The Cat’s Tale - District School Board of Niagarawestdale.dsbn.org/documents/WestdalesAprilNewsletter... ·  · 2014-04-01The Cat’s Tale WESTDALE’S NEWSLETTER A P R I L 2 0

From the Principal’s Desk...

I N S I D E T H I S

I S S U E :

EQAO 2

Nonfiction

Matters

3

Tech

Champions

4

Pancakes! 5

Chess

Champions

6

Graduation 7

Calendar 8

The Cat’s

Tale

A P R I L 2 0 1 4 W E S T D A L E ’ S N E W S L E T T E R

Principal:

Mrs. P. Gilliam

Vice-Principal

Mrs. J. Brown

Secretary:

Mrs. D. Holderney

March was an incredibly exciting month at Westdale, and Westdale students were recognized for a number of wonderful accolades! I just want to take a moment to share with you some of the amazing things happening in our build-ing with students, staff and parents, and the recognition we are receiving throughout DSBN! A team of 4 intermediates placed 1st for the ENTIRE DSBN for the

"Techknowledge" competition! Another team of 4 intermediate students place 2nd in a DSBN Robotics'

competition! 3 students won gold medals at the recent DSBN Chess tournament! ELKP students were well represented at the DSBN young artists exhibit

with over 10 students' work chosen to be on exhibition. Intermediate boys were the consolation champions for their basketball

league! We had an internet and social media safety presentation for our grade 4 -

8 students. Juniors and intermediates also saw a play by Carousel Players on Harriet

Tubman. Mrs. Philip has started a Grade 2 and 3 art class Mondays and Wednesdays

after school, and all grade 3’s are doing swimming lessons! The grade 5/6 class experienced "Scientists in the Classroom" dissecting

owl vomit and some of our primary students are participating in mad sci-ence classes.

Junior students went skating and junior teachers participated in 5 full day sessions on a Collaborative Inquiry for Learning Mathematics to deepen their understanding of math instruction and delivery to help our students.

A smartboard was recently mounted in Mrs. Philip’s Grade 3 room and Ms. Marshall's Grade 6/7 room.

School Council moms made pancakes for the entire school, organized pita day, hot dog day, ran a successful chocolate bar campaign and continue to successfully run our breakfast program every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings at 8:25am with the help of some staff volunteers!

As you can see, we’ve been very busy! Way to go Wildcats! Keep up the phenomenal work and continue to “Be the Best You Can Be!”.

~ Mrs. Poppy Gilliam

P A G E 2

T H E C A T ’ S

Grade 3 & 6 EQAO

Reminder of Westdale’s School Improvement Plan

NUMERACY GOAL: Teachers will incorporate problem solving as well as Fosnot units and/or strings in their mathematics instruction, as well as the use of computer programs (i.e., Dreambox), so that all students will deepen their mathematical understanding and computational flu-ency (as measured by their achievement on teacher-prepared diagnostic, formative, and summative assessments as well as EQAO).

LITERACY GOAL:

Through development and strategic application of inferring skills, students will grow in their ability to make judgements and draw conclusions about the ideas in text, as evi-denced in their written and oral responses.

STAFF GOAL:

All staff will continue to work together to promote positive school culture, school spirit and community, to foster student well being and encourage positive student behavior in a safe and respectful learning environment.

Student Attendance

If your student is going to be absent or late, please call the school to leave a mes-

sage as soon as you know. Messages received prior to 8:00 a.m. are incredibly

appreciated by Mrs. Holderney. This saves her potentially hours in the day of

needing to track down parents to try and figure out why students are absent.

Provincial EQAO Assessments are scheduled for Grades 3 and 6 students for six days during

the period of May 26th - June 6th, 2014. Grade 3’s will be writing the first week - May 26th to

May 30th. Grade 6’s will write the second week - June 2nd to June 6th. Please do your very

best not to schedule any appointments for students during this assessment as it is difficult to

make up missed time. We would appreciate if you could have your child well rested, fed and on

time to school. Thank you! We know that this, in conjunction with all the work he/she has done

with his/her teacher, will help your child be successful!

