DHA Enrichment Newsletter

Pre-K Monkey's - Mrs. Peek

The Pre-K Monkey's class has had so much fun in the last few months! We have spent time learning about quite an array of subjects. Included in these were snow, penguins,  polar bears, valentines day and maps. It has been so wonderful to see all the kiddos thrive on Tuesdays and make such sweet friendships with all of their classmates. So thankful for every one of them!

Pre-K Otters, Mrs. Eastwood

The Pre-K Otters have learned all kinds of things this winter! We started the new year off with discovering many things about the animals that live in snowy weather--especially at the North and South Poles--like penguins and polar bears. In February, we talked about the blessings of friendship for Valentine's Day and the moms threw a fantastic party. Pets were our topic in our most recent class and we'll wrap up the month with a "clouds and rainbows" theme before diving into all kinds of weather fun in March. At this time of year, the Pre-K students have really learned our routines and enjoy playing with their DHA friends each week. The school days go really smoothly and we all laugh a lot!

Kindergarten - Mrs. Puckett, Mrs. Calton, and Mrs. Collins

Kindergarten has had a busy few months of learning!  In December, we enjoyed performing at both Cookies and Carols and the Fine Arts Program as we celebrated the birth of our Savior.  In January, we learned all about snow, penguins, and polar bears.  We also had a fun Groundhog-themed day to learn about groundhogs, shadows, and make predictions about whether or not the groundhog would see his shadow.  This month we look forward to celebrating Valentine's Day and reading about Washington and Lincoln in honor of President's Day.  Kindergarten Graduation is just around the corner, and we have already begun practicing for our performance!

Music - Mrs. Scholes

In music we continue to learn and have fun each week. The younger grades spent January reading more children’s literature and incorporating music elements. We read Snowball Fight, Froggy Gets Dressed, and My Family Plays Music. Older grades spent January learning about musical genres. We talked about how they came to be, what instruments and dances might be involved and listened to several examples of each.

Beginning in February we will learn our concert music. Our spring concert is April 21. Please mark your calendars now.

Also wanted to give a heads up about our 2nd annual DHA-wide talent show. This will be during the day on a school day at the end of the year. More details will follow in weekly emails and on Facebook as that event gets closer.

Primary Art - Mrs. Wright

1st and 2nd grade, and 3 Wolves have finished up some leftover projects from before Christmas break. All projects from the beginning of the year up until now have been sent home. If your child has not brought home artwork, please search their backpacks.

Recently we started learning about the element of space and how implementing techniques such as overlapping, placement on a picture plane, and size all create the illusion of space within our artwork. We also talked about how things look from the perspective of a worms eye view and birds eye view. First graders worked on mountain landscape drawings. Second grade worked on alphabet soup paintings from a birds eye view and third grade will be putting their finishing touches on their worms eye view snowmen next week.

Last week, while several were finishing projects, early finishers did a Chiefs project. Second grade did a positive and negative space Chiefs arrowhead drawing/painting and two first grade classes made Mahomes headbands. Next month we will move on to the element of shape and talk about the difference in geometric and organic shapes.

Excel Art - Mr. Voyles

In February we continue to work on our 4 season collage. We will be creating 3D foam core pieces with these. Our classes also have two other projects we are working on. One is a self portrait character drawing and the others is finishing and surface treatment of our paper sculptures. In March we will continue to finish those projects. As always we have been discussing how we use the elements of art in finishing all of these projects.

Social Studies - Mrs. Messer

This semester in social studies has been so fun! We have learned about who Thomas Edison really was and what he truly invented (concrete furniture:). Students were able to discover how the Wright brothers tried and tried and tried again to build their aircraft by making one of their own. Last week, we read a little about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her butter making days. Homemade, churned butter and crackers were enjoyed by students while learning more about life in that time. Helen Keller was a very influential person from history. Students were able to mimic the way Ms. Keller learned to communicate to her teacher, Annie Sullivan, by "tracing" words on each others palms.

