The Westmoreland Wrap Up
April 12, 2024
Welcome Spring!
We "think" spring is finally here! Rain has recently deterred some of our outdoor play; However, we are remaining positive that all this rain will bring us some really remarkable May flowers.
Learning continues to bloom and grow throughout our hallways. Students participated in many lessons learning about the solar eclipse earlier in the week. Students are enjoying our letter writing project this month and have been busy writing and receiving letters. We look forward to an Earth Day Assembly next week and a visit from a hot air balloon in early May.
If your child is participating in the band or strings program this year, please mark your calendars for their orchestra concert on May 7th at 1:30pm. All parents and special guests are welcome!
Evacuation Drill Information
Each month, our staff and students practice a variety of security drills. One drill we typically practice during the warmer, spring months is an evacuation to an off site location. This drill begins as a typical fire drill. Once we evacuate from our school and all staff and students are accounted for, we practice moving to an alternate location close by. This is something we would need to do in the event we could not return to our school building (fire, gas leak, bomb threat, etc...)
We will practice this drill on Monday morning. During the evacuation drill, students will practice walking along the sidewalks to our evacuation site. The department of emergency management assist us with closing roads. Any student with an ambulatory or medical need will practice evacuating to the location where a school bus would arrive in the case of a true emergency.
Once all students and staff are accounted for at our evacuation site, we will walk back to our school building. This drill typically takes approximately 30-40 minutes from start to finish.
National Letter Writing Month
Our second mail delivery took place on Friday, April 12th! You can feel the excitement when the mail truck rolls up and down our hallways. Thank you to our second graders for serving as our post masters!
They worked hard collecting mail from the mailboxes all week long, sorting all of the mail by street and address.
Addresses for classrooms have been provided for parents, should you wish to send a letter to your child. Simply send your letter to school and your child's teacher will be sure they are placed in our school's mailboxes. Students get VERY excited when they see our mail truck rolling up and down the hallways each Friday afternoon. Mail delivery dates are: April 5th, April 12th and April 19th.
Old School Games
Similar to the art of letter writing, old school games from the past create a sense of wonder for kids today! Students in 1B, 1R and 1M are enjoying learning how to play old school games from the past such as dominoes, marbles, pick up sticks and jacks!
Cleaning out your closets? Save your items for our PTO Clothing Drive
ELL Program Highlights
Westmoreland's Multilingual students continue to explore language through creativity as fashion designers! Using fashion plates, students designed outfits for different seasons of the year by labeling the names of body parts and seasonal clothing. From warm winter to cool spring styles, students mixed language and fashion to learn English in a fun and engaging way!
Upcoming Care Plus Workshops
SAVE THE DATE for WESTAPALOOZA 2024!
Upcoming Important Dates:
April
4/15: Evacuation Drill, 9am
4/17: PTO Meeting, 7pm
4/18: Earth Day Assembly
Week of April 22: SCHOOL CLOSED/SPRING BREAK
May
5/2: Field Day
5/3: Field Day Rain Date/Westmoreland Spirit Day
Week of 5/4: Teacher Appreciation Week
5/7: Strings and Band Concert, 1:30
5/8: Hot Air Balloon Visit
5/8: PTO Meeting, 7pm
5/10: PTO Mother's Day Plant Sale
Week of 5/13: NJSLA Testing for grades 3 and 4