November 9, 2018

Volume 1, Issue 3

Talisha Thompson, Principal

Dr. Deborah Williams, Asst. Principal

Principal’s News In honor of Veterans’ Day, I would like to thank all who have served and continue to serve in our armed forces. You sacrifice so much to protect our civil liberties. Please know that you are appreciated on this day and every day of the year. You are also appreciated for the support you show to our school. We are very thankful for the great turnout we had for parent-teacher con-ferences. Our goal is to maintain a partnership with our families and to keep you informed about student learning and expectations. Hope-fully, you were able to gain some insight into what your children are involved in daily at Diamond and learn about additional ways you can support your child’s education at home. On Thursday, December 13 at 8:45 am, we will have a Parent Focus session in the cafeteria. Our focus this time will be on school-family partnerships. If you would like to attend this session, please contact the school or send me an email. Lastly, I would like to remind you about the Thanksgiving Luncheon on Thursday, November 15, 2018. Each year, we invite parents to join us for a wonderful luncheon in our cafeteria. Lunch times have changed slightly due to a larger number of people. The Thanksgiving Luncheon schedule will be sent home via email. Thanks for all you do for our school and our students. Sincerely, Talisha Thompson Principal

Contents

Principal’s News 1

Upcoming Events 1

Kinder News 2

First Grade News 2

Second Grade News 2/3

Third Grade News 3

Fourth Grade News 3

Fifth Grade News 4

Attendance 4

Nurse Notes 5

Counselors’ Notes 6

Diamond Spotlight 7

November Special Events

& Parent Reminders 8

Honoring Our Veterans 9/10

Gator Café Menu 11

Upcoming Events

8th—No School (Pre-K Only) - Trimester 1 Prepara-

tion Day 14th—Marcos Pizza Night

8th—DES Special Visitor (Chris Rumble) - Artist/

Author/Illustrator 15th—Pre-K Trimester 1 Reports Issued

9th—No School (Teacher Training Day) 15th—Veterans Day Celebration - 8:30a, DES Flagpole

12th—No School (Veterans Day) 15th– Thanksgiving Luncheon

13th– School Board Meeting 19th-23rd—No School (Thanksgiving Holiday)

“What’s Happening In Our Neighborhood?” Page 2 of 11

Kindergarten News

1st Grade News

The first quarter of kindergarten has flown by! We are now into the second quarter and our kinder kiddos are doing well They are continuing to learn letters, sounds, words, shapes and numbers. They are also beginning to read and write independently! :) As you can see, we have learned all about fire safety and pumpkins! The children had fun and learned facts about things in their world! The growth we've seen in our students comes from the connection between school and home, so let's keep that communication going. Thank you for your support and cooperation! It takes all of us to help our children be successful! D.E.S. Kindergarten Teachers and Paraprofessionals

First Grade Science Excitement

Terrariums

In first grade we have been learning about terrariums and focusing on the question “What do plants and animals need to live and grow in a terrarium?” We have discussed what we need to build our own terrari-ums. The students came up with really great ideas of making sure the terrarium has soil, water air and sunlight for the plants to grow. We even created a terrarium map with a map key of all the objects that went into the terrarium. We used the map key to help us know and remember where we planted the al-falfa, ryegrass and wheat seeds. The students make observations of the terrarium frequently and record in their interactive science journals. We have recently added Pill bugs and Sow bugs to our terrariums and discussed what the animals will need to live. The students have been very happy and excited about our plant and animal investigations with the terrariums. We will continue to make observations of the plants and animals in the terrariums.

We will spend the next week or two finishing up plants and animals. Then we will move onto social stud-ies learning about geography, maps and national holidays (Veterans Day and Thanksgiving).

2nd Grade News

Second grade is “falling” for folktales! We have been reading exciting and interesting versions of Cinder-ella and Three Billy Goats Gruff and finding the similarities and differences between the stories. Students are having fun visualizing and reading with expression. We have been learning to annotate text and write down thoughts we have about what we are reading.

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4th Grade News

3rd Grade News The River team is exploring different geographical features and how these features change over time. What a great way to tie in our map study skills!!! We are connecting what we are learning about geographical features with our study of habitats and animal adaptations. We cannot wait to share our research projects! In math, we are adding and subtracting three-digit numbers. We are also conducting surveys so we can showcase our graph making skills!

