Friday
October 13
PNAIS Conference
Teacher
In-Service
No School
Monday
October 16
Pre-K to
Conti Farm
Wednesday
October 18
Board Meeting
6:30pm
Thursday
October 19
Kindergarten
to the Arbortum
Friday
October 20
Spirit/Pizza Day
3rd grade assembly 9:30am
PS/PK (Nancy’s Class) Potluck
6:15pm
Saturday
October 28
Halloween Fest
Monday - Tuesday,
October 30-31
Conferences
No Classes
October 12, 2006
From Jo Ann - School Safety
News from Laura's Kindergarten Class
News from Chinese
Cheese, Anyone?
New Westside Window Decals
From Jo Ann
School Safety
Westside School has an action plan for creating and maintaining a safe place for our students and staff. The Westside Crisis Response document outlines detailed procedures for dealing with emergencies, such as lockdowns, fire evacuations, earthquakes, child abuse, bomb threats and more. Our procedures are reviewed during the PNAIS accreditation process and during the DEL (Department of Early Learning) licensing process. In addition, Westside is required to keep logs of drills that are practiced monthly.
This October, schools have again been vulnerable to violent shootings. “What if” thinking makes us fearful. Are we prepared?
Beyond plans, contingencies, checklists and drills, our best safety is our small community. I love to greet in the morning, but being out front with the children also allows me to notice anything unusual or suspicious. Our entranceways are easily monitored with a school office at both doorways, and we’re looking into ways that can make monitoring our buildings easier and keep our students even safer. We know our staff, students and parents, and are able to identify all people on campus. Visitors check in at the office, and wear badges to show that they are approved guests. Our portable buildings are kept locked when not in use.
Our staff is certified in CPR and First Aid, and annually we review our plans as a Team. We are all trained on emergency preparedness. Our students are taught about safety and how to respond. Drills are a part of the school year, and our students are practiced, learning how to properly and quickly leave the building when our alarm sounds. On October 16, we will practice how to “drop, cover and hold” in case of an earthquake. Later we will practice a lockdown.
We never hope to use any of these procedures, but knowledge of these routines gives us a sense of security. We are diligent about safety at Westside School. Caring for each other and our environment is our best response in preparedness.
News from Laura’s Kindergarten Class
By Laura Holmes
The Calendar Area in the Kindergarten classroom displays many language and math activities. As a Kindergartner sits on the rug, he/she can look at the monthly calendar and notice shape and color patterns created by the date cards, or read the days of the week, or count ahead to an activity/holiday that is labeled in a pocket.
Calendar Time is an interactive routine that reinforces skills that are appropriate for 5 and 6 year olds. The Calendar Guy/Gal is responsible for leading us through the different activities such as counting, numeral writing, graphing, and place value. Frequently, a discussion will take place due to an observation. We added a new duty for the Calendar Guy/Gal because of the question, “How many days until Halloween Fest?” Now counting ahead to an upcoming event is part of the routine.
An emphasis has been placed on the pattern that the date cards make—spider, pumpkin, pumpkin or purple, orange, orange-- but this week, the comments are about the number patterns emerging from the 1-100 number chart and about the numbers we have been saving and putting on display from answering the question, “How many days have we been in school?” Graphing the daily weather is a tricky process since only one weather choice is made. The weather discussion is often about which column has more than or less than the others, how many more would it take to be equal, or about making a comparison with the September graph.
Taking attendance is also an interactive process. The Helper Extraordinaire helps fill out the Daily Attendance Form and takes it to Kathy in the office. Each Kindergartner brings a Unifix cube to the Rug Area and drops it into the Counting Jar. The cubes are counted and attached to make a tower. A count of fourteen lets us know that we are all here. If there are not fourteen cubes, then we need to discuss who is missing. On Tuesday we counted twelve cubes, so we talked about how many cubes were missing from the jar.
All of this “Counting the Kids” has sparked a question that will extend our learning. Spencer Clark is wondering, “How many kids are in the school?” We will use Unifix cubes and counting jars to collect the data from each classroom. We will let you know the final count in next week’s Update.
News from Chinese
By Steven Whiting
Da Jia Hao!
We have successfully completed our first month of Mandarin Chinese. The students have adapted to our class routine and each class seems to be progressing quite well. My aim is to have the kids assimilate the basic Chinese vocabulary and sentence patterns that I teach so that they will not forget them and can use them as a foundation for further learning. I believe in constant and repeated reinforcement of “old learning” so that the students are not pushing out the “old” to make way for the “new.” This means introducing new activities to review old material.
All of the classes have worked on following commands, classroom Chinese, and working with numbers and colors. Each class is being taught the same basic skills although the pace varies depending upon the age group. For example, the kindergartners have learned some animals and various songs and chants and games to internalize the learning. The first graders are working on recognizing the Chinese number characters for 1 through 10. The second graders are learning classroom objects and how to ask for and give things. The third, fourth and fifth graders have learned more colors and started learning about Chinese characters and writing.
On October 5th we celebrated the Mid-Autumn Festival in our Chinese classes. The kids all learned a Chinese moon rhyme, listened to a Chinese legend connected to the Festival and enjoyed a taste of moon cake. Then they told me in Chinese if it was tasty or not. We had about 90% approval.
In the coming month I intend to introduce asking and giving information such as name and age, as well as identifying family members and common Chinese verbs such as “like” and “have.” Some of the students have had previous exposure to Chinese either at Westside School or elsewhere. While this may help them more easily pick up the language, some of the most rapid learners are among the students who have not had previous exposure to Chinese. This shows the natural aptitude that young children in general have for learning languages and is very encouraging.
I would like to thank the parents who have been so supportive and have let me know how their kids are “feeling” about their Chinese classes. So far the feedback has been quite positive and I will do my best to keep Chinese learning fun and effective. Xie xie. Bai Laoshi.
Cheese, Anyone?
If you wanted to buy cheese (or wine) at the wine event, and didn’t get around to it, you still have a chance. Email Jana at janar@westsideschool.org with a list of what you want, or drop by the office.
Beecher’s
Flagship Cheese
1 lb, $16,
1/2 lb, $8
Honey Blank
Slate tub - $5.50
Tapenade Blank
Slate tub - $5.50
New Westside Window Decals
New Westside window decals are in your WPO folder in the office. Check it out!