Welcome to Dena'ina Elementary - home of the Grizzlies!
If you would like to visit our school and see our vision in action, please stop by anytime. We look forward to working with your family!
About Dena'ina
We are located about 10 miles up Knik Goose Bay Road, next to Redington Jr./Sr. High School. Our school is unique in that we are a K-12 campus with Redington, which allows us to stay connected as kids move through the upper grades.
Dena'ina Elementary School, home of the Grizzlies, opened in the fall of 2016 and is located approximately 10 miles outside of Wasilla, Alaska. We are next door neighbors to Joe Redington Sr. Junior/Senior High School, a 6-12 school. To learn more, check out our About Us page, see the FAQs below and explore our site. Thank you for visiting!
Our school vision is, "Healthy bodies, active minds, responsible citizens." We believe we can achieve this through a strong partnership with parents and community.
Dena'ina Elementary
To promote healthy bodies we strive to:
- Promote physical activity on a daily basis through increased opportunity for PE, using Go Noodle and brain breaks, and mileage club
- Offer before and after school activities like cross country, basketball, archery, track, volleyball, JNYO, Early Morning Movers and more
- Encourage parents and families to stay fit together with the Healthy Futures Family Fitness Logs and the individual student logs
- Encourage staff to stay fit and healthy
- Promote community health and wellness opportunities in our school newsletter
- Avoid candy or processed food as a reward in school
- Provide healthy meals during family involvement events
- Teach students about nutrition and healthy choices
To promote active minds we strive to:
- Match instruction to standards and use research based, highly effective teaching practices
- Utilize Kagan Cooperative Learning to encourage cooperative skills and higher order thinking
- Utilize technology to enhance instruction, or provide opportunities for more extension or intervention
- Provide a multi-tiered system of support to reach the needs of all students both socially and academically
- Provide creative opportunities such as Art Club, Band and Choir
- Provide before and after school clubs like Lego Robotics, Math/Science Olympiad, Chess Club
- Provide opportunities for students to shine academically through the Spelling and Geography Bees & Talent/Science Fair
- Celebrate academic success at assemblies
- Obtain parent input through surveys or meetings
To promote the development of responsible citizens we strive to:
- Use our guidelines for success to teach students about the behaviors that lead to success
- Utilize the Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports model to create a consistent and caring school culture
- Utilize trauma sensitive practices
- Foster a growth mindset culture by teaching students they can do anything with effort and persistence
- Help students make positive choices by using mistakes as an opportunity to learn
- Teach all students social emotional skills
- Celebrate responsible behavior through the Responsibility Chart, Grizzly tickets and Y student activities/privileges
- Maintain high expectations that are clear, consistent and communicated often
- Involve parents by communicating regularly and inviting parent input