DMS Miniboat Update
Friday October 30, 2026
Our Whole School Initiative continues with another display case
We are so thankful to Mrs. Small, who shared a really cool idea with Mrs Kobel and Ms. Lynch this summer. She saw another school's display, and was inspired to bring the idea to DMS as a follow up to our first inclusive display, You are SEEN, HEARD and LOVED. This year, each of Mrs. Small's art students completed a dot, and the UA faculty helped the rest of the student body each complete one. Staff and Faculty were also invited to complete a dot. Check out the summary of the story below:
Art class is over, and Vashti's paper is empty. She's just no good at art, so why bother trying? But before she leaves, her teacher tells her to make one mark and see where it goes. Vashti gives the paper a good strong jab with her marker. There. A dot.
The next day, when Vashti walks into art class, what's hanging on the wall above her teacher's desk? Her dot!
Vashti knows she can make a better dot than that. So she does something she has never done before: she opens her set of watercolors and gets down to work. Before Vashti knows it, her work is on display at the school art show, and everybody goes dotty over her masterpieces—including a boy who wishes he could draw as well as Vashti. Fortunately, she knows exactly how to help him.
Confidence and self-expression don't always come automatically. Sometimes they have to be worked at. Young Vashti paints the way—and connects the dots—in this inspiring book about what it really means to succeed.
Zoom Call with the new Teal Turtle Crew on Santa Maria Island
Teal Turtle is bringing schools together across the Atlantic!
Yesterday, Class 9C from Escola Básica e Secundária de Santa Maria, together with their teachers Fernanda Vaz, Inês Silveira e Helena Batista, took part in a video call with students from Dudley Middle School, Massachusetts, USA, and Cassie Stymiest from Educational Passages.
It was a moment of sharing, curiosity and excitement! The students had the opportunity to get to know each other better by asking questions about their regions, their schools and their everyday lives. It was a wonderful opportunity to discover similarities, learn about differences and learn from one another, despite being thousands of kilometres apart!
Our students also introduced their Teal Turtle restoration project and shared their ideas for the little sailboat’s next voyage.
The boat’s cargo is already taking shape: a letter introducing ourselves, photos of our island’s landscapes and monuments, texts about our traditions, culture, music and food, a little crocheted turtle, sand from one of our beaches and soil from our very own “desert”!
During the video call, we also invited the American students to join this adventure by contributing messages, photos, videos or other items that could travel aboard Teal Turtle.
And we received some very special news!
The Dudley-Charlton Education Foundation (DCEF) awarded $800 to Dudley Middle School (DMS) to support our Teal Turtle restoration project. Although additional resources will still be needed to cover everything required, this support represents a very important step towards getting Teal Turtle ready to return to the ocean.
Our heartfelt thanks to DCEF and the DMS school community for making this transatlantic collaboration even more special!
Our goal goes beyond restoring a small sailboat. We want to create opportunities for learning, sharing and cooperation between young people from different places, brought together by curiosity and the ocean.
Because the ocean connects far more than it separates!
The journey continues!
#BlueSchool #OceanLiteracy #EducationalPassages #TealTurtle #DudleyMiddleSchool #DCEF #USSConstitutionMuseum #Citizenship #SantaMariaAzores #AtlanticOcean
Thank YOU DCEF!
Getting our ideas out for Teal Turtle cargo from Dudley, MA
Topic 2: Our Ocean Connection & Ocean Plastic Pollution
Our ocean literacy work continues as we completed Topic 2 last week.
We took our pre and posts tests, and the results were sent off to Lucy Hunt and her research work at the University College Dublin
Vocabulary of the week
BIODEGRADABLE: when something is capable of being decomposed or broken down by bacteria or other living organisms. Plastic is not biodegradable.
ECOSYSTEM: everything that exists in a particular environment including living things, such as plants and animals, and things that are not living, like rocks, soil, sunlight and water
GYRE: area in the ocean of circular swirling currents
PHYTOPLANKTON: tiny microscopic algae that live in the sea
SINGLE USE PLASTIC: plastic that is used only once then disposed of e.g. a plastic straw
SYNTHETIC: made by combining different substances- not natural
This Week's Principle of Ocean Science
Ocean Principle #5: It supports vast biodiversity and complex ecosystems, from microbes to whales.
