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  • Dahlgren School
  • Home of the Tigers
  • Succeed...It's What We Do!
  • Mailing Address:
  • Dahlgren School
    Naval Support Facility
    Bldg 193 Dahlgren School
    6117 Sampson Road Ste 206
    Dahlgren, VA 22448-5166
  • Office Hours: 0730-1600
  • Phone: (540) 653-8822
  • Fax: (540) 653-4591
  • Principal: Alice Herring
 

Dahlgren Tiger Beat, March 2010

Principal's Corner

Thanks so much for your patience and understanding for the missed school days due to snow and poor road conditions in February. While our missed days have been limited compared to local schools, we still want students in school every day. We appreciate those who made sure that streets, sidewalks and our parking lot were clear. This was a great combined community effort. We have received great feedback from parents on the “One Call” system. It is, however, only as good as the phone numbers we have to call. If you did not receive the “One Calls” during the snow days, please contact the school office to update your contact information. Shortly, we will know what is required to make up the time missed and will insure that you are informed.

March is a busy month. We start off the month with guest readers for Read Across America on March 1st and 2nd. Students in the Middle School will participate in the Dahlgren Job Shadow Day on March 3rd. This was rescheduled due to inclement weather.

The PTO is sponsoring the School Book Fair during the week of March 15-19. We know that the more students read the better readers they become. Come and browse the books with your child. Students in Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten will enjoy working with an artist in residence from Wolf trap the week of March 22-26th. This is a combined program with the Child Development Center. Also during the week of March 22-26th, students in grades 3-8 will participate in the Terra Nova standardized assessment. Please plan ahead to have your child in school in the mornings, the heaviest time of the testing.

All of the extra activities could not have happened without parent and community volunteers. Thanks to you all for your continued support. We are very proud of the students of Dahlgren School!

Continuous School Improvement Plan

One of Dahlgren School’s Continuous School Improvement Plan academic goals is to provide students with experiences in critical thinking skills. This month’s focus looks at the practical application of critical thinking concerning consumer purchases. Did you know that today’s American children spend $4.2 billion a year of their own money to purchase items for personal use? Did you know that Saturday morning TV is the focus of a $100 million advertising budget by consumer industries? These statistics are courtesy of the Center for Media Literacy.

Students have the money, but do they have the critical thinking skills necessary to spend that money wisely or to get the best value ? What really constitutes “the best value”? Extending the idea of critical thinking further, do older students
understand where their goods were made and under what conditions? Do they understand the ramifications of product disposal?

For students who are given their own money to spend, knowing how to apply the
critical thinking skills of comparing and contrasting will help them become better consumers.

Compare and Contrast at Home

This year’s Continuous School Improvement Plan (CSIP) focuses on helping students develop critical thinking skills.  One way to support this effort is by working with your child at home on simple tasks that allow him or her to compare and contrast items.  Each month some ideas will appear in the Tiger Beat to help you help your child.

Everyone loves the story of The Gingerbread Man but did you know that there are many different versions of that story?  Choose two from the many Gingerbread Man books that are the most different, such as The Gingerbread Man  retold by Jim Aylesworth and The Gingerbread Girl by Lisa Campbell Ernst.  These two stories have very different endings.  Read both books to your child.  Talk to your child about how the stories are the same and how they are different.

For further compare and contrast activities for older children, check out the following website: http://www.thevirtualvine.com/gbmactivities.html 

Counselor's Corner

Guidance activities in the classes this month will focus on understanding and managing feelings, particularly feelings of stress and anger. Students will be encouraged to use their verbal skills to show people how they feel and to express
themselves in positive ways. They will also learn strategies that work to deal with frustration, stress and anger.

The TerraNova Tests of Achievement will be administered to all students in grades three through eighth the week of March 22-26. It is very important that all children be here during that week. Tests will be given every day in the morning. If a child is absent due to illness, makeups will be given the following week.Terra Nova is a norm referenced test in which your child’s scores are compared to those of children in a national norm group. Results should be received about six weeks after testing.

