Pictures, Pictures, and More Pictures!

Hi families, we always do an end of year slideshow for 1^st and 2^nd grade at the continuations. Even though learning looks a little different this quarter, we would still love to put together a slideshow to share our year including Distance Learning, but we need your help!  If you could share photos of your child through this fourth quarter, we would love to see them.  These pictures could be of your child baking, building snowmen, building forts, learning activities or anything else using their wonderful imaginations!  The link to share is below:

[email protected]

 “Surviving the Struggle”

As we all try to navigate through our new normal it creates an unsettling time for our littles.  We are asking students and parents to do things they have never done and worked through lessons on a program, they are unfamiliar with.  This new normal causes a lot of frustration as they try to navigate these uncharted waters.  During the 1st quarter, we talked a lot about, “Surviving the Struggle”, and realizing that "A problem is just a problem and not a reflection of who we are!"  The struggle is part of the learning process and if we got everything right all the time, we wouldn't need school!!  As teachers, we don't like to get things wrong either, but we know that learning from our mistakes helps us grow and that is what learning is all about!  

Remind your child to get out of the "fixed" mindset of, “I have to always be right”. 

Our brain is a muscle and mistakes work out our brain to make it stronger!!  There is a lot of staff here to support you and your child such as Mr. Rowan and Ms. Washington just to name a couple.  Please reach out if you need anything. 

https://www.khanacademy.org/ela/cc-4th-grade-ela/x4fc02ff927f33e89:growth-mindset-4/x4fc02ff927f33e89:growth-mindset-building-knowledge/v/learnstorm-growth-mindset-the-truth-about-your-brain

1^st & 2^nd grade Advocacy Activities  

Monday- Mrs. Valenza will be doing a live Zoom with the chickens and goats at 12:30pm! Tune in to see the ladies and ask questions.  

                   Time: Apr 20, 2020 12:30 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada) 

                   https://zoom.us/j/9514179342?pwd=eG1WT0IrbjVPREkvYnp5SFA1NXZOUT09 

                  Meeting ID: 951 417 9342        see Ms. Valenza's email for password

Tuesday - Westgate kids are natural problem solvers. There are 2 ways you can problem solve today.  

1. Think of a problem you’ve seen in your house, your neighborhood, your city, Westgate, the world and create an invention to fix that problem. An app that tells people where their food came from? A drone that picks up trash along highways? Think big!  
2. Create a way to get people to do something positive for the environment.  Hand out bee hives to every school? Give every house 3 new trees to plant? Give everyone who picks up trash $100? Think big! 

Wednesday- You have 2 options today...Join the Lorax and Mr. Rowan for a live reading of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. Or head to Mrs. Valenza’s staff profile page to hear a pre-recorded reading of the story.  

                   Topic: The Lorax Read Aloud with Question and Answer 
                   Time: Apr 22, 2020 01:15 AM Mountain Time (US and Canada) 
                   https://us04web.zoom.us/j/79083049885?pwd=cXdiMk9vYjh6Z2Y4dGl5NHpvUVJHQT09 
                   Meeting ID: 790 8304 9885 

                   See Ms. Valenza's email for password 

Thursday – Today your walk is going to get a little interesting! Have your parent, your sibling, your dog, whoever you’re walking with say “Hot” or “cold.” If they say “hot” you have to run/walk to a sunny spot. If they say “cold” you have to run/walk to a shady spot. Have fun seeing how many different spots you can find for both hot and cold. Send a picture to Mrs. Valenza with the coolest shadow you can find!  

Friday - Today you’ll need a piece of paper, a pencil, and the “Directed Drawing” video from Mrs. Valenza’s Staff Profile Page. You can’t know what we’re drawing but it’s going to be good!  

1^st & 2^nd grade Advocacy Activities 

Monday- Head to Mrs. Valenza’s Staff Proile PageProile Page to hear her reading Why Should I protect Nature? by Jen Green  

Tuesday - Prepare yourself for royalty. You’re making grass crowns today! You’ll need some paper, scissors, a little tape and markers/pencils/crayons. Taken from this website...https://www.creativeconnectionsforkids.com/2013/07/a-crown-of-grass/?crlt.pid=camp.vM9OsgJPcWXQ    If you don’t have bug stickers (who really does right now??) just use a pencil to draw your favorite bugs and give them a habitat in the grass. If you don’t have green paper just color the grass. Maybe you want purple grass today. Send a picture to Mrs. Valenza wearing your beautiful crown.  

Wednesday- Take a scavenger hunt walk! Attached is a scavenger hunt document if you’d like to print that out. You could also just write down some of the items on a separate piece of paper and check them off as you find them. Let Mrs. Valenza know what things you found! 

Thursday- Today I want you to take a survey. Ask family members that live in your home, facetime or Skype with another relative or friend and ask them these two questions: 1. How much time do you spend outside each day?  2. How do you feel after spending time outside and why?  You could write down the answers you get or just use them to start a conversation about the importance of fresh air. There are no wrong answers! 

