A special thank you to “Blind Photography” for professional photos of all of our wonderful book characters! Click on the headline to see all of the photos. Once you have a favorite, right click and “download.” Hint: the photo mark disappears once the photo has been downloaded.

Ms. Watson and Ms. Matthews’ second and third grade students owned the Central Campus auditorium with their performance of, “The Granny Awards.” Granny, who was retired from show business, honored all of our favorite fairy tale characters.

Initial results of Trinect — a five-year collaboration between Iowa State University and the Des Moines Public Schools funded by a $4.5 million National Science Foundation grant — show that elementary school teachers and their students are developing a better understanding of engineering, while engineers are learning how to better communicate their craft. The partnerships have opened up a whole new world of discovery. Click the headline to read more.

From Rosie Revere, Engineer to the man in the yellow hat to Clark the Shark and Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Downtown School students and teachers celebrated their favorite books by dressing as their favorite book characters. The school invited parents down to share in the fun today at a rally in the Central Campus auditorium. Click on the headline to see more photos on the district’s Flickr page.

Scavo High School illustrators and Downtown elementary school authors teamed up this spring to publish books that will soon be shared with families and future students. It’s a collaboration that teachers and teacher-coaches say was the highlight of the year. Click on the headline to read and see more.