Gator families, thank you for coming into school for conferences. It was a pleasure to see you and share the exciting things the students are doing this year. Our webcast with the Smithsonian Art Museum was a huge success! The students were able to view artwork by artists expressing ideas about U.S. history through different media. Since it was a live broadcast, students had the opportunity to ask and answer questions as their facilitator presented different pieces. In math, as we continue to multiply greater and greater numbers, we are finding that fact fluency is very important. Practicing those multiplication facts at home every evening allows students to excel in the current math unit and be prepared for the next unit. We are reading about some interesting characters in excerpts from classic novels. In Peter Pan, we have met Wendy, Tinkerbell, and Peter. In the Wonderful Wizard of Oz, we met Dorothy, Toto, and the Scare-crow. Our task was to explore the techniques authors use to develop characters in their writing through dialog and descriptive text. We are using these techniques in our own writing of fairy tales and fables. Science continues to bring living subjects into the classrooms. Along with our containers of fish, snails, and gammarus, we are now germinating various seeds as we investigate the range of tolerance for water for different types of plants.

Coming in November:

We will be reading Informational texts about animal and plant habitats.

Adding and subtracting 2-digit numbers with regrouping is the name of the game in math.

We say goodbye to our insects in science and begin to learn about the states of matter with solids and liquids.

2nd Grade News (Cont’d.)

Our favorite Jefferson writing the

Declaration of Independence By

Henry Wolf, 1898

Watching seeds

4th graders in

the hub visiting

the Smithsonian

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Fifth graders just started Unit 3 in English/Language Arts. We are starting to explore Informational texts and creating informative research based reports. We are examining the natural resources around us and examining cause and effect relationship in our environments. Students are having great fun learning about natural resources, the impacts on the environment, and business implications. The essential question students are asking themselves is how do we decide which natural resources we should develop and utilize now and in the future. In math we are now in chapter four, which focuses on multiplication of decimals. Students are also creating and playing math games based on skills they have learned in our previous units.

In Social Studies we are studying the early colonies in Virginia such as Jamestown. We just talked about the First Thanksgiving and Pilgrims and Puritans and the reason for their journey to the New World. We will begin our nest Science unit after the fall break. We will introduce Sensory Systems and conduct more experiments. Until next time, enjoy some family and re-laxation time.

5th Grade News

Attendance: We must work together to ensure that our students are attending school each day and receiving a

quality education. The graph below shows that our average daily attendance (as of 10/31/18) was 93.7%. We did NOT

meet our goal of 95%. Please ensure that your students are present at school and arrive on time. When students are

not in school, they are missing valuable instructional time. You can review the attendance policy on our website. Spe-

cific requirements for attendance are addressed including what time of the day is considered tardy, full day, half day,

etc.

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The Gator Trait for November is “Trustworthiness.”

Students are learning about being Trustworthy. Counselors are teaching students about earning trusty by being Honest and Dependable!

Being Honest means telling the truth, not hiding the truth, not cheating, and not stealing.

Being Dependable means people can count on you to do the right things!

Congratulations to our Gator Café winners for the month of October!

Kinder- Ms. Willis’ Class

1st Grade - Ms. Stringer’s Class

2nd Grade- Ms. Tovar’s Class

Ms. Mihuta’s Class

3rd Grade - Ms. McDonough’s Class

4th Grade - Ms. Johnson’s Class

5th Grade - Mr. Romero’s Class

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S.T.E.A.M.

Ms. Amber Johnson, S.T.E.A.M. Teacher

This school year has kicked off with some very motivated engineers in the STEAM classes. The kindergarten and first

graders have become STEAM detectives and they have compared their finger prints to leaf prints. They have also read

Pete the Cat and the Missing Cupcakes and had to solve the crime. They had to find the clues, figure out the suspects

and who had an alibi, and who the criminal was in the story. They then had to construct a cupcake and work on the

computers in the program WIXIE to retell the story. We are now moving on to the story Mystery at the Aquarium

where there is a missing pearl necklace and an escaped penguin. The big question is who took the pearls and did the

penguin really escape. The project will be building something that has wheels as the getaway vehicle.

The third grade classes have become architects and have had to create a 3-dimensional habitat for an animal at a zoo.

3-dimensional has become the problematic issue with creating trees and grass. The third graders have worked through

their frustrations and the zoo is almost finished. They are now using Google Slides to create a presentation on their ani-

mal and the habitat to share with the rest of the school.

The fourth and fifth grade students have been experiencing many different types of buildings. Some classes have ex-

plored the Mind Storm LEGO kits, Code of Honor, and LEGO Digital Designer. Some classes have been thinking outside

the box with the mystery box challenges and using different materials to build many new items for example a pet carri-

er out of paper and a finger splint out of foam. Some students have been engaged in different experiments and had to

compare the scientific method to the engineering design process. Then, the last classes have been engulfed with scal-

ing down furniture to create their dream tiny house.

STEAM classes have a lot of exciting upcoming events for the second nine weeks. The Kindergarteners will have a virtu-

al field trip with the Smithsonian on camouflage art and STEAM. They will also have a detective come and share about

finger printing and crime scenes. The third graders will be having a virtual field trip with a zoo to discuss different ani-

mals and their habitats. They will also be able to virtually go into the habitats to analyze what features their animals

will need to survive in captivity.

