March Newsletter
Westwood Elementary
Principal News
Parent/Teacher Conferences
We look forward to seeing you all for Parent-Teacher Conferences this month. They take place on the following dates:
· Tuesday, March 21st (3:30-7:45)
· Thursday, March 23rd (3:30-7:45)
· Friday, March 24th (8:00-12:00)
Our staff has worked very hard to prepare for your time together and we encourage you to make every effort to attend. Typically, we have about 96% of our families attend. However, last fall we reached 97%. That is amazing and a true testament of the ongoing support we receive from our Westwood families. Let’s work together as a school community to improve our percentage to 100% this round. Please be looking for information from your child’s teacher that provides specific times for your child’s conference.
During conferences, our specials teachers will be available to visit with you if you have any questions about Music, PE, STEM, Counseling, or the library. Our Special Education and ELL staff will be stopping in during their student's conferences, but if they miss you, please stop by the office and we can locate them for you.
Dr. Seuss Birthday/Read Across America Celebration
We will honor and celebrate the birthday of Dr. Seuss during the week of February 27th-March 3rd. Our library media specialist has planned a fun week for the students and staff. Please plan for the following attire:
Monday: Many Colors Monday- Dress in colorful clothing or wear as many colors as possible
Tuesday: Terrific Hat Tuesday- Wear your favorite or a fun hat
Wednesday: Snuggle up with a good book- Wear your PJs
Thursday: Fox in Socks- Wear your favorite fun socks
Friday: Oh, The Places You Will Go- Wear your favorite school, college or shirt with a place on it
Class Pictures
Class Pictures will take place on Tuesday, March 21st. We would love to have all our students in attendance so they can remember their teacher and classmates for years to come. Order forms will be sent home on March 8th or 9th if you are interested in purchasing.
STEP-UP Assembly
We will have our 3rd Quarter STEP-UP assembly on Thursday, March 23nd at 8:10 A.M. Parents, guardians and family members are invited to attend. Students are eligible for the following awards:
Outstanding/Perfect Attendance – Awards will be given for students in grades Pre-K-5 having a combination of two or fewer absences or tardies during the nine-week period.
Guidelines for Success: -Awards will be given for students being Safe, Trustworthy, Encouraging, doing their Personal Best, being United, or showing Perseverance.
I look forward to seeing everyone during parent-teacher conferences. Please stop by my office and see me! As a reminder, spring break will take during the week of March 13th-17th. I hope the weather cooperates and that everyone can soak in some much-needed sunshine. I am truly thankful for this wonderful community and the families that support our students. Our teachers and staff appreciate your commitment to education.
Sincerely,
Mrs. Dressman, Westwood Principal
Important Dates
March 2nd: 1st and 2nd Grade Music Program
March 10th: NO SCHOOL (Elementary Plan Day)
March 13th-17th: Spring Break (NO SCHOOL)
March 21st, 23rd, 24th: Parent Techer Conference Dates
March 24th: NO SCHOOL (Parent/Teacher Conferences)
Preschool
Hello Families!
March is hopefully going to bring us some warm weather so we can consistently play outside! The kids sure do not like the cold days when we have to have indoor recess!
We will be finishing up our transportation unit for phonics. Our next unit is about animals. I am excited for that unit. We will talk about the types of animals, where they live, how to care for them, and how they get around. I think the kids will have a lot of fun with it. In April, we are planning a field trip to the Topeka Zoo, so that will be a great way to end this unit!
In math, we are going to be finishing up our unit on measuring length, volume, and weight. We are going to start writing our numbers and get into addition and subtraction in March. I think it will be great to get into something new!
In science, we have been talking about landforms such as mountains, plains, and valleys. We talked about the differences between lakes, rivers, streams, and oceans. The next unit is a lot of science about animals such as how to take care of them and where they live.
I feel like the last part of the school year always flies by! Before we know it, it will be over and they will be on to kindergarten! If you need ideas of things to work on at home with your child, it would be letters and the sounds they make, counting and number identification, writing their names, and working on self help skills like putting on their own clothes and jackets, opening things themselves, zipping their own jackets, buttoning their own buttons, etc.
If you have any questions about anything, please contact me!! Thank you!
Kindergarten
This month our themes will be; different kinds of animals and the habitats in which they live. Children will discover that animals live in caves, dens, burrows, trees, forest, deserts, and oceans. Next, we will move on to the different kinds of transportation used to take people from place to place. Children will learn about how families in the past traveled and how these vehicles compare with what is used today. Finally for the month, we will be learning about our country’s national symbols, monuments, and national parks, such as the American flag, the White House, and the Grand Canyon.
