Dike Newell School

Students have been learning about the history of Flag Day during this week's library classes. Celebrated on June 14th, Flag Day is a day to honor our national flag. On Wednesday, June 14th, Dike Newell students are encouraged to wear red, white and blue for Flag Day. Books we read were; The American Flag by Tyler Monroe, F is for Flag by Wendy Cheyette Lewison and The United States Flag by Kirsten Chang, We also watched a PBS Learning Media video on Flag Day at: https://mainepublic.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/339cef7c-616c-461d-8752-f611b00d7c87/flag-day-all-about-the-holidays/

It's getting to be that time of year - all library books are due back by Monday June 12th! Please take a look around at home and make sure any DNS library books are brought back into school. This week we are also coming up on the 1-year anniversary of the fire at Dike-Newell. In honor of our building and what our school has been through, everyone is invited to wear Dike-Newell spirit wear and/or school colors this coming Friday. #Dikenewellstrong!!

On Wednesday, May 10th, author Katie Coppens will be visiting Dike Newell. Katie teaches middle school science in Falmouth and has over twenty years of teaching experience ranging from third grade to high school. She is the author of eight STEM related books, including the Acadia Files series. Students have been learning about her life and books during their library classes, and have been especially enthusiastic about Geology is a Piece of Cake and Geometry is as Easy as Pie. The first book teaches science and the second math, and both are cookbooks to boot, with yummy recipes used as teaching tools.

Congratulations to Juliana, winner of STEM Challenge #4, which was to take a picture of something interesting discovered on a nature walk. Many thanks to all who participated.

April is National Poetry Month and in honor of the occasion students have been hard at work learning about various types of poetry during their library classes. Students from first and second grade also read poems aloud during the schoolwide community meeting on Tuesday, and did a wonderful job! April 11th will be Poem in Your Pocket Day at Dike Newell School. Initiated in April 2002 by the Office of the Mayor in New York City, Poem in Your Pocket Day takes place every year on a day during National Poetry Month. While the day is officially April 29th, it falls on a Saturday this year, so the school opted to move it to the 11th. Students will have poems with them to share with others throughout the day. Additionally, multiple staff and students have recorded poems for a special poetry video to be shown in classrooms.

We're getting close to announcing our winners for the March Madness Read-a-thon.... our Dike-Newell students read over 64,000 minutes outside of school last month! Holy moly!!

RSU 1 STEM City On Thursday, April 6th, RSU 1 will be holding STEM City at Morse High School/Bath Tech, from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. Are you feeling festive? Come dressed as your favorite scientist, molecule, or math equation. Every student walking in the door can win a STEM prize for their class. This event is free for all and is designed primarily for PreK-8th grade, though the activities are also suitable for high school students. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. Teaching STEM at the elementary level helps students develop basic skills that apply to many parts of life. It provides opportunities for students to practice critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration, as well as other skills. Dike Newell will be represented at the STEM Night, please be sure to attend to see what students have been doing here at school. Remember to enter your name in the prize drawing for a science kit at the Dike Newell School Library’s table.

Congratulations to Henry, the winner of this week's STEM Weather Tracking Challenge. Next week's challenge is to be an outdoor explorer! Go for a walk and see what you can discover! See any interesting rocks? Unusual birds or animals? Any signs of insects? Footprints? Send a picture of something you discover to Ms. Hardman at lhardman@rsu1.org by 9:00 a.m. on Thursday, April 6th to have your name entered into a prize drawing for a fun science kit! RSU 1 STEM City On Thursday, April 6th, RSU 1 will be holding STEM City at Morse High School/Bath Tech, from 5:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. Are you feeling festive? Come dressed as your favorite scientist, molecule, or math equation. Every student walking in the door can win a STEM prize for their class. This event is free for all and is designed primarily for PreK-8th grade, though the activities are also suitable for high school students. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. Teaching STEM at the elementary level helps students develop basic skills that apply to many parts of life. It provides opportunities for students to practice critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration, as well as other skills. Dike Newell will be represented at the STEM Night, please be sure to attend to see what students have been doing here at school. Remember to enter your name in the prize drawing for a science kit at the Dike Newell School Library’s table.

Congratulations to Finn, the winner of this week's STEM Paper Airplane Challenge. Students made paper airplanes and measured how far they traveled, making design tweaks to try to get them to go even farther!

