Thursday-Friday
October 30-31
Conferences;
No School!
Tuesday
November 4
VOTE!
Wednesday
November 5
Assembly 9:30am
Thursday
November 6
First Tour 9:15am
Friday
November 7
Spirit/Pizza Day
Tuesday
November 11
Veteran’s Day
No School;
No Childcare
Wednesday
November 12
Tour 9:15am
Friday
November 14
Annual Giving
Kick-Off Breakfast
7:30-10am
Tuesday
November 18
Tour 9:15am
October 29, 2008
Halloween Fest Recap
Being Green - Explorer West & Westside Partner
A Day in the Life of a 4th Grader
Kids Marathon
WPO Meeting Notes Available
Being Gifted - A New Perspective
Family Friends Day - Think about your invite
Halloween Fest 2008 WAS Here! Thank You for the Magic!
By Kate Petrich, WPO President
Wow, what a party! Our sincere appreciation to the many magic makers of this year’s amazing Halloween Fest. Skillfully orchestrated by our chairs Angie Graves and Tracy Beck, more than half of the families at Westside School participated to create a full day of fabulous fun. The result was a gym full of happy kids beaming with excitement, faces sparkling with artful face paint, and eyes dreamy from fanciful fortune telling. Thanks to you all, we had a record turnout and enthusiasm from both parents and students (some parent costumes outdid the children’s!).
It really takes everyone to make this event great, and this year it was remarkably smooth. Eighty of you volunteered, and another 30 donated treats and supplies. Thank you for pitching in! Everyone was on time to their spots, and many of you stayed if not all day, long past your committed times (some of you crouched in a tent, knees aching as you peered intensely into your crystal ball...). Angie and Tracy would like to give an extra special thank you to Tina Vickery, Krista Wassermann and Phil Wallace for their generous time, hard work and donations, and a big shout out to the creative bakers of this year’s spooktacular delights.
Janet Cowles led the 4th grade’s sensational “Creepy Mystery Boxes,” including a moving zombie hand, and Carol Loughlin led the 5th grader’s very popular new game of “Pumpkin Bowling.” Excellent job 4th and 5th graders!
Carol Loughlin and Janet Cowles also set-up “Recycling 4’s & 5’s,” which reduced Halloween Fest garbage by 83%! Sorting yard waste items from garbage and plastic bottles reduced true trash from six bags to only one this year. Thank you Carol, Janet, and the 4 & 5th grades.
For each volunteer shift, volunteer names were entered into a drawing for Spiritwear. Spiritwear winners were: Deirdre Murano, Katie Weinmann, Amy & Chris Carrasco, and Keni Cohen - Congratulations!
This year’s I-Pod winner is 4th grader Gina. She was only off by 10 spiders, guessing 654 (total was 644). Nice job Gina!
The kids will remember this for a long time to come. To our many generous volunteers, thanks for making it happen!
What was your favorite part of Halloween Fest?
Quotes from the attendees:
“Slide.” Lena, PS
“Eating the cupcakes!” Emma, PK
“The slide.” Alexander, Kindergarten, & Ava, PK
“The slide and fishing.” Anika, PK,
“I can’t remember...I remember when I went down the slide at the Fest.” Lilly, PK
“Prizes.” Hanna, Kindergarten
“The big slide.” Clayton, Kindergarten
“The pumpkin toss.” Ashley, Kindergarten
“I liked going on the Biiiiiggg slide!” Soleil, 1st
“Getting my face painted, and playing around.” Ali, 1st
“Face painting.” Kylie, 1st
“Everything!” Jordan, 1st
“Pumpkin Bowling” David, 2nd
“I liked going down the slide, that was really fun, and the fortune telling.” Kayla, 2nd
“I liked the golf.” Lauren, 2nd
“Everything was a lot of fun.” Caitlin, 4th
“Treasure Chest.” Dar, 4th
“Bowling with the pumpkins.” John, 4th
“I have two favorite parts: eating all the delicious food, and going down the slide with my friend Madeline.” Bubbles (a.k.a. Moonflower or Bailey), 4th
“That everyone was having fun, and the games.” Tatum, 5th
Westside Partners with Explorer West on Being Green
Explorer West and Westside are partnering on waste reduction and working together. Four Westside classes have been matched with an Explorer West advisory: Linda, Margie, Renee and Marsha are all paired with a class from Explorer West (EW).
EW has been working school-wide on an earth sustainability effort for the last 4 years, and Westside is excited to partner with them and learn from their students. The goals of the partnership are many, including,
1. getting to know students from the partner school
2. working with teachers from the partner school
3. getting students to make educated choices about their waste stream (and ultimately to decrease the amount of material the schools send to the landfill).
There are several ideas for activities. We may undergo a waste audit, and Explorer West students may teach Westsiders the EW sustainability curriculum, but the teaching partners will meet and plan how best to utilize the time the groups are together.
