Friday
March 13
Spirit/Pizza Day
Wednesday
March 18
Board Meeting
6:30pm
Thursday
March 19
New Student Contracts Mailed for 2009-2010
Friday
March 20
Movie Night!
March 12, 2009
Auction Recap
Movie Night Next Week
Enrichment Class Feedback
Ask Cathy
Last Chance for the Parent Survey
Auction Recap
Thank you everyone for donating, procuring and attending the auction! While we don’t have final numbers yet, we made about $250,000. Thank you for making this event such a success!
Receipts/Certificates
Your final auction receipt is in your parent folder. Also, any certificates you didn’t receive auction night should be in there. We still have some bags down at the admin house. If you didn’t pick yours up, stop by! Online auction certificates are still at the admin house as well. Next week, we will put unclaimed certificates in parent folders.
Teacher Experiences
Teacher Experiences are still online! Visit the Westside School homepage and click on the link, or click here. Enter your name, or your child’s name. We will figure out who has signed up for which teacher experience. Donations range from $10 to $100 and up.
The 2nd grade teacher experience is tomorrow! If your child is planning to attend, and you haven’t signed up yet, please go in and register..
Class Pictures/Class Puzzles
These will be displayed in the hall next week, and will be for sale for a few more weeks. Class puzzles sell for $40, and pictures sell for $25. A few of the framed class photos are also available. These sell for $150.
Family Movie Night, Friday, Mar. 20
Featuring: Dr. Suess’ Horton Hears a Who (Rated G)
5:45pm Doors Open for Pizza & Seating
6:00pm Horton Hears a Who (1 hour 26min)
Free Admission!
By Kate Petrich, WPO President
Our Movie Night chair, Jan Ellis, invites you to Westside’s third and final Movie Night of the year. As usual, everyone - friends, neighbors, grandparents, parents, students – is invited and admission is free. Kids are welcome to come dressed in their PJ’s; bring pillows, mats, sleeping bags, etc. Adult chairs will be set-up for parents behind the mats.
Voiced by Jim Carrey, Carol Burnett and Steve Carell, Horton Hears a Who is an animated movie based on the Dr. Seuss book of the same name. It’s rated G, and like many of Seuss’ tales, is one of inclusion and protecting those who can’t protect themselves. (Horton’s motto -- “a person’s a person, no matter how small.”) In the jungle of Nool, a caring, imaginative elephant named Horton (Jim Carrey), the jungle’s nature teacher, takes a dip in the pool. A dust speck floats past him in the air, and he hears a tiny yelp coming from it. Believing that an entire family of microscopic creatures are living on that speck, he places it on top of a clover that he holds in his trunk, and gives his promise to keep “Whoville” safe. For more information, visit: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/movie-reviews/dr-seuss-horton-hears-who. If this link is not available, informationis also available here. So come hungry and find out “Who’s Who”!
Fun volunteer jobs are still available. Please contact our movie night chair, Jan Ellis: jan326@comcast.net or Tel: 206-244-9836.
Fun Enrichment Opportunity -
We Want Your Feedback!
Does your child love to act? Love StageStruck Theatre camps? Love high school musical? What about Grade School Musical?
Westside has the opportunity to offer an exciting new enrichment class…. Grade School Musical! It would be offered on Tuesdays, from 3:15-5:15 and run from April 7 – May 26. The cost would be $150.
Before we undertake this venture, I want to make sure that we have enough people interested to make it worth the instructors time. We need to have at least 12 students, with a maximum number of 24.
The class would be a 7-week musical theatre program for students in grades 1-5, led by nationally known theater actor/director and Westside parent, David Koch. David is also the lead instructor for the popular StageStruck Musical Theatre Camps. David, a musical director and a choreographer will guide students through each
2-hour session to learn songs, dances and scenes for the new musical show, Grade School Musical, created just for the students of Westside. The class will finish with a full-staged public performance.
This is not a sign-up, only an informal survey of interest. If you think this class sounds interesting, please send an email to DavidB@westsideschool.org.
Ask Cathy
By Cathy Chutich, Music Teacher
Q: My son sings all the time, but isn’t close to being in tune. What should I do?
A: Excellent! I love to hear that! Arm yourself with earplugs and encourage him to sing more. What your child is doing is the best he can do. Children develop differently. It takes time for your son to make the connection between what he hears and the sound he produces. Singing in tune will come eventually. If you want to help it along, encourage him, sing together at home, get a slide whistle and mimic that, make siren sounds (to get him moving his voice high and low, and play the matching game: play or sing a note in your child’s range (fairly narrow for young children – from around middle C to the A six notes up) and have him match it.
PS - One of my dear friends would attend his child’s music classes and sing his head off – totally out of tune, so far off that people thought he was singing exotic harmony. He was oblivious and totally enjoying himself. However, over about five years he became a very good and in-tune singer, something many thought would never happen.
Q: How do I know when to start my child on piano/guitar/oboe/ophicleide?
A: Another great question. The answer is: when your child shows interest in an instrument, and is old enough to sit and concentrate for half an hour. Encourage that passion by finding instruments for your child to try. At Soundbridge at Benaroya Hall your child can try out many instruments. Some instruments come in miniaturized sizes and can be started at a young age (a 3-year-old can play a 1/8 size violin, for example.) Large instruments like the bassoon and tuba need to be started when a child is physically ready.
MOST IMPORTANT the lessons must be fun.
Take your daughter/son to hear people play music live. Garfield High School has award winning jazz bands and orchestras. Many of the concerts are free and fairly informal.
Check out these websites for concert dates:
http://www.garfieldorchestra.org/
Consider signing the Secretary of the Arts petition. Quincy Jones is working toward the creation of an official representative of the Arts, so that the arts can be made a priority in our country. You are invited to sign the petition at:
http://www.petitiononline.com/esnyc/petition-sign.html
Last Chance for the Parent Survey
Every year we ask Westside families to take a few minutes to participate in our annual Parent Survey. The online survey can be reached by clicking here. It will close tomorrow.