Sunday, November 26, 2017

So Much to Be Thankful For!

All around Dryden, not just at Thanksgiving, you can hear the students and staff saying "Thank you". This attitude of gratitude is what makes Dryden such a kind and joyful place for children to learn and grow. 


We were very thankful for the opportunity to meet with the parents of our students to talk about student progress and goals.  We also thank our awesome PTA for a lovely dinner during our Parent-Teacher Conference marathon! This kept our staff energized throughout the long day!

To see our students' love of reading grow fills us with much gratitude! 
It's truly wonderful to see them reading so many great books with teachers who love to share their love of reading and vast knowledge of children's literature. 


This poster created by our students captures what reading is all about. It says, "Reading is a conversation between the author and the reader."


We are grateful that our students can share their knowledge and learning with us in multiple ways. This student demonstrates how to solve a three-digit subtraction problem. I love his chant "If there's more on the floor, go next door, take ten more!"


Our students are thankful for their teachers who make learning fun! These students really enjoyed a classroom scavenger hunt to find facts and answer questions to learn about the history of Thanksgiving. 

Encouraging messages created by staff and students can be found all around Dryden! We are so thankful for the kind, supportive environment everyone at Dryden works together to create!








Sunday, November 12, 2017

Inspired By Others


To culminate our One Book One School program, author/illustrator Henry Cole paid Dryden a visit early in the week.


We were captivated by his storytelling and artistic creations. 


He shared valuable insights on the writing, illustrating and publishing process. 


We were inspired to persist through revisions in our own work, just like Henry Cole does, in order to keep improving our skills and our craft. 


It was also a treat to see Henry Cole and art teacher Mrs. Fuglestad collaborate during an opportunity for children to draw with Henry Cole while he was at Dryden. 


We greatly appreciate all the fun and engaging activities LMC Director Mrs. O'Kelly brought to our students in preparing them for a meaningful and worthwhile visit with Henry Cole, too!


We certainly ended our school week on a high note as well. Thanks to our PTA, teachers and student Kindness Ambassadors, we were able to welcome and honor our local veterans with breakfast. 


The breakfast was followed by an assembly to recognize our veterans with a special flag ceremony by our local scouts, and songs, poems and videos by our students.

Following the assembly, many veterans volunteered to visit classrooms to share a bit about their experiences and answer questions by students. 








We greatly appreciate the sacrifices our veterans have made so that we can enjoy our freedom in the United States! They are our heroes!





Sunday, November 5, 2017

It's Always an Adventure!


Trick or Treat! It's been an exciting week at Dryden. It all started with the Halloween parade and all the creative costumes by the students. We are very thankful for our PTA and the fun games and crafts they brought to the classroom parties. 

Since we have been reading A Nest for Celeste by Henry Cole, our staff dressed up as mice and I dressed up as the osprey, Lafayette! It was a chilly but beautiful day for the Halloween parade!

Learning about the moon and stars has been quite an adventure in first grade! Science teachers from High Touch - High Tech came to share their expertise and bring some wonderful hands-on activities related to this topic. 


Meanwhile, our fifth graders have also been working on ways to create video demonstrations of the earth's rotation and revolution around the sun to explain how day, night and the seasons change. 

Reflecting on learning, and sharing and using feedback are powerful learning tools. Students researched and debated "Would you rather..." questions in math, reviewed one another's responses, and provided constructive feedback to one another in order to fine-tune their learning and responses. 


We are also excited and looking forward to welcoming local Veterans to Dryden this Friday. Students are creating a video that will be presented at an assembly honoring the veterans. 

Music teacher Mr. Deptula and many parent volunteers were working hard with the fourth grade students in rehearsing and preparing for their musical performance. 
 

The theme for their musical performance was a vacation around the world. The students sang, played the xylophone and percussion instruments, danced and acted out skits. It was great to hear songs from different cultures and languages. They did an outstanding job. Bravo!