Dale Street Blog

Friday, April 12, 2024

April 12, 2024 - Week 32

Dear Dale Street Community,

Students and staff are entering April vacation on all cylinders after another fantastic week. Take a look...

It was an exciting afternoon on Monday as students took in the beginning parts of the solar eclipse. Thank you to Dr. Marsden for purchasing protective glasses for all students and staff to witness this unique and very cool event.

Our last Kids Night Out event is coming up in a few weeks! Please see the links below to sign your child up for the 4th Grade Night (May 10th) or the 5th Grade Night (May 17th). We also need a lot of volunteers so we'd appreciate any help! The sign-up genius for the volunteers is located on the permission slip.

4th Grade Permission Slip - May 10th

5th Grade Permission Slip - May 17th

This week, all Grade 4 students continued participating in their hands-on Science unit with our partners from SEED (Science Engineering Education Development), Dr. Liz and Dr. Sandy. This wonderful opportunity was funded by a Mass Cultural Council grant. Students as scientists - AWESOME!

I had a great time on Thursday viewing the amazing classroom artwork of our awesome Dale Street Rockstars!

Our fourth and fifth-grade students completed their ELA MCAS sessions this week. I am so very proud of the students and staff involved in this week's testing. Their perseverance and resiliency need to be commended. If your child missed either session 1 or 2, make-ups will be completed on an ongoing basis. Here are the remaining testing dates for Dale Street students:

Math

Grade 4 May 7th and May 9th

Grade 5 May 8th and May 10th

STE Testing

Grade 5 May 14th and May 17th

Fourth-grade students in Señora LeVangie & Señora Spittel's Spanish class dressed a character for a season they liked and wrote about the weather that occurs and types of clothing worn in that season!

Fifth-grade students in Señora Spittel & Señora LeVangie's class drew a map using locations described to them by their teachers in Spanish. They will use these maps to learn how to ask and tell directions in Spanish and talk about where they like to go in town for various activities!

Thank you to all who took the time to submit a placement letter. We will begin working on creating classes/groupings right after the break and will continue at our PD day on May 3rd.

The Medfield Special Education Parents Advisory Council (SEPAC) is proud to announce The Jim James Inclusion Award, sponsored by the Medfield Special Education Parents Advisory Council. This award seeks to highlight the employees within our district who promote and model inclusive practices, ensuring that all learners are welcomed and celebrated. Read more and submit nominations (4/1-5/1)here: https://forms.gle/c97eQzwrPoQmCCtP8

SEPAC Upcoming Events: Sometimes, there's a perception that a child's disability/diagnosis needs to present in a certain way or severity to join SEPAC, but SEPAC is for EVERYONE. So please mark your calendars for our spring Workshops & Parent Connection Groups:

4/18 Down Syndrome Parent Connection Group, 11:30 am Medfield Public Library

4/23 Executive Function with Ali Spidalieri, M.Ed BCBA, 7 pm, Blake Middle School Library

4/30 (To Be Confirmed) ASD Parent Connection Group, 7 pm, Medfield Public Safety Building

5/1 Dyslexia + Language-Based Learning Disabilities (LBLD) Parent Connection Group - 7 pm Medfield Public Safety Building

5/16 Down Syndrome Parent Connection Group, 11:30 am Medfield Public Library

5/21 High School Transition Planning w/ Meredith Becker and Stephanie Worthley - 7 pm Blake Middle School Library

*ADHD PCG is working on May & June dates, stay tuned

Positive Sign Thursday!

'WE EARNED A VACATION!'

Dale Street Bike/Walk to School

The Green Team (Dale Street Intramural Club) along with Ms. Sager's and Mrs. Hayes' classes decorated approximately 200 grocery bags to help Shaw's and Brothers celebrate Earth Day. Awesome job!

IMPORTANT DATES

Monday, April 15th - Friday, April 19th - No School - Spring Vacation

Click here for the link to Community Postings

There will be no school for students from Monday, April 15, 2024, through Sunday, April 21, 2024. Students will return to school on Monday, April 22, 2024. Best wishes for a safe and enjoyable April vacation. Enjoy the time away!

