Spring Greetings

April 1, 2010

Welcome to April - a brief, yet important month. I’d like to start by wishing all of you a very Happy Easter. There will be no school this Friday, April 2 in observance of Good Friday.

We’ll be back in school for 4 days, then we’ll start our Spring vacation one day earlier than planned. There will be no school on Friday April 9 as we take advantage of an extra snow day. Spring break will then continue as planned the week of April 12. We will return to school the week of April 19 with report cards coming home to you on Friday, April 23. We will start New York State Assessments on Tuesday April 27 in Grades 3-5. I will talk more in the next blog entry about that.

During the days we are in school our students will participate in a very special character education project for the month of April. Our focus for the month is on citizenship and each grade level at West Side has adopted a specific project to promote citizenship in the school:

Kindergarten: Cards for the Fire Department
Grade 1: Donations for the local animal shelter
Grade 2: Clean up the school grounds
Grade 3: Canned food drive
Grade 4: Paint murals in the bathrooms and halls
Grade 5: Make cards for the nursing home
Mrs. Dupuis-Fregoe’s Room: Planting
Ms. Rose’s Room: Reading to younger children.

Our Grade 3 classes have already started their food drive. They will have a poster and receptacle in the lobby to accept donations from now until April 20. We invite all of you to participate in this project and any other donations our different grade levels are collecting.

May you all be renewed by the promise of Spring and the reflectiveness of this holiday weekend and enjoy our break before the last quarter of school begins.

A Week of March Madness!

March 15, 2010

Dear Families:

We’re well into the month of March, our clocks have moved forward and we all welcome the extra daylight and warmer weather we’ve experienced.

I want to inform you of some upcoming events for this week. You should have received a letter from me and a flyer about our Spring Family Book Night this Wednesday, March 17, 2010. This is the evening each year where we hold informational and educational activities for our parents and students.

Our building Title I meeting is always a part of Family Book Night. This year our Title I faculty, Mrs. Barbara Tuttle, Miss Laura Wheater and Miss Kristy LaVoie, will provide an overview of our Title I program. They will share take-home materials and demonstrate reading activities we use with the students in our computer lab. Copies of our School Wide Plan and Building Action Plan will be on hand for the meeting. The lab will be open all evening to provide opportunities for you to work with your child as part of our Parents As Reading Partners Activities.

Our parent workshop this year is in response to your requests during our Title I meetings in 2009. Mrs. Monica Scott will offer presentations on Internet Safety each half-hour to show you how to monitor your child’s internet activity and keep them safe at home. All sessions will take place in Room 5.

Another opportunity to receive volunteer training will be offered just prior to the start of the evening at 5:00 p.m. This session is also in Room 5.

Of course the centerpiece of the evening is our OPT’s Spring Scholastic Book Fair. Our theme this year is “Book Fair Diner – All You Can Read”. Come dressed in your 1950’s best. Diner waiters from the Middle School Hospitality Club will serve refreshments and we’ll have the 50’s sock hop music blaring. We are also expecting a visit from the "King of Rock and Roll".

I’ve also invited our students to a very special challenge. If we sell 700 books I will eat whatever concoction of foods our West Side students put together. This will take place at our monthly March assembly.

Please join us if you can on Wednesday. A reminder to all that there will be no school for students this Friday, March 19 due to Staff Development Day. Have a good, long weekend!