News and events

April 30, 2026

Friday, May 1: NO SCHOOL, Staff Development Day

May 4-8: Dayton Eagles Spirit Week (see below)

Friday, May 8: Dayton Olympics

Tuesday, May 19: 4th Grade Music Program 7:00 pm

Monday, May 25 : NO SCHOOL, Holiday

Friday, June 5: Last day of school

Click here to view the district calendars

Dear Dayton Families,

Spring is officially in full swing! While this season brings a whirlwind of projects and activities, there is one event we are especially excited to celebrate: The Dayton Olympics.

We invite you to join us on Friday, May 8, to cheer on our amazing student-athletes. Please see the links below for the full event schedules:

To ensure a smooth, safe, and celebratory end to our big day, we strongly encourage all students to follow their regular dismissal procedures (bus or parent pick-up lane).

By sticking to the routine, we can:

Celebrate Together: Classrooms can enjoy a final whole class wrap-up celebration.
Safety & Efficiency: Avoid the long lines and congestion that occur when 550+ families attempt to sign out students simultaneously.

While we understand unique circumstances arise, we appreciate your help in keeping dismissal calm and safe for everyone.

Monthly Character Focus: Creativity

This May, our students are exploring creativity. Through our Character Strong curriculum, we define creativity as “using your imagination to create something new or solve a problem.”

Want to bring the conversation home? Check out these Family Connection resources to support your child’s growth:

Kindergarten Family Connection

First Grade Family Connection

Second Grade Family Connection

Third Grade Family Connection

Fourth Grade Family Connection

Fifth Grade Family Connection

Thank you for your continued support in making Dayton Elementary a wonderful place to learn and play!

Jessica Wippler

Art

Project Highlight: 5th grade Balsam Street Banners

In collaboration with fifth grade students, the City of Dayton is working to redesign the banners that line Balsam Street. Designs will be voted on by the public at the city open house event on May 13th. Come out and support the hard work students have put into artistically celebrating our community!

CORE

Kindergarten - Coding

Students continue to use Scratch Jr. to enhance their coding skills. They have started their own project and have learned how to make “sprites” move, shrink, talk, disappear, and interact with one another.

First Grade - Coding

Students continue to use Scratch Jr and will finish up their coding project. For the last few weeks of the year they will try Code.org to enhance their coding skills

Second Grade - Coding

Students continue their coding unit and enhance their coding skills with Code.org courses. They have explored Sequencing and Programming with Angry Birds, Programming with Harvester, and are beginning working with loops.

Third Grade - Coding

Students continue their coding unit and enhance their coding skills with Code.org courses. They have explored Programming with Angry Birds, Debugging in Maze, and are working on Collecting Treasure with Laurel. During May, students will work on Creating Art with Code.

Fourth Grade - Coding

Students continue their coding unit and enhance their coding skills with Code.org courses. They have explored Angry Birds, Gem Mining, Music Lab, and are moving into Star Wars themed lessons.

Fifth Grade - Coding and password protection

Students continue their coding unit and enhance their coding skills with Code.org courses. They have explored Angry Birds, Gem Mining, Music Lab, and are moving into Star Wars themed lessons. We will finish off the year with a few lessons on how to keep our information safe as they move on into Middle School.

Explorations

Kindergarten – Be Prepared Kindergarteners are continuing their Be Prepared unit with a closer look at weather patterns! We’ll explore how to describe the weather, make predictions, and even learn a bit about severe weather. Students will become mini meteorologists as they observe the sky, track daily changes, and discuss how weather affects our choices.

🔦 First Grade – Shadow Town First graders are diving deeper into Shadow Town, where we’re exploring lightness and darkness, materials that let light through, and how reflections work. Through hands-on activities with water, mirrors, and other reflective surfaces, students are discovering how light behaves in our world.

🌻 Second Grade – A Garden for Life Our second graders are continuing A Garden for Life by exploring how plants and animals work together in ecosystems. We’ll focus especially on pollinators—like bees, butterflies, and birds—and learn how their work supports plant life, including the foods we eat!

🦋 Third Grade – Welcome to the Biodome We’re wrapping up Welcome to the Biodome with a celebration—our butterflies will soon be released! To end the year, students will explore how different traits in plants and animals help them survive in their environments, tying together everything we've learned about life cycles and ecosystems.

