Friday
Sept. 21
Movie Night
Doors Open at 6pm, Movie starts at 6:15pm
Friday
Sept. 28
Spirit/Pizza Day
Wednesday
Oct. 3
Assembly 9:30am
Thursday
Oct. 4
1st to Camp Sealth
Friday
Oct. 5
5th Grade Leadership Overnight will be rescheduled
Friday
Oct. 12
PNAIS Conference
Teacher In-Service
No School
Childcare Available
Stay tuned for more information
September 20, 2007
Order Hot Lunch Online
Tomorrow is Movie Night!
Mid-Autumn Festival
Greetings from Aftercare
New Roster
A Week Exploring the Letter "Ff"
Having Trouble Getting the Westside Update Online?
Order Logowear Online
Order Online Hot Lunch!
Tired of making lunches? Hot lunch is starting in October! You can sign-up for a week or a month at a time. Just visit www.blueplateseattle.com and follow the instructions on the home page.
Movie Night “The Rescuers”
Tomorrow,
Sept. 21
Doors Open at 6pm,
Movie Starts at 6:15pm
Everyone – neighbors, friends, grandparents, parents, students - is invited to our first movie night! Kids can come dressed in their PJ’s , and bring pillows, mats, sleeping bags, lawn chairs, anything to make your movie viewing comfy. (Big chairs will be set-up for parents in the back). Movie night is free, but concessions (including pizza, popcorn, beverages) will be sold.
Hope to see you there!
Mid-Autumn Festival
By Steven Whiting, Chinese Teacher
Ni hao! September 25 is the Chinese Zhong Qiu Jie, the Mid-autumn Festival or Moon Festival. This festival comes in the middle of the eighth month of the traditional lunar calendar. It is a time for family reunions and thinking about family members who are far away. Chinese families get together to view the full moon and enjoy eating yue bing or moon cakes, a type of Chinese pastry filled with such things as sweet red bean paste (my favorite), fruits or nuts. As we did last year, our Chinese classes will have a little Moon Festival celebration on Monday and Tuesday. We will talk about legends associated with the Moon Festival, practice Moon Festival-related Chinese and of course taste some moon cakes.
I will prepare an assortment of moon cake flavors such as red bean paste, pineapple and coconut. These all may contain peanut oil, so I will also have some taro root jam moon cakes for kids who can’t tolerate peanut products. The ingredients list wheat flour, sugar, cream (milk product), salad oil, taro paste, glutinous rice and water. As far as I can tell from the packaging, all of these moon cakes are made in either the US or Hong Kong. If you feel any of these moon cakes would still be unsafe for your child, please send something of your own for your child to have on their Moon Festival day (and send an email (stevenw@westsideschool.org) letting me know of your concerns); Monday for K, 2 and 3, Tuesday for 1, 4 and 5. Xie xie. Bai Laoshi
Greetings from Aftercare
By the aftercare staff
Greetings from aftercare! Our staff is enjoying afternoons with your children. We work hard to provide a fun and safe way to relax after a busy day. Our aftercare team consists of several wonderful assistants - Chris, Jeffie Lou, Kevin, and Danielle with the K-5 group and Andrew and Amy with the Pre-K group. Our day consists of outdoor play, a healthy snack, indoor free-choice, art activities and time for homework. We also have access to the library, gym and art room.
The multiage aftercare environment gives children the opportunity to get to know, work and play with children of all ages throughout the school. Just yesterday, our 3rd grader Madeline taught many of our kindergartners how to play Connect Four. And our 4th grader Ellen enjoys reading aloud to the many eager listeners.
To register for childcare, please come to the office and get a contract. If you’d like to participate in drop-in aftercare, please signup on online (“parent/student network” then “before & aftercare”) at least four hours prior to the start of aftercare to ensure your homeroom teacher knows where your child should be at the end of the day. We look forward to caring for your child!
New Roster
You should be receiving a hard copy of the new school roster in your take home folder today. Please check your information and let the office know if there is an error. It is a good idea to discard the roster that was sent in July, because there have been many changes; new students added, changes in address, etc. For the rest of year we will keep the roster updated on the website and notify you of changes or additions in the Westside Update. To conserve paper, we will not keep reprinting the roster when changes occur. If you have difficulty printing a roster from the website, you can always come in and request a hard copy from the office.
A Week Exploring the letter “Ff”
By Marsha Lovely, Kindergarten Teacher
Kindergarten is full of excitement as we try to figure out what the letter of the week is. The children enter the room Monday morning and look for clues. What has changed over the weekend? They notice books that begin with F. They find some pictures of a fox and fence under the letter F on our alphabet line. They think they have figured it out now.
F week is full of activities and learning opportunities that involve F. We learn the sound of the letter instead of its name. We learn to write the letter in the air, on our knees, and on the chalkboards at our seats. We brainstorm F words and F foods. Friday we will bake something that starts with the letter F. Our Before The Code books are full of “F” pages to do as a group. We have to follow directions and use all the listening skills that we are learning. During our calendar time we talk about F for Friday and discuss the numbers four and five. We are learning to count by fives.
Art has become one of our favorite ways to learn about F. We made Funny Faces, Fancy Feet, and some Fat Fish this week. All our art projects are hanging in our room. We learned the F cheer when we read Fifi the Ferret. As our F investigation continues we will go on an F hunt for things in our room that begin with F.
Friday as we bake our F food we will also begin to learn about fall. We will go outside and try to figure out what is happening to the trees outside. This will be a great introduction into our Trees science investigation. Our guest reader on Friday will come with a full bag of excitement that is sure to have something to do with F. This is just a small glimpse into an integrated curriculum in kindergarten.
Having trouble getting the Westside Update email?
We have a new database, and are still trying to work out some of the bugs. We’ve been working with a team of developers to develop this database to be as efficient as possible, and will be making some big changes this week. Currently, all parents are listed together, with one email data box for both parents. Our new database emails parents directly, and eliminates keeping many different documents with the same information. Unfortunately, it only emails one email per entry. This problem will be changed next week. After next week, please let us know if you continue having problems receiving our emails. Thanks!
Order Logowear Online!
We have great new logo wear options now available online! It normally takes about 2 weeks to receive your order, although they’re a little busy right now, so you might have to wait 3 weeks. We now offer new colors and styles for students and parents! Click here (or check it out by visiting www.westsideschool.org/parents.htm and clicking on the first link.