Teacher Margaret's "View From My Window" - December 19th

12.19.24

Dear Westfield Friends,

 

winter concert rehearsalWhere did the three weeks go? We worked together on long division, dissecting a pig kidney,  and linear equations.  With our Buddies we put together “Sacks of Love” and created cards for nursing home residents. In art, we explored tissue paper and multi-media collages inspired by Eric Carle and Pablo Picasso. In writing, we worked on bringing detail to small-moment writing, using evidence in non-fiction essays, and imagining the owner of a single-shoe as inspiration for our short stories. We went outdoors in all sorts of weather to continue our writing about the natural world.  In Spanish, we learned songs and phrases to celebrate Las Posadas. We practiced music for the Winter Concert and how to safely get on and off the risers! Our Middle School students learned how to plan and execute a fund-raiser (everyone enjoyed the movie)! 

pizza and movie

 

We had fun as a community at our Cookies and Crafts Family Council event. Looking ahead, be sure you have the Roller Skating Party and the Valentine's Dance on your calendars.

 

We welcomed Rabbi Pamela Gottfried in Meeting for Worship. She shared with us the importance of Hanukkah as a time to celebrate the freedom to practice our religion and the joy of lighting candles to celebrate light. She brought us the story of a Hanukkah in Billings, MT in 1993. A Jewish boy had put a menorah in his window. Someone threw a rock through the window. The town’s residents responded by putting menorahs in an estimated 10,000 church, home, and business windows.

 

Our youngest students are just beginning to recognize that adults in their lives are busy with extra tasks and that their homes may have different arrangements and treasures on display. From their car seats at night, they see holiday light displays. The extra sugar in their diets as well as the excitement and stress they sense in their adults can wind them up and sometimes leave them overwhelmed. We do well to remember that our children experience this time of year differently from us. By age four or five, children are beginning to remember that they have seen the Menorah, that snowmen-shaped cookies happen at this time, or that they have celebrated Advent. They will also begin to appreciate that our lives have seasons and events that repeat. As a child, my mother read to me, Over and Over by Charlotte Zolotow.  I love that this book has the little girl just barely remembering each event over the year. On her fifth birthday, her wish is for it to all happen again. I read this book to my children and now to my grandchildren.

 

My wish for you this season is to know joy and peace. However, you celebrate over the next several weeks, whether it is a particular holiday, the sacredness of an afternoon call to prayer, a walk through the winter woods, the peace of lighting candles in the dark, or holding your beloved child close while you read a favorite book, know that I am holding you in the Light

 

Warmly,

Margaret Haviland

Margaret Haviland

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December Query: “What lessons can I learn about growth and letting go from the changing of the seasons ?” 

 

Announcements:

  • December 20 ~ Winter Concert - in person and live stream
  • January 6, 2025 ~ Classes Resume
  • January 7 ~ Family Council Meeting
  • January 8 ~ Meeting for Worship at 8:30, parents and grandparents welcome
  • January 17 ~ Teacher In-Service, no school
  • January 20 ~ Martin Luther King Day, no school
  • January 23 ~ Step Up Evening - learn about your child’s program in the 25-26 school year, meet the teachers
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We Are a Reading Community

New in the Library

I Am Enough

by Grace Byers

 

 

 

I Am Enough by Grace Byers

In the Library for Christmas 

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey

by Susan Wojciechowski

 

The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski

In the Library for Hanukkah

While the Candles Burn: Eight Stories for Hanukkah

by Barbara Diamond Goldin

 

While the Candles Burn: Eight Stories for Hanukkah by Barbara Diamond Goldin

In the Library for Kwanza  

 The People Remember

by Ibi Aanu Zoboi

 

 

 

The People Remember by Ibi Aanu Zoboi

 

New in our Library

Nature's Treasures: Tales Of More Than 100 Extraordinary Objects From Nature 

by Ben Hoare

Nature's Treasures: Tales Of More Than 100 Extraordinary Objects From Nature  by Ben Hoare

 

 

 

Teacher Margaret is reading 

 Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe 

by Carl Safina

Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe  by Carl Safina