Dear Friends,
We have reached the end of the school year. The historian in me remembers that we started the year wearing masks. I still spent a fair amount of the time in the fall fielding calls from parents and staff who were contracting COVID. Now we are back together in all spaces.
The 8th-grade graduation includes 7th-grade students as the choir and we will enjoy a social time, hosted by 7th-grade families in the Meeting House following the ceremony. This is the last long tradition at Westfield that we have restored out of its COVID hibernation.
Every single student has personal accomplishments of which they are rightly proud. Students’ creativity and critical thinking were on display in the amazing artwork produced and the demonstrations of learning shared with peers and families.
Each class has carried out complex projects and activities giving students ample opportunities to practice effective collaboration and communication. Cross-grade groups of students such as the 2nd and 3rd grades’ Helping Humans Project and the mixed-age Buddies Groups that worked together to create baskets, placemats, and centerpieces for Ronald McDonald House and Cathedral Kitchen strengthened students’ understanding of what is possible when we come together with a common purpose. Our website has photographs of many of these wonderful experiences.
Now we have summer ahead of us. At Westfield, we have a full and busy Summer Camp starting in mid-June. There will be projects to freshen classrooms as well as replace an old oil-fired furnace with a new gas-fired furnace. We also will begin replacing windows and may even be able to carry out our plan to shift to a keyless entry system. The big project, though, will be to bring the Rushmore House online and ready it for our Preschool Three students.
Teachers have their own summer reading and professional development plans. They will also take well-deserved time to refresh and restore themselves after a school year devoting their creative energies to your children’s success.
As you enjoy your summer with your family, send me postcards of places close to home or further afield that you may visit, explore, or just see as interesting. I hope your children will send me postcards telling me what they think of the books they are reading.
You will find the summer reading expectations for all students, even our new two-year-olds, on the school’s website. Students rising into second through eighth grades are also expected to do some math practice as well. Emails have gone home about the summer math expectations. You can give them real math challenges all summer. How many gallons of gas will we need for this trip? How many quarts of water does our public/club/backyard pool hold? How many inches of rain did we have in July? What is the total number of steps you walked at camp and can you convert it into miles? How far around the equator would you have walked? Our goals for the summer reading and summer math programs are to encourage students love for reading and sustain their confidence as mathematicians.
Have a great summer and stay in touch,
Margaret
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Announcements:
- Friday June 9 ~ 8th Grade Graduation in the Meeting House
- Saturday June 10 from 10 AM to Noon ~ Bike Safety Event at Memorial Park, 225 Lenola Road, Cinnaminson
- End of Trimester Grades and Reports will come home via email by June 18th
- June 20th ~ First day of Summer Camp
- Summer Email with announcements and class supply lists will be sent the last week of June
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Featured in Our Library Time of Wonder by Robert McCloskey
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Featured in Our Library Where Wonder Grows by Xelena Gonzalez
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Featured in Our Library The Wonders of Nature by Ben Hoare
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Featured in Our Library Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets by Kwame Alexander
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Featured in Our Library We're All Wonders by R. J. Palacio
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A book on my summer reading list State of Wonder by Ann Patchett |
