From Rochelle Goforth: 

Dear Westgate Community,

Due to the predicted inclement weather and unsafe road conditions, all after school clubs and activities have been cancelled for Wednesday, March 13th, 2019.  Please stay safe and thank you for your understanding.  

We will send out any additional updates as needed.

Thank you!

Happy March!

This month we are doing Mindfulness for our Advocacy theme. Some activities we will be doing as a pod are: cosmic kids yoga, mindful coloring, and reading books about mindfulness and meditation. We will also do roleplaying situations where we need to be mindful of our bodies and the people around us. The second week of March we will take a week from mindfulness to do career week. Just like in the fall, we want to invite parents to come in and share about their careers! If you want to sign up to come in, please see our Sign Up Genius. Here->https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0B49A4AC29A3FC1-career1 If you sign up, please make sure you have completed a background check.

Conferences are coming up. If you missed the window to sign up for your prefered time slot, please email Mrs. Bratt and she will do her best to get you scheduled [email protected]

Reminders:

Panera Spirit night is from 4-8pm. Make sure you mention Westgate!

March 20-21^st- NO SCHOOL for Parent Teacher Conferences

March 25- April 5^th- NO SCHOOL for Spring Break

Hello Parents, 

February is Healthy Relationships month! We will be reviewing how to have healthy relationships with our friends through various activities. We will start off playing games like Would You Rather and talking about our similarities and differences. Then, our pod will be doing bonding exercises like making a pod chain. We will learn that if just one of those chains break, it causes division throughout all of Kindergarten. We will learn strategies on how to fix those broken relationships that we might have had in the past.  We will also be talking about what is “fair” and how to handle ourselves when things aren’t fair.

Reminders:

February 11^th-13^th is Kindness week! We will be doing Kindness activities all week!

February 13^th is Hundreds day! Children are welcome to dress up like they are 100 years old!

We will be providing a 100’s day snack that day, but if your child has allergies or wants to opt out, you can still have them bring their own snack.

February 14^th is Valentines day! NO CHILDREN ARE ALLOWED TO BRING VALENTINES!!! Instead, Westgate makes Kindness cards and delivers them to businesses in our community. We will be taking a field trip to the bus barn to pass our kindness cards out! Permission slips should have been sent home in Friday Folders last week. We should be back in time for normal pick up for half day students. I will be reaching out to chaperones this week!

February 15^th- NO SCHOOL: Teacher professional Development

February 18^th- NO SCHOOL: Presidents day

February 21^st- Field trip to Childrens WOW! Museum. Permission slips coming as soon as we have approval of buses. Half day pickup will be later (more information will be on the permission slip).

This month in Advocacy is Self-Regulation month! We will be reviewing our unit from the beginning of the year on identifying emotions and then we will be figuring out what to do when we feel those emotions rising up within us!

Because it is a new semester, your child will be seeing some new faces. The Kindergarten team has shuffled up every class to make sure we are supporting each child in every aspect. Feel free to have conversations with your child about this, some may be sad that their friend is not in their class anymore and others will be figuring out how to be in a new classroom. You should have received an email from your Advocacy teacher if your child is one that will be moved.

Reminders:

CLASS PICTURE DAY January 18th 

NO SCHOOL January 21^st for Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Friday January 25^th is JA in a Day- If you wish to volunteer please contact [email protected]or see our website for more info.

This month in Advocacy, we are talking about Optimism and Gratitude. This is a great month for us to be positive and thankful!

We will be doing some fun activities around the language we use in the classroom and how it can be optimism or pessimism. We will also do some perspective taking and an action advent calendar counting down to break!

Our winter party is the last day of school- December 20^th. Please sign up if you wish to help provide food or volunteer!

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0b49a4ac29a3fc1-winter1

This week we are having our Holiday gift shop. In Friday Folders you will find a gift list you can fill out and help your child pre-buy items for family members. If you wish to simply send money, you can do that as well and I will give your child a chance to go down and look around some point next week.

Please make sure you sign up for parent teacher conferences- https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30e0b49a4ac29a3fc1-winter

Reminders:

December 3-7: Holiday Shop

December 20^th: Half day for students- Pick up at 11:30

December 20^th: 1pm-8pm Parent teacher conferences

December 21^st: 8am-8pm Parent teacher conferences

December 23^rd- January 11^th NO SCHOOL- Winter break

Happy Fall!

Our monthly Advocacy theme for October is Bully Prevention. Westgate has received a grant regarding Bully Prevention, and we have had training on how to empower students to handle conflict and disrespectful behavior. Social-conflict resolution is a life-long skill that will enable them to advocate for themselves in situations where they feel disrespected. Advocacy lessons these next couple weeks will focus on teaching them these skills and strategies. Students have already heard about the ENOUGH protocol, but we will continue training them in this and how to handle those conflicts. If you want to know more about this, you can visit this link where Fox news explains the value of Bully Prevention and how our grant was used in this process: http://kdvr.com/2017/10/24/new-bullying-prevention-protocol-established-at-thornton-school/

This month we will officially be staring our Kindness box as well. This is a great way for students to also empower each other with their kind words and acknowledging each other’s kindness. This week, ask your child about the kindness box and a story that they may want to add to the kindness box.

You should have received the permission slip for Miller Farms come home in Friday folders before break. Please get those returned to us ASAP! A couple more things to remember for the field trip.

1. Please have your child either wear their purple Westgate shirt, or another purple shirt. This will help us easily identify them.
2. If you are a half day parent, and you opt. your child into our field trip, pickup will be at 1:30 that day in our usual spot. If you are planning to opt your child out, please let me know so that we can talk about alternatives for your child or the possibility of them staying home.
3. THIS IS A FARM. Your child will be out in the dirt and fields digging for veggies. They will get dirty. Please do not send them to school in their Sunday best. Also, please remind them to wear appropriate shoes. Sandals are NOT okay to wear.
4. We will be eating lunch at the farm. Please send your child with a SACK lunch that can be thrown away at the farm. Your child is able to bring their own water bottle, but they will be responsible for bringing it back to school. Westgate will also supply extra water bottles if you choose not to send your child with theirs.
5. Last, the weather is forecasted to be 60 degrees and sunny, but PLEASE check the weather the morning of and send your child in appropriate clothes for the weather.

We are super excited to spend our first field trip with our high school buddies!

Reminder:

October 18^th- Westgate’s 10^th Anniversary Gala: Buy your tickets now! https://www.westgateschool.biz/10th-Anniversary-Celebration-Gala-gala.htm

October 19^th – Field Trip to Miller Farms

October 31^st- Halloween party: Sign up genius coming for donations and volunteers soon!

Hi there,

Teach your Monster to Read is an award-winning series of games which helps children to master the key first stages of reading.  It’s been created by the Usborne Foundation, led by Peter Usborne (of Usborne Publishing).

 We’re using it at school and your child will benefit more from the game if they can play at home. It’s free to play on a PC and laptop, or you can download the Teach Your Monster to Read app from the app store on phones and tablets.

To play on the website, visit https://www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/u/1783206 and start playing in seconds.

Example player password card:

 More about the game

 Teach Your Monster to Read is a series of online games which helps children learn to read.

 The games develop children’s speed and accuracy of letter recognition by taking them on a fantastic adventure through magical worlds where they meet island kings and collect letters to win prizes.  Children adopt and customize a monster, who they guide through the learning process.

 Find out more at www.teachyourmonstertoread.com/u/1783206

Enjoy!

Mrs. Matthews

Career week Sign-up