Book Character Day 2022-2023 is almost here!  

We will be celebrating all of our favorite book characters by dressing up on May 19th for our All School Sing.  Start planning a book character costume with your child. 

Costumes can be...

• Simple- minimalist costumes ensure your child is most comfortable throughout the day

• Homemade- no need to purchase anything.   Part of the fun can be pulling together what you have at home to come up with a character your child loves. 

Costumes must be..

• From a book- this day is all about book characters rather than movies and games

• Comfortable-  students will wear their costume throughout the day, so you will want to make sure they are comfortable wearing it or it is easily taken off without significant need for a costume change- limited face paint please.

• Safe- no weapons, even if props or made out of cardboard/paper

Examples: 

• Piggy from Mo Williams books

• Fly Guy or Buzz

• Skippy John Jones

• Pete the Cat

• Ladybug from the Grouchy Ladybug

• Jack or Annie from Magic Tree House Series

We are excited to announce The Downtown School will be hosting summer programming during the month of July!  This will be a 4 week program taking place on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9:00am-11:00am, with a snack provided.   Students are not required to attend all sessions to register.  Students will have the opportunity to engage in book clubs, book discussions, and creating book projects during their time on campus.    

Each child will receive a DTS drawstring bag in which they can fill with books each session to read throughout the summer.   Each session, they will return with their books and bag  to engage in book discussions with other students and create book projects to share about the stories they have been reading.

Dates:

Week 1: July 5th & 6th

Week 2: July 12th & 13th

Week 3: July 19th- & 20th

Week 4:  July 26th & 27th 

In addition, we will also be offering small group interventions for selected students.  These students will receive a 15-30 minute intervention in the area of  reading or math during their time on campus, as well as participate in book discussions and create book projects.   Student selections were made based on building data.  If your child was selected, you will receive a letter from your child's teacher.  Please let Kelly Craiger (kelly.craiger@dmschools.org) or Tracey Donovan (tracey.donovan@dmschools.org) know if you would like your child to participate by May 30th.  

Please register at https://shorturl.at/ACFM0.  If you have questions about summer programming, please reach out to Peter DeLaFuente at peter.delafuente@dmschools.org. 

Dear Students & Families,

I just wanted to remind you that May is Mental Health month. In recognition of this, we will be discussing mental health in 5th grade. We will use curriculum from Erika’s Lighthouse. If you have a 5th grader, you can look over this website or give me a call. https://www.erikaslighthouse.org/

As a family, you might think of doing some mindful activities to become aware of Mental Health month. You might do a scavenger hunt in the yard or park. Challenge each other to find 5 different leaves, look for something spikey, or find some signs of animals just to get you started. You might want to spend a few moments reading a poem, sharing a story under a tree or writing or drawing outside. These are things that help with calming the body and making us more mentally aware.

Mosaic Mental Health Counselors are available at school. If you need more information, please contact Mosaic at 515-724-8920.

The students will also be finishing up the 3rd Superflex book and learning more about his band of “Social Unthinkables.” We will introduce the last of the characters at our next All School Sing. Most of our students can now use these characters to discuss situations and are remembering Superflex’s suggestions on solving a problem or ways to get them “unstuck” from a certain character. We have pictures in the hallways and in classrooms as reminders. Recently they have been doing plays about the characters and how each is defeated. These have been a blast.

It's going to be another great month, so please let me know if you have any questions.

Dawn Coppinger, Professional School Counselor

New Board Members

The PTA Board has new officers for the coming year.  Welcome Jennifer Burton and Kelsey Green as Co-Treasures! 

The Board still has open positions:

•  Co PVC Chair - Coordinates classroom PVCs (room parents); leads other teacher appreciation events.

•  Co-Secretary -  Takes minutes at PTA meetings.

Interested in helping with positions or special projects not listed here, let us know! Contact downtownschoolpta@gmail.com.

Missed the last PTA meeting?  Check out the minutes here.