Sunday, January 28, 2018

Creating Art, Friendships and More!

This what we saw when we entered the art classroom this week, and it left us thinking about what we would like to create. 

Kindergarteners created snow people in art! But, it wasn't just art they were learning. They were learning and using a lot of important math concepts such as equal, larger, smaller and half. 

Then, they learned techniques for using the paint brush and small amounts of paint to neatly add colorful details. 

Our field trip to Futabakai Japanese School gave our students a wonderful opportunity to create deeper understandings about the Japanese culture and create stronger friendships with those in our school exchange program. 


Students at Futabakai created fun, interactive games for us to play at their annual festival. 



And, they created many beautiful origami trinkets for prizes that our students admired and treasured!



Our fifth grade students worked together to create posters featuring important information about the Bill of Rights. Each group collaborated on a specific amendment, then presented this information to the class. We call this method of learning and sharing information "jigsaw". 



CONGRATULATIONS to all of our students who participated in the PTA Reflections Art Program! The theme this year was "Within Reach".  Our students created visual art, a piano performance and creative writing! Two of our students will have their artwork presented at the state level, and one student will be presented at the county level. We are so proud of and inspired by our students' creative endeavors!












Sunday, January 21, 2018

What Would You Like to Create in 2018?

The mural painting by our administrative assistant, Mrs. Lane, inspired us to dream big and think about what we would like to create in 2018. 

In Dryden Art Teacher Mrs. Fuglestad's blog, you can read about our student, Tyler, whose painting of him and his buddy will be featured in this year's Youth Art Month poster in Illinois, which is themed "Building Community through Art." We are so proud of Tyler for his amazing artwork, and we are thrilled that many others will get to enjoy his art, too. 

What else are our students creating since the new year began?

Cooperative video book reports to demonstrate their understanding and use of non-fiction text features

Music on keyboards!

Magic, laughter and good character with Tim Hannig of Pro Kids Show
Thank you, PTA, for bringing this wonderful program to Dryden students, staff and families


 
Solutions that will someday enable humans to travel to Mars




Snow forts, snow people and snow angels! 
What better way to get creative in January than outside at recess!


PTA Variety Show Auditions
There were so many creative acts and skits. We can't wait for the actual performance!

Monday, January 15, 2018

We are Dryden!

This week we have a special guest blogger, EL Resource Teacher Mrs. Pemberton!
She has some wonderful information to share about the rich cultures and languages at our school:


We have such a wonderful, diverse student population here at Dryden.
It is such a privilege to work with students from such rich backgrounds and cultures.
At Dryden, our EL families make up about 15% of our student population.

Enrolled in the EL program, we have families with backgrounds from all over the world
spanning across seventeen different languages including:

Polish
Spanish
Bulgarian
Ukrainian
Albanian
Russian
Greek
Chinese
Korean
Tagalog
Urdu
Hindi
Malayalam
Arabic
Serbian
Italian
Dutch



We really value culture and bilingualism here at Dryden. In the EL Classroom, we have our mantra
posted on the wall that reads, “Bilingualism is a gift.” At the beginning of the year, we discuss the
significance of this statement and we share about our own traditions and languages.
This carries over from the EL classroom to the general education classrooms.
Specialists at Dryden work very closely together.



At Dryden, we have a large Polish population, and we give transitional bilingual support to our
Polish-speaking students through our resource teacher. Our program model involves pull-out support
and push-in support as well as one multiage sheltered classroom for grades 1-2.
The multiage sheltered classroom has a partner, or “buddy”, classroom that works very closely with
students in that class for different subjects to integrate native English speaking peers with
English language learners. This program has shown great growth and success of all learners.




This month, our EL students will be taking the annual language proficiency test entitled the
ACCESS test. This test is based off the WIDA framework (https://www.wida.us/) around the
English Language Development Standards adopted by the state of Illinois.
This test measures language proficiency in four language domains including
listening, speaking, reading, and writing in English. Scores from this test are used to make
instructional decisions for our English language learners.
This year, the testing window at Dryden will be January 23rd through February 9th.

If you have any questions about the EL program, please contact the following staff members:
Julia Pemberton - EL Resource Teacher -  jpemberton@sd25.org
Susan Hernandez - Multiage Sheltered Teacher Grades ½ -  shernandez@sd25.org

Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Creativity Abounds



Our multiage and second grade students were shining stars at their musical performance! Even though it was cold outside, their singing, acting, dancing, and instrumental performances warmed our hearts!

It was also a special treat to have our music teacher, Mrs. Tosheva, accompany the students with her accordion!

Our students' creative and innovative thinking really shined through during our Cardboard Challenge! Space crafts, Rube Goldberg machines, interactive games and gingerbread houses were just some of the amazing creations! Research, collaboration, planning, problem-solving and many iterations took place before the students all came together to showcase and celebrate their creations. 
 




 



On our last day of school before the winter break, our students made cards for the patients at Northwest Community Hospital. They were beautifully decorated and included caring well-wishes for strength and recovery. We thank the PTA for providing the materials and volunteer assistance! The people at the hospital were very appreciative!







I can't wait to see what we create in 2018 at Dryden!
Happy New Year!