DAIS 3rd Marking Period Newsletter
Together We... Inspire HAPPINESS
Math
During the third marking period, fourth grade students at DAIS have been working on operations with fractions and fractions and decimals. Fourth graders will be finishing up the year with time and graphing, measurement and geometry. Fifth grade students have been adding, subtracting, multiplying, and dividing fractions. During the fourth marking period, fifth graders will be delving deeper into their understanding of algebra utilizing Hands On Equations and furthering their measuring skills. The sixth grade students have been studying expressions, equations, functions and inequalities. As we bring the year to a close, sixth graders will be focusing on statistical displays, area, volume and surface area. An exciting math activity that is coming on April 20 is our annual DAIS 24 Game Challenge.
Aluminum Foil Classroom?
Mr. Young's classroom has taken on a new look as of late... that's right, it's an aluminum foil classroom!
The aluminum foil that covers the majority of classroom 417 was part of a 6th grade math enrichment project. Students calculated the surface area of everything in the classroom and figured out the square footage of aluminum foil it should take to completely cover everything in the classroom, excluding the floor, ceiling, lights, and window. They were very close to calculating the exact amount needed.
Science
This marking period, grade 4 studied life science involving plant structure and function. Energy movement through ecosystems was covered and FOSS inquiries were completed including studies with live Bess Beetles. There was also a field trip to the Witaker Science Center in Harrisburg for more hands on opportunities.
Grade 5 students concentrated within the earth science studies learning about topics such as layers of the earth and how they affect life, the importance of water and why we should protect it, and earth’s natural resources both renewable and nonrenewable. Students completed their 1st STEAM activities utilizing the engineering design process to build water filters and nonrenewable energy producing models from K’nex. In the near future, we are beginning a discovery within the FOSS unit of earth science on how erosion and deposition affect our land. Students will have the experience of setting up stream tables to compete against their classmates to find the least amount of deposition in the class.
Grade 6 students are exploring the concepts of Forces, Speed, Acceleration, Friction, Gravity & Newton’s Laws of Motion. They completed several labs related to speed and acceleration, as well as, a STEM challenge using K’nex to design, build, test and re-design a vehicle that can travel the farthest down a ramp and beyond. Also, students are exploring types of matter, measuring matter, and changes in matter including exothermic and endothermic chemical changes. Several labs are completed including identifying states of matter of an amorphous solid and calculating the volume of regular and irregularly shaped objects. The unit concludes with a STEM challenge which involves researching, creating a formula, and testing and improving an adhesive solution.
Language Arts
It is hard to believe that Marking Period 3 has come to a close! Our English Language Arts classes have been busy reading challenging texts of various genres, discussing novels, writing in response to reading, writing informational texts, and working with words and grammar. Enjoy some samples of our DAIS students’ work!
Grade 6:
Here are two examples of informational writing website design. Students had to inform readers about a topic of their choice, and include informational text structures and text features.
In reading, sixth grade students studied various elements to show how the author developed a character, with a focus on Notice and Note fiction signposts. Below is an example of students’ work analyzing the use of “again and again” moments to help readers infer about a character on a deeper level. The end product was totally student-driven: some did posters, projects, Slides, Powtoons, Google Draw, etc.
This artistic student created this bracelet in Google draw from images
Some examples of student writing included various mock social media platforms to be the character in their text. The work taught digital literacy as well as characterization. Additionally, Talking to Your Text strategies were used with color coding in Language Arts during Persuasive Writing (see color coding at the bottom of the Language Arts section).
Grade 5:
5th grade students participated in a visualization activity, in which they listened to rainforest sounds and students sketched what they heard. After the picture was drawn, students labeled it with adjectives, nouns, verbs, and adverbs. They made a key to match their rainforest phrases. This activity was done to reinforce descriptive writing and the purpose of the different parts of speech.
