Teacher Margaret's "View From My Window" - October 20th

Westfield’s SPARK Board is filling up. SPARK stands for Spirit, Participation, Academics, Respect, and Kindness. Anyone, adult or student, may put someone on the SPARK Board for any one of these SPARKy characteristics. Middle School Student Leaders will be taking over responsibility for the Board and encouraging students to recognize people for their SPARKiness.

5th Grade students read "The Man in the Red Bandana" by Honor Crowther Fagan. They were so impressed with the story that they wanted to take SPARK one step further and recognize elementary grade students who embody Welles Crowther’s selflessness. With their teacher Mrs. DeMarco’s help, this past Monday they named the first Red Bandana recipients. Each month another set of students, one from each grade Kindergarten through 5th, will be named.

Two 4th Grade students, Tara and Lillian, are leading an effort to understand the impact of single use plastics in our waterways. They have asked students in grades 2-8 to make a list of plastics in their homes. We will use this information in this week’s Quaker Friday program focused on our own Delaware River. The theme on Friday will be “We Seek a Healthy Delaware River.” In preparation for Friday, 5th grade students Taylor and Chloe, shared in Meeting For Worship what they could do to help keep plastics out of the river.

Westfield Middle School students are helping to save the sturgeon who have lived in our Delaware River since the time of the dinosaurs. 7th grade student, Heidi, knew about the Sturgeon's plight and brought the idea to Middle School Meeting for Business for how they might help. The sense of the meeting was that they should create a banner depicting the estimated 250 Atlantic Sturgeon living in the river. The banner will be a part of a Save the Sturgeon rally at Philadelphia's City Hall on November 16th.

One last SPARK to note is 4th grade student, Avi. He has helped sponsor a park clean up in his neighborhood Pennypack Park in Philadelphia this Saturday morning.

Announcements:

I hope to see you all show your Spirit at our Booooooth Bash this Saturday afternoon!
Look for information soon on signing up for Teacher Parent and Guardian Conferences on November 1st
Middle School students will be collecting change for Unicef. The proceeds will go to Pakistan Flood Relief.

Warmly

Margaret

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What We Are Reading

6th Grade Thirst by Varsha Bajaj	4th Grade The Tiger Rising by Kate DiCamillo	2nd Grade The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
Kindergarten Milo Imagines the World by Matt de la Pena	New in our Library Emmanuel's Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Ann Thompson	What I am Reading Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Stout