DVUSD News - Around Our Schools September 27

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From: "DVUSD News" <no-reply@dvusd.org>
Subject: DVUSD News - Around Our Schools September 27
Date: October 1st 2010

Around Our Schools

September 27- October 1, 2010

Deer Valley Elementary Schools

Bellair

Bellair first grade students in Miss Withrow’s class have finished studying the Mayas, Incas, and Aztecs as part of the Core Knowledge curriculum. As an extension of this study, they are now becoming responsible farmers by growing corn plants as the Mayans did. Students water their plants daily and watch to see when they will begin growing.

The Bellair PTA sponsored a free "Pizza Night" on September 23. This fun evening was open to PTA members and families. Following pizza and fun activities, a general PTA board meeting was conducted.

"Constitution Week" was officially recognized with the signing of a Proclamation by Student Council Representatives Mike Piotrowski and Claire Martinez de-Pinillos from 6^th grade. The signing was observed by Gillian Alexander, 3^rd grade and Tricia Alexander, 1^st Grade. The signing was televised for the entire school asking students to reaffirm the ideals of the Framers of the Constitution in 1787. Grades 4, 5, 6 were given a pocket version of the United States Constitution and grades K, 1, 2, 3 were given Patriotic Bookmarks commemorating the proclamation.

Desert Mountain

The entire campus at Desert Mountain celebrated "NFL Back to Football" on Friday, September 17 for a chance to win a $10,000 health and wellness grant. They celebrated with a tailgate party at lunch and football themed activities in class. The Desert Mountain PTO hosted the event and are waiting for the grant results to be announced Sunday, October 10.

The Desert Mountain Blackhawks are learning to be “bucket fillers.” The picture book, "Have You Filled a Bucket Today: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids," by Carol McCloud was read to the entire school. This story explains that everyone has an invisible bucket that holds good thoughts and feelings and kind acts fill buckets while unkind acts can dump buckets.

Student Activities included:

Third grade teacher Stacie Gordon’s class made a bulletin board depicting how to be bucket fillers.
Third grade teacher Diane Nutter’s class performed a skit on the daily video announcements on how to fill someone’s bucket.
The entire 5th grade has a class meeting every Wednesday so they can discuss their highs and lows; many of their highs are from students having their buckets filled.

Each class has a bucket and every time a student does something nice they place a plastic egg in the class bucket. When the bucket has been filled five times, the class will earn a chance to go fill buckets around the school.

National Junior Honor Society is holding a canned food drive which began on Monday, September 27. The school goal is to collect at least 3,500 cans to benefit St. Mary’s Food Bank.

Arizona children’s author Dow Kump will be visiting students in grades 2-4 on Thursday, October 7. A 3-D animation show including music and colorful illustrations will be used while the author discusses his books and the writing process.

PTO is busy planning the Second Annual Pirate Boo-ty Bash to be held on Friday, October 22 from 5:30- 9 p.m. The school community can enjoy games, food, a hay ride, and a pumpkin decorating contest. The choir will sing at 7 p.m. and a special surprise that the community will not want to miss!

Desert Sage

Desert Sage students and staff members recently celebrated "Constitution Day" with a program that included songs performed by the Desert Sage chorus and special duet rendition of "America The Beautiful" by PTSA President Carrie Beth Cox, Desert Sage Music Teacher, and Mr. Terry Buffington. A shared reading of the origins and importance of the unique and history filled form of governance was shared by 6^th grade students Connor Occhino and Allie Brammer.

Diamond Canyon

Anthem Wal-Mart donated $1,000 gift cards to ten Diamond Canyon teachers.

Gavilan Peak

Gavilan Peak is off to a great start in its Global Leadership Institute. As part of this visionary quest, the school has been granted a partnership with Arizona State University’s Confucius Institute as a Confucius Classroom and awarded $10,000 to expand its library and classroom resources.

Gavilan Peak’s Reading Rocks, abefore school programbegins Tuesday, October 12. The program offers rewards and incentives for reading and successfully completing the AR test.

