News from our Elementary Principal, Ben Voborsky
Hello GAA Community,
Happy Thursday. Grade One had their end of unit Health Feast today. It was fantastic to see the entire class and many parents crowding in the cafeteria. Thank you to those of you who helped make this happen and bring in so many healthy foods.
On Sunday we will have the GAA National Day Celebrations. Please ask your students about it and I look forward to seeing our school community come out in National Dress. Remember, it is a short week and we will not be in school on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.
Have a fantastic weekend,
Ben Voborsky
Elementary Principal
Happy Thursday. Grade One had their end of unit Health Feast today. It was fantastic to see the entire class and many parents crowding in the cafeteria. Thank you to those of you who helped make this happen and bring in so many healthy foods.
On Sunday we will have the GAA National Day Celebrations. Please ask your students about it and I look forward to seeing our school community come out in National Dress. Remember, it is a short week and we will not be in school on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.
Have a fantastic weekend,
Ben Voborsky
Elementary Principal
Grade 1
Healthy food, good hygiene, and lots of exercise have been on the minds of our first graders as we explored our world through the lens of our PYP Unit, Who We Are. We wanted to develop our Learner Profile by becoming more Knowledgeable and Well-balanced, and the students did this by exploring how our choices can help us to have a healthy lifestyle.
Students used their Math skills to observe the foods that we eat at school and at home. Each class took note of the number of students who brought a healthy snack to school each day, and created a tally chart to track the changes over time. Our Science skills were put to good use as we put glitter on one person’s hands and then gave each other high fives to observe the way germs travel from person to person. The students were very impressed with that exercise, and have been doing a great job washing their hands before snack and lunch ever since!
We followed the scientific method to see what effect different kinds of drinks have on our teeth. We placed eggs into different liquids, and then watched to see what happened to the eggs after a couple days. We decided that soda will turn our teeth brown. Yuck!
The students enjoyed using our classroom books about food, exercise, and hygiene to improve their reading fluency and accuracy. We also found pictures of food and physical activities in magazines and newspapers. At first we sorted the clippings into ‘Healthy’ and ‘Unhealthy’ categories, but it soon became clear that there were some things we couldn’t agree on. For example, what if we had a hamburger on a whole wheat bun, with low fat beef, and lots of vegetables? Some of us thought that should go on the healthy food side, but others thought it was an unhealthy, or “sometimes” food. So we had to think of a way to organize the foods that didn’t clearly fit on one side or another. We problem solved and decided to attach the clippings to a food continuum with arrows showing what we wanted to eat more of, and what we should eat less of.
In Writing, we practiced using our persuasive skills to convince our families to live a more balanced lifestyle. We wrote letters to our moms and dads and video taped ourselves reading them. We invited our parents to come for a Celebration to watch our videos and have a Healthy Food Feast.
It has been a jam-packed unit. We can’t wait to start the next one!
Students used their Math skills to observe the foods that we eat at school and at home. Each class took note of the number of students who brought a healthy snack to school each day, and created a tally chart to track the changes over time. Our Science skills were put to good use as we put glitter on one person’s hands and then gave each other high fives to observe the way germs travel from person to person. The students were very impressed with that exercise, and have been doing a great job washing their hands before snack and lunch ever since!
We followed the scientific method to see what effect different kinds of drinks have on our teeth. We placed eggs into different liquids, and then watched to see what happened to the eggs after a couple days. We decided that soda will turn our teeth brown. Yuck!
The students enjoyed using our classroom books about food, exercise, and hygiene to improve their reading fluency and accuracy. We also found pictures of food and physical activities in magazines and newspapers. At first we sorted the clippings into ‘Healthy’ and ‘Unhealthy’ categories, but it soon became clear that there were some things we couldn’t agree on. For example, what if we had a hamburger on a whole wheat bun, with low fat beef, and lots of vegetables? Some of us thought that should go on the healthy food side, but others thought it was an unhealthy, or “sometimes” food. So we had to think of a way to organize the foods that didn’t clearly fit on one side or another. We problem solved and decided to attach the clippings to a food continuum with arrows showing what we wanted to eat more of, and what we should eat less of.
In Writing, we practiced using our persuasive skills to convince our families to live a more balanced lifestyle. We wrote letters to our moms and dads and video taped ourselves reading them. We invited our parents to come for a Celebration to watch our videos and have a Healthy Food Feast.
It has been a jam-packed unit. We can’t wait to start the next one!
REMINDER
The Grade 1 classes would like to remind parents and caretakers that class is dismissed at 2:55pm. Please do not enter the Grade 1 hallway before 2:55pm as this hallway congestion interferes with the bus-riding children traveling to the bus waiting area as well as students returning to classes from last period specials in a timely manner. We appreciate your cooperation to ensure the safe dismissal of your children.
News from our KG Vice principal, Sally potts
Dear Parents,
It has been another busy week in our KG classrooms. We were delighted to host an entire day in the gym where our children learned about road safety in Abu Dhabi. The team came in and demonstrated safety rules including the wearing of seatbelts. The children all had the opportunity to drive a small cart around a “highway” which had road signs that they had to follow. When the training was complete, the children all received a license!