🗺️ Fourth Grade – Geographic Investigations Fourth graders are using their geography skills for an exciting States Project! This month, each student will choose a U.S. state to research in depth, exploring its region, landmarks, natural resources, and more. They’ll showcase their learning in a poster presentation at the end of the unit.

🏛️ Fifth Grade – Our Government Fifth graders have wrapped up the American Revolution and are now diving into the formation of the U.S. government. We’ll explore the three branches of government, checks and balances, and the Bill of Rights. To finish the year, students will create a bill of their own to address a real-world issue that matters to them!

Library

The Minnesota Youth Reading Award results are IN!! The winner of the Star of the North Award is The Book That Almost Rhymed, and the winner of the Maud Hart Lovelace Award is Hoops! Our students had fun reading the books together and independently. Congratulations to the winning books and their author and illustrators!

As we begin the month of May, we will focus on wrapping up the school year in the library. Students will be able to check out books until May 20th. Then, we will start collecting books and get them back on the shelves for next fall. Now is a great time to check in with your child about missing library books. Please help them look at home under beds, on bookshelves, in toy bins, and in vehicles for any missing books. We greatly appreciate your help in getting all of our library books back!

Last, but certainly not least - we are so grateful to our Dayton families! The success of our Boosterthon fundraiser allowed the PTO to donate money to the library to help update our very outdated nonfiction section of the library, specifically. These books support the passions of our readers and our curriculum. The first part of this book order will be placed this spring. We can’t wait to get these new books into the hands of our students! Thank you for supporting our Dayton readers!

Music

Reminder to 4th grade families that your students have two concerts on May 19th. One at 2:30PM and one at 7PM. Click here to see more information.

PE

On Your Mark!

Get Set!

GO!

Dayton Olympics May 8th. Students will participate in a variety of activities for a half day. Please feel free to come visit us and cheer on your child(ren). See you there!

Gym shoes, please!

Concluding the school year, we will work on volleying, frisbee, yard games, and other lifelong skills.

We celebrated National Volunteer Recognition Week on April 20-24 and took some time to thank our 'Talon-ted' Dayton Volunteers for supporting our schools!

This school year our 365 volunteers have recorded 2,350 hours of time to support events and activities at Dayton Elementary.

Here are some fun facts to show you what else you could do with 2,350 hours of time:

The Movie Marathon: You could watch the movie Toy Story roughly 1,740 times back-to-back.
The Road Trip: You could drive from Dayton, Minnesota, to Disneyland in California and back again... 37 times.
The Flight Path: You could fly around the circumference of the Earth about 52 times in a standard commercial jet.

Here is just a small sample of the direct impact our volunteers have had at Dayton:

Workroom Volunteers get projects done that allow teachers to focus more on teaching.
Field Trip Chaperones help our students get outside the classroom for a fun and engaging experience.
PTO Event Volunteers allow our school community to come together outside of school hours and raise funds that enrich Dayton Elementary.
End of Trimester Volunteers help create a fun and rewarding experience to celebrate all the work being done in the classroom.
Skillbuilder Volunteers support student learning and provide one-on-one practice in literacy and math.

Dayton Olympics 2026
Want to join our group of dedicated volunteers? Sign up to help with the Dayton Olympics on Friday, May 8th! We need volunteers to help make this a memorable day for our students. Grades K-2 will be participating in the morning and Grades 3-5 will be in the afternoon. We have the volunteer hours broken up into two shifts so you don't have to miss out on your own kids participating. We also have a separate sign up sheet for high school students.

Sign up here: Dayton Olympics 2026 or Dayton Olympics 2026 High School Student Volunteers

Field Trips

This time of year is busy with many grade levels attending field trips. If you are selected as a chaperone by your student’s homeroom teacher, please make sure to get your volunteer paperwork submitted as soon as possible. This will help ensure I have enough time to process your paperwork before the day of the field trip. All individuals who wish to volunteer, including field trip chaperones, must complete both the Volunteer Application and Criminal Record History Release form at each school site, every school year.

Don’t forget to check our Dayton Volunteer Opportunities Website for new openings!

Kristin Gow, Volunteer Services Coordinator

kristin.gow@ahschools.us

(763) 506-2230

Hello Parents,

Are your student's pants looking a little short at the end of winter? Are you doing a spring cleanout of drawers and closets? The health office would love donations of gently used pants for all ages, XS-XL youth sizes! We prefer new underwear and socks in case that's on your mind too!