Dike-Newell is gearing up for RSU 1's STEM City event on April 6th. Each week we have a STEM Challenge, and the winner of the first challenge (Can you build a castle from materials you have at home?) was thrilled to select her prize!

Did you know that at Dike-Newell School, we go SKIING? Each year the second grade takes a Ski Trip to Mount Abrams, where each student learns the basics of skiing. We work really hard to fundraise for this trip, and it's so exciting each year to send the kids off for their day on the mountain!

Our second graders recently visited Maine Maritime Museum to learn about the historical significance of the shipping industry in Bath, Maine. Each class did an excellent job representing our school, and students were very interested in the information that was shared with them.

We're getting ready to celebrate reading!

It's the 100th day of school today! We celebrate that in elementary school :) We had a 100-second long dance party this morning, classes have cool hats and crowns with "100" on them, some students did art projects using the shapes the number 100 makes in creative ways, and other classes brought in collections of 100 items. We love the number 100!

Our "Cause for Paws" is really going great!! Thank you for the donations and support for Midcoast Humane Society. We are still accepting items from the donation list, and loose change for the loose change drive. We have been given so much here at DNS, and we are excited to pay it forward!

For those wanting to give book donations to help rebuild the Dike Newell Library's collection, please hold for now, as we are waiting to see what insurance will cover as well as where we will be located. We hope to order as much as possible from Follett, as their books will arrive fully cataloged, with barcodes and spine labels attached, making them immediately ready for circulation. They will also ship directly to our new location. Your kind wishes and offers of help have been greatly appreciated, and I look forward to reading with your children again very soon. In the meantime, I hope you will consider signing your child up for the Patten Free Library's Summer Reading Program, lots of fun events scheduled! For more information, please visit: https://www.patten.lib.me.us/summer-reading-2022/

Dike-Newell Families - important reminder that due to the fire Friday night, there is no school today, Monday June 13th. We will have school Tuesday through Friday, outdoors at Fisher-Mitchell School. These will be half-days, with dismissal 3 hours early. Please check your email for more important details. If you need to reach staff today regarding your child, please email. Tomorrow, we can be reached at Fisher-Mitchell School, telephone (207) 443-8265. Thank you for your support in this difficult time, we look forward to seeing the students this week and connecting with our entire Dike-Newell community. Thank you RSU1 staff and administration, Bath Elementary PTA, and the many, many others who have offered support, materials, and kindness during this challenging time. We appreciate all of you!

While Covid safety protocols have not made Books on the Bus able to safely return as of yet, Coordinator Sheryl Ritchie has found a way to get books back into the hands of Dike Newell students for their daily commute. On Friday, March 25th, over 200 books were delivered to the school with the promise of more to come as needed. Students will be able to browse the books at school and make a selection that they would like to read. RSU 1 has participated in Books on the Bus since 2018 thanks to the partnership of Program Coordinator Sheryl Ritchie and the Patten Free Library. The goal of the program is to provide students with access to books and to improve bus behavior. Students are encouraged to, "read, share, borrow or keep" any book they want. For more information on the Books on the Bus program, please visit: https://www.facebook.com/booksonthebusmaine/

Dike Newell School Library Receives Three Donors Choose Grants Thanks to the generosity of donors at Donors Choose, the Dike Newell School library has received space learning materials including a space image viewer and handheld planets, items for Rock Club such as rock specimen kits and field guides and a selection of diverse picture books to make library class a more inclusive experience, For more information on the library's Donors Choose projects, please visit: https://sites.google.com/rsu1.org/dnslibrary/donors-choose-projects Lisa Hardman RSU 1 Librarian Dike Newell School lhardman@rsu1.org https://sites.google.com/rsu1.org/dnslibrary/library-home

Dike Newell School students will be finishing up reading Chickadee Award books this week and voting on their favorite the week of March 21st. All of the books are available read aloud at: https://sites.google.com/rsu1.org/dnslibrary/news The Chickadee Award is a picture book award program for children in kindergarten through fourth grade. This award is in its seventeenth year, and is given annually to one of ten picture books nominated by a committee of teachers, librarians, and early literacy professionals, with the winner chosen by Maine school children. The purpose of this award is to encourage children to develop an appreciation for excellence in writing and illustration that will stay with them for the rest of their lives. For more information, visit the Chickadee Award Website at https://sites.google.com/site/thechickadeeaward/.