Saturday
March 24
Westside’s 18th Annual Auction
Toast of the Town
Thursday
March 29
First Grade
Bakery
Monday - Friday
April 2 - 6
Spirit Week
Thursday
April 5
WPO Meeting
Friday
April 6
4/5th grade
Assembly 9:30am
Spirit/Pizza Day
Monday - Friday
April 9 - 13
Spring Vacation
No School
Wednesday
April 18
Board Meeting
6:30pm
March 22, 2007
Auction Reminders
Item of the Week
A Typical Morning in Laura's Class
Thank You Movie Night Helpers
No Pizza Next Week
A Chinese Update
First Grade Bakery
Auction Reminders
Remember, bring a bottle of wine to the auction! And, if you haven’t already, pick up your auction catalog in the office.
Item of the Week
Live Music Event with MotherFolk at Kenyon Hall!
Join your Westside friends for a pleasurable evening of appetizers, desserts, wine and music at the historic Kenyon Hall in West Seattle. Live musical performance by MotherFolk, a four-member eclectic folk/blues band featuring Westside parent Katya Spielberg on vocals and acoustic guitar. A local favorite, MotherFolk is described as “superb folk rock”.
This is a sign-up event, which will be offered at the auction this weekend. The date is Sunday, May 20th from 7 to 9:30 PM !! Only $40 per person.
You won’t want to miss this – so sign up, mark your calendars, and prepare for a fun and memorable evening!!
*** Please contact Melissa Dayka at melissadayka@hotmail.com if you’d like to purchase seats for this event but will not be present at the auction. ***
This Past Tuesday
A Typical Morning in Laura’s Kindergarten Classroom
By Laura Holmes, Kindergarten Teacher
After saying “Good-Bye!” to a parent, hanging up a coat, putting away a lunchbox and washing hands, each Kindergartner picks an attendance color cube and heads to his/her rug spot. By 8:45 we are ready to go with the greeting routine. Each child places his/her cube in the Counting Jar and as a class we count the cubes while I connect them. I ask, “What does the rod tell us?”. The answers range from noticing a pattern, creating a number sentence from the number of cubes in each color group, noticing that we are/are not all here, reading the rod by color or number to other creative ways to read the information.
The one helper for the day is given three titles: Helper Extraordinaire, Calendar Guy/Gal and Line Leader. After helping me fill in the official attendance report, the helper takes it to the Office. Next, we tackle the morning message. On Tuesday’s we revise the Monday message by re-reading each line and changing the words/sentences as needed. That is a time when a quick review and practice of reading, writing, and math skills [such as, writing conventions, telling time, and sound-letter combinations] take place.
Next we head to Choice Time. On Tuesday we had a “Must Do” coloring activity for the Auction and then make a choice from the classroom work areas: puzzles and games, blocks and bins, sensory table and art. After 20 minutes, the Five Minute Warning was announced by the Helper, then followed by, “Clean up and come to the rug.” five minutes later. Finishing last week’s “Poem of the Week” activity for Nn Week was a popular request as we gathered at the rug. So, let’s do it! Each time the poem mentioned “noodles”, a letter of the alphabet was chosen to replace the n—s makes soodles, m makes moodles, etc… We had a great time reading the poem aloud with the crazy words. Before we knew it, the clock read 10:00 and it was time for P.E. with Donna.
Back to the room for hand washing, the Snack Provider’s food announcement (portion size and type of snack) and menu display, eating snack, and getting ready for recess. We all enjoyed a sunny and active recess time. Calendar Time always follows recess, so the Calendar Guy/Gal led us through the different activities. There was a combination of whole class participation and individual work, with the Calendar Guy/Gal in the spotlight as a leader.
As a whole group, I introduced the next science investigation in our fabric study—pulling apart burlap threads. The room was abuzz as the Kindergartners collected their materials, settled in at the tables and began the investigation—with hand lenses at the ready! We shared observations, got ready for lunch and headed out the door for lunchtime recess within a matter of minutes! Whew! I don’t know about you, but after a busy, typical morning like that, I’m ready to….have lunch and start the afternoon (Chinese, Choice Time, fabric investigation with wool, recess, read aloud and ready for home)!
Thank You Movie Night Helpers
Thanks to the following parents for their help with Movie Night:
Tracy Sundberg, Kate Petrich, Peggy King, Suzette and Darrell Riley and Megan Dahl.
Also, thanks to Renee Ellis for getting the movie started and for his donation of a DVD player for future Movie Nights!
No Pizza Next Week
Remember, there is no pizza served next week, Friday, March 30. It is only served on the 1st and 3rd Fridays on every month.
A Chinese Update
By Steven Whiting, Chinese Teacher
The students have been making good progress in Chinese. I hope that everyone got a chance to see the “New Year Scrolls” made by the 3rd, 4th and 5th graders which were hanging in the hall. I have put some photos on the Westside School web site of all the classes doing their Chinese New Year activities. Please take a look at them.
Have your students been serenading you with “Tou, Jianbang, Xigai, Jiao” (Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes) lately? If not, please ask them to sing it for you. It’s amazing how well they can remember vocabulary when it is presented as a song. Their next song will be an original Chinese ditty about an old lady riding in a pedicab. It’s one of my favorites and just happens to repeat much of the vocabulary in the Two Tigers song. Many of the kids clamor to sing these songs on their own in class so encourage them to do so for you, too, and ask them what the words mean.
Every class has been doing interviews with their classmates. The younger kids exchange names and ages; the older kids also talk about family members, school and grade level, likes and dislikes, and whether or not they have something. Now they are working on nations and nationalities.
The older kids are also learning to play UNO in Chinese. They have to say everything in Chinese so it is both fun and instructive. The younger kids are playing bingo in Chinese. Both of these games reinforce numbers, colors and “have/don’t have.” It’s through constant use and review that they really internalize the material.
This week we will begin “I want to go to the toilet.” “I want to drink some water.” and “I want to get a tissue.” in Chinese. I try to discourage leaving class during instruction, but sometimes it can’t be helped, so we may as well do it in Chinese.
Finally, some parents have asked about web sites the kids can visit to practice Chinese. I think there are a lot on the Internet; some are free and some require membership. One free site is www.languageguide.org/mandarin/. They have several categories of words that you can click on and listen to the pronunciation. It’s a little slow though. They have several other languages on this site, too.
Save Your Quarters for the First Grade Bakery
The Westside Bakery will be Thursday, March 29, in the hallway outside of the first grade classroom. The first graders will be selling breads at three different shifts... 8:30-9:00, 11:45-12:15, and 12:30-1:00. Everything is only 25 cents, and all proceeds from the Westside Bakery will be donated to Westside Baby.