Westside Elementary

Every day is a good day to thank a veteran! Westside wants to say thank you to all those that have served our country! Our students were so proud to learn all about what you did and all the sacrifices you made. There were so many great lessons, crafts, and activities yesterday! Thank you, teachers, for making this day special for our students and helping them honor our heroes. You know how Westside loves its heroes. 😉 Speaking of our heroes, we would like to extend a special thank you to Westside's very own veterans! Thank you, Ms. Karen Olari and Mr. David Bolin! We are honored to have you in our building and thank you for your service! ❤💙 #CPSZEBRAPRIDE #VETERANSDAY2021

FRIDAYS WITH FRAZIER Congratulations to our eight Site Teacher of the Year recipients. Their colleagues chose them to represent their site for consideration for the 2021-2022 Claremore Public Schools Teacher of the Year, announced later this month. Over the next several months, each teacher will create a dossier including a personal biography and essays on education issues and trends, community involvement, philosophy of teaching, and the teaching profession. A committee will review these documents, a lesson video and host an interview with each candidate. Stay tuned to learn more about each of these fantastic teachers and why their peers choose them to represent their school. The District Teacher of the Year will be announced in the spring of 2022. ▶ https://youtu.be/adQizWIs_8o #CPSZEBRAPRIDE

Veterans Day honors all of those who have served the country in war or peace. Claremore Public Schools is proud of the individuals that chose to serve our country and who now serve our country, our community, and our children on our campuses. Watch here ▶ https://youtu.be/9xKJNVN9uEU Video Credits: Hailey Pickup, CPS Communications Student Intern #CPSZEBRAPRIDE

Once again, we are proudly introducing one of our teachers! This time, from the first-grade hall, Mrs. Nicole Thomason! "I grew up and went to school in Claremore. This is my 7th year teaching first grade. I taught for 5 years in Tulsa, then began teaching in Claremore last year. I love hanging out with my husband and my three-year-old daughter! I love vanilla Coke from Sonic, hot caramel macchiatos from Starbucks, and Reese's. My favorite thing to do in my downtime is to read a good book! When I was younger, I competed in figure skating for several years. In the first picture, my students worked together, showing cooperation and teamwork to clean out a pumpkin, separate the seeds, and count how many seeds were in each pumpkin. In the last pictures, you can see our class is working on writing and publishing a book. We worked together to brainstorm ideas for a book. The students then voted on the ideas presented until there was one topic left. They chose: Wintertime. After this was picked, students worked together to brainstorm ideas within this topic of what they could write about. We are now working on our first drafts!" Thank you for sharing with us and for all you do, Mrs. Thomason! ❤ #CPSZEBRAPRIDE #TEACHERFEATURE

Westside is now proud to introduce you to one of our wonderful 4th-grade teachers, Ms. Palmer!! "I’m 25 years old for now, but that’ll change in 2 weeks. I graduated from Woodland High School. I received my Bachelor’s degree from RSU/Cameron University and my Master’s degree from the University of Oklahoma. I have a dog named Suki and a cat named Allie. I love books, the gym, and spending time outdoors with Suki. I also enjoy spending time with friends and family. I am addicted to coffee. My favorite local shops are Green Eyes & Clever Fox. A fun fact about myself is that my picture was published in Seventeen magazine when I was in high school." Ms. Palmer also wanted to share a little bit about what she and her friends are currently working on! "Two of the pictures shared are of a project we are doing. We are participating in a postcard exchange with classrooms across the United States. Friday, students were typing the information that we will put on our postcards. We also had a surprise guest during our spelling test last week. Stitch came in and took it. He passed with flying colors! The last three pictures are from a day we had an inside recess. We had a great time! Students were showing the life principles of friendship and cooperation when they played games together." How cool is that?!?! Thank you for sharing with us, Ms. Palmer! We are so glad to have you! ❤ #CPSZEBRAPRIDE #TEACHERFEATURE

