Principal's Corner

Greetings Families,

I had the pleasure this week to sit with some Kindergarten students as they did coding activities during our Hour of Code Week.  It was awesome to see how engaged and how quickly they were able to accomplish their coding activities (much quicker than I completed the activities).  Thank you to Lawrence Veasley (SBTS), Sheila Brosnan (Librarian), Lori Huberman-Hayes (Science Resource Teacher) and Vicky Reidenbaugh (Innovation Space Resource Teacher) for all their work with all of our students this week.

I also want to congratulate the following staff members who are our building nominees for employee of the year.  All of them will move on to the Fairfax pyramid awards committee and we wish them the best!

Outstanding New Teacher: Eric Laurits (4th Grade)

Outstanding Professional Employee:Brooke Nichols (School Counselor)

Outstanding Operational Employee:Richelle Brown (Family Resource Center)

Outstanding Teacher:Grace Yi (3rd grade)

Finally, our 5th and 6th grade Chorus students along with Ms. McCarten and Ms. Cutherbertson did an outstanding job performing in their winter concerts.

Have a great weekend,

Chris Smith

DRES Principal

Principal's Coffee-Monday, December 16 at 9am

Please join us on Monday in the library for our monthly Principal’s coffee.  We will discuss HOMEWORK.  So come with some questions, comments and concerns and let’s have a conversation—or just have some coffee and listen. We look forward to seeing you!

Winter Break Office Hours

The main office will be open on Monday, December 23rd from 9:00am to 2:00pm.  The office will be closed the remainder of winter break and reopen on Monday, January 6th.

Calendar Reminder: Winter Break Is December 23 to January 3, 2020

As a reminder, this year winter break starts on December 23 and ends on January 3, 2020. Classes will resume on Monday, January 6, 2020. See the complete 2019-20 school year calendar. 

Bingo Night- Friday, January 24…save the date!

You’ve been asking, and it’s coming…our annual Food 4 thought Bingo Night fundraiser. 

Get ready to eat pizza, enter raffles and play some B-I-N-G-O!  Our talented staff members and administrators will entertain you with their calling skills.  Mark your calendar and play BINGO for a good cause.  Questions?  Contact the FRC:  rebrown@fcps.edu or 703.279.8441

Positivity Project

This week we will learn about humility. Humble people have an accurate (not underestimated) sense of their abilities and achievements. They hold the capacity to acknowledge their mistakes and limitations, and are open to advice and new ideas. They do not show off their possessions or accomplishments.  Humility and modesty are often characterized as synonymous with shy or meek. This is false. True humility is a sign of strength; it is a quiet confidence in who you are. It requires an honest self-reflection on your strengths and weaknesses, and self-control over ego, arrogance, and vanity. It encapsulates a person’s feelings, thoughts, and actions. It includes resistance to false modesty or the “humble brag.”

Portrait of a Graduate Spotlight

For our students to become future ready learners, we focus on five attributes that will help guide them to becoming productive citizens of a global community. The five attributes we focus on throughout the year are collaborator, communicator, creative and critical thinker, ethical and global citizen, and goal-directed and resilient individual. For this Portrait of a Graduate spotlight, we will be focusing on the collaborator skills your child works on here at Daniels Run! 

FCPS has broken down the collaborator skills students need to be future ready based on grade level. Students in Kindergarten through third grade focus on one set of skills and fourth through sixth grade focus on a different set of skills. For example, K-3 will focus on the skills “I respectfully listen to the ideas of others” while 4-6 will focus on a similar skill, “I respectfully listen and ask questions to get others to share their ideas”. Both skills focus on the attribute collaborator and the expectation builds as the student gain more experiences in school. Below is a list of the K-3 and 4-6 skills your child is focusing on. These skills are not in any particular order. 

The goal of Daniels Run is to provide opportunities for students to demonstrate learning in more authentic ways. Teachers at Daniels Run use POG skills to help enhance learning opportunities to include collaborator skills!

PBL Spotlight

Over the past few weeks, first graders at Daniels Run have been working on an important project. They are answering the questions: How can you, as a design engineer, create a new, innovative obstacle for the upcoming season of American Ninja Warrior? Through the project, students learn how to Identify, describe, and trace circles, triangles, squares and rectangles, and representations of circles, triangles, squares and rectangles, regardless of orientation, in different environments and explain reasoning. Students collaborated by planning and building their obstacles with a small group. Then they presented their obstacle to sixth graders and people around the building on why their obstacle should be chosen for the next season of American Ninja Warrior. 

Student has the opportunity to build their obstacles in the Innovation Space using donated materials from the community! Below are a few pictures of what students created:

Rock Climbing Club!

Advanced Academics at Daniels Run

Our Daniels Run Dragons have had a busy year so far full of challenging learning opportunities.  Across every classroom, teachers are engaging students with high-level instructional experiences that develop their critical and creative thinking skills.  Our staff is committed to providing access to rigor for all students using advanced thinking strategies and curriculum.

Students stretched their thinking in a variety of ways throughout the first quarter.

Kindergarten, 1st, and 2nd grade students participated in lessons using Jacob’s Ladder curriculum, an AAP resource which guides students through an inquiry process with targeted texts to develop higher-level critical thinking skills. 

