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Feburary Newsletter

Feburary Newsletter

Supervisor's Message

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“Love is the only force capable of turning an enemy into a friend.”-Martin Luther King Jr.


The month of February embraced, engaged and educated students on the concept of love by highlighting courageous and inspirational African-Americans who inspired, fought and advocated for equality, social justice, diversity and inclusion and overcame adversity and made positive impacts on our society. Inspirational leaders and role models such as Barack Obama, Jackie Robinson and Martin Luther King were researched, discussed and incorporated into lesson activities as well as significant historical events and movements that fostered empathy, understanding and critical thinking amongst the students and further supported the overarching message of unity, acceptance and inclusion across diverse backgrounds and cultures within the Westlake community.

That bond of community and connection was further strengthened and celebrated leading up to and during Valentine’s Day, offering students opportunities to recognize and appreciate friendship, positive relationships and learn about the qualities of being a good friend through various activities. These activities included a “Tree of Hearts” identifying good deeds that students did to help their peers and “Love Notes” encouraging students to reflect on people that they are grateful and appreciative of, participating in Valentine’s Day Mad Libs to create funny and unique stories as well as participating in a Valentine’s Day Dance to wind down the holiday.

Students were provided engaging creative, vocational and work based opportunities through creating and selling Valentine’s Day cards, taking orders, packaging and selling Valentine’s Day “Treat bags” and baking and selling theme based desserts, such as red velvet brownies in the Sunshine cafe.


Till next time my friends, be good to yourself and each other!

Best,

Mr. P

Dates to Remember!

  • March-Women’s History Month

  • March 2-Read Across America/Dr. Seuss Day

  • March 5-Unsung Heroes Award Ceremony-Venus A. Westlake recipient

  • March 10-Daylight Savings Time begins

  • March 17-St. Patrick’s Day

  • March 19-First Day of Spring

  • March 20-Westlake March Madness Basketball Game

  • March 29-Good Friday (District closed)

  • March 31-Easter Sunday

  • Spring Break April 1-April 8 (District closed)

Westlake December Spotlight!

Student of the Month

G.R. is always there to help a friend and cheer them up!

Principal's Award

We are so proud of E.A., he has learned to cooperate with his teachers and friends!

Sunshine Cafe Employee of the Month!

E.K. has made great progress learning new skills through feedback by management.


K.O. improved herself by taking orders and communicating well with customers.

Westlake Teacher of the Year!

Congratulations Ms. Pajewski! Westlake students are lucky that you are part of our staff!

Therapist Spolight - Ms. Sara

During February, our speech therapists worked hard to address our


students’ communication needs while having fun! Throughout the month,


we integrated winter and valentine themes into our sessions. Some of our


students worked on increasing their receptive and expressive language skills


while reading books about snow and cold-weather activities. We targeted core


vocabulary while engaging in various games. Our speech therapist, Kristen, was


the chair for the Valentine Dance. The students helped out by making


decorations to add to the festivities. We are looking forward to an


awesome spring!

Valentine's Day Dance!

Ms. Kristen our Speech Therapist and Mr. Jeff our Physical Education teacher worked to set up a fun and festive dance party!

Sunshine Cafe!

The Sunshine Cafe happily presents our new menu starting March. Our students worked diligently to be trained to craft espresso drinks this month.


We would like to continue working on mastering various espresso and coffee beverages.

Additionally, if anyone wants to purchase any snacks and drinks, we are currently operating snack carts (chips, cookies, brownies, candies, iced coffee, soda, etc.) from Monday to Friday (except Wednesday) from 12:15 to 1:00 at the cafe. You can also stop by the Sunshine Cafe on Wednesday and Thursday from 9:30 to 11:00 to purchase espresso drinks.


Thanks for supporting the Sunshine Cafe and we look forward to seeing you soon!


February - Cooperation and Friendship - Black History Month

Our classes spent the month exploring Black History. They learned about historical figures and celebrated their accomplishments

February was a month to celebrate our friendships and working together!

Ms. Shaw's Class

In February, at the Sunshine cafe, the students started an online course called


“Basics of Barista Work" learning about hospitality and customer service skills as well


as using an espresso machine. Currently, the students started crafting lattes and


cappuccinos to limited customers as practice. Our cafe also extended additional opening


hours to the Hillcrest Academy South students daily to sell snacks and beverages. This


gives our students a great opportunity to practice money skills and learn how to operate


a small business. This month, the students enjoyed learning about various holidays. For


Valentine’s Day at the cafe, the students contributed their ideas to develop the cake of the


month, red velvet brownie. After serious practicing and tasting, the students chose


one of the 4 recipes and served them to the customers with great reviews. For Lunar New


Year, the students learned about the Chinese tradition of making vegetarian dumplings.


The students will continue to work on mastering various espresso beverages for the


future menu. The students are gaining more knowledge of the Soft Skills that are


essential for success in the workplace such as teamwork, flexibility, communication,


work ethic, problem solving, etc.

Mr. Carten's Class

This Month in Mr. Carten’s room the students were very busy making chocolates for


Valentine’s Day and dog biscuits to sell. They put in many days of hard work to achieve


this goal. For a local business, we packaged lollipop sticks in batches of 50. The students


had to count them, put them in plastic bags and finally add labels. The class also went on


a CBI trip to ShopRite. Each student had a picture grocery list of products that needed


to be located in the store for purchase. We bought the groceries that we need to cook


breakfast every Thursday morning. This a an OT group with Ms. Sara.

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Robert Peneno
Robert is using Smore to create beautiful newsletters