Friday, December 20, 2019

Dear Parents,

What a truly spectacular week we had to culminate our first semester in the Elementary school. Hats off to Ms Jane, Mr Finny, Ms Fiona and Ms Sarah for the two fabulous circus extravaganza performances!  I am sure you will all agree that these were an exceptionally high level, and we can all feel proud of all the children for their effort towards preparing for these!

Resources Needed for Our Elementary Reception Area

We would like you to send us some old board games that you do not play with or new board games you would like to share with others. If you do not have some, you could just recommend to us your favorite board games or good games that are appropriate in school. (From Yeonu - Grade 4).

Reading Over the Holiday

The Elementary and Middle School Library is encouraging your child(ren) to read over the holiday break! Each child in grades Kindergarten - Grade 5 has received a Reading Bingo game that they can play over the break. Please help them to mark off as many boxes as they can, then return the sheet to the library by Friday, January 24th. All participants will be invited to a Raptors Read Celebration at the start of the year! 

Families are also encouraged to take photos of your child(ren) reading over the break! Please forward any photos to bbarbara@aischennai.org. Some examples are below.

 

Happy reading and if you have any questions, please direct them to our librarian, Ms. Babs, at bbarbara@aischennai.org. 

Additional Class in Grade Three

We will be welcoming new Grade three students into an additional Grade three class in January! This class will be taught by Ms Rebecca Semrick and Ms Leontheen Briggs. I am sure you will join us in welcoming new students and families.

Jan Jamboree - 25 January 2020

Jan Jamboree is a fundraiser event led by the high school student council to raise money for service clubs. Jan Jamboree is on January 25 from 12:00-3:00 pm. High school students will set up numerous booths and activities targeted toward elementary school students. Activities range from Bouncy Castle to a Slip n Slide. Tickets are 500 rupees for students and 300 for parents and will be on sale from January 20-24 by the elementary school reception and main reception. Lunch is included with the tickets. 

Parenting Book Group Starting in February - 

Nigel Holdsworth, School Psychologist, and Jen Gold, MS Counselor.

Join us in discussing The Strength Switch: How The New Science of Strength-Based Parenting Can Help Your Child and Your Teen to Flourish by Lea Waters. The ideas in this book apply to parenting children of all ages, Elementary, Middle and High School, so this is open to all parents. 

Here is a brief description from Dr Waters' website: This game-changing book shows us the extraordinary results of focusing on our children’s strengths rather than always trying to correct their weaknesses. By showing us how to flick the “strengths switch,” Lea Waters demonstrates how we can not only help our children build resilience, optimism, and achievement but we can also help inoculate them against today’s pandemic of depression and anxiety.

Dr Waters' book is available in English on amazon.in and has been translated into 8 additional languages (Korean, Japanese, French, and others)! Check here to purchase a book in your home language over the winter break. All English language levels are welcome and encouraged to attend. We look forward to seeing you on Mondays on the following dates and times:

• February 10th at 2:00 (Chapters 1 and 2) in the BBT
• February 17th at 2:00 (Chapters 3 and 4) in the BBT
• February 24th at 2:00 (Chapters, 5, 6,7) in the BBT
• March 2nd at 1:00 (Chapters 8, 9, 10) in the Hall of Light (will end in time to attend the PCA meeting)

We have a limited number of spaces open for this book club as we want to ensure that we are able to make it a truly useful learning experience. Please sign up on this website if you are interested in attending.

Pongal Holiday

A reminder that school is closed on Wednesday 15th of January for Pongal.  

January Lunch Menu & Order Links   

To order a school lunch for your child, please use this PayOnline link.  

Elementary Lunch Menu Links: (Early Years- Grade 3 Pre-order) and (Grades 4 & 5 - No Preorder)

Enjoy your holidays!

Keryn Dowling, Dave Allen and Calley Connelly

Friday, December 13, 2019

Dear Parents,

The end of this semester approaches, and with your children, we look forward to welcoming you next week for the Winter Performances. Thank you to parents who have engaged our students in holiday creativity - the classrooms look lovely, and ready to enjoy our celebrations together. It’s festive time of year.

