Dale Street Blog: April 9, 2021

Hello Dale Street Community,

How exciting! We reached another milestone this week - a full 5 day week! It was an awesome week and another fantastic step toward normalcy. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I have to say again how impressed I am with the students and staff at #beproudbedale. Their energy and perseverance are outstanding to witness daily. Please take a minute to check out some of the sights and updates from this week.

This winter, Dale Street students explored poetry and created heart maps to showcase their thinking. Heat maps are a visual tool to represent important ideas. These heart maps were displayed around the school. Photos throughout this process were shared on Twitter. Jen Bassett and Christy Callahan, our Reading Specialists here at Dale Street, tagged Georgia Heard in these posts. She is the creator of heart maps and a poet and author.

Georgia Heard saw Dale Street’s amazing heart maps on Twitter and reached out to Jen and Christy asking about the project. After a Zoom collaboration, Georgia asked if she could include Dale Street’s Heart Map project in her upcoming book. Needless to say, we are all very excited that the students at Dale Street have the potential to showcase their amazing thinking and learning in Georgia’s upcoming book, Poetry Every Day; Ways to Include Poetry in the Daily Life of the Classroom! These students' heart maps were selected as possible entries. Way to go!

Congratulations to Lydia and Somer for receiving a Positive Referral this week. These two Dale Street Rockstars exemplified our Core Values of respect and compassion. Way to go!

This week students in Mrs. Dowd's Grade 5 Cohort D class have been learning about the American Revolution. These young learners spent time learning about Patriots, Loyalists, and Fence Sitters! Students worked in breakout rooms and had some amazing discussions.


It has been great having instruments back at Dale Street. On Wednesday, our fifth-grade students participated in their first in-person ensemble in over a year - so exciting!

Dale Street Student Council Food Cupboard Drive

When: Tuesday, April 27th - Tuesday, May 25th

Where: Drop off in boxes outside the main office.

Requested Items: Men’s and Women's soap, body wash, shampoo, conditioner, body lotion, sunscreen, and bug spray

Thank you to all the grade 5 families who attended Tuesday night's Adolescent Changes webinar. If you didn't have the chance to hear the webinar (or would like to view it again) you can click here. You can click here to see the slides that were used during the presentation.

The Tournament of Books competition continues! This year's theme: 'The World Around Us.' The winner will be announced before April vacation.

Round 1 winners

Your Place in the Universe by Jason Chin

We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom, illustrated by Michaela Goade

and The Stuff of Stars by Marion Dane Bauer, illustrated by Ekua Holmes.

4/9 Vote 4: Greta and the Giants by Zoe Tucker, illustrated by Zoe Persic vs Outside In by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Cindy Derby

4/12 Round 2 Vote 1

4/14 Round 2 Vote 2

4/16 Final vote, winner announced

This letter was sent out to Grade 4 families offering parents the opportunity to share information about their son/daughter for next year’s placement at Dale Street. The information that you share will be used to assist me with the student placement process for the 2021 – 2022 school year. When corresponding about placement, parents are asked to focus on the type of learning environment that best meets the strengths and needs of their child. Please know that throughout the placement process our focus will be on placing your child in a classroom in which they will grow both academically and socially. Parent input narratives should be sent in no later than Friday, April 16th. For other suggestions regarding the parent narrative, please see this slide deck which was shared during the Elementary Principals' Placement webinar on 3/30.

On Thursday a group of students from Ms. Sager's fifth-grade class volunteered to clean up the area around the tables during their recess time. They did a super job! Thank you to these awesome Dale Street ROCKSTARS for making Dale Street a better place!