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The Diamond Gator Students and Parents are TERRIFIC!!!

Thanks to our parents and their children for collaborating and creating such unique book char-

acters for the Book Character Pumpkin Presentation! We had over 100 families participating!

Both, parents and students, enjoyed viewing and interpreting the various characters. Thank you

SO MUCH for your suppor t!!

Congratulations to our 2018 Book Character Pumpkin Winners!

Pre-K/KG

1st Place - Brahm Van Tonder

2nd Place - Valentina Rodriguez

3rd Place - Brody Ortega

1st/2nd Grade

1st Place - Armando Del Valle

2nd Place - Brayden Doughty

3rd Place - Xian Lopez

3rd/4th Grade

1st Place - V’Aniyah Fowler

2nd Place - Katarina Cuellar

3rd Place - Mikayla Asuncion

5th Grade

1st Place - Shane Robles

2nd Place - Lymarie Diaz

3rd Place - Alessandra Dore

Teacher/Staff

Special Recognition - Ms. Elisabeth Buck / Ms. Maria Trias

PARENT REMINDERS ** Wednesday has been chosen as “Communication Day” to send home communication to parents. Please be on the lookout for school-wide and/or PTO-related correspondence!!

** Please remember that the last 30 minutes of the day are CRITICAL in ensuring all students get prepared for dismissal and are at their proper dismissal locations. Calling during this time cre-ates opportunities of confusion. When checking out students from school, please remember that the latest you can check them out is 30 minutes PRIOR TO dismissal (2:35p M/Tu/W/F and 1:20p

Th). Please, no phone calls! ** Students MUST be in their neighborhoods by the 8:21a “tardy” bell. Any student that is not in their neighborhoods will be sent to the front office to receive a TARDY PASS. Tardy accumulation DOES affect the student’s attendance record. Please try to have your students at school by 8:15a!!

On behalf of the Diamond Elementary Staff, we would like to thank each and eve-ry veteran for their sacrifice and service. We recognize Veterans Day on Monday, November 9th, to honor and celebrate those brave and selfless individuals, both active and retired, who served our country in uniform. . . not only risking their lives to protect our nation but sacrificed valuable time away from their families! Here at Diamond Elementary, one of our favorite mottos is to “Shine Bright Like a Dia-mond!”. . . And what better way to SHINE than to recognize a few of Diamond’s very own veterans:

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Name: Mr . Steven Adams

Position at DES/Years of DoDEA Service: Educational Aide, SPED / 11 years

Branch of Service: USMC / US Army Rank: SFC

Why did you choose to be in the field of education?: I love all children and felt I could make a

difference in their education and future!

Name: Ms. Michelle Brady

Position at DES/Years of DoDEA Service: Educational Aide, Kinder / 2 years

Branch of Service: US Army Rank: SPC

Why did you choose to be in the field of education?: It’s in my blood to want to inspire kids to

learn more and be excited about learning!

Name: Ms. Love Breaux

Position at DES/Yrs. of DoDEA Service: Teacher , 4th Grade / 6 years

Branch of Service: USAF Rank: MSG

Why did you choose to be in the field of education?: I chose to be an educator because I

wanted to continue my service to America. I also had some amazing elementary teachers in school

that inspired me to be a lifelong learner.

Name: Mr . Kinneth E. Bouknight

Position at DES/Years of DoDEA Service: Administrative Officer / 4 years

Branch of Service: USMC Rank: MSG

Why did you choose to be in the field of education?: I chose to become an Administr ative

Officer at the school level to work closer with students/educators and to provide logistical support

as needed. I enjoy providing assistance to the school and the faculty, as I know they are making a

difference in our nation’s warfighters’ dependents education.

On behalf of the Diamond Elementary Staff, we would like to thank each and eve-ry veteran for their sacrifice and service. We recognize Veterans Day on Monday, November 9th, to honor and celebrate those brave and selfless individuals, both active and retired, who served our country in uniform. . . not only risking their lives to protect our nation but sacrificed valuable time away from their families! Here at Diamond Elementary, one of our favorite mottos is to “Shine Bright Like a Dia-mond!”. . . And what better way to SHINE than to recognize a few of Diamond’s very own veterans:

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Name: Mr . Jaime Romero

Position at DES/Years of DoDEA Service: Teacher , 5th Grade / 2 years

Branch of Service: US Navy Rank: PO2

Why did you choose to be in the field of education?: I still remember the impact my favorite

teacher had on me when I was a child. That is one of the main reasons I chose to be an educator. I

hope I can make a difference in the lives of children the way my teacher did on me.

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