Sunday, October 29, 2017

Terrific Teamwork

The spirit of teamwork and helping one another is always abundant at Dryden!
First graders helped one another carry giant pumpkins from the "pumpkin patch" to their classrooms. 

The teamwork for these second grade students resulted in this darling scarecrow!

In music class, students worked in teams to match names to notes. 

These fourth grade students showed their classmates what the process of subtraction with regrouping looks like when using base-10 blocks. 


These super scientists worked in teams to predict and test ways to make pepper grains bounce on a cup without touching the cup. 

These mathematicians are researching and calculating to determine which babysitting scenarios will enable them to earn the most money. 

These artists are working together to blend paints in order to create a realistic, three-dimensional-looking, realistic portrait of George Washington.


Our PTA, teachers and all of our students are teaming together to maintain a strong culture of kindness at Dryden. Just look at all of the random acts of kindness by our students for Just Jump and on the Kindness Tree by the 5th grade classes!

A passionate team of women from the Northern Illinois Raptor Rehabilitation Center came to Dryden to share their work and expertise about these fascinating birds of prey. This really helped bring our One Book One Dryden program with A Nest for Celeste to life!



It was a valuable, challenging and wonderful experience in teamwork to see who could build the tallest structures out of pipe cleaners with our Japanese student friends from Futabakai. 


This past Friday, staff from the Dunton Administration Center came to Dryden for Make a Difference Day. We appreciated their help and collaborative team spirit in the classroom and in the lunchroom! 

TEAMWORK sure makes Dryden TERRIFIC!


Sunday, October 22, 2017

What's Awesome?

Dryden teachers Mr. Poliszczuk and Mr. Deptula have gotten our whole school thinking about "what's awesome" during their Friday Party Jam sessions! Check it out!

Our PTA is super-awesome! Earlier in the week, they were recognized for outstanding membership.

PTA and our PE teacher Mr. Gries did an awesome job bringing the Just Jump! fundraiser to Dryden on Friday. 

It was a beautiful to be outside and jumping rope. 


All students participated. Many completed random acts of kindness and their families donated money to benefit the Dryden PTA. 


 Everybody jumped to show their appreciation and build healthy habits. 


 It was super-awesome!


And super-fun!


We were all jumping for joy to be part of such a wonderful school community!


Sunday, October 15, 2017

Zooming in on Learning


Our students have been working hard at school! They are really zooming in on details as they discover, research, read, write, play and observe. 

Thank you to the Arlington Heights Fire Department for joining us last week! You helped make sure we know how to safely evacuate the building when we hear a fire alarm. First grade students were very intrigued by all the details on the fire engine. 

We've been having such a great time reading A Nest for Celeste by Henry Cole and finding the different places around Dryden where Celeste has been hiding. These students have been researching and reading in the LMC to compare and contrast a real mouse and Celeste. 

To get in the mindset for understanding and utilizing non-fiction text features when reading, students are working with Mrs. Greazel to write about this bike using those features. 

It's always fun to practice reading new words and identifying spelling patterns through games!

In science, students are writing detailed observations comparing the characteristics of two different structures they built. 

Monday, October 9, 2017

Bringing Learning to Life


So much active, purposeful learning is happening at Dryden!

Kindergarteners are learning to work together and play together, take turns, share and help one another. They proved to be innovative engineers as they worked on designing and building a new comfortable chair after reading, Peter's Chair





We are thankful for all the students, teachers and families who came together on a rainy morning to make their own sunshine and walk to school on Walk to School Day! This was a fun way for us to focus on healthy habits together! 




We were so impressed by all of the creative costumes children made and wore on Career Dress-Up Day! Athletes, zookeepers, fire fighters, police officers, dancers, artists, doctors, electricians, police officers, film makers, coffee barristas, a social worker and a herpatologist were just some of the wonderful careers we spotted among our students. 






Also on Career Day, many Dryden parents and community members spent time with our first grade and multiage students to share their experiences with STEAM careers. We greatly appreciated the opportunity to learn firsthand about woodwork, butterfly gardens, mechanical engineering, the medical profession, DJing, construction, architecture and more!




Learning also came to life for our fifth grade students as they experienced the Historical Reenactment field trip sponsored by ABC25 Foundation and our Department of Student Learning. 


 





Working in groups to solve math equations with base ten blocks is another great way students are bringing learning to life! 






And of course, we can't forget about Celeste the Mouse, even during math! Find the sum... and find Celeste! We hope you are enjoying the One Book One School program with A Nest for Celeste by Henry Cole as we are. The children are having so much fun trying to find where Celeste is hiding at Dryden each day!