Please feel free to drop off donations in the school vestibule labeled "health office donations."

Thank you!

Stephanie Mullinix, Health Para LPN

Katelyn Salwey, School Nurse LSN/RN

katelyn.salwey@ahschools.us

763-506-2204

Once per month, Dayton Elementary hosts a book swap. This is a time for all Dayton Elementary students to bring in a gently used book or two to exchange for something new to read.

May 29

Dates are subject to change.

Time: 9:15 - 9:30 am

*Donations are always welcome, just drop off books in the front vestibule labeled for the book swap.

Please report student absences or late arrivals before 10:30 a.m.

To report attendance, use one of the following methods:

Call the school's 24/7 attendance voicemail at 763-506-2206.
Login on our webpage AHschools.us (Instructions linked here)
Use the ParentVUE mobile app

Please refrain from using email or Seesaw to report attendance to your child's teacher. We appreciate your cooperation.

Student drop-off begins at 9:15 a.m., when the first bell rings. Students must be in their classrooms before the final bell at 9:30 a.m. School hours are from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

Staff supervision begins at 9:15 a.m. For your child’s safety, please do not drop them off before this time.

ARRIVAL PROCEDURES LINKED HERE

IMPORTANT: Dismissal changes must be called into the OFFICE (763-506-2200) by 3:00 PM.

NOTE: Late requests may be denied. To avoid end-of-day confusion, we will follow the original dismissal plan for any calls received after the deadline.

Parent pick-up starts promptly at 4:00 PM in the Dayton and Rebel parking lots.

DISMISSAL PROCEDURES LINKED HERE

Early dismissals should occur only in rare circumstances. Please make every effort to schedule appointments outside of school hours. Students leaving even a few minutes early often miss important last minute instructions and/or reminders. Interrupting classes to call students to the office also distracts other students and interrupts classroom routines.

If an early dismissal is unavoidable, allow us ample time to locate your student. We ask that early dismissals are avoided after 3:30 PM. We will call your student down when you arrive.

Daily schedules are available here.

ONLY parents and legal guardians are authorized to pick up. If you need someone else to pick up your child, please call the office at 763-506-2200 in advance to make arrangements.

Items can be dropped off and left on the table in the vestibule at Door #1. Please label the item(s) with your student's name and classroom. Post it notes and pens are provided in the vestibule.

We are a LOCKED facility.

Press the silver button.
Wait for a staff member to respond.
Have your ID ready.

Did You Know? Dayton Elementary has its very own PreK–Grade 3 Parenting Educator!

Tawnya Heinsohn is available in person on Digital Day 1 to support families with helpful resources, visuals, and FREE online parenting workshops each month.

Have a parenting question or want to learn more about a topic? Reach out to Tawnya Heinsohn at tawnya.heinsohn@ahschools.us or 763-634-1880.

Check out upcoming workshops at ahschools.us/prektograde3

We are excited to partner with the nonprofit organization, Every Meal, to offer a free weekend food program to all our students. The mission of Every Meal is to fight child hunger through community and school partnerships. This program strives to make a difference in children’s lives by focusing on food gaps like weekends, school breaks and summer, when students are not receiving meals in school. If you are interested in learning more, click here. If you’d like to register for this program, please use this Electronic enrollment form.

Dayton Elementary participates in the Box Tops for Education, so please scan your receipts. It helps raise money for our school! Click here for more information.

BOX TOPS + WALMART

Connect your Walmart and Box Tops accounts so you can earn cash for our school when you purchase Box Tops products in-store or online using your saved Walmart payment method — without scanning or submitting your receipts!

Health Office

763.506.2204

HEALTH SERVICES

Dayton A+

763.506.2213

Child Nutrition

Menus

763.506.2211

Transportation Services

If your child's bus doesn't arrive in the morning or they don't get off the bus in the evening (rare), call the bus company directly. Save their number for after-school hours, as they can contact drivers.

First Student Bus Co.

763.421.5785 First Student Champlin (regular routes to/from Dayton Elementary)

763.421.3199 First Student Anoka (students receiving special education transportation)

How to login to your ParentVUE Account

ParentVUE Overview

Dayton Elementary Handbook

Community Education Classes