The Book Fair will begin Monday, October 18 to Thursday, October 21, 7:45 a.m. – 3:15 p.m. Stop by and help support the school library.

Gavilan Peak welcomes volunteers in the classroom, office, parking lot, and cafeteria. In 2009-10 volunteers district-wide donated 130,510 hours of their time and talents.

Highland Lakes

Highland Lakes kindergartners in Mrs. Tracy Brown's class had a slimy experience on Friday, September 24 when they studied insects. The young students were enthralled and amazed by the slippery little creatures, as they studied them using all their senses....except taste of course!

Mrs. Ashley Vicker's 5th graders at Highland Lakes dissected and examined owl pellets on Friday, September 24. Once they began dissecting the pellets they couldn't believe what they found. One student found the skull, beak, wing and body bones and was almost able to reconstruct an entire baby bird from his pellet.

Las Brisas

The Las Brisas PTSA Cultural Arts Program began on Tuesday, September 28. The theme for the 2010-2011 year is “Together We Can”. Cultural Arts allows students to showcase their talents in Photography, Literature, Visual Arts, Film Production, and Dance Choreography. Students compete at various levels and the winners at the school level go on to compete at the state level. Deadline for entries is November 4, 2010.

Las Brisas is hosting volunteer training classes on Wednesday, September 29 at 9:30 a.m.

Las Brisas students and staff will be participating in a Patriotic Ceremony on Friday, October 1 at 8:15 a.m. Patriotic Ceremonies are held the first Friday of the month. The Patriotic Ceremony consists of the Pledge, Declaration of Independence, and the Preamble, followed with singing of the National Anthem and Lee Greenwood’s God Bless the USA.

Las Brisas PTSA is sponsoring a McDonalds Night Fundraiser on Tuesday, October 5 from 5-7 p.m. at the McDonalds on 67^th Ave and Happy Valley Road. Teachers will be working behind the counters serving the Las Brisas families and a portion of the sales will be donated to Las Brisas.

Legend Springs

Legend Springs’ sixth grade students left for their Annual Outdoor Education trip on Wednesday, September 29 to Sky-Y in Prescott, Arizona. In addition to expanding their knowledge of several science related topics, students will participate in activities intended to promote setting and working goals, self confidence, working as a team, and supporting one another.

Mirage

Mirage’s school performance label is Performing Plus and made Arizona’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). Like any learning organization, Mirage continues to strive to become better. Mirage is in the fourth year of a state grant that has identified it as a model school site in the state of Arizona for intervention and enrichment programs.

New River

The New River Green Team has set its goals for the year:

1. Continued recycling efforts with water bottles, teracycle (drink pouches), aluminum cans, and all other general recycling.

2. Educate students, staff, and community members in way to assist Mother Earth.

3. Assisting students, staff, and community members as needed with Green efforts.

4. Increase student involvement in Green Efforts.

The Green Team has also planned activities to accomplish the goals:

They will continue campus wide recycling (classes are encouraged to empty class recycle bins weekly).
Water bottles will be collected and proceeds will be donated to the New River Food Bank.
Aluminum cans and recyclables will be collected on half days throughout the year (any student bringing in ten cans or recyclables will be allowed to wear a hat during the day)
The Green Team will sponsor a rummage sale in the spring with proceeds going to assist in programs and encourage people to Reduce, Recycle, and Reuse.

The New River Choir had their first performance recently. They entertained shoppers and Barnes and Noble during the New River Book Fair event.

Park Meadows

Park Meadows hosted a school wide farewell celebration for the McCarthy Construction crew with a catered luncheon from staff, as well as posters, poems and booklets from students. McCarthy construction provided two years of hard work and dedication to the school’s renovations.

Third grade students in Tamara Santley, Christine Brody, and Nancy Whiteley’s classes are learning about Olympic Games and how these have changed since the first contests were held in Ancient Greece. With the 2012 Olympic Games fast approaching, students are utilizing technology, as well as other resources to gather information about past Olympic Games and athletes from all over the world.

