Submitted by Denair High School Sports Boosters
Denair High School Sports Boosters are hosting a drive-thru dinner on Thursday, March 26, 2015, 4:30 – 6:30 pm, in the Denair Middle School parking lot. Dinner will consist of pork loin, rice pilaf, steamed vegetables, dessert and a drink.
Tickets are $12.00 each and can be purchased by calling Carissa Borba at (209) 410-3516.
Submitted by Denair Unified School District
Potential kindergarten enrollment is only one small measure of public enthusiasm for the proposed Denair Elementary Charter Academy. Still, the early response is overwhelmingly positive.
Already, there are 88 children signed up for kindergarten next fall. That compares to 85 kindergartners on the two elementary campuses today.
“We typically have two-thirds of our enrollment by mid-March, so that’s very good,” elementary Principal Sara Michelena told Denair Unified School District trustees Thursday night.
The meeting was the first opportunity for the board and members of the public to review plans for a revamped elementary charter school, which will be known as DECA beginning with the 2015-16 school year. It will replace the separate and adjacent elementary programs that exist today — Denair Elementary School and the Denair Academic Avenues.
One of the primary goals in writing a new charter, Michelena explained, was to blend the best of both current campuses, which together have about 500 students in kindergartens through fifth grade.
A key attraction for parents of current charter school students has been the Spanish component. Michelena said DECA will build upon that, offering all students 30 minutes of Spanish instruction Monday through Thursday. And DECA will introduce a dual immersion option for kindergarten where students will be taught 90% in Spanish and 10% in English.
Already, there are 26 students signed up for that class, with five more on a waiting list. A second class could be added if there 40 students, Michelena said. Going forward, she said the intent is to add a dual immersion class at successive grade levels each year as the first group of kindergartners gets older. Continue reading “Positive Momentum Continues To Build For DECA” »
Submitted by Denair Unified School District
Denair schools trustees and the public will have their first chance Thursday night to publicly review plans for a revamped elementary charter school.
The proposal calls for Denair Elementary School and the adjacent Denair Academic Avenues to form a new school known as Denair Elementary Charter Academy, or DECA, for the 2015-16 school year. Together, the two campuses now have about 500 kindergarten through fifth-grade students from Denair and surrounding areas.
DECA’s mission, according to the proposed new charter, “is to provide students with an engaging, nurturing, equitable learning environment that promotes the development of skills necessary for the 21st century.”
The curriculum will be rich with core subjects such as language arts, math, science, social science and physical education. Electives will include world/foreign languages, drama, music, art, dance and computer instruction.
Already, DECA’s dual immersion English/Spanish class for kindergartens is proving to be popular, with 26 students signed up and five on a waiting list, said Principal Sara Michelena. A second class could be added if there at least 40 students.
The class will follow the 90% Spanish and 10% English dual immersion model, Michelena said. The goal is to have a 50/50 mix of English and Spanish speakers. The intent, she said, is to add a dual immersion class at successive grade levels each year as the first group of kindergartners gets older.
All other DECA students also will have regular Spanish instruction, Michelena said. In addition, the new charter school will have two 30-station computer labs to teach tech skills and will continue to focus on arts enrichment for all students. Even at the elementary level, there will be an emphasis on building a college-going culture among children. Continue reading “DUSD Officials and Teachers Thrilled With Plans for DECA” »
Submitted by Denair Unified School District
A team from Denair Middle School will compete in the annual Sixth Grade Math Blast on Saturday at Modesto Junior College.
The competition pits students representing about a dozen schools from districts throughout Stanislaus County. There are categories for individuals as well as two-member teams.
Denair’s team – coached by Linda Richardson – was chosen in January and has been practicing during the students’ lunch period.
“I like the practice because it helps make me better in class,” said Jocelyn Gauthier.
“I like to solve problems that are hard, like three-digit exponents,” added Dena Gabriel.
“It’s fun,” said Brielle Prock.
Other members of the Denair team are Madison Ainslie, Ayla Monte, Allison Neal, Amy Schmit, Isabella Libby, Eric Aguilar and Anthony Tullio.
The Math Blast tests students in division, multiplication, geometry, fractions and basic algebra. The top three individuals and top three teams are recognized.
The competition is 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Science Community Center on the MJC West Campus, 2201 Blue Gum Ave. The event is sponsored by the Stanislaus Math Council.
Submitted by Denair Unified School District
Denair Middle School science students became the teachers for a few minutes Friday morning, explaining the concepts of cellular structure to their elementary counterparts.
Seventh-graders from two of Barry Cole’s biology classes built elaborate replicas of farms, military bases, an Old West town and even a futuristic community to help with their 15-minute presentations.
A farmhouse became the cell’s “nucleus,” a silo was the “cell wall,” cattle and pigs were “ribosomes” and “lysosomes,” farmland became “cytoplasm” and the barn substituted as a “vacuole.”
The point, Cole explained, was to find “real-life applications for what these students are expected to know” as part of their life sciences instruction.
“On the very first day of class, I told them science is part of their everyday lives,” Cole said. “What we did today is part of Common Core. They are expected to not just understand what an organelle is, but what an organelle does.”
The seventh-graders spent most of the past month working on their projects and constructing their models. Friday morning, 12 teams of four or five students carried their work across the street to the elementary campus, ready to impart all they have learned in classes of first- to fifth-graders.
The older students already had made oral presentations in front of each other in their own classes, but Cole required them to come up with a different way of explaining cell structure to their younger peers.
“If forces them to be more serious,” he said. “This helps them show me that they understand the subject matter.” Continue reading “DMS Students Share Science With Elementary Classes” »