11 minute read
News Around the School
A brief recap of some of the many activities that happened across all three campuses
October 24 Fall Community Lecture Attended by More Than 1,000 Guests Windward welcomed Devin Kearns, PhD, to present the 2019 Fall Community Lecture, “Why Some Children Struggle to Read: The Neurobiology of Dyslexia and Other Reasons Children Struggle.” Over 1,000 attendees joined between the inperson audience at WMS and the virtual viewers from around the globe for the lecture’s first live stream.
October 31 Mr. Williamson Spotted at WLS Annual Halloween Parade November 7 MMS Grade 5 Liberty Science Center Field Trip which requires the use of the senses to crawl through an 80 foot tunnel. Finally, they viewed a thrilling fi lm, “Black Holes” in the planetarium, the biggest planetarium in the western hemisphere.
November 4 WPA Book Fair Inspires Students at Every Campus Every November, the Windward Parents Associations (WPA) hosts the annual Book Fair on each campus. Students visit with their language arts classes and are excited by the vast selection of books for them to read. Pictured is MLS and MMS Librarian Ms. Pritchett assisting an MLS student
MLS and WLS celebrate Halloween each year with a parade and classroom parties. Many students and faculty enjoy dressing up as favorite characters from books, and Head of School Mr. Williamson found two other WLS students who were dressed in a Harry Potter costume.
MMS fi fth grade students visited the Liberty Science Center, an interactive science museum. Students explored interesting exhibits such as “Our Hudson Home” about the complex relationships in this ecosystem and “Eat or Be Eaten” about animal adaptations. They also navigated through the “Touch Tunnel” while browsing at the Book Fair.
November 11 WMS Students Assist Veterans in Performing FlagFolding Ceremony
In recognition of Veterans Day, each
Windward campus held special presentations to honor those who have served our country in the armed forces. At WMS, veterans from Valhalla
American Legion Post 1038 visited and, alongside students, they performed the traditional flagfolding ceremony.
Pictured are the veterans who were acknowledged at WMS.
November 13 WLS and MLS NYS Topography Relief Maps Fourthgrade students at WLS and MLS created clay relief maps as the culminating project for their New York State geography unit in their social studies classes. Relief maps are 3D renderings that show how a certain area of land is shaped. In the students' relief maps, mountains, plains, plateaus, rivers, and lakes that are located throughout the state were artfully represented. Molding the relief maps out of clay and carefully labeling the map keys and compass roses helped solidify what students learned about New York State’s diverse topography.
November 19 Fall Alumni Gathering Hosted in NYC by Fellow Alum Alum Oliver Zabar ’09 generously hosted the alumni cocktails and networking social at his restaurant, Devon, in the Lower East Side. The evening was a great balance of combining the old and new—old classmates reconnected, alumni caught up with favorite faculty members, new friendships were established, and introductions were made to Head of School Mr. Williamson. Pictured is Director of Health, PE, and Athletics Marilyn Hunt with some former students.
November 20 WMS Works Out with Rollerblading PE Elective WMS students in seventh and eighth grades can enroll in numerous elective activities during physical education class...including rollerblading! Pictured is an eighthgrade student showing off some fun rollerblading moves.
November 22 Windward Donates 600+ Lbs of Food for Thanksgiving Drives
November 25 Grandparents Engage in a Typical Windward Lesson Grandparents of current students attended the Grandparents Breakfasts held in both Westchester and Manhattan. During this special morning, grandparents had the opportunity to meet Head of School Mr. Williamson and hear from him about why the Windward Way has proven to be so effective for their grandchildren. The visitors also had the opportunity to participate in a typical Windward multisensory direct instruction lesson from faculty members.
Each Windward campus held Thanksgiving food drives, and our community was able to donate more than 600 lbs of food to families in need for the holiday season through Feeding Westchester, Port Chester Carver Center, and New York Common Pantry. Pictured are MLS and MMS students packaging donations.
November 25 MMS Grade 6 Tour the Met After learning about Ancient Egypt in social studies class, MMS sixthgraders took a trip to The Metropolitan Museum of Art to visit its extensive Egyptian exhibit. The various tour guides of The Met created numerous multisensory activities for our students, including drawing in a small sketchbook and providing them with a clay ankh, a hieroglyphic symbol of life, for them to carry throughout the museum.
November 26 MLS and MMS Classes Partner as Reading Buddies The middle schoolers love spending time with the lower schoolers, and MMS eighthgrade students in Ms. Amos's class had a special readaloud time with the MLS first graders. During this time, they read Thanksgiving books, enjoyed some treats, and completed a craft.
December 5 MMS Student Council Cheers Ronald McDonald House Families
As a service project, the MMS Student Council made holiday cards for families at the Ronald McDonald House New York on the Upper East Side. The student council members wished to spread cheer to the Ronald McDonald House families whose children are bravely battling cancer.
December 18 MMS Grade 5 Scientists Conduct Blubber Lab How do animals such as polar bears and walruses survive the icy temperatures in the tundra? That is the question that MMS fifthgrade scientists sought to understand during one of their science labs. Pictured is one scientist testing his limits by putting one bare hand and one hand with a “blubber” glove into ice water.
