Origami with Mrs. Goodman

Fold an Origami Elephant helps bring awareness to the fact that 35,000 African elephants are killed each year for their tusks.  Ms. Goodman and boys and girls in our classes and from all over the country are hoping to break the Guinness Worlds Record for most origami elephants displayed (current record is 33,764).  

If you want to learn more about the challenge, click here to go to the Wildlife Conservation Website.


We are studying sequence in a story, here is what we did first, then, next, and last for this project:

First, Ms. Goodman read the book, Let's Save the Animals, by Frances Barry.







Then we made the origami elephants in a small group,

Next we shared the elephants with our class.

Last we created a circle map that charted why saving endangered elephants, and other endangered animals is important.

Here are the kids with their elephants!

Farmer Alex in the Classroom!

Farmer Alex brought fruits and vegetables from his farm to share with the students!

Farmers in the Classroom is part of the Nutrition Network Program at WHES.  Every month Nutrition Network sends us a box of fruit and/or vegetables to try.  Check out the blog archive to see the fruits and veggies we ate last year!  

I see delicious zucchini, apples, basil, eggplants, oranges, and peaches.  Not to mention the beautiful flowers!

I took the okra home and had it in a curry stir fry!

The first grade students got to sample the delicious farm produce.  Thank you Farmer Alex!  And Thank you Mrs. Jenkins, our Nutrition Network teacher for organizing it all!

Rotarians Read Aloud at Westport Heights!

Coming Soon, the Fabulous Rotarian Readers will be reading with our students in the Auditorium every morning before school! 

 Come to the Parent Meeting on Monday, August 29th at 4 pm in the Auditorium for more information.

Click the link below to go the Rotary Club of Westchester site:  http://rotary-westchester.com/


The Rotary Club of Westchester consists of men and women of the greater Westchester/LAX business and professional community.

The object of Rotary is to encourage and foster the ideal of service and, in particular, to encourage and foster:

First. The development of acquaintances as an opportunity for service.

Second. High ethical standards in business and professions; the recognition of the worthiness of all useful occupations; and the dignifying of each Rotarian's occupation as an opportunity to serve society.

Third. The application of the ideal of service by every Rotarian to personal, business, and community life.

Fourth. The advancement of international understanding, good will, and peace through a world fellowship of business and professional persons united in the ideal of service.

Second Step with Ms. Kabab!

Here at Westport Heights, the fabulous Ms. Kabab uses Second Step to teach social-emotional learning skills to our students.  Click on the link below to learn more about Second Step!

http://www.cfchildren.org/second-step

We like to play Simon Says!

We are all listening for our next instruction!

Simon Says touch your shoulder.

We are always engaged in the lessons!

Second Step activities teach all the children how
to pay attention to learn!

Sammy Snail

What did you say Sammy?

The Listening Card!  There are four Second Step cards we use everyday!

He is using his "listening ears."

Ms. Kabab and Puppy Wuppy!

He is using his "attenta-scopes!"  We use them to pay attention and focus on our lessons!

Attenta-scopes are fun!

Ms.Kabab uses her attenta-scopes too!

Ms. Recendez has attenta-scopes on too!

This is a repost from last year.

Meet and Greet August 11, 2016

Mimi says, "Please come to Westport Heights on Thursday, August 11, from 10 to 11 and meet the Fabulous First Grade Teachers: Ms. Mangos, Ms. Recendez and Ms. Iguchi!" 

Mimi is Ms. Mangos' little diva!

Ms. Mangos got in her Time Machine and traveled around the world this summer.

Here she is in the Tardis, London, England.

Ms. Mangos on the 86th Floor of the Empire State Building!  "I was dizzy the whole time," she said.

Looking Uptown, with lovely, green Central Park.  She stayed at 64th and Lexington!  

I love you Big Apple!

Give us your poor, your tired, your huddled masses yearning to breath free!

Lady Liberty!  We spent a day on Liberty Island and Ellis Island.  

In the 1990's Ms. Mangos bought a space on the Wall of Honor at Ellis Island for her dad Michael S. Mangos.  She cried when she saw his name!  

Ms. Mangos' Note to Parents

My biggest passion in education is fostering a love of science and reading in my students.  I love plants and animals (and travel of course!) and the garden outside my classroom is an incubator for many of the experiments we do.  We have Science Thursday where we do an experiment a week.  Science, Technology, Reading, Writing, and Math are an important part of my classroom.

To learn more about me and my teaching style, please take a look at the blog archive.  It's a great gallery of pictures of what we did last year in 1st and 2nd grade.  I look forward to working with each of my students and their families as I gear up for an exciting year of learning with my first graders.

Bon Voyage!