Kimberly Butaitis Dingman-Delaware Primary School

• DDPS celebrated Dr. Seuss and Read Across America throughout the month of March. Every

Friday had a theme based on a different Dr. Seuss book. The reading team recorded readings of Dr. Seuss books that went with the theme and they were played on DDTV in the classrooms. Students participated in a reading challenge called Hats Off to Reading. After completing 10 or more activities from the reading challenge, a Dr. Seuss hat with the child’s name was placed outside their classroom. Students who partook in the challenge received a certificate and a bracelet. The classroom from each grade level that had the most hats got to participate in a special surprise activity with Ms. Butaitis at the end of the month.

To culminate the month DDPS had a Storybook Character Parade. Students dressed like their favorite book character, carried the book, and paraded through the school. The students were thrilled to dress up and see their peers and teachers dressed up too! After the parade all classes reported to the gym. The classes that won the Hats Off to Reading Challenge got to spray Ms. Butaitis with silly string. It was a blast! We had over 300 students participate in this fun reading challenge!

• It was a fun filled, exciting March in Kindergarten. It was Dr. Seuss’ Read Across America Month and a lot of fun filled activities went along with it! Teachers wore Dr. Seuss shirts every week and every Friday, students were able to wear something to celebrate the author. We culminated the month long Dr. Seuss celebration with a character book parade! It was so much fun! Learning all about glued sounds, digraphs and blends has been fun, too. We completed third marking period binders as well! For Dr. Seuss month all classes participated in a read across the parking lot activity where older grades from DDES and DDMS came and read to the kindergartners. In science we completed different types of experiments such as walking rainbows, rainbow dot painting. We even made playdough! We were fortunate enough to be able to see an assembly where the presenter talked about different science related topics and watched amazing experiments right before our eyes! Writing to 100 and counting by 2’s 5’s and 10’s to get to 100 has been the math challenge of the month! For Social Studies, we are

continuing to learn and practice the Leader in Me books. March was packed full of academic madness!

• First Graders were busy, busy, busy in March! Mrs. McCann’s class rewrote the story, Green Eggs and Ham. The class worked together and came up with the title, Blue Ice Cream and Bacon. Together, students wrote and illustrated a new story. When the book was complete, a celebration of blue ice cream (vanilla ice cream and blue sprinkles) and bacon was held. Many classes wrote stories, too, about The Cat in the Hat coming to first grade.

• Classes read with DD elementary and DD middle school students. The students LOVED this time with the other schools. Classes in our own building also paired with second grade classes to read. Students worked on reading books then taking RC tests to go along with the book. First grade classes worked hard to reach their RC goal for the month of March. Their goal was to get 75 points... they made it to 82 points!

• Some first grade classes completed research projects on insects. They read and wrote about an insect. Students also made an insect to match their writing. Classes had Reader’s Theater and read research paper to classmates.

• The first grade classes were surprised by a mystery reader, Ms. Butaitis! She read several Dr. Seuss stories to first grade classes. Some classes had activities to go along with her story, like making Oobleck for Bartholomew and the Oobleck.

• Flat Stanley Adventures in second grade! The students read the story Flat Stanley in Mrs. Dye and Mrs. Palumbo's class. The students wrote a letter summarizing the book. The teachers asked their students to send Stanley cut-outs and letters to relatives or friends, who would then take Stanley on a journey and detail the characters' exploits in a letter back. Kids also suggested to send pictures as well as postcards of his journey. The students are anxiously awaiting to hear back about Stanley's adventures.

• DDPS spent some time this month listening to the Science Tellers tell us about the Legend of the

Golden Piano. The story is set in the Wild West, where a legendary bank-robbing outlaw is back in town, about to strike again! After the Sheriff mysteriously vanishes, two young kids saddle up to foil the great heist and put a rotten cowboy back behind bars! Our story includes many science experiments to enhance our story and bring our experience to life. After our story we discussed how each science experiment was created and why. Students were involved in recreating each experiment, and learning how science can come to life.

• This year, a team of seven creative second graders from DDPS represented our OM team. Students were presented with the task of creating an original museum. The museum needed to include a curator, tourists, a humorous character, and three displays. The team decided to flip the idea of museums. Instead of people visiting their museum to see creations, the creations went to the museum to see their creators! Our humorous character, Bob Ross, kept up laughter as he painted many happy trees! The Mona Lisa saw her creator, Da Vinci; a diamond saw her origin, a coal mine; and bones saw the caveman that once lived. The team worked so hard and showed such teamwork! They have a great future as OMers!

• Students from DDMS and DDES visited DDPS for our annual Read Across the Parking Lot! It was fun for the older students to visit our school, many saw former teachers and some even saw their siblings. Students selected picture books or Dr. Seuss stories and shared with several classrooms. The students did an amazing job pairing with our young students, reading with expression and being super role models.