Excellence everywhere

We have much to be proud of at Dike-New Hartford.  The community is aware of the success in volleyball, football, cross country, cheerleading, the high school play and in our music programs.  Today I would like to share some of the excellent things I have seen happening recently in classrooms.

Wednesday, November 2 the Mrs. Ostiguy’s 6th graders hosted a Cultural Fair within their soclal studies class periods.  Groups of students created multi-media displays with artifacts to share a culture from around the world. This project demonstrated their knowledge of the eight elements of culture, their skills in organizing research in a clear, informative way, and showed how culture can bring a group of people together.  Also that week, foreign exchange students from the high school also spoke about their cultures and their experiences at DNH.

Some 7th graders are nearing completion of a trimester-long coding class.  Recently Mrs. Seymour introduced Mrs. Hoffman’s students to Ozobots, small line-following robots. Students were very excited to see what tiny "toys" could do.  “Hey, these ozobots are magic,” was the comment of one student.  After exploring for a while, another student stated, “Hey, these colored squares are just coding.”  Students set to work to using their coding skills to control the ozobot's movements.

Mr. Bennett’s government classes worked hard to administer a mock election in our district on Monday, November 7.  High school students visited PK-5th grade classes leading activities to explain voter registration, election vocabulary and symbols, and some of the candidates.  Elementary students also got to vote in voting booth, where students learned about the secrecy of ballots, voted for president and their favorite flavor of frootie candy. Even though their favorite candy flavor may have not won, students got to enjoy the flavor of the majority--very understandable explanation of a democracy.  The mock election was a great learning opportunity for all.

---

These are just a few of the excellent classroom happenings here at Dike-New Hartford.  I hope to be able to share others soon.
​DE