Congratulations!! 🎉 🙌🏻 Westside’s Free Throw Contest Winners!! These guys and gals will advance to the Elks Lodge Free Throw Contest on December 4. Boys: Age: 8-9: Jaxyn Smith Age: 10-11: Levi Robinson Age: 12-13: Kaizen Duggan (not pictured) Girls: Age 8-9: Hollyn Cartwright (not pictured) Age 10-11: Amber Legel Age:: 12-13: Laken Jacobs

Coach Faulconer believes Westside may have started a new tradition!! The 1st Westside Running Club Costume Run went so well and was so much fun! More events may come in the future, inspired by this one! (Stay tuned 😉) We love to see those smiles and our students together having a blast! Thank you to all who participated! It's a great day to be a Zebra! ❤ #CPSZEBRAPRIDE #WESTSIDERUNNINGCLUBCOSTUMERUN

Join us in welcoming our newest little Zebra, Theo Hink! Congratulations Kaitlynn and John Hink on your new "little squirt"! He is precious! Theo was born November 3, 2021, weighing in at 7lbs 9oz and 20 in long! We were glad to hear that Mama and baby are doing well! #CPSZEBRAPRIDE

Westside would love for you to meet our fabulous librarian, Ms. Brittany Lang! I'm 26 years old. I graduated from Pocola High School. I graduated with my Bachelors and Masters from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah. This is my first year working in an elementary school! I have a daughter, Sundaya, and a son, Montgomery. Expecting another little girl in January! I love being outdoors. Kayaking, biking, traveling, camping, hiking, gardening. I’m an avid reader. A plant enthusiast. I love animals, watching documentaries, and spending time with friends and family. A fun fact about myself is I have been sky diving!! Thank you, Ms. Lang! Westside is proud to call you ours! ❤ #CPSZEBRAPRIDE #TEACHERFEATURE

Ladies and gentlemen, Westside is proud to announce our 2021-2022 Teacher of the Year... Coming from our 3rd-grade wing... ✨MS. CYNTHIA NICKS!✨ Ms. Nicks has been at Westside for 11 years, one year as a paraprofessional, and ten years teaching. She is a zebra through and through! When asked what her favorite part about teaching is, she will immediately tell you that it's the kids. Her students are her "why" and she proves that every day! "I was shocked and very blessed to even be nominated! When it was announced all I could feel is overwhelming happiness. Thank you all."-Cynthia Nicks 21-22 Teacher of the Year It's a great and proud day to be a Zebra! ps. Please enjoy these awesome pictures of her finding out! #CPSZEBRAPRIDE #WESTSIDETEACHEROFTHEYEAR

It is Hero Wednesday again! Our students work hard to model ALL 8 of our great expectations, and our hero wall is an example of that hard work paying off. There were so many fantastic reasons why each student made the wall, but one of the most popular among them has been modeling expectation number 5, "We will help one another whenever possible." Our students have been so kind, caring, and helpful to each other this year! We love seeing them support each other! Fabulous job, Westside students! We are so proud of you! ❤ "The hero is one who kindles a great light in the world, who sets up blazing torches in the dark streets of life for men to see."-Felix Adler #CPSZEBRAPRIDE #HEROWEDNESDAY

Our 1st graders got the honor of visiting some real heroes last week! Thank you to the Claremore Veterans Center for having our students out! They had so much fun visiting the veterans in their costumes and trick-or-treating with them. These sweet 1st graders were extremely respectful and could be heard telling the veterans thank you for the candy and for serving our country. It was a great time and smiles were plentiful! Great job representing Westside, 1st grade! #CPSZEBRAPRIDE

