Well... We do - at least, Mr. Barnes and his music classes do! A super fun feature of our Spring Program this year was an original song from each class. The 2016 program, titled "Who Writes the Songs?," kicked off with a salute to the flag featuring local law enforcement officers and the audience joining in the singing of the national anthem, followed by the K-6 classes joining together to sing "Seek Ye First." Each of the classrooms then presented a collection of songs, including one they wrote themselves with help from our multi-talented Mr. Barnes. The students determined the theme for their songs, and worked on lyrics and music together.
Original songs for the evening included:
"When You Make God Happy" - Kindergarten
"Ninjas and Zombies" - 1st and 2nd
"White Hills of Nebraska" (played on the recorders) - 3rd and 4th
"Lilly's Tune" - (recorder) by Lilly, 3rd grade
"Black Night" - (recorder) by Jaelyn, 4th grade
"Genesis" - 5th and 6th grades
Judging by the reaction from the crowd present, "Ninjas and Zombies" might have been the favorite in the original song category. Other highlights of the evening included guitar and piano pieces from Faythe and Leyton, junior high guitar students, and Malachi, 6th grade piano student. The 5th and 6th grade class presented a beautiful worship set, and the program concluded with all the classes again on stage together, singing "Shine, Jesus, Shine."
Mr. Barnes and the students definitely deserve an "Academy" award for a great program: a wide variety of selections, plus the original songs, made for an enjoyable evening celebrating God's gift of music and our student's artistry!
DPCA Eagle
Friday, April 15, 2016
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
ACSI Giving Day and 24 Hour Prayer: THANK YOU!
from Erik Ritschard, Administrator
We are SO GRATEFUL to all of you who supported us during ACSI Giving Day and our 24 Hour Day of Prayer! Many of you prayed for us throughout the day yesterday (some of you in the middle of the night...) - THANK YOU! With your generous support we raised a little over $2000.00, which means that DPCA receives about $1800 - a huge help for us right now - and we get to contribute the remaining $200 or so to international Christian schools who are sharing the good news of the gospel with kids in their parts of the world.
What is ACSI? DPCA is a member school in a broad and committed family of about 24,000 Christian schools around the world called the Association of Christian Schools International. ACSI schools serve about 5.5 million students, and the Association provides member schools a number of services, including professional development, teacher certification, school improvement programs, legal resources, curricular resources, standardized testing, and more. As a school community, we've been enriched and helped over the years by our membership in ACSI, so it really is a privilege this Giving Day to be able to both receive your gifts to us, and contribute to the health of some of our fellow Christian schools overseas. If you'd like to learn a little more about the work of international Christian schools, ACSI's work in other countries, and see some examples of our shared vision and ministry of Christian schooling, check out this video:
The video is just from one country - some of the exciting things the Lord is doing through Christian schooling in Paraguay. Imagine the multiplied results of Christian schools in the lives of students like Valeria all around the world and across the U.S.!
We love that we can weave a call to love for God and neighbor all through every school day at DPCA. We love that we get to share in this task with thousands of other Christian educators around the world. And we love that so many of you made time yesterday to pray for us, to make a donation, and to be partners with us. THANK YOU!
If you didn't get a chance to join in yesterday, it's not too late! Pray for us! You can click here to go to our prayer page. You can click here to make a donation. If you'd like a percentage of your donation to go to ACSI to help with schools like Valeria's overseas, tell us that in the comment section, and we will handle that part of the donation for you as well. If you would like to learn more about ACSI, click here. And if you want more general information about who we are and our vision at DPCA, click here.
We are SO GRATEFUL to all of you who supported us during ACSI Giving Day and our 24 Hour Day of Prayer! Many of you prayed for us throughout the day yesterday (some of you in the middle of the night...) - THANK YOU! With your generous support we raised a little over $2000.00, which means that DPCA receives about $1800 - a huge help for us right now - and we get to contribute the remaining $200 or so to international Christian schools who are sharing the good news of the gospel with kids in their parts of the world.
