Saturday, April 27, 2019

A Wonderful World of Work


 All around Dryden and our community, we can learn so much about the wonderful world of work!
We celebrated our administrative assistants on Administrative Professionals Day! They do so much important work at Dryden to keep things running smoothly!


Our fifth-grade students worked hard to make their service project to benefit Animal House Shelter in Huntley, Illinois a big success. They collected over 250 items to donate to the shelter! Many thanks to Mr. Poliszczuk and the PTA for their assistance and support!

Our students are so fortunate to have arborists from the Village of Arlington Heights come speak to our students and provide demonstrations on how they care for all of the trees in our community. Trees add so much beauty, clean air, shelter and shade to our neighborhood. We greatly appreciate their service to our community!

Our fifth-grade students had a fabulous experience entering the World of Work! They completed job applications and made resumes, then spent the morning learning what it's like to be an employee at a variety of local businesses. We appreciate the involvement of our PTA in coordinating this powerful experience for our students!



Upon returning from the World of Work, we celebrate how our fifth graders are growing up and getting ready to spread their wings an fly on to South Middle School as Cardinals. 



What a special luncheon they enjoyed as part of their celebration from the PTA!












Sunday, April 21, 2019

Rock Stars Among Us

It's been an exciting couple weeks at Dryden with all of the "rock stars" coming to visit!

Gertrude the duck has returned to the courtyard! We can't wait to see how many ducklings will hatch this spring!

BMX Bike World Champion and Guinness record holder, Matt Wilhelm, also came to visit. We thank the PTA for bringing this exciting performance to Dryden. Matt also gave the students a powerful message about inclusivity, using kind words and working hard at your talents. 



Our teachers and students have really been rocking it in math! The students in this class enjoyed a Jeopardy math review game. It was great to see them working in teams and taking turns explaining how to solve problems. 
 


And this class participated in a meaningful, real-life experience for adding and subtracting with decimals at this store they created. It was great to see them taking turns making shopping lists, paying the cashier and making change.  
 

 It was so nice of PTA to give our moms, grandmothers, caregivers and other special guests the rockstar treatment at Moms & Munchies. Students enjoyed having a special breakfast in the commons with their guests!


Dryden is over 230 volunteers strong this year! Our volunteers are our rock stars! They enhance and enrich our students' school experiences in so many wonderful ways. We were honored to be able to thank and recognize them at our Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast and parade.

 



 


Our assistant principal, Mrs. Beane, is also a rock star to us! We celebrated and thanked Mrs. Beane during National Assistant Principal Appreciation Week. Mrs. Beane always goes above and beyond to help make sure our students, staff, and families are well-supported!

Our local Brownies are rock stars, too! They planted some flowers in our courtyard. We can't wait to watch them bloom and grow throughout this spring!


Who are these rock stars?  Our students! It was so fun seeing how they dressed up on our school spirit "Favorite Character Day" and learning about their favorite characters from books, movies, and television shows!

 





Sunday, April 7, 2019

Special People in a Special Place

The power was off at school early one morning this week, but the learning remained ON! It was so great to see the children cheering about coming into school even when the power had gone out! We appreciated the flexibility and assistance of our staff, students and families during the morning arrival and first hour of school!


It was also great to see the students in this third grade class planning and creating a non-fiction book. They broke down their topic into chapters and started mapping out the table of contents, glossary words and index words. 

These kindergartens were doing an amazing job painting their self-portraits in art class. They were very careful to use appropriate techniques with the paint and paint brush as they filled in empty spaces of their drawings. 

I believe that a big reason why our students are so happy and excited to come to school is that we strive to make sure they know how very special they are. These kindergarten students were so enthralled as they sang "A Very Special Person" with Mr. Deptula in music class.