Why your kids should read non-fiction!

We read different genres for different reasons. We read fiction primarily for enjoyment, to connect the text with our lives,

to let our imagination carry us away, to hear the sound of narrative language, and to explore age-old themes. Most of the

reading people do in life, however, is nonfiction. Nonfiction writing is the most widely read genre in the world, (Kamil and

Lane, 1997). We read nonfiction to learn. Elementary school children of both genders will choose to read non-fiction over

stories nearly half the time, a finding that surprises many people, (Kletzien and Szabo, 1998).

Content literacy is the ability to read, write, create, interpret and present a range of media, in subjects such as science,

social studies and mathematics. It includes the use of informational text, that is, print and electronic media that present

factual and conceptual content. Content literacy is essential for success in both secondary and post-secondary education,

where most of what students read will be nonfiction. Studies have shown that academic achievement in a range of subjects

and fields relies heavily on informational reading and writing, (Duke, 2004).

If students are not familiar with informational text forms, such as persuasive and explanatory writing, content literacy is

more of a challenge. These texts include vocabulary and technical concepts that are abstract and impersonal. Most are

densely written, presenting several concepts in every sentence. Additionally, some content reading takes place on the

Internet, which is especially difficult for younger readers to search and select material from effectively.

The goal is for students to understand informational text independently. Good readers do this by using strategies. Before

reading difficult texts, they set goals for reading by asking questions about the topic. They make predictions about what

they will find in the text and skim through it in order to become more familiar with its structure. They purposefully try to

picture what they are reading in their imagination, select key ideas and compare their predictions to the text. As they read,

they ask themselves whether they understand the material, and if they do not, they reread and apply new strategies. After

reading, they may summarize the text for themselves and evaluate it critically.

Teachers promote non-fiction reading in their classroom in a number of ways:

• Reading nonfiction aloud.

• Giving nonfiction book talks.

• Studying the work of a particular author.

• Forming nonfiction book clubs.

• Forming informational study groups around a common interest.

• Reading the newspaper and following magazines.

• Balancing fiction with nonfiction reading materials in the classroom library.

• Using real-life observations and hands-on experiments as bases for reading and

writing.

• Explicitly teaching students strategies for comprehending informational text.

• Using learning logs in subjects such as science, social studies and mathematics.

• Explicitly teaching students how to write informational texts, such as reports,

procedures (instructions), arguments (persuasion) and explanations.

• Having students write a variety of kinds of texts in science and social studies

CONGRATULATIONS TECH CHAMPIONS!

The months of February and March were huge months for Westdale. On Wednesday, February 26th,

Westdale sent two teams to the Tech Challenge at DSBN Academy with Mr. Nelson. The students

comprising the two teams were Makayla K., Dante Y., Montanna T. and Piotr C. on one team. The

other team was David T., Zephora D., Noah C. and Victoria M. The assignment was to build a rescue

vehicle that would be able to cross various challenging terrains and knock the bar off the end of the ob-

stacle course.

Competition was fierce and the gearing systems of the vehicles were breaking down frequently with

elastics which provided the drive to the tires melting, and flying everywhere. Although both Westdale

teams did a phenomenal job building their rescue vehicles from a small box of various parts, only one of

our teams moved on to the DSBN finals on Monday March 3rd. Makayla, Dante, Montanna and Piotr

placed second at the DSBN Academy, and made some key adjustments to their vehicle, as well as de-

signed a well organized poster outlining the planning and building process.

These adjustments were key in the finals, as the team vehicle the “Can8ian” whizzed through the obsta-

cle course at all three ramp inclines in record speed. In the end we were tied with Vineland school for

points, and it came down to the team's knowledge of mechanical advantage, and the explanation of their

planning. With Mrs. Gilliam present and cheering them on, the team waited patiently to find out that we

won the overall challenge! Gold medals for Westdale! First in the DSBN! Huge congratulations to

all participants, and particularly to the students that represented Westdale so proudly! We also

extend a special thank you to Mr. Nelson for working with the team and to Mr. Christian for pre-

paring them so incredibly well at DS & T!

