Sunday, December 11, 2016

Gifts That Bring Wonder and Joy

We enjoyed the first big snow of the season! It was a joy to see the children trying to catch snowflakes on their tongues and examine the crystals up close as the snowflakes landed on their mittens. A lot of teamwork went into building snowmen and snow forts during recess. Their sense of wonder and joy during the first snows of winter never ceases to make me smile. 


Believe it or not, there was a similar sense of wonder and joy inside the school building, too. In this class students enthusiastically worked together to design, construct, test and improve vessels to transport water, given limited materials. This was a wonderful science experiment that connected to the students' study of the migration of Native Americans across different regions in Social Studies. They made powerful connections as they imagined what it must have really been like for the Native Americans of long ago. 





The possibilities we are learning through coding are really capturing our sense of wonder and joy as well! All of our classes participated in the Hour of Code this week. LMC Director Mrs. O'Kelly has shared some wonderful resources that you may like to access to continue the coding challenge and fun: http://drydenlmc.weebly.com/coding.html



Oh, and possibly my favorite gift of all... BOOKS! We were treated to a special visit from librarians of the Arlington Heights Memorial Library department of youth services. They brought many books and talked about their storylines which inspired our students to check them out to read in the classroom and at home. We are so fortunate to have such great resources and book lovers to nurture our students' love of reading. 



For many, 'tis the season of giving and receiving presents. However, just looking around, some of the very best gifts are right in front of our eyes... and they bring us so much wonder and joy!

Sunday, December 4, 2016

Learning with Purpose


It's always inspiring to see how learning expands beyond our classrooms at Dryden. We were thrilled to welcome fourth-grade students from Futabakai Japanese School this week. They spent the day with Mr. Noltner's class. It was great to see the children communicating, sharing and learning together. Here they worked in teams to see who could build the tallest tower out of pipe cleaners. 


District Technology Director Chris Fahnoe, School Resource Officer Rick Veenstra and Dryden Technology Facilitator Grace Frantz helped many parents learn about digital citizenship and Internet safety. It takes a combination of mentoring and monitoring children, actively learning and participating with them. It's important to be aware of the social-emotional impact their online interactions can have. By maintaining open communication and providing nurturing guidance, we can help our children experience the positive benefits of collaboration, creativity and problem-solving that can happen online. 



Our PTA was recently recognized by the Area Council of PTAs for outstanding membership and programming. We are grateful for the high level of parent involvement and enriching activities the PTA brings to our students and families. 


It's so exciting to see students in charge of their own learning! During this lesson, the teacher could have just quickly told the students the word and what it meant. However, the fact that the students had to work together to figure out the "mystery" word with hints that the teacher provided made it an exciting, fun, purposeful interactive problem-solving activity. 


 These fifth-grade students found a creative purpose for Tangrams. It was a treat to listen to them share their fiction stories and how their Tangram figures transformed as their stories progressed. 



Throughout all grades, our students are finding great purpose in their reading. Third-grade students share that reading inspires them to enjoy their imaginations and helps them calm their minds and learn new things. 


First-grade students have learned that sharing a book and taking turns reading the different parts of different characters can be really fun and make the book come alive!