Friday
November 17
Spirit/Pizza Day
Chinese Acrobats Assembly 9:30
Family Dance 6:30pm
Wednesday
November 22
Family
Friend’s Day
Noon Dismissal
No Childcare!
Thursday
- Friday
November
23-24
Thanksgiving Vacation
No School
No Childcare
Tuesday
November 28
Tour 9:15
Friday
December 1
Kindergarten Assembly 9:30am
Spirit/Pizza Day
Movie Night 6:15pm
Wednesday
December 6
Kindergarten meeting for
current WS
pre-K Families
9am
November 16, 2006
Important Reminders
Annual Giving Update
Chinese Acrobats Assembly
Kindergarten Assembly
Learning New Techniques
4th Grade Poetry
Important Reminders
Next Wednesday is Family Friends’ Day. Guests will arrive at 10:30, and everyone gets out early. Preschool and Pre-Kindergarten dismiss at 11:45 and everyone else dismisses at noon. There is no afterschool childcare that day. Please plan accordingly!
Annual Giving Update
Annual Giving launched one week ago, and our community has already given over $62,000! But we’ve reached 100% participation in only one class – congratulations 4th graders! If you haven’t given to the campaign yet, please remember that once a class reaches 100% participation, Westside earns an extra $1000, and any donation – or pledge – counts towards reaching that goal. Even a $5 donation means a lot – and not receiving that donation means even more. Remember, all you have to do is pledge, and promise to give your donation by the last day of school in June. And pledging is easy – just send an email to janar@westsideschool.org, and your donation will be counted!
Chinese Acrobats
Assembly
Friday, 9:30 am
Chinese acrobats are coming to Westside! On Friday, our students will attend this fun assembly that includes amazing feats of acrobatics and great shows of flexibility. A group of three or four acrobats will come and perform, along with an interpreter who will enrich the assembly with facts about Chinese culture, customs and school life.
This assembly will not only be entertaining for our students, but it will also be a good chance for them to practice their Chinese language ability.
Check out these photos. Can you do that?
Kindergarten Assembly
Friday, December 1, 9:30am
Kindergarten parents will want to save the date for Friday, December 1. All the kindergarten students will perform the play, “The Mitten.” Don’t miss this co-operative, collaborative play!
Learning New Techniques
By Margery Lamden, Art Teacher
We are well into the year and our Westside students are so enthusiastic about art class! All of the third, fourth, and fifth grade students have completed pencil drawings using different tones. I demonstrated how to create four or five different shades or tones with a pencil and then presented the students with drawings created by Picasso, Van Gogh and other artists that used this technique. The children were amazed that by using different tones of a pencil they could draw a picture with shading.
Immediately, they said things like, “awesome” and “this will help me with my sketching!” The children were eager to get started using this technique and after much practice and hard work, every student created a skillful design and a wonderful drawing of an owl. Please take a look at these drawings on display in the hallway. There isn’t room for every piece of art, so ask your child to show you any artwork sent home. I can’t wait to see the next “works of art” - clay sculpture created by our first, second and third grade students.
I wish you all a wonderful Thanksgiving.
4th Grade Poetry
By Judith Arvidson, 4th grade teacher
The most pleasurable times of teaching for me are when a “lesson” is planned, and the students’ interests and excitement take this lesson in an entirely different direction. The fourth graders were reading poetry written by Langston Hughes, Andreya Renee Allen, and Brandon N. Johnson. These poems used metaphors to convey big meaning into a few words. As we read, students came up with their own examples of metaphors. This then led to a discussion of similes. We then decided to write our own poems! Below are the poems that the Fourth Grade students created:
FOOTBALL
Football is a time when you push your troubles away,
Stomp them into the ground,
And catch dreams out of thin air.
It’s not a time,
to worry,
or to sag around.
It’s time to push it away,
clear a path for your dreams.
With that,
they just might come true,
but only when you stay true.
By Dylan M.
GAME BOY
A Game Boy,
I always have it beside me-
The screen is bright,
The sounds are loud,
Mario and Luigi,
Will always be in my Game Boy.
By Grant S.
SOCCER
Soccer is awesome
Weaving through
Other players.
Scoring goals.
I like soccer See!
ART
Art is Awesome
Looking at lines,
Colors,
And shapes,
I like art
See!
By Patrick H.
BASEBALL
Without baseball
I would be stuck in a closet with nothing to do.
Baseball makes everything more exciting.
Baseball makes people crazy.
That is why baseball is one of the best sports.
By Ben V.
FAMILY
Family is like a big colony,
Family is love,
Family is unique
Family is strong,
Family is light in your world,
It can be sad if someone dies,
But a new life can come into your life.
By Laura J.
DRAGONS
A world without dragons is like hot steaming bread without butter.
Without them, the sky is like a black hole that swallowed them into its inky darkness.
Without them, water does not glide with a silvery sleekness.
Without them, the world is like a sea without islands.
Yet, they are like danger, beckoning with gems.
By Gloria H.