Steve

Inclusivity * Respect * Responsibility * Continuous Growth

Friday, April 5, 2024

April 5, 2024 - Week 31

Hello Dale Street Community!

What a terrific week it's been at #BeProudBedale! Despite having only four student days, there was a lot of learning and enjoyment. Please take a minute to scroll through this week's blog to check it out.

Fourth graders in Ms. Dipesa's class thoroughly enjoyed their SEED science lesson on animal superpowers! On this day, students had fun investigating animal senses.

Congratulations to Dale Street's Artist of the Month, Lilly from Ms. McKenzie's class.

Congratulations to this week's Positive Referrals!

PreK - 5 Spirit Day

Spirit Day is coming! On Friday, April 12th, we will be having a Crazy Hat/Crazy Hair Day for all who wish to participate.

On Thursday, we held an awesome assembly that highlighted Dale Street's March Madness 🏀 championship & the unveiling of our Battle of Books winner. Congratulations to our winning team the Team Buckets (Billy, Evan, and Dante), and our runner-up team Nothing But Netters (Lilla, Rory, and Ellen). You both were incredible! Our winning book, voted on by students, was The Wild Robot by Peter Brown. Congratulations to Ms. MacDonnell's class for winning the prize for most participation. Big shout out to our phenomenal emcee, Mr. Mason, and Dale Street's awesome Library staff, Mrs. Lowerre and Mrs. Knott.

This week included National Paraprofessional Day. We are fortunate to have such an amazing, dedicated team of Paraprofessionals at Dale Street who continually go above and beyond to make a difference for our students and school community. Please join me in thanking them for the incredible work they do every day.

This week in World Language with Señora LeVangie, Grade 4 students practiced with las prendas de ropa. First, they dressed their characters according to prompts they heard & read. Then they wrote about their favorite season, the weather & what they wear in that season.

Positive Sign Thursday!

'BE THE SUNSHINE ON A RAINY DAY!'

April Lunch Menu

This letter was sent out earlier this week to Grade 4 families offering parents the opportunity to share information about their children 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 2024 – 2025 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 12th. For other suggestions regarding the parent narrative, please see this slide deck which was shared during the Elementary Principals' Placement webinar on 3/27.

Students in our after-school coding club are taking exploration to new heights with our new MCPE-funded coding rovers! 🌟 The future of STEM is in good hands!

We are still BUZZ-ing from the MCPE Spelling Bee!

Thank you Medfield for such an amazing turnout in support of MCPE and our schools. Your kids all brought so much energy, enthusiasm - and wow what fabulous and creative costumes!! And...The event helped raise more than $11,000 to benefit Medfield Public Schools!

Congrats to our Spelling Bee champions: the Try Hard Gamers for Dale Street School and The Turtles for Wheelock School!

Congrats also to the Costume Contest winners: The Dunkings for Dale Street School and All the 80’s Ladies for Wheelock School!

We couldn’t put this event together without the support of the community and we also want to especially thank our wonderful sponsor, Medfield Orthodontics, as well as Costco and Wegman’s for donating food and snacks. These spellers were hungry after their rounds!

A big thank you also to our Bee moderators, Jim Kuehl and Jim James, who make the event extra-special and fun for our student players, and of course the many Wheelock and Dale educators who also helped us run this event.

Dale Street Bike/Walk to School

IMPORTANT DATES

Friday, April 12th Spirit Day - Crazy Hat/Crazy Hair Day

Monday, April 15th - Friday, April 19th - No School - Spring Vacation

Click here for the link to Community Postings

Thank you for your continued support,

Steve

Inclusivity * Respect * Responsibility * Continuous Growth

Friday, March 29, 2024

March 29, 2024 - Week 30

Hello Dale Street Community,

I hope that you had a spectacular week - we sure did! There is a lot packed into this week's blog - take a look at some of the awesomeness that students and staff were involved in this week.

Congratulations to this week's Positive Referrals!

