NDS Mission Statement: At this school, we seek to nurture every student, every day to develop strong character, academic excellence, and good citizenship.
NDS Vision Statement: At this school, every child will learn. Every kid. Every day. No excuses.
Warrior Families,
Here are a few important announcements for the upcoming week:
📅 Lunch Ordering Reminder
The lunch ordering window for November lunches is now open and will close on Friday, October 17. Please be sure to place your orders before the deadline.
📚 No School – Monday, October 6
There will be no school for students on Monday, October 6. Our teachers will be participating in professional development on that day.
📝 Progress Reports – Tuesday, October 7
Students will receive their first progress report of the school year on Tuesday, October 7. Please remember to ask your child for their report.
📸 Fall Picture Day – Wednesday, October 8
Fall School Pictures will take place on Wednesday, October 8. Students may dress up for their pictures and are not required to wear uniforms on this day.
🎃 PTO Fall “Car”nival – Friday, October 10
Join us for our Fall “Car”nival on Friday, October 10!
Students are welcome to dress up for this fun truck-or-treat event. Additional food, games, and a silent auction will be available. We look forward to seeing everyone there!
It is basketball season. Little League sign up will begin Tuesday, October 7th. Coach Brook will be sending home a form with all students K-6. If you do not receive a paper please reach out to Coach Brooks (cbrooks@ndschool.org).
📬 October Parent Newsletter
Click the link below to view this month’s newsletter:
👉 October Parent Newsletter
Thank you for your continued support!
Lisa Ervin, NDS Director
📢 This Week’s Code Breakers Are Live! 🕵️♂️✨
The new set of Code Breaker challenges has been posted and is ready for your answers! 🧩💡
🔑 Elite Code Breaker Update:
The Elite challenge will remain the same as last week since no one cracked the code just yet. That means… it’s still up for grabs! Who will rise to the challenge and be the first to solve it? 🚀
Let’s see who can unlock their way to the leaderboard this week. Good luck, agents!
This week’s missions are now live. Here’s what you need to know:
✅ Visit my website to find your code breaker challenge:
https://sites.google.com/ndschool.org/cstephens/home?pli=1
✅ Click on the bottom of your grade-level slide to submit your answer.
✅ You can only submit once per week, so make it count!
✅ Tickets will be handed out Friday morning to all agents who complete their mission.
Encourage your child to check out this week’s challenges and see if they can crack the code. Let’s keep the momentum going, agents — your mission awaits! 🔐✨
6th Graders Build the Future: Mini-City Design Project Showcases Teamwork and Creativity
Our 6th-grade students spent the day on Tuesday, October 14th, bringing imagination, collaboration, and academics together in a unique interdisciplinary challenge — the Mini-City Design Project. This all-day event combined ELA, Math, and Social Studies as students worked in teams to design and build their own miniature cities using LEGO bricks.
Throughout the day, students transformed the multipurpose room into a bustling “city planning headquarters.” They took on the role of urban planners, engineers, and civic leaders as they designed cities that people would want to live in, work in, and visit.
Each student group included essential components in their city:
City Hall or Government Center — the heart of decision-making.
Public Safety Building — to keep their citizens safe.
Recreation Area — for fun, fitness, and relaxation.
Residential and Business Districts — complete with homes, stores, and workplaces.
A School or Learning Center — to support education and community growth.
Roads and Transportation Systems — connecting every part of their city.
In addition to creative design, students applied academic skills from across subjects:
In Math, they calculated the area of each building or landmark and converted model measurements into real-world scale.
In ELA, teams wrote a “Civic Pitch” — a persuasive paragraph highlighting why their city is a great place to live and what makes it stand out.
In Social Studies, they demonstrated how city planning reflects community needs and government structure.
The excitement continued into the evening when judges from the County Planning Department arrived at 5:00 p.m. to review the LEGO city designs and select award winners. Students and families were invited to come view the winners at 6:00 p.m. for the Teamwork Tuesday Showcase, where the final cities were unveiled and celebrated.
The winners are as follows:
Best Overall- Hollyville
Future City Planners Award- Graceful Together Ville
Best Teamwork- 67 Heaven
Greenest City- Lichen Rock
Safest City- San Fields
Best Area Mathematicians- Red Dirt City
Best Civic Speech- Diamond City
Best Community Service- Paradise City
Most Creative- Meep City
Best City Layout- Skyward
This event was not only a fun and engaging learning experience — it was a chance for students to see how reading, writing, math, and social studies connect in the real world. By the end of the day, every team had a city that reflected creativity, problem-solving, and collaboration — the cornerstones of successful communities everywhere.
What's Happening in Art?
It's all about Dots!!! Students studied about Yayoi Kusama and created artwork with dots!!.
Great job Mrs. Hudson and students!
New- Washington Trip.pdfParents will need to create a login on the payment site linked below.
https://burkeeducationaltravel.grcoll.co/v2/go/newdimensiondc2026
Price: We are basing our price at $760. If we get the full amount of people, (91 students, 9 chaperones… 50 people per bus) then our price will be $700 per student.
Initial Payment: $150 due Wednesday, October, 1st, 2025. You are allowed to pay more than $150 on the first payment.
Deposits are non-refundable after December 30th, 2025. Final balance is non-refundable after February 6th, 2026.
All fundraiser money will be devoted to the trip as a whole not based on individual sales. The more money raised, the lower the
price will be.
We have 2 charter buses reserved. Each bus will have a company chaperone as well teacher chaperones from NDS. If you are a parent interested in going on the trip, remember your price will be based on how many are in your room. We would prefer 4 students in a room because this ensures that the cost will be the same for all parents involved. If 2 parent chaperones want to stay in a room together that’s fine it will be at the 2 person rate. Also, if the buses are full (students and NDS chaperones) then you will have to drive.
