Dicken Family Newsletter
12.2.22
Principal's Corner
Upcoming Dates
- Wednesday/Thursday December 7/8 - Super Science Days with the Hands-On Museum
- Thursday, December 22 - Winter Break Begins at the end of the school day
- Monday, January 9 - School Resumes
December Morning Meeting Pods
Today we held our second school wide Morning Meeting Pods. The theme of today's Pod was "JOY". Students discussed what joy means to each of them and how they will find joy in their day today. We also enjoyed the following videos together:
100 Kids Tell us What Brings Them Joy
Our next Pods will take place on Friday, January 20!
From the Art Room
It’s that time of year again! Over the next few weeks 1st through 5th grade students will begin
the process of decorating a glass jar or vase for this year’s Winter Walk!
**The Winter Walk will take place on February 7 from 6:30 - 7:30.**
For those of you who are new to Dicken, The Winter Walk is a beautiful and simple night to
enjoy the combination of art and nature with family and friends. Our 1st - 5th grade artists create
Luminaries by decorating a glass jar or vase. Then on a wintery evening in February, all jars and
vases will have a LED light in them and the luminaries will be placed in a path (hopefully snowy)
around the school and through part of the Dicken Woods. The hundreds of glowing lanterns
change the environment of the woods and make the entire experience a communal work of art!
More information on the Date and times will be sent out closer to the event!
For now, we need your help by bringing in wide mouth glass jars or vases. Each student from
1st through 5th grades will need one! Please look for the paper attached below to come home with your student. The paper will have a date requesting you to bring a glass jar or vase by. The glass jar
or vase must have the student’s name, grade and teacher, on a piece of paper in it when it is
brought to the art room.
I always accept and appreciate extra donations of glass jars or vases to have for our students
who don’t end up bringing one in. Please have a piece of paper marked “extra” or “donation”
in any of the glass jars or vases that are being donated.
Thank you so much for your help!
Sincerely,
Ms. Erickson
Washtenaw County CDC Covid Level
As of today, Washtenaw County is in the CDC LOW/GREEN Community Level.
The Ann Arbor Public Schools Fall 2022 Covid Guidance is available here. The Ann Arbor Public Schools will always remain a mask-friendly environment.
Fall 2022 Guidance on masking in AAPS schools:
Masks are strongly recommended indoors when CDC Community Level is ‘HIGH’- RED
Masks are encouraged indoors when CDC Community Level is ‘MEDIUM’ - Yellow
Masks are welcomed indoors when CDC Community Level is ‘LOW’ - Green
Heather
PTO News
Message from the PTO President
After our super fun "It's Cool To Be Kind" assembly last month, the PTO enrichment team is hard at work planning more in-school fun for our Dolphins. They have recently met with some of the student lighthouse team and the school's equity committee to learn more about what types of assemblies would be great to bring to Dicken this school year and have lots of great ideas to move forward with!
—Jenifer Miller, Dicken PTO President
Click here for the Dicken Elementary Parents Facebook group.
Find information about events, meeting minutes, and more on the PTO website at www.dickenpto.com
Dicken Directory is Here!
Please click here to access the Dicken Directory for class lists and family contact info.
Upcoming PTO Dates
To see all Dicken school & PTO events in one place, click here for our PTO Google Calendar.
Another helpful link: the AAPS School Calendar.
Super Science Day- December 7th and 8th and help is needed!
Super Science Day(s) is coming! This is a two-day event put on by the Ann Arbor Hands On Museum to give all of our Dicken Dolphins a fun opportunity to explore various aspects of science. The Museum will bring 10 activities to Dicken, and each class will have a chance to rotate through all 10 stations during their hour visit to the gym. Stations will include magnets, ooblek, a look at how animals keep warm in the arctic, light, an exploration of gravity, and more! This is an amazing event that the kids truly love, but we can't do it without a LOT of volunteers.
We need 10 volunteers for each time slot. Whether you want to come just during your student's visit or can stay for longer, we guarantee a lot of fun for our adults as well. This is a great chance for local grandparents, relatives, and neighbors to come support Dicken. No science knowledge is necessary! Everything will be set up (and cleaned up) for you, and the stations have clear instructions to help adult volunteers share science with the students.
Sign up to help here. (full schedule is below if you want to sign up to help with a particular grade!)
Wednesday, December 7th
- 9:15 - 10:15 - Hubbard / Concannon (3rd graders)
- 10:15 - 11:15 Miller / Brann (4th graders)
- Lunch break
- 12:30 - 1:30 Posey / Van Oyen (2nd graders)
Thursday, December 8th
- 9:15 - 10:15 - Harris / Gargaro (Kindergartners)
- 10:15 - 11:15 Hane / Chartier (5th graders)
- Lunch break
- 12:30 - 1:30 Brogno / Maus (young 5's & 2nd grade)
- 1:30 - 2:30 Rossi / Thomas / Kairys (1st graders)
Reminder: We want to hear from you!
The Spending Committee has carefully reviewed the results from the initial survey and created a final survey that is being distributed to the entire Dicken Community (staff, students, and parents/guardians). Thank you to everyone who has already completed the final survey. If you haven't completed it, please take a few minutes to fill out this short survey.
Dicken Spirit Wear Sale! Open until Wednesday, December 7th!
The Dicken Spirit Wear Sale is back!
Order NOW through Wednesday December 7th.
Orders will be ready the week of December 19th.
PTOC Our Twelve Days of Giving Challenge
Looking for a way to build community and work toward equity this holiday season?
This year, many AAPS students and families could benefit from community support, especially those at our Title I schools. The PTO Council, through the work of the Equity Committee, encourages families who have extra to give, to consider giving outside of their own school needs. We know that we are all STRONGER, TOGETHER.
Our Twelve Days of Giving challenge starts December 1st. For twelve days on the PTO Council Facebook page we will promote the Winter Giving needs at an AAPS school, beginning with our two schools without PTOs, followed by ten Title One schools in order of economic need.
How can you help meet the challenge?
- Follow the Ann Arbor PTO Council on Facebook:
- Pick a school/day and send a gift card.
- See if your workplace/department, sports team, or scout troop can host a gift card drive.
- Consider sharing these wish lists in your PTO and school community.
- Please share about our campaign on your social media pages/groups, with friends, family, and colleagues, and on other places like Nextdoor.
Not on social media? You can find the winter giving lists here: https://www.a2schools.org/wintergiving. (* = Designates Title 1 schools and/or schools that have at least 25% of students who qualify for free or reduced lunch.)
Together we can build community and work towards equity. We know that we are all stronger, together.
Questions? Let us know!
WESO SEASON IS COMING!
Every year Dicken Elementary Students participate in the Washtenaw Elementary Science Olympics. This year the competition will be held on Saturday May 13, 2023 at Huron High School.
To register a team, we need a Key Volunteer!
The Key Volunteer will perform a volunteer task for the WESO board. This task can be anything from parking cars at the WESO tournament, making name tags for volunteers, being an event supervisor, guiding students from one event to another, helping organize the WESO silent auction, helping organize competition day concessions, etc. Basically each school is required to provide one volunteer to the WESO board to help plan and put on the competition.
Any parent who volunteers to be Dicken’s Key Volunteer will not be required to give any volunteer hours to the Dicken Team and your child will be guaranteed a spot on a WESO competition team.
Please contact Colleen Diedrich (clmaloney3@gmail.com; (207) 240-5542) if you are interested in being our Key Volunteer.
Thank you!
Colleen Diedrich and Alex Harmon (Dicken Head Coaches)
Dicken Garden Compost Project
We’re going to make our own compost! We have a new compost tumbler and we’re hoping to fill it with good stuff that will turn into better stuff for our plants in the spring. We’re providing compostable bags to collect fruit and vegetable scraps in classrooms, and you can bring in materials from home. We are using only raw fruit and vegetables, eggshells and coffee grounds. Help us make this experiment a success! Contact Anne Erickson amcerickson@gmail.com.
Celebrate what makes us UNIQUE!
Did you know that December 1st was World AIDS Day? https://www.worldaidsday.org/about/ This day is an opportunity to show support for people living with HIV and to commemorate those who have died from an AIDS-related illness. In the United States, the number of children who were born with HIV peaked around 1992. Since then we have had a dramatic reduction in pediatric HIV cases due to advances in medicine and what we know about controlling the disease. Currently in the United States, there are fewer than 200 children born with HIV each year. But there may be many children who live with a loved one who is managing HIV/AIDS. So it is important that we remain aware, provide support services, and continue to learn about the disease.
Click here to learn more about Michigan's Ryan White HIV/AIDS program.