News from our Elementary Principal, Ben Voborsky
Hello GAA Community,
I am sure everyone enjoyed a relaxing family filled winter break! I always enjoy hearing the amazing new experiences that our students come back from winter break with.
It is hard to believe that we are in the second semester already. K-5 Report Cards have been available electronically on OASIS and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Report Cards and Seesaw are just a few of the ways we document the fantastic amount of learning your children have done since the first day of school. I am always amazed at how our students develop so quickly over what seems to be a such a short time period. The learning engagements that our instructional staff have provided over the course of the first semester have certainly motivated all our students! I know their curiosity will continue to grow over the second semester.
Enjoy a safe weekend and be careful in the fog!
Ben Voborsky
Elementary Principal
I am sure everyone enjoyed a relaxing family filled winter break! I always enjoy hearing the amazing new experiences that our students come back from winter break with.
It is hard to believe that we are in the second semester already. K-5 Report Cards have been available electronically on OASIS and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Report Cards and Seesaw are just a few of the ways we document the fantastic amount of learning your children have done since the first day of school. I am always amazed at how our students develop so quickly over what seems to be a such a short time period. The learning engagements that our instructional staff have provided over the course of the first semester have certainly motivated all our students! I know their curiosity will continue to grow over the second semester.
Enjoy a safe weekend and be careful in the fog!
Ben Voborsky
Elementary Principal
News from 4C
What a wonderful and collaborative community we have here at GAA! Madam Shanta and Madam Tawa, two of our cleaning staff, found out that our 4C class was asking about the Nepali singing bowls and volunteered to speak to us. Madam Tawa comes from where those bowls are made, and Madam Shanta explained why the bowl was used, as well as where it originated. We were able to have all of our questions answered and then some! We would like to thank these ladies for helping our learning and sharing their knowledge with us.
~ Ms. Gellatly and the 4C Class
~ Ms. Gellatly and the 4C Class
News from 5B
Unit 3, How We Express Ourselves, was a fantastic Unit for many reasons. Centered around advertising, marketing and perhaps more importantly, the concept of consumerism, students learned that they were the unsuspecting targets, of a myriad of clever advertising campaigns. Most students have gone from being completely unaware and uninformed, to keenly aware and in fact, some are now making different choices with respect to their purchases. In light of this, the action component of the Unit has been extremely authentic and naturally quite organic, which is what we love about the PYP.
Unit 3 was a highly collaborative effort with all of the specialist classes playing vital roles in the student’s learning journeys. The level of integration in this respect was a clear representation of the transdisciplinary nature of the PYP, and that through it students were able to form powerful connections, as they were able to see the relevance/rationale behind their learning.
Complementing this seamless integration, was that which was occurring in the grade 5 homerooms in readers and writers workshop. The genre focus for the students was persuasive texts. From being immersed in a rich environment of mentor/exemplar texts, they gained a deep understanding of a number of persuasive strategies and structure, Naturally, all of the students found this Unit highly engaging, as they all jumped at the opportunity to voice their opinions and argue their points!
Moving forward, the grade has now begun the 4th Unit of Inquiry - ‘How The World Works,’ which as the name suggests, is entirely Science based. Students will be inquiring into the natural world and some of it’s many laws, through a variety of experiments and research. Importantly, students will be gaining knowledge around the crucial aspect of scientific advances and their impact on society. Guiding the inquiry is the Central Idea that, “Matter exists in different forms which can be changed and used for a variety of purposes.” This Unit is shaping up as another exciting one for the students. Make sure to keep checking Seesaw for photo’s of the inquiry process as the students work their way through the Unit.
Unit 3 was a highly collaborative effort with all of the specialist classes playing vital roles in the student’s learning journeys. The level of integration in this respect was a clear representation of the transdisciplinary nature of the PYP, and that through it students were able to form powerful connections, as they were able to see the relevance/rationale behind their learning.
Complementing this seamless integration, was that which was occurring in the grade 5 homerooms in readers and writers workshop. The genre focus for the students was persuasive texts. From being immersed in a rich environment of mentor/exemplar texts, they gained a deep understanding of a number of persuasive strategies and structure, Naturally, all of the students found this Unit highly engaging, as they all jumped at the opportunity to voice their opinions and argue their points!
Moving forward, the grade has now begun the 4th Unit of Inquiry - ‘How The World Works,’ which as the name suggests, is entirely Science based. Students will be inquiring into the natural world and some of it’s many laws, through a variety of experiments and research. Importantly, students will be gaining knowledge around the crucial aspect of scientific advances and their impact on society. Guiding the inquiry is the Central Idea that, “Matter exists in different forms which can be changed and used for a variety of purposes.” This Unit is shaping up as another exciting one for the students. Make sure to keep checking Seesaw for photo’s of the inquiry process as the students work their way through the Unit.
News from our Kg Vice Principal, Sally Potts
We have had a wonderful first week back at school. Both KG1 and KG2 classes settled quickly into the routines and excitement of school.
Our KG students will be starting “How We Express Ourselves” on Sunday. KG1s will be focusing on learning about emotions while students in KG2s will be focusing on recognizing the characteristics of effective storytelling for audiences.
In this cool weather, we appreciate families sending in extra clothing as students enjoy playing outside on the playground. A reminder that our Sports’ Day is fast approaching. Please plan to join the students and our staff as we take part in a variety of athletic activities.
KG2 is on January 25th while KG1 is on the morning of the 26th. Watching our students learning to pass a baton in our relay race is a joy to behold!
As always, please communicate with your child’s teacher or myself if you have any questions or concerns.
Sall Potts,
KG Vice Principal
Our KG students will be starting “How We Express Ourselves” on Sunday. KG1s will be focusing on learning about emotions while students in KG2s will be focusing on recognizing the characteristics of effective storytelling for audiences.
In this cool weather, we appreciate families sending in extra clothing as students enjoy playing outside on the playground. A reminder that our Sports’ Day is fast approaching. Please plan to join the students and our staff as we take part in a variety of athletic activities.
KG2 is on January 25th while KG1 is on the morning of the 26th. Watching our students learning to pass a baton in our relay race is a joy to behold!
As always, please communicate with your child’s teacher or myself if you have any questions or concerns.
Sall Potts,
KG Vice Principal
KG Corner
This week in KG1H we have been exploring letters and words. We are inquiring into how letters together can make words and that words can have meaning when we read it back to one another. We are being effective communicators with our illustrations as we know that they can also give information. We are in our final week of Sharing the Planet so we are practicing our writing skills with our unit word mats.
KG2H had so much fun on our fieldtrip. We went to Yas Marina, where we took a boat ride all around the mangroves. We learnt about living and non - living things there. We had an AWESOME time!!!
After our Unit of Inquiry for Where We Are in Place and Time, about Journeys, the KG2I students were all very excited to share with the class the journeys that they went on during the winter break. Students were able to name the destinations that they went to, how they got to their destination and the things that they took with them on their journey. We all drew pictures of the places we went to on our journeys. We used our Writing Workshop knowledge to try writing a sentence about our holiday journey! After we were finished we shared our work with our classmates!
In KG2G, students enjoyed their field trip around the mangroves with Captain Tony.They saw many living things and discussed how we could take care of them.