Thank you to the Parent Association for the scrumptious lunch honoring teachers on Friday, January 26. Cake by Alix O'Connell. Photo by Allison Webster.
News Flash
Bee winner Matthew Volfson, left, and runner-up Jay Caponigro
DCD Geography Bee Ten students competed in DCD's annual Geography Bee, sponsored by National Geographic, on Thursday, January 25. Middle school head Nate Buffum presided over the contest in which two representatives each from grades 4 through 8 vied for the coveted spot of school-wide geography whiz kid.
Please join us for a special evening on
Wednesday, February 7, at 5:30 p.m. here on campus. The featured speaker of this year's CommUNITY evening is Rosetta Lee of the Seattle Girls' School. Her topic is,
What I Said and What I Meant: Improving Cross Cultural Communication. All parents are invited to attend. View the video to learn more about our speaker and her thoughts on diversity work.
RSVP by February 1 to
Kylie Lacerda.
Nothing But Nets Shoot-a-Thon
Middle school students will host a shoot-a-thon on
Friday, February 9, from 12:30 to 1:45 p.m. in the Primary Gym to benefit Nothing but Nets, an organization that purchases mosquito netting to reduce the transmission of malaria among children in Africa. Students in grades 3-5 are invited to participate. If your child would like to participate,
please return the permission form to Mr. Edie before Wednesday, February 7, or email him with any questions
or to confirm your child's participationat
redie@dcds.net.
Cradles to Crayons
Please continue to bring any new and gently used clothing you no longer need to the bin in the front lobby for the middle school Cradles to Crayons Drive. We are accepting coats, (youth sizes and small or medium adult sizes), hats, gloves, and scarves along with onesies, diapers and wipes, crib- and twin bed-size sheets, chapter books, and hygienic items.
Products donated to this effort will become part of a new, community-wide Cradles to Crayons activity beginning
February 5. A Cradles to Crayons "pod" will be available on DCD's campus during the month of February to accept donations from DCD families as well as from members of the local community. Please encourage your friends and neighbors to contribute.
These items will be screened, sorted, and packed up by DCD families in the Rand Gym on
Saturday, March 3. Please save the date for a morning of volunteering with the whole family. More details to come.
Save the Date for These Upcoming PA-sponsored events
Parent-to-Parent Meeting for Lower School
On
Tuesday, February 20, at 7:00 p.m. at the Herrick House, the DCD PA invites lower school parents to an informal discussion.
DCD Book Club
The next meeting of the DCD Book Club will take place on
Monday, March 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Herrick House. We'll be reading and discussing
The Woman in the Window. The Book Club is coed and open to faculty and staff as well as parents. Come join us for a lively conversation. (Reminder: if you buy the book through Amazon Smile and choose Dedham Country Day School as the charity you support, your purchase will also benefit DCD:
www.smile.amazon.com.)
Head's Blog
Setting DCD's Compass Points
I wrote in my last blog post about peak moments and all they do for a child's memories and well-being; last week we had a peak moment for both children and adults at DCD. Mr. Clifford, wearing a top hat and tails
, led a parade of students and penguins through the Lowell Center, which was packed with students and families.
Snack this week included an array of fresh fruit, including bananas, oranges, apples, pears, and grapefruit.
Students also have lots of healthy choices for lunch including plentiful salad bar options. These now include more than 35 rotating items, including kale, chickpeas, beets, zucchini and summer squash. There's plenty from which to choose for even the pickiest eaters!
Click here to view the full list of salad bar items.
The children's literature community lost two giants in the field this week, Julius Lester and Ursula Le Guin. Both writers made significant contributions, not only with the books that they wrote, but also with the intellect that they brought to the discourse of literature for children and young adults....
Lester was highly honored in the children's literature field by numerous award committees: the Newberry, the Coretta Scott King, and the Boston Globe/Hornbook. ... Lester collaborated with illustrator, Jerry Pinkney, when he modernized the Uncle Remus Tales of Brer Rabbit in multiple volumes. They also produced significant picture books together: Sam and the Tigers: The New Telling of Little Black Sambo, John Henry, and Black Cowboy, Wild Horses: A True Story. ...
Ursula Le Guin's most important novels were her Earthsea Cycle:
The Wizard of Earthsea, The Tombs of Atuan, The Farthest Shore, Tehanu, The Other Wind, and
Tales from Earthsea. The Wizard of Earthsea won many awards and was greatly discussed when it was published. Le Guin didn't write this for a strictly juvenile audience, she wrote it for readers. Her books are similar to Tolkien's because adults gain as much from them as young adults do.
The next meeting of the DCD Book Club will take place on
Monday, March 5, at 6:30 p.m. at Herrick House. We'll be reading and discussing
The Woman in the Window. The Book Club is coed and open to faculty and staff as well as parents. Come join us for a lively conversation. (Reminder: if you buy the book through Amazon Smile and choose Dedham Country Day School as the charity you support, your purchase will also benefit DCD:
