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International Baccalaureate Diploma
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We are excited to announce the Del Mar Academy is already taking the first steps in order to get our future eleventh and twelve grades certified by the International Baccalaureate Organization.
The Diploma Programme for students aged 16 to 19 is a demanding two-year curriculum leading to final examinations and a qualification that is welcomed by leading universities around the world.
Our principal Mr. Jason attended a workshop this month, and we are getting all the paperwork ready to present to the organization.
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Celebrating Guanacaste�s annexation to Costa Rica
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July 24th was our graduation day and the last day of school for all the students! The celebration included song and dance performances allusive to the "Anexi�n de Guanacaste", a Costa Rican holiday celebrating Costa Rica's annexation of Guanacaste province from Nicaragua in 1824. It is celebrated on July 25th.
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Dr. Marino Protti (geophysicist)
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On July 16th, Marino Protti, a nationally recognized scientist, presented to the DMA students valuable information, pictures and videos of his Antarctic expedition. Protti is a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Geophysics and Seismology and, in 1996, was awarded the National Science and Technology Award "Clodomiro Picado Twight"
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We are excited to announce that we are starting to build two new classrooms for our middle school program. This building will be located in front of our main parking lot and will be two stories high.
This building complies with all Costa Rican law requirements and has already been approved by the Costa Rican Ministry of Education infrastructure department.
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Changes in our classrooms
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Lower and Upper Elementary
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There are some changes coming for our 2013-2014 school year.
-Our Lower Elementary classrooms will be separated to create two different groups, each with grades 1 - 3.
-Our math curriculum will change for Upper Elementary. We are adopting Saxon Math, which offers its curriculum in both English and Spanish. We used the Saxon Math curriculum with our 7th graders this year and have been very pleased with the materials and the students' progress. Adopting Saxon in UE enables us to have continuity from elementary through high school.
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Members of DMA's staff and parent community attended a course in BePeace a method that combines non violent communication skills with the scientifically tested heart coherence technique from the Heart Math Institute. The course is designed to teach children and adults to build social and emotional intelligence by learning to:
- Release stress, worry, anger and depression
- Open up and rely on intuition
- Create deep self-confidence
- Resolve inner & interpersonal conflicts efficiently
- Become calm and clear when facing conflicts
- Connect with feelings and needs
- Communicate honestly & empathically
Ms. Karuna and Ms. Silvia will be sharing what they learned with the DMA community. A support group for adults will begin in September 2013. If you are interested in joining please contact Ms. Karuna: [email protected]
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We would like to thank Kane Smego, James McDonough and Ivan Rysheuvels for sharing their talents with Del Mar Academy students.
James Smego is Kane is an award winning spoken word poet and activist, who gave a poestry workshop to the Upper Elementary Students.
James McDonough is a children�s art teacher from Northen Califonia who worked with the Ms. Aidi�s Casa classroom.
Ivan Rysheuvels, is a chef and father of DMA student Natacha. He taught our casa children how to make delicious pizza pies.
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This trimester our students visited many educational and beautiful areas in Costa Rica. These are some of the areas visited:
-Miravalles Solar Project
-Lagarta Lodge Nature Reserve
-Local nature walks.
-San Jos� cultural trip.
-The "Salto del Calvo" waterfall in Hojancha
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Play at Serapio L�pez School
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Presenting the "Bich�n Basur�n" play for our local schools
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The DMA orginial play "El Bich�n Basur�n aprende sobre la biodiversidad (The Litterbug learns about Biodiversity) was presented at Serapio L�pez school on June 13th with more than 100 expectators from all grade levels.
We hope that the children from Serapio L�pez get inspired so they can play it for their end school year party.
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Helping the Barri-Guiones Reforestation Program
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On June 18,19,20 and 21st the Environmental Committee is proud to have sponsored the transportation of more than 120 children from four local schools (Serapio L�pez, Santa Marta, Santa Teresita and Colegio Bocas de Nosara), as well as Del Mar Academy students, to plant more than 300 trees in playa Guiones through the Barri-Guiones reforestation program.
Barri-Guiones is a reforestation project created by Costas Verdes Association (www.costasverdes.org), a costarrican non governmental association which dedicates to recover natural ecosystem on deforested coasts.
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On June 5th, Del Mar Academy celebrated the Environmental Festival. There were many fun activities for the children: an aerial picture, several games and activities related to the biodiversity theme, presentation of the winning drawings and essays and a play presented by the children, among other things. The day finished with an incredible display of food and desserts representing cultures and diversity around the world.
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Expansion of our playground
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A great place for children to learn about sensory information and to practice and develop motor skills necessary for daily activities is the playground, specially the DMA playground.
The new playground equipment incorporates many balancing, swinging and climbing activities.
You only have to peak in our playground to be sure that we have many children enjoying our Tarzan swings.
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Our drills prove a great opportunity to test response times, gathering locations and efficiency of movement. We have done more than XXXX drills during this academic year. It is important for children to know exactly what are they supposed to do and where to go in the event of an earthquake. Our goal is to continue to practice, assess and improve.
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We hope you will take a few moments to complete the parent survey which can be found at the following link. It is very important to us to know your thoughts about DMA. We want to know from you what we're doing well and where we can improve. Your perspective is essential for the growth of the school.
CLICK HERE FOR SURVEY LINK
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"Knowledge, Ethics, Creativity, Ecology, Leadership
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