Dike Newell School

Hello DNS and FMS Families! This month PTA meeting will be an online only meeting. We would love for you to join us to talk about our upcoming events. We have a lot of exciting things coming we can’t wait to share with you! Please join us on our Google Meeting using the below link: https://meet.google.com/gfp-rnrd-sjn If you have any questions please let us know! Thank you Nicole Brassard PTA President

Dike-Newell recently had their water fountains upgraded to bottle filling stations. Students and staff are enjoying this new way to refill their water bottles!

In library class this week, Dike Newell students have been learning about the Maine Chickadee Award as well as reading our first Chickadee Award nominated book. The Chickadee Award is a picture book award program for children in kindergarten through fourth grade. This award is in its seventeenth year, and is given annually to one of ten picture books nominated by a committee of teachers, librarians, and early literacy professionals, with the winner chosen by Maine school children. The purpose of the Chickadee Award is to encourage children to develop an appreciation for excellence in writing and illustration that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. Fussy Flamingo, written by Shelly Vaughan James and illustrated by Matthew Rivera was this week's selection. For more information, visit the Chickadee Award Website at https://sites.google.com/site/thechickadeeaward/.

Hey there, you're doing a great job! And on that note, Monday 1/24 is National Compliment Day - we will have a school-wide community meeting in the afternoon to celebrate, and we are asking everyone to wear something they LOVE so we can practice giving compliments! Your best sneakers? A favorite sweater? The most comfy pants? Whatever it is that you LOVE!

Hello parents! As you are managing the on-going issues around closing of before/after care programs, a quick reminder that students who have not been riding the school bus cannot be added for a temporary period of time to deal with the daycare closures. If your before/after care program has closed temporarily, due to COVID or staffing issues, please make alternate transportation arrangements - thank you!

Upcoming PTA meeting: Happy New Year! The PTA is going to kick off 2022 with our first meeting of the year on Tuesday 1/4. This will be an online meeting ONLY. We are going to try out Google Meeting for this month. The meeting link is below: https://meet.google.com/ukn-ptpy-cph We look forward to seeing you online! Any questions or concerns please let me know. Our email address is bathelementarypta@gmail.com

The second vaccine clinic last Friday went very well! Those students who rode the bus and received their second dose, vaccination cards will be mailed home to families. Great work everyone!

Dike Newell Students have been participating in Hour of Code, a worldwide effort to celebrate and promote computer science, during their library classes this week. We read Coding 1, 2, 3 by Janet Slingerland as well as How to Code a Sandcastle by Josh Funk. Students then had the opportunity to practice entering commands into Bee-Bot robots to see if they could program the correct sequence for the Bee-Bots to reach their destinations. Students also viewed Kodable Programming Website for Kids. First and second grade students will have the opportunity to use Kodable during future library classes and a link has been shared on each grade level's library Brightspace pages To find out about the Hour of Code, visit: https://hourofcode.com/us/learn To try Kodable, visit: https://www.kodable.com/hour-of-code For more information on Bee-Bots, please visit: . https://www.terrapinlogo.com/bee-bot-family.html#:~:text=Bee%2DBot%20is%20an%20exciting,Bot%20a%20voice%20and%20perception!

Dike-Newell School believes that we are a community of caring, and that our school community is connected to our families and larger outside community through caring relationships as well. Students in several classrooms recently demonstrated that caring by making cards for Maine Army National Guard troops for the holidays, which will be sent with Christmas stockings by our local Auxiliary.

The week of December 6th, Dike Newell Students will participate in an Hour of Code during their library classes. The Hour of Code began as a one-hour coding challenge to give students a fun first introduction to computer science and has become a global learning event, celebration, and awareness event. https://hourofcode.com/us offers hundreds of one-hour activities in over 48 languages for kindergarten and up. Activities require no experience and can be run on browsers, tablets, and smartphones - some don’t require any computer at all. Hour of Code is Here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC5FbmsH4fw Beyond an Hour of Code: https://hourofcode.com/us/beyond#student-section

From our Library! Students have been learning about the history and traditions of Thanksgiving. We looked at sketches of the Mayflower and discussed what it must have been like staying on it for several months as well as traveling to a new, unknown land. We also read several Thanksgiving stories including:Turkey Trouble, A Turkey for Thanksgiving, There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Turkey, The Night Before Thanksgiving and Thanksgiving is for Giving Thanks.

Curious about the COVID-19 Vaccination for children? Here's a link to the upcoming ZOOM - Pediatricians Share: What Parents Need to Know about the COVID-19 Vaccination for Children https://mecap.org/events

Candy Corn Science?! Some of our second grade classes combined Halloween and Science late last week, doing an experiment on different solutions and candy corns. Using vinegar, oil, and water, the students made predictions about the effect the liquid would have on candy corns, and then tested their ideas. They made some great observations, and used some great science terminology, like "dissolving." The hardest part of the whole experiment? Not eating the materials!

We like to have fun at Dike-Newell :).... and Friday, one of our favorite annual visitors came to join our lunched - the Whipped Cream Robot!! Every year around Halloween, the Whipped Cream Robot shows up to dispense the topping for the hot lunch dessert, and this year we had a really good time. He may not turn on a dime, and sometimes he gives an extra-large portion, but it's always fun when the Whipped Cream Robot comes to DNS!

Lakeshore Learning recently donated several items to the Dike Newell School Library. The library received a Jumbo Connect Learn Set, which has more than sixty different science activities including Maze Challenge, Robotic Duck, TurboAir Mini Vacuum, TurboAir Blowing Bubbles, TurboAir Floating Ball and LED Light.Competition. The library also received a package of People Colors Crayons with a diverse range of colors to choose from, as well as a Social Studies Instant Learning Center on the Cultures Around the World, which allows students to work at their own pace to discover fascinating facts about cultures around the world. Many thanks to Lakeshore Learning for their generosity!

Attention all families: Please take this 5 minute survey from The Barbara Bush Children’s Hospital. Even if you completed the survey last year, we need your participation again! Everyone who completes the survey will be entered into a prize drawing and five lucky winners across the state will each receive a $100 Amazon gift card for their personal use AND if you win, our school will receive $1,000. Other schools are participating, so the more families from our school who complete the survey, the greater our chance of winning $1,000! Contact information for the prize drawing will be collected at the end of the survey and will not be connected to your survey responses. All survey responses are anonymous. Click the following link to begin the survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2021FamilySCHSagadahoc Thank you!

Do you know the Dike Newell School Library has a website? Using the headings at the top of the page, you can see the latest news from the library, find great, student orientated websites as well as reading resources, plus links to other sites such as the Duplango language learning and the Patten Free Library. You can also search the library's catalog of books at: https://search.follettsoftware.com/metasearch/ui/53466 The library's website is located at: https://sites.google.com/rsu1.org/dnslibrary/library-home

REMINDER - there is NO school on Friday 10/8 due to a professional development day and Monday 10/11 due to Indigenous People's Day.

Reminder that TONIGHT 9/29 is our Open House from 5:00 to 6:30. Please make sure you have signed up for a time slot if you are planning to attend! Call the main office if you have any questions at 443-8285

PTA EVENT UPDATE - Unfortunately due to weather, the PTA Movie Night outside event scheduled for Saturday September 25th at Fisher Mitchell School has been cancelled.