High Frequency Words: said, want, here, me, this, what
Phonics: x, v, j, qu, y, z
Comprehension: Character, Setting, Plot (Cause and Effect), Main Idea, Key Details
Math:
This month we will wrap up unit 4 and move on to unit 5. Our focuses in math this month will be solving addition and subtraction word problems to 10, then solving word problems when both addends are unknown. That will wrap up unit 4, and we will begin unit 5 with understanding teen numbers. Teen numbers are often a tricky concept for students. Remind them that teen numbers are one group of ten, and some more ones. Practice counting out teen numbers, then sorting them in to a group of ten, and however many more ones.
First Grade
Firsties have been incredibly busy! We celebrated the 100th Day of School by dressing up as a 100-year-old person, and by doing one hundred activities and challenges in stations. At that time, we also completed lessons in math to reinforce numbers greater than one hundred.
Currently, we are using these symbols (<, >, =) to help us find two numbers that are greater than the other, or less than the other number. We are working hard to understand that the tens place is greater than the ones place and that you can use a greater than symbol (>) and less than symbol (<) to compare numbers. Next, we will be working on Telling Time to the hour and half hour.
We were fortunate to get to go on a field trip hosted by the C.L. Hoover Opera House! Its title was “The Three Little Kittens” play. The students were so respectful with well – behaved audience members. Represented Westwood Elementary School quite nicely.
We are excited to announce that First grade planted lettuce and parsley for our upcoming School Sale on fruits, vegetables, and flowers! The lettuce is already growing.
February 22nd is Pink Shirt Day. It is an awareness day to stop bullying. First graders feel strongly about following the rules and to stop bullying, so they enjoyed designing their own “Pink Shirt.”
It is so exciting to listen to your child read! First grade has worked incredibly hard all year long on reading at grade level and it shows! Every child has improved, and the goal is to become a smooth, fluent reader.
Second Grade
Can you believe the year is about over and soon you will have 3rd graders in your house? Soon, we will be in our last 9 weeks.
We are starting a new unit in math this week. We are taking a little break from the intense 3-digit addition and subtraction and working on measurement and line plots. Check out the video for helpful tips. Of course, reach out if you have any questions.
2nd graders have a music program March 2nd at 6pm. We hope to see many of you there. They have been working so hard.
The week after spring break we will be having parent/teacher conferences. We are looking forward to getting to visit with our families.
Thank you for all you do at home to support our classrooms and help us grow kind, respectful, and smart little humans.
3rd Grade
3rd Grade Wildcat Families,
It’s hard to believe we are nearing the last quarter of the school year. In Reading we are focusing on how people get what they need in life, as well as working with pronoun verb agreement, point of view, and root words. During math we will be working on perimeter, fractions, time/measurement, and classification of shapes before the end of the school year. The last Saturday of April, we will be having our second annual plant sale. To prepare for this sale 3rd grade will be planting and maintaining various types of herbs. Both classes are excited, and looking forward to supporting our school!
4th Grade
Happy springtime from 4th grade! State test prep is rolling full board!! This month in math we will be hammering review combined with covering standards not covered in the scope and sequence until after state tests. We will utilize manipulatives to build and experience them as we learn to solve. We will also be doing various exercises to help the kids memorize their facts. We will continue to bring a focus on story problems with the emphasis of not reading the problem all at once, but instead stopping and illustrating or solving as they read it. Extra practice on review and preview lessons will continue during our WIN time as well. Please help your young people memorize their multiplication facts at home (2-12).
In reading we are working hard in whole groups and small groups with both expository and narrative text in our wonders program. We are using data driven instruction to best hone in our teaching efforts to better serve our young people. We do ask our kids to apply their learnings to 20 minutes of reading each night Monday through Thursday. In addition, practice eyeball pushups which is picking out two or three sentences, and at first reading slowly annunciating each word, then faster and faster reading without mumbling.
In science we are currently studying weathering and erosion. We will be shifting to studying motion energy and electrical energy as well. Literature, experiments, and videos will be used to investigate the impact of energy on objects and how it connects with our world.
In social studies we will look at different regions of the United States and study unique resources and parts of regional culture.
We are also excited to continue to build our classroom families even stronger as our young people are maturing and further making strong adjustments into their professional setting daily. To our parents, thank you for your support and all you do for your kids!!!
5th Grade
Hello 5th Grade families!