Techknowledge Competition Champions - Picture with DSBN Director, Warren Hoshizaki

THANKS SCHOOL COUNCIL FOR OUR PANCAKES!

Surf’s Up!!!

Deeee-licious!

We extend a HUGE thank

you to our incredible School

Council moms (and one re-

turning mom from last year)

who helped cook pancakes

for the ENTIRE school!

Our students loved them!

We appreciate all of your

continued support to help

make Westdale School

AMAZING!

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR CHESS TEAM!

On Friday, March 28th, the Westdale chess team travelled to Nelles school in Grimsby to

compete in the area 3 chess tournament. The team consisted of Austin S., Will M., Harrison

M., Kiersen E., Larissa B., Owen H., Jakob Z., Sharifa E., Noah K., Hunter B., Devin G.,

Jacob K., Hunter C. and Harry L. (Harley D. was unfortunately ill and couldn't attend). The

team did a phenomenal job, showing excellent sportsmanship and displaying proper chess eti-

quette at all times. All players did exceptionally well. Three of our students won their

chess pools and earned a gold medal! Congratulations Austin, Sharifa and Harry! Sec-

ond place honours went to Will, Larissa, Owen, Noah, Jacob and Hunter. Third place honours

went to Harrison and Kiersen. Well done everyone! We are very proud of you! Congratula-

tions on your accomplishments.

CONTRATULATIONS TO

OUR 3 GOLD

MEDALISTS!

Rankin Run

Congratulations Jayden on winning the TV in our chocolate

bar draw at Friday’s assembly! Every student’s name who

sold a box of chocolate bars was put in a drum and Jayden’s

name was pulled!

A HUGE thank you to Mrs. Autumn Young, chair of School

Council, and our wonderful Council moms for running an

amazing chocolate bar campaign. We appreciate all of your

hard work and support!

CONGRATULATIONS

JAYDEN!

GRADE 8 GRADUATION

Mark this date on your calendar! Our Grade 8 graduation ceremony is

scheduled for Tuesday, June 24th at 6:30 p.m. It will be held at Amici’s

Banquet and Conference Centre, which is located on 2740, Merrittville

Hwy, just past Brock University.

Our Graduation Committee is beginning to plan this special event and

we’re looking forward to sharing this milestone in your child’s life.

Calling all Wildcats....The 8th Annual Rankin Cancer Run is hap-

pening on Saturday, May 24th

and we are inviting all Westdale

students and their families to be part of this wonderful community

event. Last year $725,000.00 was raised by over 60 schools and

8000 participants! We all have people in our lives affected by

cancer. The event includes a 1km and 5km route, a t-shirt and a

free BBQ after the event. Walk or run but whatever you do...join

the fun!!! (More information to follow.)

Wednesday, April 2nd- Grade 3’s at Swim to Survive program

Wednesday, April 2nd - Grade 1’s invited to Walker Living Campus Outdoor Education Centre’s Ground

Breaking ceremony

Thursday, April 3rd - Grade 3’s to Jordan School House

Thursday, April 3rd - Grade 5/6’s to St. John’s Outdoor Education Centre

Wednesday, April 9th - Wear PINK! (International Day of Pink)

Wednesday, April 9th - Grade 3 Swim to Survive Program

Friday, April 11th - Carousel Players performance for Primary students

Tuesday, April 15th - Gr. 2/3 and 3 St. John’s Outdoor Center

Friday, April 25th - ELKP to St. John’s Outdoor Education Center

Sunday, April 27th - DSBN Road Race

Tuesday, April 29th - Grade 3 - 8 Track & Field at the Academy (NOC track)

May 2nd - Cooperation Celebration Assembly 2pm AND Crazy Hair day spirit day

Monday, May 5th - Friday, May 9th - Education Week for the DSBN

Friday, May 9th - 2:15pm ELKP Spring Concert

Saturday, May 24th - Rankin Run!

Tuesday, June 24th - Grade 8 Graduation!

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Tuesday, April 22nd - 6pm

Parent Council meeting in the

Learning Commons