On Wednesday next week, your child will bring home their report card. Please take some time to review this with your child. The annual one page calendar for the year 2020-21 will also be distributed to families along with your youngest child’s report.

Winter Performances - Winter Circus - Coming next week!

Mark your calendars next week for the upcoming Winter Performances. Early Years - Grade 2 will perform 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec 17 while Grades 3 - 5 will perform 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec 19. We look forward to sharing our Winter Circus with you!  

Singing Raptors Christmas Carols Event

Thank you for joining Ms Sarah and the Singing Raptors for Christmas Carols last Friday. You can see some great photos on the SmugMug link.    

Back by popular demand - The Singing Raptors

This Tuesday, in honor of the festive season, Mr Andrew Hoover has invited our very own Elementary School choir, the Singing Raptors, to join him in the courtyard from 8:00 to 8:30 a.m. for some holiday singing. Don't miss this opportunity to get in the holiday spirit. As usual, coffee and other refreshments will be served.

Winter Break- Jump-Off Camp and Activities

Will you and your family be in Chennai the end of Winter Break? If so, check out the Jump Off program! Within this program, there are on-campus activities for all family members. For Elementary and Middle School students, you may register for Jump Off Camp on this Registration Form. Activities and the camp will be available on Monday, January 6th - Friday, January 10th.

Information Sheet

Registration Form

Open Facility Use

Kindergarten Math Morning

Thank you to the parents who attended our last Family Math Morning of this school year in Kindergarten. Below, please see a link to the presentation that was shared with all Kindergarten parents, including information about a fun family game to play at home, and information about the Kindergarten math curriculum. As always, the children and teachers love to have you join in the math classroom. See you next year!  

Kindergarten Math Morning Presentation

How to play “Shut the Box” - a great family math game for K-5 students

Roots and Shoots

This school year Root and Shoots has chosen to help Blue Cross of India. On Tuesday December 10, Roots and Shoots learned about how Blue Cross of India cares for animals from a presentation by Mr. Dawn William, General Manager. After the break, Roots and Shoots will be doing a collection of items for the animals and will be planning a Saturday visit to help the animals.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Keryn Dowling, Dave Allen, and Calley Connelly
Elementary School Leadership Team

Friday, December 06, 2019

Dear Parents,

Teachers and students have been very productive this week as the end of semester one approaches. Many children are completing assessment tasks and are showing considerable growth in their learning and achievements. As we head into the winter break, we would like to emphasise the importance of keeping learning going through the break, particularly with reading. We will have more to follow on this next week.

Vision of a Learner

Congratulations to the following students who are receiving the Vision of a Learner awards for the first semester. These students were nominated by their teachers according to the traits of an AISC Learner.  

Leader: Elias Stewart, Mahitha Madupalli

Reflective:   Bianca Peyron, Juniper Connelly

Explorers:  Arlo Starkweather, Charles Caillet

Thinkers: Seungsu Lee, Bavhanashree Saravanan

Ethical:   Eugenie Caillet, Minami Ashihara

Versatile:  Nahyun Kwon, Chanhee Cho

Empathetic: Isla Alleyne, Reyansh Jhaver

Resilient:   Lea Bonnet, Koshiro Hirano

Collaborator: Minhu Bae, Jian Kim

Innovator:   Yashvi Parekh, Yeonu Seok

Kindergarten Math Morning

Kindergarten parents are invited to join our math coach to learn more about the AISC math curriculum, then they join their children in the classroom for a lesson and some math games together. Family Math Mornings are an exciting and fun time for parents and kids. Join us December 10 at 8:45 - 10 AM, starting in the Madras Hall.

Early Release Wednesday, December 11th

Wednesday, December 11th is the next Early Release Wednesday. Students are expected to depart campus in a timely and organized fashion upon dismissal at 2:00 pm. We appreciate your patience with traffic on these days as all three sections are picking up students at the same time. In preparation, please plan on allowing longer time for entry and exit to the school at release time. 

