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- May 5 - 9, 2008
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| Monday,
5 |
- Cinco
de Mayo
- Choir Concert 6:00 pm at Friendswood United
Methodist Church
- Internet Safety Week
- Internet Safety Parent Meeting 7:30 at FHS
Auditorium
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| Tuesday,
6 |
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| Wednesday,
7 |
- Wednesday
Warbles
- Volunteer Appreciation Day @ Wednesday Warbles
- Character Counts! T-Shirt Day
- Internet Safety Week
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| Thursday,
8 |
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| Friday,
9 |
- Spirit Day / WW T-Shirt Day
- Internet Safety Week
- Box
Tops Due
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- News on this page:
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- Links off the WW Site:
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| Rocket Readers Soar |
| State Representative
and FISD Education Foundation Director Larry Taylor made an important
pitstop in his busy schedule Thursday morning to visit Margaret
Limmer's Rocket Readers and launch their literacy celebration. |
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| This first-grade class' Rocket
Reader program will touch down on Friday and students get to spend
all day rotating through educational centers as the culminating
activity in this incentive program. Parents will be visiting to
join Mrs. Limmer in honoring these voracious readers. Students
set their sights high with lofty reading goals for themselves
earlier in the semester; it's been a blast watching them soar
through their books to meet those goals. Each yellow star earned,
displayed from the floor to the ceiling in their classroom, represents
a book completed, a mission accomplished. Our character cam caught
Mr. Taylor reading aloud the book, Horray For You! by Marianne
Richmond. Honored recently for being a model citizen, this pillar
of our community applauded and affirmed our little bookworms as
he shared the message of this colorfully-illustrated gem. Proud
of their accomplishments, Representative Taylor encouraged our
rocket readers to keep reaching for the stars in whatever they
do. more pictures |
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| Safe Surfing |
| To cap off Internet
Safety Week, Captain Burrows from the Friendswood Police Department
visited with our third graders on Friday. She shared safe surfing
tips to educate and empower our little surfers. The following
are some internet safety tips worth repeating. |
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The Parents Top 10 Tips To Online Safety
1. Teach your children to never
give out personal information online which includes: name, address,
phone number, school, sport teams they play on, fields where they
practice, etc.
2. Set reasonable rules and guidelines
for your children before they venture out on the Internet.
Discuss these rules and post them near the computer as a reminder.
3. Keep your computer in an open area
(rather than a bedroom) and monitor your children's Internet use.
4. Review their screen name(s)
and see if they reveal too much information that may tip off a
predator and, if so, make the appropriate changes. Make sure you
turn on the feature to save history for all Instant Message and
chat programs used by your children.
5. Make any "Social Networking Site
Profile" private, review and screen your children's
friends/buddy list! Make 100% sure that these are real friends.
6. Surf with your children and
explain to them the proper Internet etiquette.
7. Convince your children to come
to you if ANYTHING happened that make the "feel uncomfortable"
or they know they experienced something that you would find "inappropriate".
Assure them they will not lose their Internet privileges by coming
to you when something like this happens.
8. Contact local law enforcement
if you are ever contacted by a stranger or your children are solicited
in any manner. Do not delete any emails and chat session as these
may be evidence needed by law enforcement.
9. Get educated about the Internet
dangers and perils and sit down and discuss these issues with
your child and ask them to show you what sites they like and what
they like to do online.
10. Install Internet Filter and Parental
Control software on your computer and/or configure the software
that you already have on your computer.
pictures
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| Appreciating Our Volunteers |
| Volunteers at Westwood
too numerous to count filled the gymnasium to be publicly acknowledged
and appreciated on Wednesday morning. Every month, Westwood clocks
approximately 750 volunteer hours, so today's appreciation celebration
was just a small way to give back to those who so generously give
their time and talent to our school family. |
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We sang a special song, Teamwork , in their
honor. We recited poetry for them. We gave them a VOLUNTEERS!
acrostic. We serenaded them with a first-grade version of We Love
Our Volunteers, Oh, Yes, We Do, and we applauded them!
Student Principal and Assistant Principal for
the day, Ashton and Sommer, then invited our volunteers to join
them in the cafeteria for breakfast and a little more entertainment.
The third-grade Treble Makers choir sang two beautiful ballads
for them before Andrea Varnado and her dad Jean took the stage
to perform Character Counts, the song composed by the duo. Finally,
Lynn Shigekawa from the Friendswood Alliance for Families and
Youth spoke briefly to share Drug-Survey Data and affirm these
parents, guardians, and community members for their volunteerism
and the critical impact it has on their children's lives.
As they enjoyed their pastries, coffee, and
juice, our volunteers were showered with handmade cards from each
Westwood student to simply say, "We appreciate you"
and "Our PTO Rocks!" Thank you, volunteers, for another
amazing year and a job well done! more
pictures
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| Safe Kids Are Taught Early |
| The SKATE (Safe Kids
Are Taught Early) Program rolled in to Westwood Thursday morning
for our littlest learners, the kindergartners. This interactive
abduction-prevention program concentrates on the lures that a
predator might use like the lost puppy, money, candy, and the
emergency trick. |
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It then teaches the steps a child can take
to identify and avoid an abduction. One major point that was reinforced
throughout the 45-minute workshop was that children need to "Always
get permission!" to go with someone. Talking to children
about the possibility of an abduction is something many parents
never do even though it is one of their greatest fears. With that
in mind, the Laura Recovery Center
For Missing Children developed this non-threatening, fast-paced,
entertaining and educational presentation. As of 2007, the SKATE
program has been presented to over 155,000 children in the Houston
area. We thank our guest speaker, Bob, for his visit today and
for helping us stay safe.
Pictures
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| Cinco Reasons To
Warble |
| Wednesday Warbles
took on a Spanish flair as we set the scene for a Cinco de
Mayo celebración. After the usual morning routine
including the pledges, the menu, and the announcements, we wished
cinco personas (four students plus a member of our night
custodial staff) a feliz cumpleaños on their special
day. |
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| Maestra
Laura Rachita led us in a spirited Cinco de Mayo echo canción
to commemorate the upcoming holiday. Alyssa Dillon's class
earned a break for their teacher and a spot in the coveted Compliment
Club and Emma was crowned this week's Prompt Princess. Our special
visitor, Mrs. Priscilla Gilbert, then took the mic to talk with
our estudiantes about the history and customs of Cinco
de Mayo in Mexico. Carrying two colorful piñatas,
she explained that the holiday commemorates Mexico's freedom from
France in the battle at Puebla. She shared how her family came
to America from Mexico when her mom was a little girl and how
she became the maestra who taught her mom how to speak
English once she went to kindergarten. Then, joined by maestro
Stephen Cloyd on la guitarra, Señora Gilbert sang
Arroz Con Leche and El Elefante, two nursery rhymes
in español that she learned as a little girl. What
a wonderful way to connect with another culture! We concluded
Warbles with our traditional singing of the school song. ¡Olé!
Pictures |
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| Excellence in Sports |
| A lot of our students
play sports outside of school. Is your child one of them? Does
he or she have an outstanding coach that you'd like to honor? |
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Is there an administrator over the whole league
who's an exemplary role model to our FISD youth? The National
Council for Youth Sports is seeking nominations for the STRIVE
(Sports Teach Respect Initiative Values and Excellence) Awards.
Visit their website for all of the details.
Nomination forms are only one page long and
are due June 30, 2008.
What a great way to show that Character Counts
in our community, too.
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