DCS Ravens' Report

January 17th-PE week, please remember sneakers!

January 15th-No School in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.

January 19th-Author Marty Kelley visits DCS, thanks so much Dublin Community Foundation!

February 6th-Deliberative Session-ConVal High School 6pm

Hello DCS families, it has been a busy couple of weeks as we work to get back into the routines of school after the Winter Break! This week, it was lovely to hear songs in our halls and to have Mrs. Niellsen back with music. We had a visit from a couple of High School students to help our students decorate placemats for the Celebrating Learning Differences Dinner. It was a treat connecting with ConVal students! Mother Nature has been a little more on our side and provided some snow so students can make the most of our time outside. They love sledding, building forts, and simply digging in the snow. Thanks so much to donations from one of our families and the Dublin Community Foundation that has provided us the opportunity to purchase new sleds and shovels! We are working on a couple of collaborations with Dublin School, one of which is utlizing cross country skis they received through a grant. Next Friday will be the first time we will use them and we cannot wait! We are also looking forward to Marty Kelley's visit the same day! Have a wonderful weekend, Nicole

K/1 practiced slow and fast. We learned many silly songs about trains, roller coasters, and even a horse named Joe. A popular activity was singing Trot Old Joe and using hand puppets! 2nd grade learned about different rhythms and practiced playing different songs using percussion instruments and the piano. 3rd grade learned the Solfege notes DO MI SOL LA and loved playing the xylophones, piano, and boomwhackers. 4th and 5th graders reviewed the Solfege notes DO MI SOL LA and created music riddles for their classmates to solve.

Kindergarteners and first graders learned about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this week. We talked about the words "and justice for all" in the Pledge of Allegiance and likened those words to the work of MLK. "The time is always right to do what is right." We also talked about kindness, love and using our words as a way to solve problems.

Our class has also been exploring books by Marty Kelley in anticipation of his visit to our school coming up soon. His stories are hilarious and enjoyed by all of us! Ask your child to retell the story called Winter Woes or The Rules.

First graders have been exploring the strategy of making a 10 to simplify solving a math problem mentally. For example, 9+3 is the same as 10+2. Kindergarteners are learning all about shapes.

Have a wonderful long weekend!

The terrific third graders are enjoying the routine of being back in school. They started their ChooseLoveMovement curriculum for Social and Emotional Learning. We focused on the concept of “Courage”. We practiced pausing to reset and taking Brave Breaths. The children participated in activities and role-played what being courageous means. They also listened to and discussed stories where the main character was brave.

For Reading time, the children are participating in a book study of My Father’s Dragon to work on story mapping, story elements, and vocabulary.

During Math, the class started their unit on Rounding Within 1,000. This week, the focus is multiples of 100 and 10. The children are thinking about number lines and relationships of the numbers to the nearest 100s or 10s through discussion, partner talk, practice, and application.

For Social Studies/Science, the children enjoy observing and discovering the names of the birds visiting our bird feeder. For Social Studies and Writing, the children wrote Opinion Paragraphs on either “Why Dublin is a good town to live in” or “Why DCS is a good school to attend.” The children learned about the town of Dublin’s history and practiced finding answers to questions from their learning. They also created individual maps of the town, adding each child’s home in the class to their map. On Wednesday, we walked to the Post Office and General Store to collect information to write Informative paragraphs about each visit next week. Thank you, Mrs. Pease, for walking with us.

We have talked about resolutions and Martin King Jr's "I have a Dream" speech to write our own essays about what we would like to work toward improving.

In Social Studies, we are researching New Hampshire's state symbols and creating beautiful books and other projects to share in February.

In Science, the 5th graders are preparing for a Science Fair in mid February, more information coming soon!

Math has been all about long diving for both groups. 4th graders are looking at building confidence diving numbers and having to repeat the algorithm. 5th graders are using their understanding of estimation to divide large numbers by a double digit divisor and manipulating a decimal point within these problems.

The ConVal Student Council is partnering with Blueberry Hill Designs for a ConVal Love fundraiser. ConVal Love apparel will be available for ordering on our online store until January 21. The orders should be here by Valentine’s Day so we can show our ConVal Love on February 14th! We wanted to share this sale so all district employees and families can have the chance to order if they would like. The website to order is https://cv-love-2024.itemorder.com/shop/home/. I have attached a flier that has a picture of the apparel, prices, and website information.

This sale is also open to the public! If you can fit a blurb about it in your newsletter, we would be so grateful. The money raised will help us buy supplies for community and culture building events hosted by Student Council like spirit week and candy grams.

The ConVal School District is proud to announce the launch of a new, advanced website to further strengthen communications with parents and community stakeholders. The website update offers users an array of innovative features, including an easy way to toggle between school and district news, an online calendar showing school and district events in one integrated view, as well as one-button access to frequently used items like meal menus, online payments, and the PowerSchool parent portal. Designed with a mobile-first approach in mind, the website can be downloaded to smartphones as a secure app. ConVal's Superintendent Dr. Kimberly Rizzo Saunders noted: "The new website marks a significant improvement that allows us to communicate more effectively with the public and provides new opportunities to engage parents in our school communities." The website is set to go live officially on January 5.

Email: npease@conval.edu
Website: https://dcs.convalsd.net/
Location: 1177 Main Street, Dublin, NH, USA
Phone: 603-563-8332