Our First Graders are Jumping Right into Reading!

Don’t you just love wandering through the bookstore or searching on your Kindle for that “Just Right Book”, one just you can’t wait to curl up with and read?  Once you have devoured the book, you rush out to share it with your friends.  Well-loved books get passed around.

Our First Graders already have a love of books.  They are browsing our new Leveled Libraries for “Just Right Books” and finding a great spot to get lost in the FUN of reading.  They already know the 3 Ways to read a book.  Did you know there were 3 ways to read a book?  They do!  They can read the pictures, read the words or retell the story to themselves.  Reading the pictures and “retelling” the story has them thinking like the readers they are.   More importantly, during” Read to Self” they are building their stamina for reading.  Reading is hard work, even for us.   Think about reading the Newspaper, do you read the Life Style section the same as the Business section?   To become a better reader our students need long stretches of independent reading practice where they are thinking about their reading.  Every day their reading stamina is growing and growing!  I think they are ready for “Reading to Someone” because everyone loves to share a good book with a friend!

Third Grade Biographies Blog

As part of our strong finish to the school year, third graders have been working on creating their own blog for their biography projects.  Click here to read about famous Americans that they studied. Students researched using databases, saved copyright free pictures from databases, wrote speeches on Microsoft Word, created illustrations on Pixie and converted to JPEGS, and finally, created timelines on kidspiration and exported them as JPEGS. WE only have a few posts now….more to come next week!

http://dres3rdgrade.blogspot.com/

2nd Grade Zoo Field Trip

This past Friday, second grade went on an exciting field trip!  They had the opportunity to observe animals at the National Zoo.  Students investigated animals from their written research projects and science unit of study. 

This was a wonderful opportunity to observe the life needs of wild animals in their own unique environment. 

The field trip highlighted the Science SOL 2.5 and Language Arts SOL 2.12.b.5.  The students had their walking shoes ready and enjoyed the beautiful warm and sunny spring day.  During the field trip, the students were given a Z00-PER BINGO activity to see what animals they could spot.  They also had to perform a scavenger hunt to find animals that had certain characteristics.  We would like to thank our parent volunteers for their support!

11th Annual Jump Rope for Heart and Hoops for Heart

On Friday, April 5, students at Daniels Run participated in our 11th annual Jump Rope for Heart and Hoops for Heart events.  The events, sponsored by the American Heart Association, are held to educate our students about heart health.  As heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, this event allows us to help donate towards the research and education for those suffering from heart problems. 

 

It all kicked off with students from Kindergarten through 3rd grade jumping ropes to raise money.  There were several stations and challenges where our students could show off their jump rope skills.  As you can see from the pictures, the students had a great time in a variety of skills ranging from long jump ropes to hula hoop challenges. 

 

            Next up was the Hoops for Heart portion of the event for students in grades 4 through 6.  These students had a chance to participate in 5 separate basketball challenges.  Students had a chance to show off their free throw shooting and dribbling skills, and even had a station to play knockout with their group.

As a school, we raised nearly $3000.00, all of which goes directly to the American Heart Association.  We want to thank all of our generous families that participated in the fundraiser, and the American Heart Association would like us to extend their appreciation as well.  

As part of the participation in the fundraising, the American Heart Association distributes thank you gifts for all students that raised money for their cause.  These thank you gifts will arrive in 4 -6 weeks.   Mrs. Ullrich and Mr. Kahnell would especially like to thank all of our wonderful parent volunteers that came out to help out with both events.  As always, we cannot hold these school wide events without the help of our fabulous parents that are willing to donate some of their time with our students.  Thank you!

DRES Fourth Grade Measurement Olympics

In our DRES fourth grade Measurement Olympics, students participated in interactive and engaging activities that required them to apply their knowledge of how to measure length using rulers, yard sticks and tape measurers.

 Students measured distances in both customary (inches, feet, yards) and metric (centimeters, meters) units. Teams were created by grouping a student from each of the 4 different fourth grade homerooms.

They worked together to participate in activities such as the discus throw with paper plates, the shot put with cotton balls, the javelin throw with straws, car races, long jump and high jump.

          









The students were able to apply the concepts learned in the classroom to these events, and were excited and eager to work in teams.

Daniels Run Early Learning Lab

 

DRES students have truly enjoyed the creation of our new Daniels Run Early Learning Lab.  This program is designed to enhance specific standards of learning in order to help your child be successful and feel confident in math class. 

 

 

The curriculum involves games and interactive experiences that are motivating and fun for students. These experiences are designed to provide a high level of support to your child, as he or she works in a small group setting. Stay tuned for more exciting Early Leanring Lab activities and achievements in the months to come!

 

Inch and Miles: The Journey to Success

 











Fun things are happening in sixth grade in the third quarter!  Students are working hard learning and demonstrating their understanding what it takes to be successful.  Students have been reading about the Inch and Miles: The Journey to Success over the last few weeks and have created Reverso poems, visuals, and comic strips for each of the steps. 
 

In the upcoming weeks, students will dive into a HUGE research project where they will research and present information on a person from the American Revolution or an influential scientist.  Sixth graders are eager to learn how to use different modes of technology for research or presentation purposes.  We can't wait to see their presentations! 

 

 

Students in Ms. Large's class have been working on Document- Based Questioning assignment investigating the causes of death in colonial Jamestown.  Students in Ms. Large's class have been working on Document- Based Questioning assignment investigating the causes of death in colonial Jamestown.

 

Some other things we are looking forward to include our field trip to Gettysburg and raising American Shad fish in our classroom.

ZERO THE HERO

Zero the Hero flies in to Daniels Run Elementary School every year on the 100th day to visit all the Kindergarten children.  His purpose is to support the academic, PE, and Music programs by emphasizing the importance of numbers, counting, singing and physical activity.  During his visit the children participate in “flying exercises” as they count to 100.  Afterwards there is a question and answer period where the children learn more about Zero the Hero and he about them.

The children share a song with Zero that they have learned and Zero talks about the importance of numbers in our daily lives.  At the conclusion of the activity Zero flies off to join other children around the world to celebrate the use of numbers.

Mix It Up Day in the Cafeteria

Ever feel like you are just in a rutt?  Sometimes routine can be a good thing.  Other times breaking the routine can create a memorable learning opportunity. 

Recently, our 5th grade students and teachers felt like they were in a rutt in the cafeteria with behaviors and conversations that were not always creating the type of environment kids felt good about.

Rather than impose harsh consequences, assigned seats, or give the broken record of reminders, every 5th grade classroom held a morning meeting with our counselor, Mrs. Mullarkey, and either Mr. Gerstner or Mr. Erbrecht to talk about the issues that were occurring and help students problem solutions to take ownership themselves of creating a positive place to eat every day. 

Out of those conversations came the idea for a Mix It Up Day.  As 5th graders entered the cafeteria yesterday, they were each given a different color slip of paper to correspond with a random table for them to sit at with people from different classes and different friendship groups than where they normally would sit. 

Mrs. Mullarkey gave them a Scavenger Hunt of ice breaker discussion starters for them to get to know one another better and give examples of positive things they could talk about.

At the end, we held a grade level wide meeting to reflect on what was different about lunch that day and how it made them feel.  Every 5th grader committed to take control of getting a positive lunch time back and had fun in the process.  Every one walked out feeling like it was possible to have 100 friends to sit with at lunch on any given day. 

One 5th grader commented on the way out..."Best lunch EVER!!"...maybe we'll just have to try again sometime soon. 

It's a great example of how taking a Responsive Classroom approach to model and provide kids with positive choices can make a difference in a big way.   Thanks guys! Mr. E.