3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th grade students also had instructional opportunities with AAP resources including materials from various William & Mary Curriculum units. Students learned to analyze literary elements, symbols, and themes of different texts using a graphic organizer called a Literature Web.  Classes also explored big ideas that connect across content areas during "Concept of Change" and "Concept of Systems" lessons.  

At each grade level, students engaged with different  Critical and Creative Thinking Skills (CCTS). 

• Kindergarteners learned about visualization after viewing the pictures in the book Alphabet City and going on a letter hunt around their classroom.

• First Graders used the Color/Symbol/Image thinking routine to encapsulate their thinking and create flags to represent their families.
• Second Graders focused on asking "thick" open-ended, big-idea questions to help them think deeply about the story The Tap Dancer.
• Third Graders explored the strategy of fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration as they brainstormed examples and organized their thinking around the concept of change.
• Fourth Graders discovered that mind mapping can be a great strategy to make connections and review units in their Virginia Studies.
• Fifth Graders considered various perspectives around the same topic and realized that a reader’s point of view can change the meaning of a text. 
• Sixth Graders analyzed the essay A Sense of a Goose and used analogies to connect the natural instincts of geese to ideas about collaboration and community. 

Advanced Academic Programs (AAP)

Level IV Full-time Services Referral and Screening Information

This is a friendly reminder that the deadline for referring students in Grades 2-7 for AAP full-time Level IV consideration is due no later than January 9, 2020.  Parents are welcome to submit early, but no late referrals will be accepted.  We advise parents not to wait for pending abilities test scores if they would like their student screened. While the Grade 2 screening pool casts a starting point for screening some students, test scores are only one factor in the eligibility decision. 

If you would like more information about Level IV AAP services or the screening process for Level IV, there are two parent presentations available on the AAP public website  that have the same information that was shared at our local school information meetings.   https://www.fcps.edu/academics/academic-overview/advanced-academic-programs

Referrals can be submitted to the Advanced Academic Resource Teacher Beth McCrodden bamccrodden@fcps.edu  at any time up through January 9. 

On Time and On Target! Attendance Matters!

Absences Add Up! Schedule Family Travel During School Breaks

Fairfax County Public Schools is required to keep track of student participation in school, through attendance reporting to the state of Virginia. You may have received one or more calls or electronic messages when your student did not arrive in class on time, or when the school was not notified that the student would be absent.

It is vital that parents access the school attendance phone line or attendance e-mail when they know that their students will miss school. Knowing the reason why students are absent helps school personnel understand if a specific reason (such as illness or family hardship) is keeping them out of school. 

When parents know that their students must be out for a specific period (more than a day), they can access and submit a prearranged absence form. This must be done at least three to five days in advance of the absence. This gives administrators and teachers time to consider the work, tests, and projects the student may need to turn in on the student’s return to school. Parents should avoid end-of-semester or end-of-course exam periods; state testing periods; etc., when making plans. Please make every effort to arrange travel during school breaks.

Absences add up, and research indicates that missing 10 percent of the school year, for any reason, can have a negative impact on student success. Learn more about FCPS’ attendance expectations.

Why Teach Coding?

In different times and different places, we taught children to grow vegetables, build a house, forge a sword, blow delicate glass, bake bread, create a soufflé, write a story or shoot hoops. Now we are teaching them to code.  How does this important skill translate to what they will do in  the future? Read More Here Your children learned coding all this past week at school.  Take an opportunity to ask them about what they learned!

Inclement Weather and Emergency Closing Plans; Make Arrangements Now in Case of an Unforeseen Schedule Change

Cold and wintry weather will soon be here! Due to inclement weather or other emergency situations, it may be necessary to close schools for the entire day, to open schools late, or to close early.

Parents are urged to make arrangements now for the care of their children when schedule changes are made (and to provide for the rare situation when it is necessary to close an individual school because of a power failure or other circumstances). Children should know where to go if a parent will not be home.

FCPS has several schedules set up to deal with inclement weather; these are put into effect when conditions threaten the safety of students and staff members:

• Keep schools closed.
• Open two hours late.
• Close two hours early.

When Fairfax County Public Schools has a schedule change (closing or delay) due to inclement weather or other emergencies, the information is communicated in several ways as soon as the decision is made. 

Note: The official @FCPSnews Twitter account (with blue checkmark) is generally the first and fastest mode of communication during emergency weather closings. Other communication channels will be updated as quickly as possible including email, text, website, other social media, and news stations.

Please be aware, due to the large volume of emails sent, there will likely be a lag between the time a FCPS Twitter alert is posted and receipt of an email in your inbox.   

PTA News

Save the Date for Dining for Dollars

MOD Pizza Kamp Washington

Monday, December 16th 

All day 10:30am-9pm 

Just mention DRES PTA at the cash register to ensure a portion of your check is returned back to Daniels Run! *Dine in and Carry-out only! 

Important Dates:

December 16 - Dining for Dollars @ Mod Pizza

December 23-January 3, 2020: Winter Break

January 6-School resumes

January 10-Club Picture Day

January 20-Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

January 27-Student Holiday

January 28-Student Holiday

Full 2019-20 FCPS School Calendar

3705 Old Lee Hwy, Fairfax, VA 22030  | Main Office: 703-279-8400
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