December 12th Lockdown Drill
As per the calendar, our Second Emergency Drill for this year will be conducted on Thursday, December 12th at 9:00 a.m. It will be a lockdown situation. Parents and visitors on campus during a lockdown drill should go into the nearest classroom or office and follow procedures as per staff instructions. An “all-clear” notice will be sounded by the alarm system.  

Winter Performances - Winter Circus

Mark your calendars for the upcoming Winter Performances. Early Years - Grade 2 will perform 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec 17 while Grades 3 - 5 will perform 1:30 - 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, Dec 19.  We look forward to sharing our Winter Circus with you!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Keryn Dowling, Dave Allen, and Calley Connelly
Elementary School Leadership Team

Wednesday, November 27, 2019

Dear Parents,

Happy thanksgiving! Wishing you and your family a wonderful four day weekend. A time to be thankful for all the wonderful things in our lives.

Thank you to all the families who were able to send in a pair of shoes for our shoe collection drive. We collected over 100 pairs of shoes to donate to the girls.

NESA Virtual Science and Engineering Fair Announcement
The NESA Virtual Science and Engineering Fair is a unique opportunity for students in 5th grade to conduct scientific investigations or design models to solve real-world problems.

We invite parents of all interested 5th graders to a meeting in the BBT on Monday, December 2, 2019, from 2:15-3: 15. The purpose of this meeting is to share information about the NESA Virtual Science and Engineering Fair and enroll participants.

Craft Bazaar at AISC

Vision Project Feedback Summary

Thank you to the sixteen parents who responded to our request for feedback about Vision Week. We were glad to hear that your children seemed excited by their experiences. Overall, 94% of parent respondents said their children seemed excited, comfortable, and proud. 

The children who participated in Vision Week had a great learning adventure, and fun too! 90% of students rated their week “very fun” or “super fun”, and while there is room to improve, we are glad to know that so many students enjoyed themselves while learning a lot.

Your children’s teachers had a great week of learning, connection, and fun too. Our teachers highlighted the following three points as notable strengths of the Vision Week experience.

• Living the Mission and the Vision of the AISC Learner.
• Collaborating with New Students and New Teachers.
• Becoming practitioners of Project Based Learning (PBL).

We will be looking forward to Vision Week 2.0, processing parent, teacher, and student feedback, and engaging our faculty in making decisions about how to move this successful initiative forward. As always, we welcome other forms of parent engagement, so if you have a compliment or a concern about Vision Week, please reach out to us!  This survey link is still open for parent feedback.

STEAM Holiday Family Challenge 

Can you design and create an object to represent something related to your family holidays or traditions using only recycled materials?

Design Constraints (Rules).

• Size - no more than 25 cm tall and no more than 30 cm wide (for display purposes).
• Use only materials you find around your house - Do not buy anything for the challenge!
• No food or candy!
• Please mark with your name and homeroom on the bottom.
• Bring completed projects to the Discovery & Design Studio anytime before December 13th.

Some examples: 

     

   

Repeat Announcements

Important Calendar Change – Make-up School Day, March 23, 2020 

To make-up for the additional Diwali Holiday we observed on Monday, October 28, the Board of Directors approved Monday, March 23, 2020 calendared as a Staff Professional Day as a full school day. We will continue to remind our community of this change in future Head’s Notes!

Upcoming Elementary Christmas Carols

Next Friday, 6 December, from 4:00 - 5:00 p.m, our Elementary Choir will be performing in the unity courtyard. Please come along to join in the sing-a-long fun and hear our wonderful choir.

December Lunch Menu & Order Links   

To order a school lunch for your child, please use this PayOnline link.  

