an international creative problem solving program for ECE through college students and community groups that meets educational standards and teaches life skills while expanding imaginations through team-based creative problem solving.

Destination ImagiNation emphasizes  . . .

Creativity                                               Teamwork                       Problem Solving

Brainstorming                                          Budgeting                         Project Management
Creative & Critical Thinking Skills       Life Skills                          Knowledge Application
Presentation Skills                                    Research Skills               Confidence

Destination ImagiNation is an exciting way for students to:

• explore and discover creative potential through teamwork, cooperation and mutual respect.
• build complex creative problem solving skills
• use art, technology, performance to tackle one of the five competitive or one non-competitive Team Challenges.
• take ownership and pride in what they accomplish because they do everything themselves, from beginning to end.
• present their Challenge solution in a competition setting.

We make every effort to place all interested students on teams but can only place them on teams if we have parent volunteers who will be team managers. A team typically consists of 7 students and a team manager who meet an hour weekly, November through March.

On October 11 at 5:30 we will meet in the auditorium to learn more about DI and to form our teams.  If you are unable to attend the meeting but would like to be part of DI, then contact Jenny Spampinato at 720.424.5948 or jenny_spampinato@dpsk12.org. Plenty of training and support will be available for those who volunteer.

To learn more about DI try these links:
http://di.dpsk12.org
http://www.idodi.org
http://www.extremecreativity.org

Students will need a user name and password to access Spelling City and take on-line spelling tests.  Return the bottom portion of this note to me to get your user name and password. If you would like to take a peek at the words, go to Spelling City and click on the “Students” button. Toward the bottom of this page, click on the “Find your list” link. Type in “spampinato” and click “Search.” You will use lists 3 A, 3 B, 3 C, … 3 X. There are practice tests and lots of games to do without the password/user name. Once you have your user name and password, you’ll be able to access even more games and take your spelling tests on line.

I am using the Scripps National Spelling Bee Grade Level Study Words for grades 3-9. The words will be divided up as follows for our monthly spelling bees:

Fourth and fifth graders are invited to participate in Spell It, an exciting and advanced spelling program. We will meet, usually, on Mondays and Fridays at 7:45 in the library. On Mondays you will get your words for the week and on Fridays you will take your test.

As part of Spell It we will take part in the DPS Spelling Bees. We can take the top ten spellers to each competition. The first is on December 6 and the second on January 26. We will also take our top 10 spellers to the City Written Bee on February 16. More information about the city and state bees is available at http://www.dpssemantics.com

All of the word lists are available for study at www.spellingcity.com

Click on “Find a List,” type Spampinato into the search space and click on my name. The Spell It lists will be titled Spell It 1, Spell It 2, and so on. There are lots of really fun games to play on line; it is a great way to study your words.

I hope to see you Tuesday, September 6 at 7:45 in the library. By taking part in Spell It you are proving yourself to be a risk taker and I commend you for it!

Attend any meeting at the elementary schools listed below for information about the elementary HGT program. Middle school information at Morey will be held September 19th.