Friday-  Originally, we were going to have a big Earth Day fair at Westgate (next Wednesday) but that can't happen anymore. We're going to celebrate in a little different way. Today I want you to draw and/or write about your 2 favorite things about the Earth. Maybe you love the mountains, or the beach. Maybe you love all the different kinds of trees or animals. Maybe you love all the different weather - tornadoes, snow storms, hurricanes, lightning storms. It can be whatever you love about the Earth. Either take a picture and send to Mrs. Valenza or do it on your computer and send the file to her. She'll be compiling these to make a video you can view on Earth Day. 

Chandra Valenza

Environmental Education Specialist

Westgate Community School

Thornton, CO

Whew!  We made it through the first week of Distance Learning!  I’m so proud of each and every one of you!! 

This week, Moby Max has assigned lessons based on your placement tests.  Your 1-2 teachers have created a little “Moby Menu” for your learning pleasure!!  You will find the menu attached to this advocacy page.  Use this to help guide your learning through the week.  We only expect you to spend about 30 minutes per subject per day! 

See you at 10:00 AM for our Advocacy meeting!

Upcoming Events:

• March Advocacy-                     Growth Mindset
• Conference Sign Up Closes     Friday, March 13^th
• Conferences-4-7 PM &Tues,     March 16^th,17^th
• Conferences 8 – 8PM Friday,    March 20^th

Conferences SignUps:  The dates and times of the spring conferences have changed.  They will be held on Monday and Tuesday, March 16^th and 17^th from 4 PM to 7 PM and Friday, March 20^th from 8 AM to 8 PM.  The spring conferences signup is below.  Please choose only ONE time slot and include your child’s name and teachers requested.

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050b48adaa2caafe3-spring

Our class is watching the Platteville eagles which have been together over 17 years. Their eggs are possibly going to hatch over spring break, if you would like to watch the eagles I have included the link below. For some reason the one camera has gotten a little blurry but they have two cameras,

https://birdcam.xcelenergy.com/cams/xcel_energy_eagle_cams/eagle_cam_one

Westgate is moving towards a “toy free” zone.  We want students to focus on learning and building relationships while they are here, and toys become a disruption to this learning process.  Outdoor equipment (balls, scooters, jump ropes and sidewalk chalk) is still acceptable.  More information is coming soon from admin.  Please let us know if you have any questions.  Thank you so much for your support with this!

Dear Families,

We have revised our school calendar.  Conferences will no longer be offered on Thursday, March 19th.  We made this change in order to give our teachers an opportunity to participate in a statewide ‘Red for Ed’ teacher walkout in support of public education and funding that is occurring on March 19th.  Thursday the 19th was already a no-school day for students so there is no need to reschedule educational instruction.

Conferences will now be offered on Monday and Tuesday, March 16th and 17th, from 4p-7p and Friday, March 20th from 8a – 8p.  

The conference signup is now live.  Please sign up for ONE conference slot.  You will need to include your name, your child's name, and teachers you wish to see.  The signup will close on Friday, March 13th.  If you need to change a conference time or sign up for a conference time after this date, please contact [email protected].

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/8050B48ADAA2CAAFE3-spring

Upcoming Events: 

• February Advocacy- Healthy Relationships
• Chipotle Spirit Night 25^th
• Civil War Reenactment Fundraiser      March 2^nd 

Westgate is moving towards a “toy free” zone.  We want students to focus on learning and building relationships while they are here, and toys become a disruption to this learning process.  Outdoor equipment (balls, scooters, jump ropes and sidewalk chalk) is still acceptable.  More information is coming soon from admin.  Please let us know if you have any questions.  Thank you so much for your support with this!

Upcoming Events:

• February Advocacy- Healthy Relationships
• President’s Day- No School          17^th  
• Professional Development No School 18^th
• Chipotle Spirit Night  25^th

 Westgate is moving towards a “toy free” zone.  We want students to focus on learning and building relationships while they are here, and toys become a disruption to this learning process.  Outdoor equipment (balls, scooters, jump ropes and sidewalk chalk) is still acceptable.  More information is coming soon from admin.  Please let us know if you have any questions.  Thank you so much for your support with this!

Upcoming Events: 

• February Advocacy- Healthy Relationships
• Kindness Week  February 10^th – 14^th
• President’s Day- No School February 17^th  
• Professional Development No School February 18^th

Kindness Day:  Friday, February 14^th:

Please remember that we DO NOT do individual Valentine’s Day cards or presents/candy for individual students.  Instead, we take kindness and spread it throughout the community.  We will be making Kindness Cards for some businesses in the area and pass them out on that Friday. 

Kindness Day Field Trip to Northern Group:

Friday, February 14th the 1-2 classes will be walking to the Northern Group to hand out Kindness Cards. If you haven't signed the online permission slip form, please make sure it is signed before Friday.  

Westgate is moving towards a “toy free” zone.  We want students to focus on learning and building relationships while they are here, and toys become a disruption to this learning process.  The outdoor equipment (balls, scooters, jump ropes and sidewalk chalk) is still acceptable.  More information is coming soon from admin.  Please let us know if you have any questions.  Thank you so much for your support with this!