Westside School (Seattle, WA)

It’s all about those summer vibes at Westside camps! ☀️🐺

Happy Independence Day from all of us at Westside School!

Looking for a school that empowers children to be confident learners and creative thinkers? At Westside School, students in preschool through eighth grade learn to think critically and act with compassion in a joyful, supportive community. Our balanced curriculum emphasizes academics and the arts, offering hands-on learning opportunities and outdoor play every day.

Limited spaces are available for the 2024-2025 school year. Visit us and see how your child can thrive at Westside School!

Westside School | An Independent School in West Seattle Westside School is a preschool through eighth grade independent school located in the beautiful Arbor Heights neighborhood of West Seattle.

Happy Juneteenth! Today, we commemorate June 19, 1865, the day when the last enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, were finally informed of their freedom, marking a pivotal moment in our nation’s history. This day reminds us of the importance of striving for justice and equality for all.

Westside School will be closed on Wednesday, June 19, in celebration of Juneteenth. Let’s take this time to reflect, learn, and continue working towards a brighter, more inclusive future.

After a few (okay, maybe many!) surprises at the airport, our recent graduates are now in Panama and Taiwan. We received word from our Panama trip that they have spent time navigating their way around Casco Viejo, the charming area where they are staying, and participated in a scavenger hunt exploring parks and buildings. They also set off for the Panama Canal and took the metro to a giant mall called Albrook, where they caught a bus to the Miraflores locks and the famed canal. For their first night together, they braved an intense shower to take in a delicious Panamanian dinner at a nearby restaurant.

Stay tuned for more updates from the Taiwan and Panama trips!

So much fun was had during yesterday’s Field Day!

Yesterday, first graders hosted their annual Read-O-Rama. This special occasion allowed students to showcase their creativity and storytelling abilities with their families. Each first grader presented three of their own handcrafted and illustrated fictional tales. The stories were filled with imaginative plots and colorful illustrations. 📖📝

In addition to sharing their literary creations, the first graders performed a song they wrote collectively about American Civil Rights activist Ruby Bridges. 🎶

The Read-O-Rama was a joyous and educational celebration of all that our first graders accomplished in reading and writing this year.

Sixth grade scientists have been hard at work over the past few weeks diving into a fascinating project about our Solar System. They have researched different destinations to look for evidence of life.

Once they chose a destination, students put their creativity and engineering skills to the test. Using recycled materials, they designed and built rovers, each tailored to navigate and gather data. Their designs also ensured the rovers could handle the harsh conditions of space.

The project wrapped up this week with a fun NASA Rover Gallery walk. Great work, sixth grade! 🚀🐺

Each spring, Westside’s 7th grade scientists conclude the year with a fun Rube Goldberg project. Rube Goldberg, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist, was renowned for his whimsical invention cartoons, which depict elaborate and humorous machines performing simple tasks.

In groups, students were challenged to create sections of two enormous machines. Their creativity and resourcefulness were evident as they incorporated dominoes, books, recycled objects, and toys into their designs.

This project is a fantastic way to end the school year. Rube Goldberg devices demonstrate several essential scientific principles, including energy conservation, momentum conservation, and fundamental concepts about forces, which are crucial in engineering. Additionally, students have the chance to measure velocity, acceleration, potential, and kinetic energy, as well as the work done by simple machines.

For our final 8th Grader Friday, please join us in congratulating Charlie, Zola, Elliott, Ethan, Jack L., and Peter. We can’t wait to celebrate the Westside Class of 2024 during graduation next Thursday! ❤️🐺

Self-portraiture is a focus throughout the year in pre-kindergarten. Each month, they utilize different methods and materials to allow students to express themselves creatively. Today, they were excited to share their incredible work during the Pre-K Self-Portrait Gallery. From exploring their families to creating portraits with loose parts and even making their own skin tone paint, students showcased their creativity and individuality in unique ways.

🖼️Family Portraits: They started by discussing what makes each family unique and drew detailed portraits, paying attention to every family member’s traits and interests.

🎨 Loose Parts Self-Portraits: Using mirrors and various materials like buttons and pom poms, students crafted unique representations of themselves.

📚 Inspired by “The Colors We Share,” students mixed paints to match their skin tones and used these to create beautiful, personalized self-portraits.

📸 Photography Fun: Learning about cameras, our little photographers took portraits with friends, adding a fun twist to their self-portrait series.

✏️ Peer Portraits: They drew each other, noticing the finest details of their friends’ faces, creating lovely partner portraits.

🌳 Natural Materials at Lincoln Park: A field trip to the beach offered the perfect opportunity to make self-portraits from natural materials.

Great job, Pre-K 🐺 Thanks to all our pre-k teachers and art teacher, Gina, for making this great gallery happen!

