences for the bus are… Please see the last two pictures of this post! We appreciate your support to help keep our students safe!

08/27/2026

📚✨ Day 4 is in motion! Our students are rolling in a little more confident—smiles on, backpacks ready, and hearts full of “I can do this!” 😄🚍🚗

We’re on our way to teach • learn • grow • achieve—and we can’t wait to see all the amazing things this day brings! 💪🌟

08/25/2026

🎉 First Day of School Fun! 🎉

James W Smith Blue Jays leveled up on the first day of school! 😄📚✨🎮🕹️

Just a few pics—because we were definitely too busy teaching, learning and having fun!

Can’t wait to see what the week brings as our students continue to level up every day! 💙

We are so glad to have our Blue Jays back! 💛

08/23/2026

🎉 WELCOME BACK, Families & Students! 🎉

We’re SO excited to kick off a brand-new school year! Get ready to level up—academically, creatively, and together. 💙🐦

📬 Please be sure to check:
✅ JWS Blue Jay News

Can’t wait to see you at school—let’s make it an amazing year! 🚀✨

Welcome Back, Blue Jays!

08/21/2026

🎮✨ LEVEL UP: James W. Smith Open House!

Last night’s open house was a huge success—thank you to everyone who came out! We had a great turnout and truly enjoyed welcoming our students, new and returning, as we kick off the 26–27 school year.

Let’s go—one quest at a time! 💛

We can’t wait to see what this year brings! 💙

Teach. Learn. Grow. Achieve. 🚀📚🕹️

08/18/2026

We had a great day welcoming back our staff and teachers for an awesome 2026–2027 school year! 🎉🍎

Ready to level up as learners and leaders—let’s do our best! 🚀💪✨🕹️🎮

At JWS, we teach, learn, grow, and achieve! 📚🌱🏆🎯

📸✨ We were missing a few key staff members today, but they will be pictured later on! 👥

📣 Huge thank you to one of our community partners, Heart for Worship, for feeding our staff yummy Chick-fil-A boxes for lunch today!

We’re so excited to see what this school year has in store for us! 👏

08/15/2026

JWS had the best day helping out at Stuff the Bus today! 🎉🚌

It was a great day filled with community spirit! 💙💛

We collected school supplies from pencils to markers to binders and all the composition notebooks you could imagine! 📚✨