Starting this month, we will be spotlighting several teachers throughout each week; we call it our Teacher Feature! To get this party started, Westside proudly introduces our music teacher, Mrs. Jenny Gaylord! Favorite things: I love coffee, Mexican food, watching my kids play sports, spending time with my family on the weekends! Fun fact: I’ve gotten to play with a lot of amazing musicians, including Hanson, Wynton Marsalis, Amy Grant, and Michael W. Smith! Upcoming project: Working with K and 1st on Veteran’s day songs! Life principle: Patriotism, which goes right along with our Veterans day lessons! We are proud to have you and thank you for sharing with us, Mrs. Gaylord! #CPSZEBRAPRIDE #TEACHERFEATURE

Ms. Palmer reviewed possessive nouns last week by playing Blooket with her 4th-grade students. Booklet is a program that asks questions, but it is done in a game format. It is very interactive and engaging. As you can see, the students loved it and the best part is it can used for any subject area! Great job, Ms. Palmer and friends! #CPSZEBRAPRIDE

Every student, kindergarten through 5th grade, created a t-shirt design to compete for this year's Westside school T-shirt. A winner was selected and their design will be used for this year’s school shirt. We brainstormed and thought, why do we love Westside, and what makes Westside such a special school? Every student had their reasons and creative spin on the designs. The designs were completely up to the students’ imagination and ideas. Our students worked hard and were super creative in their Zebra-tastic t-shirt creations. They all did such a fabulous job and we are proud of all of their work. Choosing just one was hard! Great job, Westside students! We are proud to announce and congratulate Owen Lyons on his winning shirt design!! We loved your design and the words you used for Westside. “We are super proud of all of our creative artists at Westside and the designs they came up with. Owen, we are so very proud of you and that creative heart of yours. Keep on artist, superstar! !”- Mrs. Ratcliff #CPSZEBRAPRIDE

WOULD YOU JUST LOOK AT THIS HERO WALL?!?! We cannot express how proud we are of our students! This is the fullest this wall has ever been and we are blown away! Westside friends are working hard to model our Great Expectations every day and it absolutely shows! ❤ "Not every hero wears a mask. Some heroes save the day in the simplest of ways. By just being there for us, or letting us know we’re believed in."-Barry Allen #HEROWALLWEDNESDAY #CPSZEBRAPRIDE

Congratulations to our Literary Pumpkin Decorating Contest overall winner, Kai Chalakee! His "Harry Potter" double pumpkin was too cool! Once again, great job to all who participated! It's a great day to be a Zebra! ❤🎃❤ #CPSZEBRAPRIDE

Our 3rd grade is working hard during WIN time! Mrs. Campbell wanted to show off her group! They are working on creating their own stories and quizzing each other on their multiplication facts using dice! WIN is an acronym for 'What I Need' and it is a flexible time we added to our schedule to provide extra help or enrichment opportunities for our students. We are so proud of them for using this time to its fullest! Great job, 3rd grade! #CPSZEBRAPRIDE #WIN

Our awesome Librarian, Mrs. Lang, challenged our students to a Literary Pumpkin Decorating Contest! Students were asked to decorate a pumpkin to look like their favorite book character! Our students rose to the challenge! It was hard to pick because they were all so good, but here are our grade level winners: Pre-K: Moriah Duty-"Pinkalicious" Kindergarten: Pierce Vaughn-"Narwhal: Unicorn of the Sea" 1st Grade: Olivia Purtell-"Olivia 2nd Grade: Peighton Barnes- "Bad Case of Stripes" 3rd Grade: Emma Houston- "Cat in the Hat & Thing 1" 4th Grade: London Woods- "Crankenstein" 5th Grade: Teghan Blizzard- "Dog Man" Great job, everyone! ❤ (Stay tuned for the announcement of our overall winner!) #CPSZEBRAPRIDE

Mrs. Collins's class put together a game of Duck Duck Goose all on their own and played so well together. They encouraged and cheered each other on throughout the game. Each time someone wanted to join in, they all patiently made room and included everyone. It started with just a few students, and eventually, the entire class joined in! Thank you for modeling our life principles, Mrs. Collins's class. Keep up the good work! ❤ #CPSZEBRAPRIDE