Kudos to our second graders for hosting a wonderful “Poet-Tea” event for their families and friends. The students showcased their imaginative poem books on topics such as colors, feelings, hobbies, food, and even math. They read their poems aloud while the audience enjoyed cookies and tea. It was a fantastic community gathering!

This year, fifth grade students embarked on a journey back in time in their humanities class, exploring the worlds of ancient civilizations. From Egypt to Greece and Rome, they’ve explored history, uncovering stories, cultures, and innovations that shaped our world today.

On Monday, their hard work culminated in a spectacular Ancient History Museum! Students showcased their projects, sharing their knowledge and insights with their middle school teachers and peers.

Yesterday, Kindergarten hosted an Identity Museum, marking the culmination of a year-long project all about them. Each month, kindergarteners delved into their individual identities, thinking about their preferences, families, hobbies, and characteristics. At the museum, they displayed artworks, identity books, a shared family recipe book, and QR codes linking to recordings in Spanish and Mandarin. It was an exceptional display of their learning journey! Great job to our students and the kindergarten/specialist team for putting on such a great event.

This and year-round, let us lift up, encourage, support, honor, empower, and learn.⁠ Thank you to all the wonderful Westside LGBTQIA+ staff, students, families, and beyond for making our school and world better. Wishing everyone a joyful Pride! 🌈💚💙

This 8th Grader Friday, please join us in congratulating Claire, Quinn, Ari, Anderson, Elise, Jozef, Cedar, Téa, and Silas! 🎓🐺

Last night's Middle School Spring Arts Showcase was a wonderful celebration of the arts.

Fifth graders presented a collaborative hip-hop project that combined visual arts and dance. Under the guidance of Jeffie Lou, they mastered hip-hop dance moves and performed a fantastic routine set to some classic beats. In visual arts, students created speed drawings of their classmates captured in mid-dance. These figures were then used to create the class mural displayed at the showcase.

Seventh and eighth grade students showcased their vocal skills, marimba songs, and dance routines. The vocal performances ranged from solos to group harmonies, highlighting the students' diverse talents and dedication. The marimba songs added a vibrant and rhythmic element to the evening. The dance routines, choreographed by each student, demonstrated creativity and teamwork. It was a great evening, filled with impressive displays of artistic talent and hard work from all the students involved! Well done, Wolves!

Huge thanks to our amazing Westside Arts Team (Carl, Jeffie Lou, Christine, and David)!

Congratulations to EL/LS Music Teacher Kylee and our third and fourth-grade performers for putting on two excellent performances this week, one for their families and one for their younger friends! 🎼

They performed some classics like "Take On Me" by A-Ha, some crowd favorites like "How Far I'll Go" from Moana, and some lesser-known but equally great songs like "Anyone Can Whistle," the Title Song from the Stephen Sondheim Musical.

This week, the Westside Class of 2024 reached an important milestone in their journey at Westside, their Spring Trip Final Adventure. Students spent a week at Anderson Lodge reflecting on themselves and their time at Westside and looking ahead to their next journey. We are so proud of this group of kids for the amazing humans they are, and we can’t wait to see what awaits them. This 8th Grader Friday, please join us in congratulating Caroline, Sadie, Nicholas, Addie, Max, Lamorna, Jack D., Avory, Sam, and Finn! 🐺🎓

Inspired by their current read-aloud chapter book, “The Wild Robot,” first grade students have embraced the role of little farmers. Yesterday, they visited Oxbow Farm & Conservation Center in Carnation, WA, where they had the opportunity to experience the life of real farmers. A few of the highlights were examining worms and learning about composting, taste-testing different types of edible leaves, and going on a color-matching scavenger hunt where they matched color swatches to plants.

In the classroom, students are integrating the theme of farming into various subjects. While practicing handwriting, expanding their vocabulary, and engaging in word studies, they are discussing questions such as “What kinds of chores do farmers have to do?” and “What’s the difference between ‘cattle’ and ‘cows’?” Additionally, students grew their own crop of wheatgrass.

With springtime comes a focus on learning about nature in preschool. 🌱🔍🐛🦋

Nicole’s preschool class has been engaged in an inquiry on seeds. Their exploration began with planting Mother’s Day seeds, prompting them to think about what would happen if they didn’t water them. This led to an experiment where they tested different conditions for seed growth, including no water, light, or soil. They were surprised to find that seeds without soil didn’t grow at all, and those without light resulted in pale grass growth. Students showcased their observational skills through drawings and confidently shared their findings during group time. This week, they have been finding the right places to release the seeds outside.

Lisa’s preschool class started their exploration of insects by investigating the life of butterflies and caterpillars. They have learned about their life cycle, the steps of metamorphosis, and their job in nature as pollinators. They have also explored gardening and brought worms in from outside to examine. To aid in their inquiry, students are learning an anatomy song to help them identify whether or not a creature is an insect.

