DCS Ravens' Report

December

22nd-Caroling in Peterborough Field Trip

24th-Jan3rd-Winter Break

January

5th-first day of the school year 2026

9th-Winter Fun Afternoon/Ski/Ride Program

30th-Community Lunch

Good afternoon DCS families, what a wonderful week! We held the Holiday Shoppe on Tuesday where students selected holiday gifts for their families from a variety of treats. They so enjoy this opportunity to buy for someone else. Students also wrap their gifts and it is such a joy to see how excited they are to bring them home. Today brought one of my favorite events of the year-The Round Robin Craft Day! Staff member Vick Brown has been coordinating this event since 1995! She selected 12 different crafts for students to make, and with some staff support put together all the parts and pieces that would be needed. Two of the stations were extra special as they included beads from former DCS teacher Emily Brnger in whose honor we celebrate the Miss Emily Award each month. Students get to choose which order they want to make the crafts and are fully engaged for over two hours in this work. We were especially thankful today as we had many former DCS staff members join in the help at the stations, as well as parents, and one of Vicki's daughters came to help too. We are so thankful for Vicki's efforts to make this event so meaningful and special for our school!

Have a lovely weekend, a wonderful Holiday Season, and Happy New Year! See you in 2026! Nicole

Cold and flu season has begun! We ask for your help in preventing the spread of illness in our school. Illness spreads from person to person, and students in schools can be the most affected.

Here are a few ways you can help:

• Know the signs of the flu and/or other respiratory illness.

• Signs may include: fever greater than 100.0 degrees, cough, sore throat, body aches, headache, and feeling very tired. Some people may also vomit or have diarrhea.

• Keep sick students at home.

• Students should stay home if they are sick. Students must stay home if they have a fever (100°F or higher) or have vomiting/diarrhea. If your child’s symptoms will prevent them from participating fully in their school day, they should remain home until symptoms improve.

• Students with a constant cough should stay home.

• Report their absence to the school.

• If your child is out sick, please let the school know.

• Please be as specific as possible with current symptoms so we can know what is going around..

• Encourage your child to wash their hands.

• Hand washing with soap and water is often the best way to reduce the spread of germs.

• Encourage your child to cover their coughs and sneezes (with a tissue or their elbow).

• Encourage your child not to share.

• Students should not share their personal items like their food or water bottles.

• When can students return to school?

• Students who have been out due to illness may return once symptoms have improved and they are free from fever (100°F or higher), vomiting, and/or diarrhea for at least 24 hours without the use of medication.

• They should be well enough to handle a full school day.

As always, please reach out to the Health Office with any questions or concerns.

The 3/4/5 team is busy, working hard on a last push of academics while working on festive projects and listening to holiday stories. The students continue to enjoy their walks to the Dublin Public Library to hear fun stories and check out books. Our knitting time is a hit! Almost all the third graders are knitting, with one finished hat!. The fourth/fifth graders are creating all sorts of creations, including purses, stuffed animals, and Sushi!

For social and emotional learning, the third graders are working on describing the connections between their own practice and changes to the networks in their brains. The fourth- and fifth-graders created a comic that shows strategies for rethinking strong feelings. During ELA, the third graders read, listened to, discussed, and wrote about the characteristics of mammals, while learning about Jane Goodall and her love and respect for animals. They practiced adding the suffix -es to their spelling words. Across the hall, the 4th & 5th graders are reading holiday-inspired chapter books. In Grammar, we are looking at adjectives and adverbs. This is carrying over into our writing as we develop the plot of our narratives.

For Math, the 3rd graders learned about rounding within 1,000, while the 4th graders continued to explore fractions through addition & subtraction with like denominators and reading a ruler. Meanwhile, the 5th graders have started a new unit focused on Multiplying Fractions.

4th and 5th graders continued our painted turtle study with the support of the Harris Center by getting to compare and contrast different types of turtle shells

We hope everyone has a joyous holiday with their families!

One of my favorite traditions this time of year is reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas and A Christmas Carol with the class and then comparing the Grinch and Scrooge. The students loved discovering how similar these two characters really are! Another fun activity was our writing piece, “If I Were a Christmas Elf…” Students decided whether they would be a nice elf or a mischievous one, and their creative ideas were so fun to read.

In our literacy knowledge block, we have been learning all about Geography. Students have been exploring time zones, the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and why we have day and night and four seasons. We’ll continue this learning after the holidays. The students have been such enthusiastic learners—true little sponges who love sharing their thinking and joining in our discussions!

We’ve been exploring hero and underdog stories such as The Three Billy Goats Gruff and Chicken Little, talking about brave choices and big feelings. In math, we’re learning that addition is made of two parts and subtraction means taking away, and we’re practicing telling our own math stories (word problems).

We’ve been busy spreading kindness by making crafts to deliver to nursing home residents when we go caroling on Monday. In literacy, we compared and contrasted different versions of The Gingerbread Man, noticing how stories can change while keeping the same core ideas- ask your child which version is their favorite! We also learned about Hanukkah traditions and enjoyed playing the dreidel game together.

Follow this link to see pictures of what we've been up to!

This week in the Library, we're learning about children's literature. Our lessons include parts of a story, retelling, character types and traits, different genres, awards given to children's books, and looking for similarities and differences among books.

Kindergarten and First grade students sorted books into groups of fiction (stories) and nonfiction (facts). They also heard the story of the Three Little Pigs and are making a story map showing the characters, settings, and story sequence. Second graders are describing characters, setting, problems and solutions in read aloud stories. Third graders are focusing on the genres (categories or types of books) in our school library, with a matching game and other creative work. Fourth and fifth graders are comparing books that have won awards, and sharing their observations to make a group chart. They will create their own awards for a book in our collection.

Share a good book today!

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