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Good Afternoon Westgate Families,
I hope this finds you having a great week! It's hard to believe we only have a few more days left to the much anticipated winter break.
Next week, students will be learning about the Positivity Project Strength of self-control. As the excitement for break increases over the next couple of days, please remind your child of following the Westgate Way by respecting themselves, others, and property. We still have a lot of learning in store and want our students to do their very best.
Hope to see you at Noodles & Co on Monday Night for our PTA Restaurant Night fundraiser. Please bring or show the flyer below as you place your order and Westgate will get a portion of the sales.
Wishing you a wonderful weekend ahead and thanks for your support of all things Westgate!
All my best,
Hallie Demetriades
Principal
This week is Computer Science Education week, and to kick that off Westgate's students have been participating in an Hour of Code. Students learn the critical thinking and resilience skills through coding activities found here: https://hourofcode.com/us/learn
Mrs. Burk gave a presentation about Technology @ Westgate during this week's PTA meeting. If you were not able to attend the meeting, the presentation can be found at this link. Please review to learn more about the technology at Westgate, how it is used with students, and how you can support your students at home.
FIRST Lego League Jr. @ Westgate
The Westgate community is looking to start one or more FLL Junior Teams for the 2019-2020 season. The target community is current 2nd and 3rd grade students. To make this happen, we need parents or staff willing to coach and mentor teams (two coaches per team; up to six students per team; unlimited mentors per team). The time commitment is 2-3 hours each week for 12 weeks beginning January 2020, leading to team attendance at an FLL Jr. Expo in April 2020. FIRST provides a structured curriculum making it relatively easy to succeed as a rookie coach. Plus the Westgate FLL coaches and team members are excited to mentor and inspire.
Guided by adult coaches and FIRST® Core Values, students build models using LEGO® Education WeDo 2.0 and create Show Me posters to present what they learned. The program focuses on building interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) through a real-world challenge – to be solved by research, critical thinking, and imagination. The current season theme is “Boomtown Build” where teams will explore the growing needs and challenges of the people in our community. Teams will help to imagine and create a building that solves a problem and makes life easier, happier, or more connected for the people that use it.
If you are interested in coaching, mentoring, or have a 2nd or 3rd grade student interested in participating in FLL Jr., please contact Bala Morla, balarama.morla@gmail.com. More details are found at https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/flljr.
Separately, if you have a 4th, 5th, or 6th grader interested in FLL, the current season is over; however, the coaches are starting to recruit (students and coaches) for the 2020 season. If interested, please contact Trent Benisch, benisch.t@gmail.com for more details. Also check out https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/fll.
Finally, if you work for Booz Allen Hamilton or another FIRST corporate sponsor who provides financial support to FIRST teams each season, please contact Trent Benisch, benisch.t@gmail.com to explore how Westgate can leverage these available resources.
Westgate PTA Enrichment Classes
The Westgate PTA, in partnership with Baroody Camps, is excited to give you a brief preview of classes we plan to offer for the upcoming Winter 2020 session. For more information and registration information please click here. All completed paper registration forms should be given to your child’s teacher or a staff member in the Westgate office by 3:30pm on Friday, December 20. We appreciate the PTA for providing these great after school activities for our students!
AAP Information & Links
Below are links to the Level IV Referral Form, Parent Questionnaire, and PowerPoint from our recent AAP presentation. As a reminder, all referrals are due to Westgate no later than January 9, 2020. If you have specific AAP questions, please contact our AART, Mrs. Tara Fredericks @ tlfredericks@fcps.edu.
AAP Referral Form
AAP Parent Questionnaire
AAP Presentation
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Amazon Smile
Looking for an easy way to support Westgate? We now have an AmazonSmile account! Every time you shop at Amazon and select the Westgate PTA as your designated charity, .5% of your purchase will be donate to Westgate. You can click here (https://smile.amazon.com/ch/54-1561076) to get started! Just remember, to shop at smile.amazon.com instead of the regular Amazon page each time you make a purchase! Supporting Westgate couldn't be easier!
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