November 28 MLS Grade 3 Recites Poetry at Thanksgiving Feast
Third grade students at WLS and MLS celebrated Thanksgiving with their annual poetry recitation and feast. Each language arts group performed a poem by Jack Prelutsky, including “I Went Hungry on Thanksgiving” and “The Turkey Shot Out of the Oven,” before concluding with singing “Over the River and Through the Woods” as an entire grade. Pictured are MLS students performing for their families and classmates.
December 16 MLS Lego Club Members Learn Basic Computer Programming
Windward offers many afterschool activities, ranging from the athletic to the artistic. For MLS students, one of their winter afterschool activity options was Lego Club. The lower schools learned how to use draganddrop, iconbased software as an introduction into the world of programming and robotics.
January 7 Mr. Williamson Breakfasts with MMS Grade 6 Every week, Head of School Mr. Williamson spent time at each Windward campus, and he loved participating in the communitybuilding divisional events that regularly take place. When MMS sixth graders had their gradelevel breakfast, Mr. Williamson popped in to get to know the students better.
January 30 Under the direction of Performing Arts Chairperson Ms. Hooper and Musical Director Mr. Peña, the WMS fifth and sixthgrade drama students performed multiple shows of Newsies for their families, classmates, and teachers. The triple threat cast of actors, singers, and dancers did a phenomenal job, and the crew members kept the production running seamlessly. February 4 WLS fourthgrade drama students sang a medley of classic musical hits for their production, A Night on Broadway. WLS Music Teacher Ms. Minio guided the cast members in learning their numbers from various shows, like The Sound of Music, The Lion King, Wicked, and more. Pictured is the full ensemble during “Captain Hook’s Waltz” from the Peter Pan musical. WMS Newsies Perform Showstopping Production
January 31 MMS Pep Rally Manhattan Middle School honored their studentathletes with a spirited pep rally. Students from each grade level and enthusiastic faculty members competed in a number of challenges, including a goal kick, layup, free throw,
WLS Drama Students Entertain with A Night on Broadway
and threepoint shot.
February 13 MMS Grades 7 & 8 Girls Basketball Played Competitively All Season Coached by Mr. Barbieri and Ms. Pugsley, the MMS Grades 7 & 8 Girls basketball team had a great season, filled with teamwork, perseverance, and skill improvement. The team made it to the playoffs in their first year in the Middle School Athletic League, and they were the number two seed. Go Vikings!
February 17 WMS Pep Rally Spirit
February 18 Undefeated Season for WMS Grade 6 Boys Basketball Team Congrats to the WMS Grade 6 Boys basketball team for a phenomenal undefeated season, finishing with a 100 record. The team was coached by WLS Physical Education Teacher Mr. MaxwellOrdain and WMS Teacher Mr. Hull, and they were proud of what the boys accomplished together.
Westchester Middle School hosted its 25th pep rally to culminate the end of Spirit Week. One pep rally tradition is each grade level and the faculty and staff chant "We've got spirit, yes we do! We've got spirit, how about you?" The school spirit on display was incredible! After tallying the points earned from the SpiritWear dressup days, athletic challenges during the pep rally, and level of school spirit, the WMS fifthgraders were named Spirit Week winners!
February 20 WLS Grade 3 Lunch with Ms. Pochna
Each of the division heads enjoys spending oneonone time with students throughout the school day, whether that’s by greeting students during arrival, chatting in the hallways between classes, or other opportunities. In February, every third grade homeroom coordinated lunch times to spend with
February 28 MMS Fundraise for Heart Healthy Month Throughout February, MMS celebrated HeartHealthy Month. On February 27 and 28, Student Council members sold heartthemed items, such as pencils, erasers, WLS Division Head Ms. Pochna.
bracelets, and keychains, for $1 each, which supported the American Heart Association.
March 3 WLS Shows School Spirit During Beat That Challenge
One of the most anticipated events for WLS is Beat That Challenge Spirit Day. Hosted by the physical education department, the lower school students compete in friendly games that test their motor and cognitive skills.
March 4 WMS Grade 9 Read Aloud to WLS Accompanied by Ms. Gay and Mr. Steiker, the WMS ninthgrade students visited WLS to read to first, second, and third graders during their readaloud period. Following the read aloud, the older students answered the many questions their younger peers had for them about the Windward middle school experience.
March 4 WMS Grade 8 Create Pop Art Prints
The eighth graders in Mr. Pillette's art class discussed Pop Art, the work of Andy Warhol, and the relationship between original art and limitededition prints. Students carved SoftKut Printing Blocks using "popular" subject matter and printed a limited edition run of four 2color prints. Then, they created an original work of art by printing several 2color images on one sheet.
April 1 Windward’s Remote Learning Program Launches
After many weeks of tireless work from administrators, faculty, and staff during the month of March, Windward transitioned to remote learning. Thanks to the entire community’s commitment to maintain the School’s researchbased, multisensory program, this year’s 940 students continued to receive live and recorded video lessons from their teachers for the remainder of the school year. Pictured are MMS fifthgrade students with their teachers Ms. Abramow and Ms. Piazza as well as MMS Assistant Division Head Mr. Bletterman.
Thank you to our Windward community for joining together on National Teacher Appreciation Day to raise a remarkable $427,159 in honor of Windward’s teachers. The 216 gifts made May 5, 2020 the most successful giving day in the history of Windward.