If you are part of the Westside community, chances are you have heard of Seola Pond, which is just down the hill from our campus. Seola Pond is more than just a body of water; it serves as an unofficial classroom, which nearly every class visits throughout the year. It’s used for observing wildlife and conducting scientific experiments. It provides a serene and inspiring environment for our students to explore nature, fostering a deep connection and appreciation for the world around them. Our students also actively participate in clean-up activities, ensuring that Seola Pond remains a beautiful and thriving ecosystem.

Here are just a few of the many stories from Seola Pond this year:

Last month, first graders spent time at the pond listening to birdsongs, observing ducks and geese, and noticing plants and rocks. They collected water samples and used a microscope to examine their water samples up close.

Regularly, pre-kindergarteners go on nature walks to the pond, where they observe the ducks, connect with the local area, and enjoy the nature around them.

Each fall, seventh graders spend time at the pond identifying and sketching a plant that they track through the seasons to see how it grows and changes.

In anticipation of their bigger field trips throughout the year, kindergarteners took a mini field trip to the pond, where they observed the season’s changes, collected leaves, and visited the neighbor’s goat.

Third graders started their months-long ecology project with a trip to the pond to practice observing the environment and creating scientific drawings.

Last week, 6th graders held a fantastic publishing party to show off their Family History Books. The Family History unit focused on informational writing, research skills, conducting interviews, and learning new skills and structures in their writing. Students were able to dive into their own world and gain a deeper understanding of their heritage, history, and themselves.

Thank you to everyone who came out to the publishing party. Great job, 6th grade! 📖🐺

The time has come to start celebrating our soon-to-be graduates, the Westside Class of 2024. We are so proud of this class and look forward to seeing their future in high school and beyond. This 8th Grader Friday, please join us in congratulating Ben, Calleigh, Jude, Jack A., Lily, Casey, and Atticus! 🐺

It was so nice to see the Westside Class of 2020 on Wednesday during the Alumni Reunion! Alumns spent time reminiscing over pizza and even enjoyed a game of four square. As they head into their next adventures after high school, check out what some of our alums are doing next year:

University of Arizona
Studying Biology, Pre-Med
Santa Clara University
University of Washington
Scripps College to Study Neuroscience
Haverford College to Major in Environmental Studies
San Diego State University
Studying Criminal Justice
Loyola Marymount University
Oregon State University
Mechanical Engineering at Santa Clara University
Nursing at University of Portland
Biochemistry at Seton Hall University
Physics and XC & Track at Fordham

Wishing all the best of luck to our 2020 Alums! We can’t wait to see you again. 🐺

After Anita's pre-k students developed an interest in puppets last week, teachers expanded the project by getting fabric, buttons, feathers, yarn, and other embellishments for students to bring their own puppets to life. They started by drawing out blueprints of their vision, then got to work cutting, gluing, and sewing together their creations. As they finished, students created a story about their puppet, which connected to their classroom discussions about using characters and settings to tell a story. Each story contained its character, a problem, and a resolution.

As a member of Westside School is proud to partner with local independent schools to host the Equity & Inclusions Speakers Series. Please join us for the next installment of the series, which is a conversation with Ruha Benjamin. Click on the link in our bio to RSVP.

Race to the Future? Reimagining the Default Setting of Technology and Society, May 23, 2024, 6:00–7:15 pm

From automated decision systems in healthcare, policing, education, and more, technologies have the potential to deepen discrimination while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to harmful practices of a previous era. In this talk, Ruha Benjamin takes us into the world of biased bots, altruistic algorithms, and their many entanglements and provides conceptual tools to decode tech predictions with historical and sociological insight. When it comes to AI, Ruha shifts our focus from the dystopian and utopian narratives we are sold to a sober reckoning with the way these tools are already a part of our lives. Whereas dystopias are the stuff of nightmares and utopias are the stuff of dreams… utopias are what we create together when we are wide awake.

Ruha Benjamin is a professor of African American studies at Princeton University, founding director of the Ida B. Wells JUST Data Lab, and author of three books, Viral Justice (2022), Race After Technology (2019), and People’s Science (2013), and editor of Captivating Technology (2019). Ruha Benjamin speaks widely about the relationship between innovation and inequity, knowledge and power, race and citizenship, health and justice.

Our third graders had their first Westside overnight trip to Camp Sealth on Bainbridge Island last week. Students participated in team-building games and a bouldering wall challenge, learned outdoor living skills, explored the beach, and hiked around the area.

Camp Sealth, with modern amenities, strong facilitation, and so many fun activities, helps our students ease into the challenge of being away from home while also providing opportunities to stretch their comfort zones when desired.

These experiences help students develop resilience, confidence, and independence. The shared adventure gives students a chance to practice compassion in their community building and gives them a new lens to discover their own unique strengths and passions.