Team Commitment fifth graders worked on learning to read and write more complex, challenging nonfiction. In reading, students drew on all they have learned about how to read complex nonfiction in order to research and make arguments about provocative, debatable issues. This entailed reading arguments and also reading informational texts in a more critical and analytic way. The students researched and debated: Should killer whale shows be banned?, Should people be climbing Mount Everest?, Should people be more focused on underwater exploration or outer space exploration?, and Should people be more focused on protecting humans from sharks or protected sharks from humans? The students paralleled this reading unit with a writing unit where students wrote a research-based argument essay. Using all the skills, strategies, and research, the students applied what they learned to a creative writing poetry project. Each month, the students use a mentor poem and create an original poem using poetic elements and craft techniques. This month the students use their newly acquired knowledge to produce an “apology poem” based on the mentor text “An Apology to My Prey” written by Joyce Sidman. Here are two of the outstanding creations Team Commitment students produced. Not only did they apply their research learned, but demonstrated what it means to be a poet.
Grade 4:
In fourth grade, students have been having fun playing Language Arts Password as a way to review test vocabulary as well as Language Arts terms for PSSA prep. It was a fun way to take the pressure off of test preparation.
Fourth-grade students created slide shows with nonfiction features and videos on guided reading books. The example in the photos is The One and Only Ivan.
Last but not least, please note that the Keystone State Reading Association has dedicated the month of April to Families and Literacy. Please click the hyperlink below for a PDF document from KSRA, which includes resources and book lists for students in grades K-8. Pages 8-14 of the Families and Reading PDF focus on book lists, magazines, and educational apps; for resources specifically for children in grades 4-6, please scroll to pages 11-14. Thank you for your support of literacy at home and in our community!
Social Studies
The third marking period saw 4th grade complete an active unit of study on the states of the Mid-West. Students accessed a variety of sources to complete project-based activities to demonstrate their mastery of the content. The fourth marking period will see the students explore the Western States!
Fifth grade explored the Constitution & Bill of Rights and the three Branches of Government. Students also used interactive websites to learn about the travels of Lewis and Clark as well as the concept of Westward Expansion.
As the third marking period draws to a close, 6th grade students were exposed to the various cultures of Europe and Asia. Our next unit of study will be the J.A. BizTown curriculum, where students will participate in an active simulation of financial literacy, job interviews, and being a responsible citizen.
Guidance
The counseling department would like to welcome all our new families who recently enrolled at DAIS. Students and families receive a tour of the school and meet with the school counselor periodically to help our children transition to our school and community. Welcome to our DAIS family!
Counseling Classes continue to take place for students in all grade levels. Students receive guidance class for one marking period. All lessons connect with our district wide initiative called Dallastown ROCS (Respect others Care for Self). Students receive lessons on social skills, conflict resolution, empathy, diversity, bullying prevention, career awareness, coping skills, decision making, sportsmanship, and motivation.
Furthermore, DAIS School Counselors provide a mentoring program called SEALS (Supporting Education and Leadership Skills). The purpose of SEALS is to align Dallastown High School students with Intermediate students by providing a safe and supportive environment that fosters confidence, leadership, academic achievement, and social skills. High school mentors serve as positive role models helping intermediate students to be successful through school work and recreational activities.
Another great mentoring program run by the DAIS School Counseling Department is called Connections. The school counselors pair Intermediate students with staff from DAIS. Staff members serve as positive roles models and provide mentorship in constructive, supportive, and encouraging ways by making weekly contact with the student. This year there are over 100 students and 100 staff members participating.
Upcoming Family Programs:
SEALS
DAIS Counselors
SEALS
iLibrary & Technology
Our monthly Innovation Station offered a new theme for the 3rd marking period. “Think Like an Architect” is a small group, hands-on exploration of architecture terms and design principles. Students can plan different community layouts with Legos, build and test various bridges with K’Nex, design a scale-model farm using Lincoln Logs, or construct a Lego building that includes lines of symmetry.
Fourth grade students continue to receive instruction during their iLibrary class on Chromebook and Google Apps usage. During the 3rd marking period, lessons include DASD student email and Screencastify for video production. These student tools are available 24/7 from any connected device. **When accessing these tools away from school it’s important to remember – school accounts are for school tasks; students should log out of school accounts before moving on to personal tasks.
Fifth and sixth grade students have been learning how to use the search functions and features of several online research databases in their iLibrary class. Comparing our results to the millions of results we get through Google searches, students have learned that they can refine their searching and find trustworthy facts, as well as spark an interest of nonfiction reading. Using World Book Kids, World Book Student, and Explora, we have found that we can find relevant and reliable facts for school projects, but we can also find articles on topics that interest us outside of school. Students have presented findings on topics from ferrets to Minecraft, and ballet to Pokemon.