UPDATED 2021 TESTING SCHEDULE

Dale Street's testing schedule is set for the spring. It is most important that students attend school on the days of testing, so please plan appointments in a way that does not interfere with your child being in school on the following testing dates:

English Language Arts - Next-Generation MCAS

Who: Grades 5 (computer-based)

May 11th

Who: Grade 4 (computer-based)

May 12th

ELA Make-ups for grades 4 and 5 will take place on a rolling basis as needed

Math - Next-Generation MCAS

Who: Grades 5 (computer-based)

May 18th

Who: Grade 4 (computer-based)

May 19th

Math Make-ups for grades 4 and 5 will take place on a rolling basis as needed

Science, Technology, and Engineering

Who: Grade 5 (computer-based)

May 20th

STE Make-ups for grade 5 will take place on a rolling basis as needed

On Tuesday, students in Ms. Plympton's fourth-grade class worked in groups to compare and contrast different versions of the fairy tale Cinderella. On this particular day, students looked at two versions Cendrillon and The Egyptian Cinderella, and collaborated on elements such as characters, setting, point of view, problem, solution, magic involved, and number 3 or 7.

This week our grade 5 classes had a blast learning about separating substances according to their physical properties. This amazing opportunity is a partnership between Dale Street and SEED (Science Engineering Education Development) which is a non-profit team of Ph.D. scientists who partner with elementary school teachers to make science exciting and accessible via student-led activities. This partnership was made possible by a Mass Cultural Council grant.

The Dale Street Math Challenge is on! Students are free to solve as many problems as they can and will have about a week to turn in their work. Students can hand in a hard copy of the challenge to the office or email it to Mrs. Perachi (bperachi@email.medfield.net) prior to the due date.

More information, including a calendar of important dates and a link to download and print the challenges and solutions, is available here. Questions regarding the math challenge program can be directed to Dale Street math specialist, Mrs. Perachi.

On Monday, fifth-grade students in Ms. Burnham's class took time during reader's workshop to analyze book covers. Students discussed the parts of a cover, and what to look for (for example the art and the text) and that book covers include symbolism and mood. Great conversation!

Exciting Miss Amazing news! The seventh annual Miss Amazing will take place in person on Sunday, May 2nd, with a rain date of Saturday, May 1st! Miss Amazing’s mission statement declares, “Miss Amazing provides opportunities for girls and women with disabilities to build confidence and self-esteem in a supportive environment.” Many thanks to Medfield Parks and Recreation for allowing the event to take place at Hinkley Pond free of charge. Their generosity and kindness are incredibly appreciated! Even though the event will look different this year with no public audience, there are still ways to support the cause and get involved. We encourage everyone to participate in our Italian Groceria fundraiser on Wednesday, April 14th, from 5 to 8 pm. A percentage of their profit will be donated directly to Miss Amazing. We hope to see you there!

How nice to be able to enjoy some warm weather! Our students made the most of it!

T𝙃𝘼𝙉𝙆 𝙔𝙊𝙐 Medfield!!! Over $106,000 in less than a week! This community is truly amazing.

𝙏𝙃𝘼𝙉𝙆 𝙔𝙊𝙐-this community has come together and shown what #𝙊𝙣𝙚𝙈𝙚𝙙𝙛𝙞𝙚𝙡𝙙𝙊𝙣𝙬𝙖𝙧𝙙 is all about 💙 Congratulations Medfield!!

We also want to thank everyone who joined us for Wednesday night's event: Murder, Mystery, Intrigue, and Scandal: The Dark Side of Medfield! What a fun night!

Feeling stressed, down or anxious? Need to talk to someone about it? Medfield Outreach is offering drop-in hours. Check out this flyer for details.

You are invited to join the Medfield Cares About Prevention Community Coalition and help us make change in the Medfield community. To learn more about how to get involved, email Meri Haas at mhaas@medfield.net.

So cool! On a visit to Ms. MacDonnell's fourth-grade classroom this week I watched as our Rockstar students took a movement break between learning opportunities. During my visit, students took 3 minutes to dance, sing, run in place, and do jumping jacks as they listened to a song that highlighted states and capitals.

Any Medfield resident in need of food may contact the Food Cupboard at 508-359-4958 or email: info@MedfieldFoodCupboard.com. Please note all inquiries are confidential.

This week, Mrs. Newton's fourth-grade class was very excited to visit Ms. Sweeney and Mrs. Cole for a library orientation.