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West Elementary School

Social Emotional Learning - School Family Program

 

 

Our School Family Program received the 2002 Promising Practices Award from the Character Education Partnership.     

Visit their website at http://www.character.org

 

West School's award winning School Family Program offers our students the unique opportunity to learn more about themselves and their fellow schoolmates.

 

Who Participates? 

Every student at West becomes a member of a "Family".

 

Who are the Family Leaders?

Family leaders are the Teachers and Teaching Assistants who are part of our West School Staff.  Students remain with their Family leader throughout their years at West School.

 

Who is in the Family group?

The Family Group consists of 8-10 students.  There is at least one student from each grade level in a family group.

 

When do School Family meetings occur?

Meetings are held on Wednesday mornings for approximately 30 minutes.

 

What happens during these meetings?

During Family Meeting Time, students participate in discussions and activities related to character education themes.

 

How do the students know it is School Family Time?

When students enter the building in the morning, they will hear the song, "We Are Family." This indicates that it is School Family day. After breakfast, Fifth grade students are called to "pick up" their kindergarten siblings and bring them to their Family Meeting place.  The same is done with fourth graders and first graders. Third grade students "escort" their second grade sibling to their Meeting place. After our School Family Meeting time, students are brought back to their regular classrooms by their upper grade sibling.
 

 

 

Current News

Mission Patch Art and Design Winners

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The Microgravity Project is part of Mission 17 of the Student Spaceflight Experiment Program (SSEP). The goal of SSEP is to provide students with an opportunity to participate in America’s Space Program, where they become architects of a project to be conducted in space by astronauts on the International Space Station. As previously announced, the winning team’s proposal was “How Does Microgravity Affect the Germination of Oyster Mushroom Spawns (Pleurotus ostreatus).”

Most recently, the science department collaborated with the Long Beach Director of the Arts and the K-12 Art Departments on the Mission Patch Art and Design Contest. The two winners were third grader Mackenzie Pastuch from Lindell Elementary School and fifth grader Emilia Conneally from West Elementary School.

In June 2023, mission patches will be launched to the ISS, along with the science experiment designed by the sixth-grade students, and the patches will return to Long Beach with embossed certificates. Onboard the ISS, the patches and experiment will fly at an altitude of 260 miles above Earth’s surface. This is 47 times higher than Mt. Everest and will travel 400,000 miles each day!

The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) in the U.S. and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education Internationally. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with Nanoracks, LLC, which is working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.

Date Added: 4/4/2024

West Hosts Family Heart Huddle

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West Elementary School in Long Beach held a school-wide Family Heart Huddle on Feb. 14. Students were asked to invite one special person from their life that shows helpful, empathetic, accountable, respectful, and trustworthy (HEART) values. Special guests joined their student to participate in various Valentine theme arts and crafts projects.

Date Added: 2/27/2024