Parents of children 3 to 5, mark your calendars for the annual screening day on Friday, March 19. This is a free service in conjunction with personnel from the Bethesda Naval Hospital who provide screenings for children from birth to
three. Screenings include vision, hearing, speech, cognitive, fine motor and adaptive development. If any problems are noted, further assessment can be done with parent permission and services provided. Call the school for more information.

The Kids on the Block puppet show event was postponed from February 17 to March 29. This program, for grades three through five, focuses on treating people with differences with respect.

Second Annual Northern Neck Disabilitites Awareness Fair. A free joint military/civilian weekend providing information and resources to parents and caregivers of people with special needs will be held at King George Elementary School on April 23 and 24.

Black History Month

Everyone knows that February is traditionally Black History Month, but Dahlgren School unofficially kicked off Black History Month in January. After completing several activities about Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Reading Buddies requested
books on African-Americans for Friday afternoon reading. Mrs. G. filled two plastic crates full of beautiful books – most of them brand new, thanks to the $28,000 book allocation that we received from DoDEA last summer! She also displayed lots of books for older students as well.

One teacher checked out A Voice of Her Own: the Story of Phillis Wheatley, Slave Poet by Kathryn Lasky. Although the book is only 40 pages long, it’s an excellent way to teach older students about a slave who “became famous on both sides of the Atlantic as the first Black poet in America.” Then, a middle school student snatched up Jackie and Me: a Baseball Card Adventure by Dan Gutman. In this book, a boy goes back to 1947 to meet Jackie Robinson, turning into an African-American boy and changing “his view of history and his definition of courage.” At lunchtime one day, a student was searching for a good biography to share during Literary Lunch and found a winner – When Marian Sang by Pam Muñoz Ryan.

We also discovered a wonderful book at our book fair in October. It’s called Our Children Can Soar: a Celebration of Rosa, Barack, and the Pioneers of Change by Michelle Cook. We liked it so much that we used every dollar of the“One for Books” program and every penny in free credits in order to purchase as many copies as possible. The opening lines are “Our ancestors fought… so George could invent. George invented… so Jesse could sprint. Jesse sprinted… so Hattie could star.” (This line about Hattie McDaniel fits right in with the upcoming Academy Awards.) The book follows a timeline through President Obama.

Ms. G has some fun finger puppets of famous African-Americans with magnets inside. Students love to pull them off the markerboard and play with the puppets as they read about famous people like Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Thurgood Marshall, George Washington Carver, and Barack Obama. The Olympics provided a good opportunity to talk about Jesse Owens and to showcase a new book titled Jesse Owens: Fastest Man Alive by Carole Boston Weatherford.

A favorite game during Black History Month is an internet scavenger hunt. Students get to read about George Washington Carver, Frederick Douglass, Mae Jemison, Thurgood Marshall, Jesse Owens, Rosa Parks, Jackie Robinson, Sojourner Truth, Harriet Tubman, and Booker T. Washington. Then they match the person with some famous facts. There are prizes for everyone when they finish the hunt. It’s mpossible to showcase every famous African-American, so students find free bookmarks in the library all month long with a long list of names for suggested reading and research.

Mile Club News

Mile Club resumes it’s trek on Tuesday, March 2, 2010! We’ve been on a short hiatus due to the weather and basketball season, but we are ready to start walking again! If you are 9 and older, meet in the school gym and join us for some fun!

Garden Club

Tired of the snow? Ready to get outside, dig around in the dirt, and make something grow? Then it’s time for you to get together with us! Inspired by Mrs. Obama and her White House garden, we are doing the first veggie garden at Dahlgren School this year! We have started an experimental batch of seeds and will be updating the Earth Day Garden to support a celebration coming in May!! This year’s packages of fresh veggie seeds are on their way, the fountain for the courtyard is almost here, and we’ll be putting it all in place as soon as we get the ground tilled and the space level!

 

 

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