Friday, December 14, 2018

Dear Faculty,

Countdown is on!  One week to go until winter break. We look forward to celebrating with you tonight at the faculty holiday party!  

Next week there are a lot of scheduled interruptions with winter celebration concerts and parties; otherwise please keep going with instruction through Friday afternoon.  

Holiday Learning Challenges
Please set optional home learning challenges for over the winter break with your classes too.  

This can be homeroom core areas and/or specialist areas.  What games or activities could families do together?  Audio books, math games with a deck of cards, science experiments or ecology shows on Netflix …. What ideas do you have to share with kids?

Thank yous:

• Thank you to Joseph for all his hard work getting our dance costumes ordered and ready. Thank you to Clinton for assisting in this process. - From Jane
• Thank you to all the staff for completing your Herculean effort of report carding writing, editing, entering, and re-entering.
• Thank you to Preethi and Jen C for helping their colleagues to find some space in the hectic rehearsal schedules.  We appreciate the flexibility and collaboration that you have shown your colleagues.

The ES office will be sharing on the blog the Winter Holiday Postcard challenge.  The class that sends the most postcards wins a fun recess time with Keryn, Dave, and Calley!  Postcards have to arrive in the office by the end of January to be counted!  The following was shared with parents in the principals notes.

The Winter Holiday Postcard Challenge

To encourage writing over the winter break, all Grade 1 - 5 children are encouraged to send a postcard from their winter holiday destination.  Postcards should include a written message of where you are and what fun you have been having!  This can be from Chennai, from other parts of India or from wherever you are travelling to!  Must include a message You can send as many postcards as you like - and the class who sends the most postcards wins a fun recess time with Ms Keryn, Mr Dave and Ms Calley.  Postcards must arrive at AISC by the end of January to be counted.  Challenge starts from next Friday 21 December.

Field Days

Field Days will be occurring on January 31st and February 1st this school year:

Grades 3, 4 & 5: Thursday, January 31st 10:50 - 12:20

Early Years 5 and Grades 1 & 2: Friday, February 1st 10:50 -12:20

Early Years 3 & 4: Friday, February 1st 8:45 - 10:00

On these days, the field will not be open for use during recess until all of the equipment is cleaned up and removed.  No regular PE classes will run on these days.  When we return from winter break, we will send out a sign-up sheet for teachers to sign up to run different activities or to lead a group of students on Field Day.

If a classroom teacher is scheduled to have prep during the times of Field Day, (some grade 1 & grade 5 teachers) we will try to schedule a specialist teacher or volunteer to take over her or his responsibilities.  It would be greatly appreciated if all teachers were able to be present for the Teacher Relay Races at 12:00-12:20 p.m. for the day of their grade's Field Day. 

Thank you all so much for your support and efforts in making Field Day so enjoyable for everyone!

Sincerely,

Sobha & Jack

Festive Treats for the Holiday Season (repeat announcement)

Pop in to our office after lunch any time until 4 p.m. on Friday 21st as we break for the holidays. We will have festive snacks to share - and if any of you love to bake - feel free to drop in extra snacks or treats for everyone to enjoy!

Mid Year Book Market Place

We have been going through our collection to make more room and have some books you may love for your classroom libraries! Lots of great adventure, mystery, fantasy, horror, and classics books to choose from!! Please stop by the library December 17-19 anytime to choose books you would like.

Self Check-Out

Our library moved to a self check-in model a few years back and this year we have begun to implement self check-out. This creates greater student agency and also allows us to use library staff in new ways. All of our students in grades 3-5 are now doing self check-out. The library will be moving to full self check-out for all students in grades 3-8 and for all parents and staff starting in January. Please remember to bring your staff ID. Self check-out is already available for staff to try now before break. Please see library staff to learn how and get started today!

Visiting Author Books

Hooray! Morris Gleitzman is this year's visiting author! The library has a bin of his wonderful books available for check out. Come see!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Warmly,

Keryn, Dave, and Calley

Upcoming Dates for your Calendar

Friday 14 December AISC Christmas Party

Monday 17 December  EY Winter Performance 2:30 - 3:15 p.m

Tuesday 18 December  G1-2 Winter Performance 2:30 - 3:15 p.m

Thursday 20 December  G3-5 Winter Performance 2:30 - 3:15 p.m
Friday 21 December  Last day of before Winter Break