For Westside’s part, we are paying attention to the amount of waste we create, and are trying to reduce it more and more with every event. We have revamped our garbage system for pizza day, and Halloween Fest garbage was greatly reduced this year. Moving forward, this same system will be in place for Movie Nights and other Westside events. Earth sustainability remains a hot topic, and will continue to be discussed and improved as time goes on. Thank you for your patience and interest in school-wide waste reduction and being green.
A Day in the Life of a 4th Grade Student
By Judith Arvidson, 4th Grade Teacher
Inspired by Laura’s description of a second graders’ school day, I thought that I would share a “typical” day for a 4th grader! The morning started with the door opening at 8:30am. Homework that was due was turned in and the students who are responsible for putting up the flag each morning went to do that duty. At exactly 8:45am, we began our day with sharing news. This is a great way to stay in touch with each others outside school activities. Today, Monday, we planned our week with a Weekly Work Schedule. All due dates and important information for the week are conveyed on the WWS. This is the major communication piece between student, parent, and teacher.
The fourth grade class works on fourth grade skills in the morning. First up was practice with “strong words.” We are increasing our vocabulary with words that will more accurately describe a situation. Next was Math. Students are learning about factors, squares, square roots, and arrays. We practiced with grid paper and will complete the lesson tomorrow. A quick snack and recess and it is time for Spanish. Today students learned a new song about months and times of the year and planned for The Day of the Dead. At 11:15am it was off to P.E where students worked on their Fit-folio, working out their core muscles and finished up with a rousing game of Capture the Flag. It was now only noon……
After lunch, the fourth graders went to the library. This was a great time to check out books, ask Sarah for recommendations, and utilize the library for research.
After library the fourth and fifth graders split into Mixed Grade Groups for Investigations. We are currently doing a unit called Circuits and Cities; studying the different sources of electricity. Two days a week, each Mixed Grade Group spends the afternoon with me. We are working on electricity labs. Our lab today was Series Circuits. Student worked with their lab partners to design a series circuit using batteries, battery and light bulb holder, Fahnstock, copper wire, a light bulb, and motor.
The other Mixed Grade Group worked with Linda preparing a research paper on their self-selected source of power. Research that the students are working on include: hydro, solar, tidal, geo-thermal, coal, nuclear, battery, and wind power.
At 3:00pm, we cleaned-up, took the flag down, and read aloud. We are finishing up an incredible book called, The Fabled Fourth Graders at Aesop Elementary. Fourth graders will have a little bit of home work tonight. Tomorrow sentences using words from our research on electricity are due and on Wednesday draft 1 is due on their research. And, tomorrow…..we start again!
Seattle Kids Marathon, Nov. 29th
There’s still time to register your child for the Kids Marathon next month. Children walk or run 25 honor miles before November 29th, then join hundreds of students from the community to finish their “marathon” at the Seattle Center on Saturday, November 29th at 10 AM. Visit www.seattlemarathon.org (click on Kids) for all the details & an entry form. I’ll be there cheering them on as they finish in Memorial Stadium & pick up their t-shirts!
Cyber Safety Handouts Available
By Kate Petrich, WPO President
Many thanks to those of you who attended the Cyber Safety WPO meeting on Thursday. We hope you took away some helpful information. If you missed it and would like a copy of the handouts, click here. Email Kate Petrich if you have any comments or ideas for a WPO meeting topic: katipetrich@aol.com
Another Perspective on Being Gifted
From an email to Jo Ann, written by Aimee Pinckney, mother of Aislin (Renee’s class)
I wanted to add another perspective to the article you wrote on gifted students in the Westside Update. In many ways, I feel like the designation of “gifted-ness” is a moot point at Westside, which is one of the reasons we are so happy to be part of this school.
As I teacher myself, I have talked with many parents about whether or not they should have their children tested for the gifted programs (I taught in public schools). Their concerns all fell upon the desire to make sure their children were receiving quality education. This included wanting the curriculum to match their children’s needs, having the teachers aware of the capabilities of these children, and providing an environment that allowed those teachers to actually teach their children.
With Westside’s qualified teachers, small class sizes, excellent teacher/student ratio, and chosen curricula, all of these needs can be met for all students. It doesn’t matter to me if Renee designates Aislin as a “gifted” student, because that is just a label. That label is very important in public school where it designates a different type of educational experience. But that experience is here at Westside with or without the label! What is important to me is that Aislin’s teachers know about her as an individual - what she already knows, what she is ready to learn, how to go about teaching new concepts to her, etc.
We are thrilled that Aislin can have the experience of education at Westside. She is loving first grade and we all love Renee. I am very impressed with Renee and the educational environment she has created in her classroom. She is definitely a “gifted” teacher!
It’s Time to Think About a Family Friend to Invite to Westside
Out of town guests or family coming in for Thanksgiving? Why not invite them to Family Friend’s Day. It’s the day before Thanksgiving, and a great way for family members and other friends to visit Westside and spend a half-day in the classroom. Invitations will go home with students in the next couple weeks, but it’s not too early to start thinking about who you would like to invite to this fun, short classroom event.