We are so proud of how hard these students have been working these past couple of weeks. We have a lot of things coming up in March including a field trip to the Discovery Center, Spring Break, and Parent Teacher Conferences. Mrs. Mackay’s conferences will be held March 6-10 and Mrs. R’s conferences will be held with the rest of the school during the week March 20-24. Be on the lookout for your conference time and reach out if you have any questions.
In reading, students are continuing learning about different genres of reading as we explore expository text and historical fiction. We encourage all students to continue their reading at home for at least 20 minutes each night in order for them to become better readers. In math, students are continuing their understanding of dividing fractions and learning to convert measurements. Something that would help these students be successful would be to practice multiplication and division of multi-digit numbers and quizzing them on their multiplication and division facts. In science, we are beginning our living systems unit and student will learn about plants, animals, and different systems. Lastly, in social studies, we are working hard to understand scarcity and how it affects the events leading to the American Revolution. Thank you for sharing your students with us!
Sincerely,
Mrs. Ramos and Mrs. Mackay
Library
Thank you to everyone who participated in our Read-a-Thon! We were able to raise over $1,000 for our school AND our school read for 26,000 minutes! WOW! We are so proud of you all. The library is having a "Bookmark decorating contest". The winner will be picked by the Dorothy Bramlage Public Library and will get a basket of prizes. Please let Mrs. Stanton or Mrs. Houck know if you are interested in participating.
Another exciting thing that has happened is we have filled up our 2nd Mystery Mosiac! Students have been doing so well reading books and taking RC tests. We will have our 3rd and final picture up and ready to go after Spring Break. We also have a new "I Spy" exhibit in the library that students are really excited about. If you have not been down to see it, come check it out soon!
Remember to continue to be responsible with your library books and get them returned in time. Chances are someone else is patiently waiting to read it next. Thank you all for your continued support of our Westwood Library!
Happy Reading!
Mrs. Stanton and Mrs. Houck
Music
Everyone has been growing so much in their music ability this school year. It seems fitting with Spring fast approaching and everything is starting to grow and come back to life. Here are some fun updates for each grade.
5th- We have spent the last few months growing in our xylophone, drum, and ukulele skills. From there our 5th graders are writing the songs and instrument parts for our upcoming kindergarten program in April. The students this week have finished the melodies, xylophone parts, and drum parts. I am so excited for everyone to hear their master pieces.
4th- In 4th grade we have been working on narrowing in on different rhythms we have learned in the past and singing in our full solfege ladder. We just finished a unit on Musical Theatre and the students were able to watch Newsies and apply what we have been learning.
3rd- We have been learning a lot of rhythms and time signatures. Students have successfully learned what a 16th note is and can apply it to music as well as conduct in 3/4-time, 4/4-time and about to learn more about 6/8-time.
2nd and 1st- We have our 2nd and 1st grade program fast approaching on March 2nd. I am so proud of each of these grades for the hard work they have put into making this program amazing. Barnyard Moosical may be one of my favorite programs yet.
K- We have been singing a lot recently and adding movement for steady beat. We have explored xylophone and unpitched instruments this quarter and are about to start program prep for our April Program. It will be over the book “Bear Snores On”. More information will go out about this program.
Excited for all the music to be learned still this year.
Mrs. Williams
Counselor's Corner
Westwood Wildcats you are SUPER AMAZING! During the month of February, I felt so much LOVE from students, staff, and families. Your support and encouragement during National Counselors Week were such an amazing blessing. Thank You!!
I want to take a moment to reflect on February. The 5th Grade class picked the topic of UNITY, to discuss during our time together as full classes. The 3rd thru 5th grades started off by defining “unity”. The definition that they came up with as a group was “individuals working together as a whole group to accomplish a purpose or goal”. We then watched a short clip from the movie Hidden Figures to open a discussion on what were some of the barriers that were stopping unity and how they were addressed. The last week, we dug into Kansas’s role in the Civil Right Era and how it helped progress the goals of unity in our nation. The Pre-K-2nd Graders spent the month of February looking at similarities and differences. We talked about how differences are our “superpowers” that can help us to overcome challenges in our world. The kids got to draw portraits of a classmate that reflected both differences and similarities in relationship to themselves and we played some ankle tag to help us work together towards a goal of FUN.
March is already here and during our Counseling Classes this month we will focus on:
Pre-K -2nd Using the Wildcat Problem Free Philosophy to help us solve difficult situations that come up in our day at school and outside of school.
3rd – 5th Setting Goals and Putting into Action our Problem-Solving Strategies
Speaking of goals please remember that USD #475 has set a goal of having our students in school 95% of the days that school is in session. So do your best to get to school everyday on time 😊