Looking forward, we plan to continue through the ages learning about life in the Roaring 20's, Dirty Thirties and the Post War Years. Blessings as we continue into February and March.

P.E. - Mrs. Morrison, Mr. Voyles, Mr. Colton

The older grades had lots of fun playing "Handball" or "3-steps and pass". We will finish this unit with a mini tournament the first week of February. Probably one of the fun things about the tournament is that the teams of three got to choose their team name. Needless to say, we had a lot of KC Chiefs related names.

We will be learning volleyball skills in our next unit. We will learn to set, pass and serve. We will be warming up with jumping rope. February is heart health month.

Thank you for remembering to send notes when your child needs to sit out of PE due to recovering from sickness or injury. Also, please send gym shoes in your child's backpack if they wear other shoes to school.

We would also like to give some overdue thanks for the thoughtful Christmas gifts!! They cards, baked goods, ornaments, gift cards, candles, personal care items, and all the unique gifts were so appreciated and heart warming! We have the best kids and families at DHA!!!

Elementary Science - Mrs. Skinner

Hello DHA parents! In science we have gone over many fun things since January! We focused on the Earth and its processes. We looked at fast changes: volcanoes, earthquakes, land slides and more. We also discussed slow changes such as weathering and erosion. Students made star burst  rocks, miniature volcanoes, investigated the weathering process and more. We took a week to better understand germs and hand washing in hopes to keep everyone healthier. Hopefully you've noticed everyone taking more time to wash their hands better and more frequently. 

Intermediate Science - Mrs. Champ

Students have been very busy over that last several months in Intermediate Science.  Before Christmas break, they learned about electricity and got to make different circuits.  They also learned about magnetism and experimented with different ones to find out which type of magnet was the strongest.  Right before and after break, students completed several STEM ( Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) activities.  In one activity, students had to build a “sleigh” that could hold toys and go down several different inclines without tipping over.  Students also learned about optical illusions and made an optical illusion of their hand.

Currently, students are learning about outer space.  We started this unit off with another STEM activity where students had to construct a moon lander that could be dropped and the “astronauts” would stay in without being launched out.  Next, we studied the moon and it’s different phases.  Using Oreos, students made the different phases of the moon.  Students learned about stars and constellations and made a constellation out of star confetti.  We will finish up this unit by learning about the different planets.

Primary Spanish - Mrs. Hesman

Mrs. Hesman’s  primary Spanish class has been learning the names of pets, how to ask if someone has a pet and how to answer with what pet you have. Most recently we learned how to ask how much something costs, and how to answer with how many dollars. We put our knowledge and vocabulary into action by role-playing a pet store for two weeks. The children loved this activity and had a great time bringing in stuffed animals from home to buy and sell. 
In February we will be learning the vocabulary for clothing items.

Intermediate Spanish - Mrs. Mitchell

Mrs. Mitchell's Spanish class has had a great couple of months! We have covered sports words, clothing, days of the week, months of the year, Valentine's words as well as doing a culture study on the country of Panama. 

We will be reviewing these words in the coming weeks and well and working on conversational phrases and even learning some verbs!

 

Science/Government/Economics - Mrs. Fairman 

6/7 Stingrays and 7/8/9 Ravens have done some excellent work so far this semester! For science we have just recently finished our unit on physical science. Highlights from this unit included experimenting with Newton's Law's of Motion, simple machines, learning about atomic structure, and separating water molecules using electricity. We have begun our unit on biology with learning about DNA and cells and will continue this unit by learning about the different types of living things God created! In government, we are in the middle of learning about elections and the Executive Branch. We are holding elections in each class for a "class president" so your student can experience first-hand how our U.S. election process works! Lastly, in economics, we are working on personal finance concepts such as budgeting, saving, writing checks, counting change, etc. I am so grateful to be working with your students and am excited for the learning we will be doing together as we finish this year strong!