Activities include re-enacting the opening ceremonies using a world map to plot a course for the Olympic Torch from Athens, Greece to London, England and sharing their research information to the class.

Park Meadows recently sponsored Family Bingo Night with 200 families in attendance. PTA donated books as prizes for the event.

First grade students were visited by aspiring dental students from Midwestern University. First graders received information regarding dental hygiene through hands-on methods. Each child received a gift bag of dental products from Midwestern University.

Paseo Hills

Paseo Hills is hosting its annual "PTSA McDonald’s Night" on Thursday, October 7 from 4:30 – 7:30 p.m. at 23^rd Avenue and Deer Valley. Paseo Hills teachers and staff will be helping the PTSA raise funds through McDonald’s food and drink sales.

Paseo Hills students received over 100 backpacks filled with school supplies this year from the following business partners and community organizations:

Junior Achievement of Arizona
Aviation Communications Surveillance Systems
Discover Financial Services
M.O.M.S. Club of Deer Valley
Light and Life Church of Deer Valley also contributed in this noble event.

Sierra Verde

Sierra Verde in collaboration with Sardella's Pizza held a school fund raiser on Wednesday, September 22. Sardella's donated 15% of the proceeds to the school and the class that turned in the highest combined total order won a free pizza party from Sardella's. Teachers showed their support by coming to the event to participate in pizza box folding and pizza eating contests. To pump up the event, students were asked to show their school spirit by participating in Crazy Hair Day.

Fox 10 early show will be airing the City of Glendale Walk and Bike to School Day event to be held at Sierra Verde on Wednesday, October 6, 8:10 a.m. LIVE.

Sierra Verde hosted "Bingo Night" on October 1, 6:30 p.m. Pizza was served and raffle prizes given between each bingo game. Raffle prizes have been donated by various stake holders, local businesses, and teachers.

Village Meadows

Village Meadows teachers have the opportunity to participate in the weekly Technology Tuesday Professional Development. These trainings are giving teachers the chance to explore new ways to incorporate technology in their classrooms as well as to communicate with parents.

Training topics include Smartboard Notebook, Screencasting, Weebly, and advanced Powerschools. The teachers are committed to their Project 2021 theme of Technology in the Village. Upcoming topics include Smart Table, Document Camera, Flip Camera, Movie Maker and much more.

West Wing

Mrs. Wild's first grade students invited their parents to attend a Heroes celebration on Friday, September 17. This celebration was a wrap-up to a two week unit on our country.

As part of the unit, students learned about heroes around them in their everyday lives. As a writing project students were asked to pick a hero to write about, define what a hero is, why they chose their hero, and include what they learned from their hero. Students selected a variety of heroes which included parents, police officers, firemen, veterinarians, doctors, and even exterminators. The class enjoyed celebrating their heroes in our everyday lives.

Deer Valley High Schools

Barry Goldwater HS

Congratulations go out to our Varsity Bulldogs and BG Alternates for each placing 3rd in the AIA Team Chess Invitational.

The Bulldogs were 3-0 going into the 4^th round against Gilbert High School. The players played their best chess and secured one match of 4 in the final round. Barry Goldwater placed 3^rd in the tournament to Gilbert High School and McClintock High School.

Other awards were received by BG Bulldog Alternates included:

Junior Jason Franklin, 4^th place
Freshman Alex Fuentes, 8^th place
Senior Virgil McArthur received the “Biggest Upset” award for the tournament with his win in round one.

Final Results:

Ethan Morgan 2-2

Yaroslav Pilipenko 2-0

Anuvind Menon 1-3

Joel Arcilla Southwick 3-1

Joseph Cross 3-1

Ian Hackett 3-1

Jason Franklin 3.5 -.5

Alex Fuentes 3-1

Rafael Barraza 2-2

Keith Confer 2-2

Kyle Evans 1.5-2.5