DAVIS THAYER NEWS
April 23, 2018
Dear Davis Thayer Families,
Spring is here and excitement is in the air as we continue to have a wonderful year of learning here at Davis Thayer. April is the time of year for children to go outside and enjoy the warmer weather. (Hopefully, no more snow!) Children will go outside, play on the playground, and play games around the building as part of their educational day. Play is an important part of a child's education as this an important way to build social relationship skills. Please remember to have your child wear clothes that match the weather so that she/he has a safe experience outside.
As we enter the month of April, our teachers and staff continue to introduce and review rigorous academic skills and content across all grade levels. It is imperative that our students are present each day and eager to actively participate in applying the purposeful teaching and learning taking place.
This time of year also brings the administration of the MCAS tests for grades 3, 4, and 5. More information follows in this newsletter. The assessments align with the MA Curricular Frameworks and are administered to help us understand how children are progressing in their learning. This data also assists in making curriculum decisions at both the district and school level.
If you are wondering what you can do to help your child, here are some suggestions:
- Encourage your child to try his/her best!
- Help your child get a good night's sleep and have a good breakfast in the morning.
- Help your child with time management.
- Remind your child to read carefully.
- Remind your child to check his/her work.
With the end of the school year quickly approaching, we want to thank each of you for your ongoing support of our students, our teachers and staff, and our mission here at Davis Thayer. This year has been, and continues to be, a success due to the collective efforts of all in providing opportunities for our students to succeed and grow. As always, we greatly appreciate the combined efforts of all as we support our students in successfully meeting the highest of standards set before them!
I have to say that our PCC is the best around! They are always striving to work with the school to provide the best opportunities for our students that are possible. The list is long and I can never say thank you enough! Some benefits that our students have as a result of PCC funding include field trips, materials for our music room, playground supplies, and guest speakers. Our students and families also benefit from the social activities that are hosted as well. These include but are not limited to ice cream socials and school dances. I have included some pictures below so that you can see what your donations bring to DT. In March, Greg Tang visited through the funding of the PCC. I have never seen students so excited to talk about math. This excitement has continued with over 30 students to date participating in math challenges led by Mrs. Violet, Math Specialist! PCC needs your help moving forward. This help can include your time and your talents as well as financial assistance. The students and staff thank you for all that you can and will do.
Warmly,
Kathleen Gerber
PrincipalThank You PCC
DT - Auction
Greg Tang - Inspiring Math Practice at DT
High Touch High Tech Visits DT
High Five Day
K Family Fun Friday
4th Grade Core Value Assembly - Persevere
5th Grade Learns Order of Operations
DT Goes Global - Studying India
Video Production at DT
Summer Reading and Math Survey
Participating in summer reading and math activities significantly reduces regression in these areas during the summer months. As a result, time can be invested quickly in new curriculum at the beginning of the school year. Last year only 58% of Davis Thayer students submitted reading and math logs indicating that they had completed this work. The question that we have raised in our group work has been, is our participation much higher but the logs become cumbersome. We would like to partner with families to significantly increase the number of students who complete their summer reading and math reducing the "summer slide". Please help us by completing this survey as we strive to meet the needs of families and students in this work.
https://goo.gl/forms/6een8SBFSILKXADL2
Best Regards,
Kathleen Gerber, Principal
MCAS 2.0
MCAS season has arrived for grades 3, 4 and 5. Please encourage your child to get sufficient rest the night before any test sessions, to eat breakfast, and to extend their best effort. Children should also be encouraged to bring a water bottle to school; hydration is a key to concentration. It is imperative that all children be in school during testing. Please try to avoid any appointments or trips that will prevent your child from attending school.
Again this year, students at Davis Thayer (3rd, 4th and 5th grades) will be assessed using Computer-based Testing (CBT). In order to prepare our students for this testing, they are participating in activities that help them learn the computer tools that are a part of these assessments. We are also focusing on our core value of Persevere as it relates to test taking. In these lessons, we are working with students to develop strategies to continue to work through questions and do their best even when they find the question(s) challenging. We encourage students to practice keyboarding at home to prepare for the writing portions of the test
Please see the school calendar, the link is included in this newsletter for exact dates for testing.
Core Values
The DT community works to live our core values by planning monthly whole-school assemblies. We held our March school wide assembly at the beginning of April, a little later than expected because of the snow days in March when Davis Thayer's 4th grade students along with four athletes from Dean College shared with our students the importance of being able to persevere.
During the year, we will continue to recognize students and staff members who exemplify one or more core values with “scoop tickets,” by reading scoops over the announcements on Fridays, and by partnering with McDonalds to award certificates to randomly-chosen students at our assemblies each month. The bulletin board in the cafeteria which displays many of the scoops that have been awarded is impressive to see. Please take a look if you have an opportunity when you are in the building. It is an awesome sight!
Social Emotional Learning
Core Competencies - Part 3-Relationship Skills
As we know, relationships affect every part of our day. If we have good relationships with our co-workers, then going to work can be fun! Now if you don’t get along with anyone at your office, then going everyday would be a dreadful situation! The same holds true for students and their relationships with both peers and teachers at school. If there is a lack of positive relationships at school, for a child, then his/her level of investment and productivity decreases tremendously.
For our purposes, Casel defines relationship skills as the ability to establish and maintain healthy and rewarding relationships with diverse individuals and groups. If you have good relationship skills you would have the ability to communicate clearly, listen well, cooperate with others, resist inappropriate social pressure, negotiate conflict constructively, and seek and offer help when needed. Basically it is the ability to relate, connect and have compassion for others. The other 4 competencies that we have/will discuss are more internally based, this one is basically focused on how you get along with others and are you a good friend.
There are days when I am surprised any children in elementary school have good relationship skills because developmentally they believe that they are the center of the universe and everything happens around/to them; they need to put in minimal effort to get maximum results from others. Yet everyday little one’s come in holding hands, high-fiving or hugging like they haven’t seen each other in months. The quality of the relationships for young children affect not only how invested they are at school right now but lays the foundation work for self-confidence, motivation to learn, how to solve conflicts, and to truly understand the difference between right and wrong. At Davis Thayer we recognize the need for each student to feel a sense of belonging to willingly come to school, and this sense of belonging comes through the relationships that they have here.
We have multiple modes we use to encourage these relationships. The most significant way we work to build relationships is through morning meeting, which each teacher has been trained to do through Responsive Classroom. These morning meetings have two important components for relationship building: Greeting and Share. Every day the way each student greets each other changes. They may greet in a foreign language, or through high 5’s, but no matter how they do it, they need to look the student in the eye and state that student’s name during the greeting. Even just using a person’s name when you talk to them has been shown to increase feelings of acceptance by at least 25%. The share part of the morning meeting allows each child to tell a little bit about themselves everyday, as well as learn a little bit about others. These shares help students identify things that they have in common that they otherwise wouldn’t know, thereby possibly building new friendships/relationships.
Other structured times that reinforce relationship skill-building is cooperative activities, pair work and group projects. Recess, lunch and snack are some unstructured times that students have to talk, play and get to know each other. It is during these critical times that children learn how to problem-solve without adult intervention.
I have written before that it is important not to overbook our children in structured activities, because children do need down time, but it is also important for children to participate in some type of social interaction, starting immediately and continuing, multiple times a week- forever! The activities should be a combination of structured activities, like sports or dance, and then unstructured play dates with neighborhood children. These two types of activities further develop relationship skills necessary to grow into happy, well-adjusted and productive children, teens and adults!
Rebecca Ballinger, School Adjustment Counselor
News from the Nurse
Update Contact Information: As the year goes on please remember to keep the contact information current on your child’s emergency card. Many times work and cell numbers change as well as contact people. Please inform the nurse of any changes.
Travel Tip: Please provide the school nurse with written information about who will be responsible for your child when you are away on a trip. This caretaker may be different from the usual emergency contacts on your student’s nurse information card. Please include the dates you will be away, the name and phone numbers (cell and home) of the person who will be taking care of your child.
About Davis Thayer.......
Mrs. Gerber's contact information:
508-541-5263 ext 3710
Mrs. Wasik's contact information:
508-541-5263 ext 3719
Website: http://thayerelementary.vt-s.net/Pages/index
Location: 137 West Central Street, Franklin, MA, United States
Phone: 508-541-5263
Twitter: @DT_Bobcats