Upcoming Dates:

Monday, November 30, 2015 – NO SCHOOL

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

  • Walking Wednesday – Del Paso

Thursday, December 3, 2015

  • WAVE Coffee Talk – Del Paso – Ms. Jackson’s Art Room – 8:25 AM
  • WAVE Board Meeting – Ms. Jackson’s Art Room – 6:30 PM

Friday, December 4, 2015

  • Footloose Friday – Del Paso

SAVE THE DATE:

Spelling Bee – Tuesday, December 8

Barnes and Noble Family Night – Friday, December 11

Celebrations:

student led Families, thank you for taking the time to meet with your teacher last week. We had nearly a 100% attendance rate! It is truly the connection between school and home that makes Westlake so special!
Our 5th graders from Wayne Dickey’s class had the opportunity to participate in an incredible experience with The Young Eagle program. The Young Eagle program works with kids ages 8 to 17 to give them the opportunity of a lifetime to fly with a pilot.  Since 1992, more than 1.9 million Young Eagles have enjoyed a flight from EAA’s network of volunteer pilots. For many, it was the start of their journey to becoming a pilot, aircraft mechanic, air traffic controller, or many other career possibilities. We can’t wait to see what our future Explorers have in store. Eagle
Math This year, Sarah Gately, a middle school math teacher, wanted to extend our Math Olympiad program to a Math Club. She took the idea and ran with it! She created a Math Club for middle school that meets before school twice a week. Students were energized and excited about math this past week during Math Club. Thank you for creating another learning opportunity for our students to be enriched!
This week, 2nd graders in Mrs. Hernandez’s Spanish class took their body parts quiz on iPads. Using this format allows for students and Mrs. Hernandez to receive immediate feedback on vocabulary that still needs practice, allowing Mrs. Hernandez to personalize their review work!  Way to go, Mrs. Hernandez and 2nd graders! File_000 (2)
muertos In middle school, Spanish class students created Dia De Los Muertos PBL projects.  As part of this process, students took the time to critique and give feedback to their classmates.  When students collaborate on projects, it allows them to produce more quality deliverables! Showcasing student work gives students an audience, which gives purpose to their work.  

For the Whole School:Announcements:

Core Value of the Month – Gratitude:  Families, we hope that the core value of the month from Westlake provides a moment of conversation at the dinner table, or on that car ride across town. We make videos, announcements and awards around these values because our school believes deeply that woven together, these core values make the fabric of a healthy and safe learning community for our students. In the month of December, we will be sharing conversations with our students about gratitude. On this note, the staff of Westlake Charter School are very thankful to those of you who take the time to read our weekly messages!

K8 Charter Revision:  Every five years, each charter school has to reauthorize their charter with their authorizing board. For Westlake, the authorizing authority is NUSD. In the Spring, we renewed the K-5 charter and now it is time for our middle school. However, rather than seek a renewal, our Westlake Charter Board of Directors have unanimously voted to seek a revision to our K5 charter, extending this charter to include 6th-8th grades. This means, technically there will no longer be two schools, but one single, kindergarten through 8th grade Westlake Charter School. The revision of this charter will be presented to the NUSD board on December 9th at an open hearing.

Barnes and Noble Family Night: Join us for Westlake Charter School’s Annual Barnes and Noble Family Night Out on Friday, December 11th from 5:00 – 7:00 PM.  Come participate in crafts, games, and storytelling with the WCS Staff!  Up to 25% of the proceeds from the whole weekend will go to WCS to purchase books for our school!  Whether you buy a book, movie, CD, or some coffee and cheesecake, anything you shop for will be supporting our school.  WCS volunteers will be staffing the gift wrap table. You can have your purchases wrapped before you leave the store!  What a great way to spend a weekend.  Come join us and mention Westlake Charter at checkout!  We are looking for Parent Volunteers to help with the gift-wrapping table on Saturday and Sunday.  Please sign up to volunteer HERE.

For Del Paso:

Spelling Bee: The week before break, students participated in in-class spelling bees to determine who would represent their class in the school-wide spelling bee on December 8th.  If you want to challenge your student, ask them to spell nunatak, which was one of the final round words from last year!

Math Monday: Math Monday has taken a break for two Mondays (November 23rd and November 30th) since we did not have school.  However, if you and your family can’t live without Math Monday, there will be a deep-thinking problem for your whole family to solve together for fun!  Feel free to submit your answers using the form!

For Pebblewood

Electives: Remember, new electives will begin on Tuesday, December 1st.

Conferences:  Thank you to all of the families that attended conferences last week.  It was incredible to see so many families on campus.  We appreciate your partnership in your child’s education.  If you did not have a chance to make it to your scheduled conference, please reach out to your advisory/homeroom teacher and they will set up a time to meet with you.  

New trimester: We started our second trimester on November 16th and it will end in March! A new trimester is a chance to start over.  During the End of the Trimester Conferences, many students spoke about goals and areas of growth they would like to work on this trimester.  It is a perfect time to start fresh as we begin this new trimester.