Students continue to practice their keyboarding skills with Typing.com. We are working hard to develop good home row habits. Students are encouraged to practice ten minutes a day, to increase accuracy and speed.
The Pennsylvania Young Readers’ Choice Award Program has wrapped up for another year. Students were asked to read three of the nominated books to be eligible to vote for their favorite book. The DAIS winner is Ellie’s Story: A Dog’s Purpose Novel by W. Bruce Cameron. The PA Young Readers’ Choice Award winner for the state is Sunny Side Up by Jennifer and Matthew Holm.
Health & Physical Education
Hello DAIS! My name is Mr. Marhevka and I am extremely excited to join the DAIS community as the new Health and Physical Education teacher. I began teaching in Dallastown in 2010 at Ore Valley Elementary where I had been for the last 6 ½ years. I graduated from West Chester University with a Bachelor of Science in Health and Physical Education as well as minors in Health Science and Adapted Physical Education. I am originally from the Poconos and grew up in Lake Ariel, Pennsylvania. In my free time you can find me biking, hiking, kayaking, golfing, enjoying the outdoors with my wife, and spending time with family.
In health classes, fourth grade students are progressing through the body systems unit, where we are exploring the skeletal, circulatory, immune and digestive systems. We will this unit with a culminating project where classes will work together to create life-size human body systems.
Fifth grade health students are finishing their exploration of non-communicable diseases, and are about to move into learning about food and nutritional information. In mid-April, all fifth grade students will take part in a discussion on adolescence. Information will be sent home with more information prior to the presentation.
Sixth grade students are finishing up their tobacco projects, and recently had the opportunity to meet the School Resource Office (SRO) from the secondary campus. As we move into the fourth marking period, some sixth grade homerooms will be starting the human growth and development unit, and some will move on to guidance class. Please look for a letter home about the human growth and development unit with third marking period report cards.
In Physical Education we are excited to start our spring units, which include Frisbee golf, lacrosse, soccer, Goose Ball, and the Outdoor Fitness Center. The DAIS Outdoor Fitness Center is open to the public after school hours and features a wiggle walk, jump panel, chinning bar, push up bars, overhead ladder, double chest press, double leg press, single ski-runner, double waist and back stretch, double lat pulldown, single rower, and double sit-up bench. Click here for instructional videos. Hopefully everyone enjoys the warm weather by being active and exercising!
Save the date for our annual Games camp Monday, July 17 – Thursday, July 20, 2017 at the Dallastown High School Gym. This camp is offered by the Dallastown’s Phys. Ed. staff and is designed to teach basic loco-motor and ball skills through playing FUN games. It is a great way to help kids stay active during the summer! Click here for the registration flyer.
Art
Art of Latin America
This school year DAIS artwork is organized around a multicultural theme, Latin American Art! Fourth grade students are inspired by the Russian artist, Wassily Kandinsky, to create cacti watercolor paintings filled with abstract designs. Fifth graders are sculpting colorful papier mache sugar skulls. Sixth graders are constructing Mayan, Incan, and Aztec masks with plaster craft. Fourth graders are drawing ocelots and jaguars. Instead of their spots the students are creating abstract crayons and watercolor designs. 5th grade is exploring the painting American Gothic by Grant Wood. Instead of them being on a farm in Iowa the students are taking them on vacation to the Chichen Itza in Mexico. 6th grade is exploring the folk art created by the Huichol people of Mexico. Students are creating yarn painting by pushing yarn into hardened bee’s wax on pieces of wood.
The DAIS Art Show & Science Fair will be held on May 17th and 18th!
Art show prep has begun. Please volunteer now through May 17th!
Send an email to: Jennifer.Bell@dallastown.net (Yellow 4,5,6 and Red 5,6) or michelle.eberly@dallastown.net (Blue 4,5,6, and Red 4).
