Author Dav Pilkey donates books to WPA!

Dr. Rose recently posted a grant request on Donors Choose, a website for teachers to request materials and

author Dav Pilkey donated 30 copies of Captain Underpants to the WPA library! He also donated $1000 as well as more titles that he has written. Check out his website to see some of the titles you will soon see here.  http://www.pilkey.com/

Here is the awesome letter I received from the author and his wife:
"Dear Mrs. Rose,
I am writing on behalf of my husband, Dav Pilkey. He was so thrilled to hear that your project requested his books and that your son enjoyed his books too! Dav is truly passionate about literacy. He wants people to know that he learned how to spell phonetically and basically taught himself to spell and read. Giving kids the initial experience to have fun with reading will help to open the world of books. 

Dav and I are so grateful for librarians like you. We are truly honored by your request and admire your dedication to kids. 

All our best,
Sayuri & Dav Pilkey"

7th & 8th Graders Experience Fishing

          On Friday September 9^th, I attended the fishing trip with Mr. Moline and Ms. Yahn. Fishing was a very fun experience. It was the first time for me and I had a lot of fun, so did everyone that went. When we got there Ms. McKenny, who works for the park district, taught us how to put the bait on the hook and how to cast. It seems easy but it was kind of hard, especially if it was your first time fishing like me. After that, we got our fishing rod and we were ready to fish. Some people caught very unique fish such as the Large-mouth Bass and a Rock Bass. Most of the people caught Blue Gill fish. We all had an amazing time and hoped the day would never end. But, sadly we had to leave. Fishing was very fun and I hope Mr. Moline and Ms. Yahn plan another trip because I would love to go again.

By Judy H. 317 

7th & 8th Grade goes to the Navy Pier IMAX show

Our classroom was buzzing with excitement. We were finally going someplace really cool for a field trip, Navy Pier! On the bus it was pandemonium, but as we got off our roars turned to whispers. The view of the tall skyscrapers and glittering lake that surrounded our point of destination filled us with awe even though we had seen it thousands of times before. At the pier there were its usual suspects; tourists, buses, the occasional trolley and of course the famous Ferris wheel. It’s unusual to have field trips to places we’ve been before so we cited past adventures as we laughed and snapped pictures while we entered the building.

Vendors seemed to welcomes us with arms wide open as some of us bought to our hearts content. Finally, we were re-rounded back up and herded into the Imax area. After counting heads we entered the building the room. It was huge! The Imax screen was floor to cavernous ceiling! There were tons of seats and huge speakers on the corners of the walls that looked like gigantic boom boxes. I did not get to sit by friends but that was all the better. I probably wouldn’t have learned as much. The movie was interesting and the soundtrack a bit… odd. I was taught that brain cells and things in your eyes die every time you wake up. I learned that deep in my ear thing dance and that’s how I hear, but my favorite, was learning about how babies can hear very high pitch noises and will not try to breath if thrown underwater. I thought that was so cool! It made me laugh and me and others talked about it for days.

We exited and got to eat our food at the food court. We laughed and browsed and took LOTS of pictures. As I opened the doors to leave Navy Pier into the hot sun, I knew there would be few days like this, well, that involved teachers. -Destiny J. 319

Student Council Meets with Mrs. Jones and Dr.Thomas

Student Council Secretary Alfonso Smith room 303 and Classroom Representative Juan Delgado from room 301 started the new year running. They met with Mrs. Jones and Dr. Booker- Thomas regarding issues that the students of Westpark Academy deemed important. The young men came prepared to work on behalf of the student body. They have an EXCITING announcement for you! Good Work Guys !

West Park Photo Club

West Park Photo Club

Mr. McHenry has a new set of recruits. They will be trained in the basics of photography. This crew of would be photographers will be given different tasks on a weekly basis. They will become familiar with terms like aperature, shutter speed, light source, reflector, etc. They will also cover some of the major events around West Park. If you see someone with a camera be sure to flash your smile!

Rm. 215 Ms. Polansky's Third Grade class is working hard!

This quarter the third graders are working very hard in reading, writing, math and science.

The students are starting the second reading theme, "Smart Solutions". We will read five stories that deal with solving problems in a smart way. The students have also begun the Writing Workshop. They had a great time decorating their journals and  love being "writers". In math the class is learning to find area using square centimeters. The students will begin a four day math lab on finding the area of water after it has spread on paper towel. Room 215 is also learning about earth materials. The class will do several science experiments which will allow them to compare and contrast rocks, and discover what minerals make up rocks.  

We just took our first field trip to the Art Institute. The kids had a wonderful time, thanks Ms. Povsner! We will be going to see a Christmas Play on December 17th and the third graders will be participating in the winter assembly on December 18th. 

Meeting the author, Lucia Gonzalez at the Chicago Public Library

Rooms 203 (2nd/3rd) and 211 (3rd) went on a walking field trip to the local public library branch and met the author, Lucia Gonzalez. She retold her Hispanic folk tales to the students and they really enjoyed listening to her stories. Copies of her books are available at the local library and in our school library. She donated 9 copies of her newest book, The Storyteller's Candle (La Velita de los Cuentos).