DCS Ravens' Report

April

8th-Spring Picture Day

20th-24th-New Hampshire Dance Institute (NHDI). 24th-2pm Rehearsal, 6pm Performance

27th-May 1st-April Vacation

May

4th-return to school

Hello everyone, it has been a super week at DCS! We started with our Monthly Whole School Assembly where we celebrated our Miss Emily Award recipient, birthdays, and the students that created projects for The Wild Robot. It is sweet to start our week together.

We were generously given a very durable cornhole set that will be out on the playground once everything dries out. Kelly Parker has been working with our students to learn how to play cornhole. It is always so fun to watch students' skills improve as the week goes on.

I hope you have a restful weekend, Nicole

With help from our PTO, local Naturalist and Author Susie Spikol will be at DCS on May 8th to share her most recent book The Book of Fairies! Students will be involved in fairy making which will need hot glue guns. We would love some adult support with these creations. If you are available to help from 9:30am -12, or from 1-2:20 pm, please email Nicole Pease or Jo-Ann Hopkins. Thank you!

This week in wellness students began the week reviewing and practicing skills: underhand rolling, overhand throwing, volleying with a paddle and balloon, and jump rope. We talked about 'March Madness' and completed activities: Would You Rather Basketball, March Madness Make It or Miss It, and make one, take one. The health focus for March is nutrition. Students learned about the food groups and how each group helps support specific parts of their body. They completed a drawing of a healthy meal, learned how food provides energy for their body, and why food choices are important. Finally, we reviewed underhand tossing and learned about the game of Corn Hole. Thank you for encouraging healthy choices,

Kindergarteners have been busy learning about the difference between flat and solid (3D) shapes and learning their names- cylinder, sphere, cube and cone. We're also using shapes to practice "friends of 10" facts- ie. 3 trapezoids plus 7 squares = 10 shapes all together. We're also learning about oviparous animals- animals that lay eggs. Kindergarteners went on an egg hunt to discover which animals were inside their eggs- birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and arachnids! In literacy, we have made a huge jump from learning about letter names and sounds to fancier things like digraphs- two letters that make one sound. We began by learning the FLSZ rule- doubling f,l,s,or z at the end of a word that has a short vowel sound as in wall or buzz. Spring fever is upon us!

March has been FULL! It's been FULL of wonderful vocabulary from the Wild Robot. Every day, first and second-grade students rush to the office (multiple times) to pop pompoms in the vocabulary jar after using the new word in an excellent sentence. It's been FULL of TRIVIA! I was amazed at how well my students knew the answers daily. (Bravo to families for making the reading happen at home!!) It has been FULL of an amazing Escape Room that really solidified all the learning from the book. The students worked together, grades K-5, to answer questions about the plot, vocabulary, and characters. I loved watching all the students participate and work collaboratively so well. What a fun culminating activity, and it was even more fun to hold the "WE ESCAPED" poster at the end. Thank you, families, for participating so well. Many of you have mentioned to me that this is your favorite book so far, and many of you have already purchased the sequel! Amazing.

We are excited to enter April, especially because of April Fool's Day! We had our annual April Fool's Day Flood Drill, where students had to take off their shoes and socks, roll up their pants, and head out the front door. They were great sports, even though they were not thrilled about getting sand on their feet! April is also Poetry Month, and we will be writing a different kind of poetry each day for a week. Today, we began with a spring acrostic. We just finished up our CKLA unit on Fairy Tales and are beginning Animal Habitats. Stay tuned!

We were so proud of the 3/4/5 team for their wonderfully recited poems at our Poetry Recital last Friday! Thank you to all the parents and Volunteer Readers who came to support the students.

For Social Emotional Learning, third grade is working on different ways to regulate the body when it is deregulated for various reasons. The fourth and fifth grades have worked on positive communication in the classroom and with peers.

During Language Arts, third graders are learning about Native American regions and cultures through reading, discussion, group activities, and writing. If you see a third grader, ask them how people lived and how they adjusted to different environments. Across the hall, the fourth and fifth grade reading groups continue with their chapter books. The class did a few quick writes to fine-tune students’ ability to plan and communicate in writing. Ask these students about how they are using their knowledge of poetry to write their own poems!

In Math, the third grade finished their fractions unit and started a new unit on measurement. At the same time, the fourth graders are using measurement conversions in multi-step story problems. In geometry, they will continue to work with symmetry and congruency next week. The fifth graders are focused on decimal operations and conversions.

68 Hours of Hunger:

End 68 Hours of Hunger provides extra food for the weekend to any child attending school in the ConVal district. No financial paperwork is required. A grocery bag will be provided every Friday at school. It’s easy to register here: registration.end68hoursofhunger.org

Dublin Food Pantry: If you are in need or know of anyone in need, please share this information.

Winter Gear-If your student has any need for cold weather gear, please reach out. We have been offered up supplies if needed.

If you are interested in finding out how you can support please reach out to DCS: 603-563-8332.

DCS website-is here

Plastic Recycling-the DCS community has recycled over 2000 pounds of plastic bags and in return were given a bench from the Trex decking company! Please keep your clean plastic shopping bags and pellet bags coming, we are working toward a second bench and beyond!

DCS also collects metal tabs to be donated toward support for people with prosthetics! Please bring your tabs to school!

If you are interested in ordering some DCS swag for your student(s), please use this link. We will be providing new students with a DCS T-in the near future. https://dublinravens.deco-apparel.com/

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