Music
BAND
The 7th Annual DAIS Band Festival will be held in the auditorium on May 23 at 1:30 pm and May 24 at 9:30 am and 7:00 pm. Band students in grades 4, 5 and 6 will play music for the world traveler. Selections will come from various parts of the world as well as the United States. Our own DAIS Jazz Band will also play some fun favorites with a travel theme, so we hope to see you there.
ORCHESTRA
String students at DAIS are in full swing preparing for our Annual String Festival, “Music In Motion,” on May 10, 2017 at 7:00 PM in the school gymnasium. The music will cross several genres while incorporating the visual arts through dance with students in grades 3-12 participating. Mark your calendars!
Learning objectives for Fourth Grade string students have been centered on achieving the “ring” (allowing the sound to vibrate freely) for a clear sound while playing. The focus for fifth grade has been rhythmic independence, altered tones, and flexible fingering allowing for their intonation to greatly improve. Sixth grade students have been working on playing expressively, shifting, key signatures, and bow tapers. All of these technical aspects challenge the musicians to play more than just the notes on the page, while actively engaging both sides of the brain.
Check out these 18 reasons why everyone should consider playing and instrument:
CHORUS
The choruses at DAIS have been busy preparing for our Spring Concert on Tuesday, May 16 at 7:00 pm in the DAIS Auditorium. The choruses will present a wide variety of music, from folk songs to show tunes. Please mark your calendars for May 16 and prepare to join us in person or to watch the live stream of our concert.
To Proficiency & Beyond!
The 2017 Spring PSSAs are here! For important information regarding PSSA testing, please visit our webpage at dallastown.net or click HERE.
Please note: The school day cycle will reset to a Day 1 on Monday, April 3.
DAIS Family Fun Night
PEP
It was another successful season for the DAIS Pathways Explorer Program! Our PEP teams have now concluded for the 16-17 school year. This innovative weekly program regrouped our grade 4-6 students and teachers into PEP teams based on their interest in a particular topic (STEAM, Health & Human Services, Arts & Communications). Through engaging lessons, activities and guest speakers, students connected classroom learning to real-world careers. PEP groups met each Day 1 from November through March. We were excited to see that 100% of our students received one of their top 3 PEP choices.
For more information please visit the PEP page on the DAIS website:
Grade 6 Fall Sports Sign-Ups!
On Friday, May 5th, Grade 6 students will have an opportunity to obtain information and meet with coaches regarding Fall Sports Sign-Ups! Sign-Ups will take place at the DAIS Cafeteria on May 5 beginning at 2:30 pm.
The following sports will be represented:
- Cross Country
- Field Hockey
- Football
- Cheerleading
STEAM 101 Summer Camp
The STEAM 101 Summer Camp at DAIS is now open for registration! STEAM 101 is a four-day summer technology and innovation camp for current DAIS 4th-6th graders. The camps provide an additional opportunity for DAIS students to engage in a fun, inspiring and creative environment of science, technology and critical thinking. Session 1 will be held June 12 - 15 and Session 2 will be held June 26 - 29, both camps will run from 8:00 am until 12:00 pm. The camp fee is $101 (STEAM 101 T-shirt included). Please note, camps are limited to the first 101 paid registrants per camp session. To register, students must be currently enrolled 4th, 5th, or 6th grade DAIS students. Click HERE to register! Checks should be made payable to DAIS Fund and returned to Theresa Lewis, Red Community Secretary. To pay online via credit card, simply follow the link at the end of the registration form. If you are paying online, please select CONTINUE WITHOUT CREATING AN ACCOUNT at checkout.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to our 2017 Fund for Teachers Fellows, Nathan and Kristin Keys! They are recipients of the Fund for Teachers grant allowing them to travel to Germany and Poland this summer to explore memorial museums and UNESCO World Heritage sites relating to World War II and the Holocaust. They are excited to bring primary sources and experiences back to students and classrooms!
York County School of Technology Visitation
Health Room Update:
6th grade students will need to have a Tdap and Meningococcal vaccine for the start of the upcoming 2017-18 year (7th Grade). The Pennsylvania Department of Health mandates that these immunizations be completed upon the child’s entrance to school and specifies in law that we must exclude your child from attendance by the fifth day of school if proof of immunizations is not received by that time. You may contact your community nurse for information about where to obtain the vaccines.