We are so excited to have the opportunity to teach your child this year! The first week of school has been filled with lots of group challenges and community building activities. It is really important to us that each child is known, valued, and has a voice in our learning community. Students have been rising to the challenges put before them each day in the classroom and specials. Teachers have given math and ELA pre-assessments for the year to help guide their planning based off student levels of achievement. Next week we will start NWEA testing to give us more information on how to best meet the needs of your child.
It has been a pleasure getting to know all of the new and past families of DHAA students this week. Thank you for your continued support of your teachers and child as we start a new school year. We have all had to adjust to some changes with classes on the 2nd floor amidst construction. At this time we are not having guests visit the school for lunch. We look forward to welcoming families into our school once construction is complete at the end of August. Please watch for more information about that in future newsletters.
We have added a new section to our newsletter this year: "Guiding the Gifted- Support Corner for Parents". In this section we will share articles and information for parents to help you support your gifted child at home. Please let us know if there are specific topics of interest you would like us to share more about!
We are so excited to see where this year will take us! Have a great weekend!
Starting at a new school can be challenging and scary for many different reasons. This article from Parenting for High Potential shares some conversations parents can have at home with their gifted child to help them adjust to a new school.
Parenting for High Potential is a quarterly magazine designed for parents and others working to support and guide their gifted children at home and at school.
Are you interested in having lunch with your child?
Do you like to help your student's teacher with class activities & jobs?
See the information below!
Parents may begin visiting the DHAA for lunch & class volunteers on Tuesday, September 5th. Follow the steps below to participate:
Lunch with your student:
Have your ID ready to check in when you arrive!
Enter Door #3
After checking in with the secretary in the 2nd floor HUB, you may proceed downstairs to the cafeteria.
Lunch Reminders:
Lunch starts at 10:40am for grades 3 & 4
Lunch starts at 11:10 am for grades 5 & 6
You may only sit with YOUR child during lunch.
You must exit the building as soon as your child's lunch has ended.
Class Volunteers - Procedures:
We love having parent volunteers at the DHAA! Please see the following reminders if you are interested in helping your student's class:
All parent volunteers MUST have a valid background check on file before being allowed to enter the building.
All volunteer opportunities need to be planned with your student's teacher at least 24 hours in advance.
Thank you in advance!
We want to thank everyone for your patience as we have worked out the issues with transportation this week. We wanted to remind you all of some essential information & steps as we continue to adjust to the demands of pick-up & drop-off at a new school:
Pick-up - Please remember to arrive 5-10 minutes early to your bus stop every day.
Errors - While we are getting close to having all the routes, stops, and other transportation needs figured out, we do expect there to be SOME minor issues. Please communicate these with our coordinators & with transportation directly:
DHAA Coordinators: 317-856-2109
MSD Decatur Transportation: 317-856-8060
Please see the important attachment (with "live" links) from our MSD Decatur Child Nutrition Department, which includes:
1. Meal Benefit Application for Free/Reduced Meals: Click Here
4. Purchases & Account Info in our new Lunch Portal: Click Here
DHAA PTO August Meeting
Join us for our first PTO meeting of the year! Find out how you can support DHAA and our students.
Please enter Door 3. We will meet in the cafeteria.
Tuesday, Aug 8, 2023, 05:30 PM
5106 South High School Road, Indianapolis, IN, USA
Donatable Items:
At the DHAA we LOVE to do projects, build things, and experiment with the world around us. This requires us to have a large amount of consumable items on hand for each project we participate in. Many of these items are common materials found stored around a home, garage, or workplace. As you work, complete spring cleaning, or notice some materials you just need taken off your hands, we hope you would consider making a donation to the DHAA MakerSpace. Please feel free to share this list with your family & friends if you think they could benefit from it as well!
The list below offers just a SAMPLE of items that our students could use for the various projects & problems they work to solve. Some items we are in need of at the present time include:
Legos
Scrap wood
Wood working tools
PVC pipe
Plastic Containers
Props/Decoration/Costumes (used in video productions)