News from our Elementary Principal, Ben Voborsky
Hello GAA Community,
We are fresh off successful three way conferences! Conference attendance surpassed 90% and we are happy so many of our families could make it with their children. Our students are so proud when it comes to sharing their learning with you. If you were unable to attend your conference, please make sure you have made a follow up appointment with your teacher so your child has this opportunity for sharing and reflecting. The parents that I spoke with were very positive about their conference experience. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to speak with everyone. Please take the time and complete this parent-student-teacher conference survey. We value all parent feedback and would like to know what went well and what areas we could develop for spring conferences. Thank you for taking the time!
It is fantastic that the weather is cooling down and everyone is getting outside. November 26th is an early dismissal day for staff professional learning and development. The following week we honor Martyr’s Day and have UAE National Day Holidays. Winter break will be here shortly!
Please keep your eyes posted for all the upcoming events in and around GAA.
Have a great weekend with your family,
Ben Voborsky
Elementary Principal
We are fresh off successful three way conferences! Conference attendance surpassed 90% and we are happy so many of our families could make it with their children. Our students are so proud when it comes to sharing their learning with you. If you were unable to attend your conference, please make sure you have made a follow up appointment with your teacher so your child has this opportunity for sharing and reflecting. The parents that I spoke with were very positive about their conference experience. Unfortunately, I did not have a chance to speak with everyone. Please take the time and complete this parent-student-teacher conference survey. We value all parent feedback and would like to know what went well and what areas we could develop for spring conferences. Thank you for taking the time!
It is fantastic that the weather is cooling down and everyone is getting outside. November 26th is an early dismissal day for staff professional learning and development. The following week we honor Martyr’s Day and have UAE National Day Holidays. Winter break will be here shortly!
Please keep your eyes posted for all the upcoming events in and around GAA.
Have a great weekend with your family,
Ben Voborsky
Elementary Principal
News from our Elementary Vice Principal, Sofia Lyons
Dear Parents
The International Baccalaureate has its own blog called SharingthePYP and many PYP educators around the world submit articles that are reviewed by the organisation and then subsequently published. Our very own PE Coordinator, Dylan McShain put together a fantastic article about our recent GAA Health and Wellness Summit. Please click on the link below to read his published article.
Think big – Health and wellness summit 2015http://blogs.ibo.org/sharingpyp/2015/11/03/think-big-health-and-wellness-summit-2015_edtw/
We are very proud of our teachers here at GAA.
Sofia Lyons
Vice Principal Elementary
The International Baccalaureate has its own blog called SharingthePYP and many PYP educators around the world submit articles that are reviewed by the organisation and then subsequently published. Our very own PE Coordinator, Dylan McShain put together a fantastic article about our recent GAA Health and Wellness Summit. Please click on the link below to read his published article.
Think big – Health and wellness summit 2015http://blogs.ibo.org/sharingpyp/2015/11/03/think-big-health-and-wellness-summit-2015_edtw/
We are very proud of our teachers here at GAA.
Sofia Lyons
Vice Principal Elementary
Please find below an interesting article about the importance of maintaining our mother tongue. The article highlights the following:
This is an easy read with lots of tips and ideas on ways you can support your child’s language learning.
- How does the mother tongue help the learning of English?
- What are the other reasons for maintaining and developing mother tongue proficiency?
- How can ESL students best develop their mother tongue proficiency?
- Benefits of Bilingualism
- How to help your child learn faster
This is an easy read with lots of tips and ideas on ways you can support your child’s language learning.
the_importance_of_mother_tongue_maintenacne.pdf | |
File Size: | 130 kb |
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As part of the mother tongue awareness month we would like to take the opportunity of sharing some of the IB publications in three different languages.
You can read about the IB Primary Years Programme and the IB Diploma Programme in Arabic, English and Japanese. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Programme Coordinators, Mike Hopaluk (PYP) and Paddy Lyons (DP).
You can read about the IB Primary Years Programme and the IB Diploma Programme in Arabic, English and Japanese. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact our Programme Coordinators, Mike Hopaluk (PYP) and Paddy Lyons (DP).
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Grade 2
The grade 2 students have been tuning in and finding out about their new unit of inquiry that falls under the Transdisciplinary Theme of Sharing the Planet.
We are discussing and analyzing how human activities can challenge plant and animal survival.
As part of this unit of inquiry we have been learning about various habitats and the animals that live in each habitat. Students have had the opportunity to learn about food chains/food webs and demonstrate their understanding in a variety of ways including diagrams, pictures, words or even role-play!
The students have also been developing their collaboration skills when working in groups to research how people and other living things interact with the environment. This research has involved the children formulating their own questions, collecting, recording and organising data and finally presenting their findings.
The concept of adaptation is also covered as part of this unit of inquiry and the students will study how living things adapt to changes in the environment as a result of human impact.
Grade 2 students are looking forward to creating infographics and teaching books as our summative assessment for this unit of inquiry.
Chenille Mitchell
The grade 2 students have been tuning in and finding out about their new unit of inquiry that falls under the Transdisciplinary Theme of Sharing the Planet.
We are discussing and analyzing how human activities can challenge plant and animal survival.
As part of this unit of inquiry we have been learning about various habitats and the animals that live in each habitat. Students have had the opportunity to learn about food chains/food webs and demonstrate their understanding in a variety of ways including diagrams, pictures, words or even role-play!
The students have also been developing their collaboration skills when working in groups to research how people and other living things interact with the environment. This research has involved the children formulating their own questions, collecting, recording and organising data and finally presenting their findings.
The concept of adaptation is also covered as part of this unit of inquiry and the students will study how living things adapt to changes in the environment as a result of human impact.
Grade 2 students are looking forward to creating infographics and teaching books as our summative assessment for this unit of inquiry.
Chenille Mitchell
KG CORNER
KG1D have been busy expressing themselves in class the past few weeks. The children have created some beautiful paintings. They painted while listening to some music, expressing how the music made them feel. We also tried some still life drawing – this showed us that some children have wonderful imaginations while others are very observant, both of which are fantastic traits to have.
Kg1-E recently started a new PYP Unit “How We Express Ourselves”. Students are learning how to be risk-takers and communicators. They have been learning about patterns and various ways to express themselves such as through dramatic play!
Our Kindergarteners have recently started their unit of inquiry. Our class inquiry falls under the theme of “How we express ourselves” and the central idea is “We use our hundred languages to express ourselves.” The children in KG1 F have been busy expressing themselves through paint.
KG2B
Students enjoy learning about shapes in our environment. We learned about sides and vertices. We are tuning in to how we organize ourselves. Our Students created helmets, Big Ben, and various shapes. KG2 is having fun!
Students enjoy learning about shapes in our environment. We learned about sides and vertices. We are tuning in to how we organize ourselves. Our Students created helmets, Big Ben, and various shapes. KG2 is having fun!