Our Global Community
This Lower School Notes blog is hosted by Google. One of the
benefits is that not only can I track the number of views, but also where the
viewers are located. It is interesting to know that we are running at about 550
views per weekly post, but what I was not prepared for is that we have viewers
from Great Britain, Canada, India, South Africa, Japan, Russia, France,
Germany, Mexico, China, Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea, the Philippines and,
of course, the United States! I imagine that these global views are from
extended family members of our Dwight-Englewood Community.
I was also not prepared for what came
out during the kindergarten Valentine’s Day Concert. One of their wonderful
pieces featured students saying “I love you” in 15 different languages that
their parents or grandparents speak. 15 languages from a class of 28 students
is simply amazing and speaks to the wonderfully cosmopolitan community in which
our students are growing up. Below is a video of that portion of the
performance, with students saying “I love you” in Chinese, Greek, Hindi,
French, Russian, Spanish, Armenian, Turkish, Ukrainian, Philippino, Italian,
German, Twi (from Ghana), Korean, Farsi and English. (The rest of the kindergarten and the complete first-grade performances videos are below.)
Then, this week our Lower School assembly was a West African drumming and dancing celebration which included our fifth graders who have been learning drumming and the entire seventh grade who have been learning West African drumming and dancing as they study Africa. The video below gives a feel of the energy in our gym filled with over 350 students and faculty dancing to the drumming of our own students.
These experiences are what prepare our students to live in a world that values different cultures, traditions and points of view. They are very fortunate indeed!
For a thought-provoking article on American Parenting in the NYT Sunday Opinion Section, click here.
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Our Reading Party by Paulina in fourth-grade
It all started with reading the BFG by Roald Dahl. Then one night I went home and looked in my cookbooks because I has a feeling I was supposed to look! Then all of a sudden I found a book called Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes. I looked in it for a bit, then found frobscottle! I read the ingredients and thought it would be ok to bring in the book. Mrs.Sienicki suggested that anyone who gets a parent signature could pick a recipe to make. So nine or ten brought in recipes. We all had a party with edible marshallow pillows and chocolate cake and more. We had a party because we all together read more than 10,000 pages.(Editor's note: In case you missed the picture last week, this edible crocodile was one of the above treats shared with first-grade buddies.
Fifth Graders Float Their Boats
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| Overall winner - Ashley |
On February 10th 2012, the 5th grade had an ambitious challenge. This friendly contest was to try to make the lightest boat out of Heavy Duty Reynolds Aluminum Foil, glue, and tape. Not to mention, the boat had to hold a 510g can of Hunts Tomato Paste, floating in water. The dimensions of our boat could not be greater than 30cm long, 30cm wide and 25cm deep. We each had only two trials to test our boat, though we couldn’t addor take mass away from our boat in between those two trials. Also we got to name our boats. The winners from each classroom were:
Asteroids – “S.S. Awesome” at 5.6 grams by Autumn and Emma.
Comets – “S.S. Newt Gingrich” at 5.6 grams by Jordan
Meteors – “S.S. Squaretastic” at 5.3 grams by Ashley
Honorable Mention (built after the competition) – “S.S. Kyle ” at 3.8 grams by Kyle
Written by Autumn and Jayna
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| Kyle |
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| Erik and Michael |
Opera Update--Historians
Hi, I’m Kyle, and I'm going to tell you about the historians. Their names are Eric and Michael. I did an interview with them and this is what they had to say:
Eric: “We just finished the head shots, but we need action shots also. We are currently doing interviews and are looking forward to seeing how this all turns out."
Michael: “The hardest part is making people focus.”
As you can see the historians are excited about their job which documents the process of the whole opera from beginning to end and will be presented to us in the Hajjar “lobby” the evening of our performance. Stay tuned for next week when Ryan writes about the costume and make-up artists.
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| Great Family event. Click for more info March 2 & 3 at 7:30 pm and March 4 at 2:00 pm |
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| Click here for full Spring Catalog |
PEP Grades 4-8 Symposium - Monday Feb. 27th 7-9 in Hajjar Auditorium
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The D-E PA would like to determine if there is parent interest in attending a “One Step Ahead Mini Work Shop”. As many of you know, we offered the full 8 week parenting course in 2009 and 2010. Due to lower attendance last year, we decided not offer the full 8 week STEP class again this year. However, several Lower School families have expressed an interest to me in attending a STEP workshop this year as well. Due to these requests I have arranged a possible 3 week STEP class that would be held on a combination of evenings and mornings. In order to determine if there is enough parent interest to schedule this additional STEP class, we ask that you please take the survey by clicking here (please complete by Feb. 29th). A full description of the workshop is below.
The Three Pillars of STEP: Motivation, Communication, and Discipline, a three-part Workshop
Worskhop sessions run two hours, each incorporating an overview of the STEP philosophy and approach to child-rearing, followed by an in-depth discussion of each of the three critical components of that approach: Motivation, Communication, Discipline. Each two-hour session may be attended: as a stand-alone introduction to STEP; a refresher for those who have taken the 8-week series and would like to reinforce their mastery of certain topics; or a means to improve your relationship with your child specifically in these three areas. Each two-hour session will focus on one of the three topics in depth, with examples, practice and role-playing giving participants the tools and skills they need to successfully implement the approach at home.
1. Motivation—STEP seeks to show parents how to effectively bring out their children’s self-motivation, by learning how to encourage—describe, notice, ask-- instead of praise. Help children to recognize their passions and interests, as well as find the motivation for cooperation within the family.
2. Communication—talking so our kids will listen and listening so they’ll talk- that’s the purpose of this STEP method. Parents learn to use I-messages to communicate that a problem needs to be solved, instead of putting children on the defensive. They learn active or reflective listening, which encourages kids to identify, articulate, and grapple with their own feelings—both positive and negative-- as they communicate them. Excellent communication strengthens family relationships.
3. Discipline—parents learn to substitute consequences for punishment and turn discipline into an opportunity for education about the way the world works. It preserves a healthy and loving relationship while teaching kids to assume appropriate responsibilities.
Parents may choose to attend one, two, or all three of the sessions and still benefit. The first half-hour will be an overview of STEP; the following 90 minutes will focus on practical skills of each topic: examples and role-playing will give parents the experience they need to respond to the particular difficulties they are having at home.
Kindergarten Peformance First Grade Performance