This week also marked the end of our first swimming session. Students thoroughly enjoyed learning new skills under the watchful eye of our lifeguard and our swimming teachers. It was wonderful to see so many of our children increase their self-confidence in the water through the six weeks of instruction. I would encourage you to follow up with swimming lessons for your children so that we can keep them safe.
Finally, our staff and students are all looking forward to our National Day celebration on Sunday. There are many exciting activities which our Director of Arabic Studies, Samah Awad and her team have co-ordinated. For those of you who would like to join us in the morning, please be aware that if you want to take your child with you after the activities, please sign them out through our reception and sign the form outside your child’s class.
Have a wonderful and safe weekend.
Sally Potts,
Vice Principal KG
It has been another busy week in our KG classrooms. We were delighted to host an entire day in the gym where our children learned about road safety in Abu Dhabi. The team came in and demonstrated safety rules including the wearing of seatbelts. The children all had the opportunity to drive a small cart around a “highway” which had road signs that they had to follow. When the training was complete, the children all received a license!
This week also marked the end of our first swimming session. Students thoroughly enjoyed learning new skills under the watchful eye of our lifeguard and our swimming teachers. It was wonderful to see so many of our children increase their self-confidence in the water through the six weeks of instruction. I would encourage you to follow up with swimming lessons for your children so that we can keep them safe.
Finally, our staff and students are all looking forward to our National Day celebration on Sunday. There are many exciting activities which our Director of Arabic Studies, Samah Awad and her team have co-ordinated. For those of you who would like to join us in the morning, please be aware that if you want to take your child with you after the activities, please sign them out through our reception and sign the form outside your child’s class.
Have a wonderful and safe weekend.
Sally Potts,
Vice Principal KG
KG CORNER
KG1G has been diving deeper into our unit of inquiry, “How we express ourselves.” The students explored acting out different characters using familiar texts and imaginative play. This week we had our first Community Share and also learned about traffic safety. The kiddos received their very first license! Take a look at your little ones in action.
Hello Everyone1
It has been another few busy weeks in KG1H. We are having great fun expressing ourselves in lots of different ways. We have explored our expression through paint, through puppets and we have even made our own puppets and put on our own shows. We are expressing ourselves in writers workshop by making our own storybooks. We enjoyed making and sending postcards to our friends and we also received our first license after learning all about how to be safe on the roads. We even got to drive our own cars and follow the rules of the road. As always we are very busy and we are very excited about our first community share. It will be our first chance to shine on stage this week and show off what we do best.
It has been another few busy weeks in KG1H. We are having great fun expressing ourselves in lots of different ways. We have explored our expression through paint, through puppets and we have even made our own puppets and put on our own shows. We are expressing ourselves in writers workshop by making our own storybooks. We enjoyed making and sending postcards to our friends and we also received our first license after learning all about how to be safe on the roads. We even got to drive our own cars and follow the rules of the road. As always we are very busy and we are very excited about our first community share. It will be our first chance to shine on stage this week and show off what we do best.
KG1I got their first driving license and learned all about road safety!
KG2C has had a very busy 2 weeks at school!
On Thursday last week all of the parents came into our class and helped us build 2D and 3D shapes using marshmallows and toothpicks. Thank you to all of the parents that came in to help!
On Monday this week we were visited by the Abu Dhabi Police and were taught all about road safety in Abu Dhabi. We were given our very own license endorsed by the police as well!
On Thursday last week all of the parents came into our class and helped us build 2D and 3D shapes using marshmallows and toothpicks. Thank you to all of the parents that came in to help!
On Monday this week we were visited by the Abu Dhabi Police and were taught all about road safety in Abu Dhabi. We were given our very own license endorsed by the police as well!
We have been very busy in KG 2D! Our little superstars were very creative making 2D and 3D shapes with tooth picks and marsh mellows. Thank you so much to our parent volunteers Sofie Ladefoged and Farah Junejo who so kindly helped.
As we continued our inquiry into spaces and their functions we created 5 different spaces outside. Look how much fun we had!
We practiced our writing skills and sent postcards to our friends. KG2D were very excited to get a delivery from the postman.
KG2D received their first driving licence. We learned about road safety and took turns in practicing safety on the road. It was the highlight of our week!
As we continued our inquiry into spaces and their functions we created 5 different spaces outside. Look how much fun we had!
We practiced our writing skills and sent postcards to our friends. KG2D were very excited to get a delivery from the postman.
KG2D received their first driving licence. We learned about road safety and took turns in practicing safety on the road. It was the highlight of our week!
KG SPECIALISTS
KG 2 (ART)
In art, our KG 2 students have been learning to create 2-D and 3-D shapes and spaces using a variety of materials.
In art, our KG 2 students have been learning to create 2-D and 3-D shapes and spaces using a variety of materials.
KG 1 students have enjoyed exploring art through our five senses.