Student Placement Process - Thank you to all who were able to attend this week’s Student Support Series Webinar focusing on the student placement process for the upcoming school year. For those who were unable to attend or who would like to revisit the webinar, please click here.

Parental Input Narratives

As part of the placement process, families will be invited to provide input. Please be on the lookout on Monday, April 1st for an email containing information about the parent narratives (acceptance dates, content, etc…) for the '24-'25 school year.

Earlier this week, Grade 5 classes took a field trip to Lowell Mills. During their trip, students had opportunities to learn about weaving on a loom, the steps of engineering, child labor laws, how assembly lines work, and the importance of water in helping make the machines run. They also enjoyed a trolley ride, experiments, an engineering challenge, and separating the seeds from the cotton plant. Check out some of the photos...

2024 TESTING SCHEDULE

Dale Street's testing schedule is set for the upcoming months. As always 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:

ELA Testing

Grade 4 April 9th and April 11th

Grade 5 April 5th and April 10th

Math

Grade 4 May 7th and May 9th

Grade 5 May 8th and May 10th

STE Testing

Grade 5 May 14th and May 17th

Positive Sign Thursday!

'WE KNOCK IT OUT OF THE PARK!'

Fifth-grade yearbook orders are due by April 26th! Please follow the instructions in the flyer below. Following are the three steps to completing your yearbook purchase:

Purchase your yearbook(s) (softcover or hardcover) on Treering.com

Optional: Upload one baby picture to Treering.com.

Optional: Customize two free pages on treering.com with pictures, text, and memories that will only appear in your yearbook. Additional pages are available for purchase.

Any questions, please reach out to Kristen Zannella, Jody Paris, Katrina Myers, or Karyn Healey. If purchasing a yearbook poses a financial hardship, please email kzannella@gmail.com.

We have made it to the Final Four of our March Madness Tournament. An updated bracket will be posted in the cafeteria on Monday. Our Final Four teams should shoot their 10 free throws on Tuesday, April 2nd, between 8:00 a.m. - 8:20 a.m.

How far can a whisper travel? On a visit to Mrs. Dowd's fourth-grade class this week, students learned about the connection between sounds and vibration. In this activity, students made telephones using cups and string. Students then modified the design of their telephones using different types of supplies to see if they could improve the sound quality. I even got to join in the learning (and fun)!

JOIN US!

MCPE Chipotle Fundraiser - Tuesday, April 2nd, 4:00-8:00pm

Get excited…MCPE has your dinner plans covered next week! Make dinner a selfless act by joining us for a fundraiser to support the Medfield Coalition for Public Education. Head to the Chipotle at 250 Main Street in Medfield on Tuesday, April 2nd between 4:00pm and 8:00pm. Download and bring in the flyer, show it on your smartphone, or tell the cashier you’re supporting the cause to make sure that 25% of event sales will be donated to MCPE in support of Medfield Public Schools.

If you order online, use code JGHWFZ6 in the ‘promo’ field before checkout. Remember, delivery orders or orders placed at a different time/location than the scheduled fundraiser will not count.

Not having to plan dinner AND supporting your local public schools? Talk about a win-win. 😍

Congratulations to these amazing students for winning this month's Positive Referral raffle! They really enjoyed receiving book vending machine tokens!

Absent/Tardy Letters

The elementary principals will be sending out letters to those students with excessive absences or tardies. The Department of Early Childhood and Secondary Education accountability system measures performance against targets for chronic absenteeism indicators. According to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, “A student is considered chronically absent if they miss 10% or more of their days in membership. In a typical 180-day school year, that is equivalent to missing 18 or more days of school.” If you receive a letter and would like to discuss it further, please do not hesitate to reach out.

IMPORTANT DATES

Wednesday, April 3rd No School (Teacher PD day)

Friday, April 12th Spirit Day - Crazy Hat/Crazy Hair Day

Monday, April 15th - Friday, April 19th - No School - Spring Vacation

Click here for the link to Community Postings

Have a great long weekend and warm wishes to those who celebrate Easter,

Steve

Inclusivity * Respect * Responsibility * Continuous Growth