What is ACSI? DPCA is a member school in a broad and committed family of about 24,000 Christian schools around the world called the Association of Christian Schools International. ACSI schools serve about 5.5 million students, and the Association provides member schools a number of services, including professional development, teacher certification, school improvement programs, legal resources, curricular resources, standardized testing, and more. As a school community, we've been enriched and helped over the years by our membership in ACSI, so it really is a privilege this Giving Day to be able to both receive your gifts to us, and contribute to the health of some of our fellow Christian schools overseas. If you'd like to learn a little more about the work of international Christian schools, ACSI's work in other countries, and see some examples of our shared vision and ministry of Christian schooling, check out this video:
The video is just from one country - some of the exciting things the Lord is doing through Christian schooling in Paraguay. Imagine the multiplied results of Christian schools in the lives of students like Valeria all around the world and across the U.S.!
We love that we can weave a call to love for God and neighbor all through every school day at DPCA. We love that we get to share in this task with thousands of other Christian educators around the world. And we love that so many of you made time yesterday to pray for us, to make a donation, and to be partners with us. THANK YOU!
If you didn't get a chance to join in yesterday, it's not too late! Pray for us! You can click here to go to our prayer page. You can click here to make a donation. If you'd like a percentage of your donation to go to ACSI to help with schools like Valeria's overseas, tell us that in the comment section, and we will handle that part of the donation for you as well. If you would like to learn more about ACSI, click here. And if you want more general information about who we are and our vision at DPCA, click here.
Tuesday, January 12, 2016
Super Speller!
Monday, December 14, 2015
Merry Christmas 2015!
by Isaiah Durbin, student boosters small group
Thanks again to all the parents and guests who came out to join us for the Christmas program! We do wish you all a Merry Christmas!
Mr. Barnes put together another wonderful Christmas program. He has put so
much time and effort into his programs and this year was yet another example of
his hard work. Some elements of the program come together at the last moment - one
thing he mentioned was that the different classes had learned a song separately
and come together to do it for the first time that morning! First and second
grade said they had fun learning with Mr. Barnes.
Every year we have a Christmas tree decorating contest where the grades are
separated out and get to decorate their own tree. Kindergarten had a foil tree
where they made ornaments and a star out of foil. First and second grade had a
snowflake tree with candy canes. Third and fourth had a camping tree complete
with s’mores ornaments. Fifth and sixth
had their traditional World Vision tree with picture of many flags of countries
across the world, which leads me to another topic I will discuss in a moment. The
7th and 8th grade class had a heritage tree covered with little snippets of
information about our American heritage. Ninth through twelfth had the
simplicity tree (their excuse for not decorating the tree). The trees are then
judged by the people who attend the Christmas program by donating money to the
tree they think is the best. That money is then put into our World Vision missions
fund. Our winning tree this year was the 5th and 6th
grade, who brought in an additional $103.00 for our World Vision shopping day.
I
mentioned World Vision a little bit ago. Every semester the entire school gets
together for World Vision Chapel where we buy things for people in need with
the money that we raise throughout the year and from donations we get for each
tree. It's a lot of fun and everyone participates. World Vision Chapel is
Friday, December 18, 2015, and all parents are invited to join us.Thursday, December 10, 2015
Operation Christmas Child
by Heather Burdges and Faythe Baxter, Student Boosters small group
We had a large group take advantage of the opportunity given
to us to volunteer at the Operation Christmas Child Warehouse in Denver. This
is one of nine facilities in the United States. This organization’s goal is to
tell people of the good news of Jesus and to point people towards God. The nine
facilities in United States send out approximately 8.6 million shoeboxes every
year. The Denver facility proposed a goal to send out 800,000 shoeboxes around
Christmas in 2015.
While some who had volunteered before were excited to again
participate in this activity, those who had not partaken before saw the
excitement of others with experience and were encouraged by the positive
atmosphere walking into the warehouse. “It was a good experience; it really put
things into perspective for me. We take our Christmas and gifts that we get for
granted and forget about how fortunate we are especially around Christmas
time,” Tori McManamay (9th) said.
Some of the roles that we played at the OCC warehouse
included a pre-inspector, an inspector, a taper, a scanner, and a
“cartonizer.” The pre-inspector would look through the box for donations for
shipping to the organization, the inspector would examine the box for any items
such as liquids, foods, or anything that could ruin the box or put the child in
danger. Next the taper would tape the box shut to seal it, and they would give
it to the scanner if it had a bar code on it in order for the family to track
their box in order to see what country their shoebox traveled to. Lastly, the
“cartonizer” would pack the shoeboxes into a box to be shipped. “It was a good
experience because I got to take part in bringing joy to children around the
world. I got the opportunity to be the scanner of my station. Scanning allows
you to keep track of the boxes so that we make sure to know where the boxes go.
As the scanner, I held the responsibility that every box was accounted for so
that the people who donated the extra money for tracking can have peace of mind
when they see where their shoeboxes were delivered,” said Tanner Culp (12th). In
the midst of the work, everyone in the warehouse would stop for a minute to
pray over the boxes and to be reminded of how much of an impact we are making
on many children.
All of the students and staff had a great time packing the boxes for the children and all had a great attitude, even after a four hour shift. It was certainly difficult to stay standing for that long period of time, but everyone had a great time and couldn’t believe that four hours had passed by so quickly. The thought of a child’s face first opening that gift kept us working hard to get as much done in the time we were given. We hope to have another opportunity to volunteer at Operation Christmas Child again in the future.
Thanksgiving Chapel
By secondary students in the Student Booster small group
Thank you to everyone who
attended and contributed to the Thanksgiving Chapel! We extend our gratitude to all the volunteers
and donations that made the event possible. Parents and students
alike enjoyed grade-level
elementary performances including songs, verse recitation, and a one-act play, while the secondary school contributed poems and foreign language orations.
Chapel was followed by a luncheon made possible by our
middle school students and parent volunteers. In total,
we served over two-hundred patrons and raised fifty dollars in donations
for World Vision. Darren Patterson Christian Academy is thankful for you
and your contributions this Thanksgiving!elementary performances including songs, verse recitation, and a one-act play, while the secondary school contributed poems and foreign language orations.
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
EMH Instructor Lindy Reese Completes Wilderness First Aid
by Erik Ritschard, Administrator
Miss Reese teaches EMH courses and English |
This past weekend I had the opportunity to take a class through the National Outdoor Leadership School on Wilderness First Aid. The course was taught by instructors from the Wilderness Medical Institute and included twenty hours of fast paced, hands-on training. Classroom lectures and demonstrations were combined with realistic scenarios in order to practice knowledge and skills. In two short days, we studied patient assessment techniques along with a wide range of treatments options geared towards wilderness settings. In addition, we learned how to make critical medical and evacuation decisions for remote locations. I found this course to be expressly applicable to working with EMH students as well as to my own lifestyle and outdoor pursuits.
The most challenging and helpful aspect of this course were the scenarios integrated throughout. These situations required quick analysis and creative critical thinking. Instructors would pull aside people from the class and give them incredibly realistic wounds using stage make-up. They would assign each “patient” a personal medical history, symptoms, levels of responsiveness, and a detailed rendering of the situation involving their injury. The patients would go outside and position themselves accordingly - sometimes crumpled on the ground moaning from a fall or hyperventilating from shock - each patient really committed to acting out the scene in order to make it as realistic as possible. Then, the instructors would prepare the rest of the class separately by describing the scenario in which we would come across the patient. The rescuers would go outside, sometimes to find fairly gory scenes, and begin to figure out how to connect with and care for the patients.
These situations felt very realistic and challenged me to immediately implement the things I was hearing, seeing, and writing down in class. They also tested each participant’s ability to remain calm, communicate clearly, act efficiently, and administer care accordingly. The variety and frequency of these scenarios continually reinforced skills taught in the classroom. This unique format was effective in solidifying skills and in building confidence. I found that I loved learning about the detailed medical aspects of patient care and, perhaps just as importantly, I discovered that my personality was very well suited to performing in high-pressure situations...
Kate on winter mountaineering course winter 2015 |
For more information (and great pictures!) about DPCA' EMH program, please visit www.emhweb.org.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)