Elementary Lunch Menu Links: (Early Years- Grade 3 Pre-order) and (Grades 4 & 5 - No Preorder)

Have a wonderful long weekend!
Calley Connelly, Dave Allen and Keryn Dowling

Friday, November 22, 2019

Dear Parents,

Today our Lower Elementary students hosted a celebration of learning in our FAC Theater. We were treated to performances by Grade 1 and Grade 2. Ms. Morgen and Ms. Jenny’s classes taught us how to make snap words. We learned that math is everywhere with Ms. Deepa’s class, and with Ms Kristina’s class, we learned about how to form questions, make ice cream and how books make us feel. In addition, Ms. Fer’s class along with Ms. Teena provided updates about the library, our Student Council talked about the Girls Sports Shoes Drive, and Mr Finny lead the audience in singing our Elementary School song with help from Ms. Tiffany’s class.

 

Vision Week Reflections and Feedback

During the week of Nov 11 to 15, your child(ren) had the opportunity to participate in our inaugural Vision Week projects. Enjoy highlights from the week in the AISC photo gallery (password: raptors2019). This week, students had the opportunity to reflect on that experience. After gathering feedback from students, an overwhelming number of students said that they were happy, proud, and challenged during the week. Students also felt that they were part of a team. When asked what they learned during the week students shared how to: collaborate with others, give and receive feedback, make an innovative design, apply new skills, and be resilient. We are soliciting teacher, student, and parent feedback to help us reflect on the week. We value your impressions of your child's experience during this week and ask that you complete this survey to share your insights. Thank you!

Important Calendar Change – Make-up School Day, March 23, 2020 

To make-up for the additional Diwali Holiday we observed on Monday, October 28, the Board of Directors approved Monday, March 23, 2020 calendared as a Staff Professional Day as a full school day. We will continue to remind our community of this change in future Head’s Notes!

Upcoming Elementary Christmas Carols

Next Friday, 6 December, from 5:00 - 6:00 p.m, our Elementary Choir will be performing in the unity courtyard. Please come along to join in the sing-a-long fun and hear our wonderful choir.

December Lunch Menu & Order Links   

To order a school lunch for your child, please use this PayOnline link.  

Elementary Lunch Menu Links: (Early Years- Grade 3 Pre-order) and (Grades 4 & 5 - No Preorder)

Support our Elementary Student Council Girls Sports Shoes Drive (repeat announcement)

The ES student council is sponsoring the collection of girls’ sports shoes. The shoes will be donated to “Educate to Empower” which has created a school in Tamil Nadu for underprivileged girls. Educate to Empower is led by an AISC alumni. The girls need shoes so that they can participate in sports. There are 210 girls in this school that goes up to grade 5. By donating shoes we will be improving the lives of these girls and creating positive changes in their confidence and education. Please donate used or new shoes by Monday and put in boxes provided for each grade level. The student council will sponsor a pool party for the grade level that collects the most shoes on Wednesday, November 27th, during lunch recess. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

Keryn Dowling, Dave Allen, and Calley Connelly
Elementary School Leadership Team

Friday, November 15, 2019

Dear Parents,

We hope you were able to join us this afternoon for the culmination of our wonderful vision project week for students from Grade 3, 4 and 5, as well as for our Missoula Children’s Theatre production of Pinocchio. Congratulations to our MCT cast, as well as all of our Grade 3-5 children and teachers who displayed commitment, dedication and vision to their different projects this week.

Robotics with Arduino - Afterschool in the BBT - Monday, November 18th

Using the power of Arduino, a single-board microcontroller, both students and adults can experience the skills necessary for integrating software and hardware. In other words, engineer robots to do cool things.

Early Years Parent Coffee - Tuesday, November 19th

Please join us next Tuesday morning for an Early Years Parent Coffee - November 19th  from 8:45 - 9:45 a.m. in the BBT. This coffee is specifically for parents in our Early Years program and will focus on  Early Years standards and providing further clarity and understanding around the emergent curriculum. We look forward to seeing you there.

Web design with Javascript, HTML, and CSS - Afterschool in the BBT - Wednesday, 20th November

Learn about what goes into creating a website from scratch. With the help of Code.exe's club leaders and members, both students and adults can gain a deeper understanding of the web design process and work on interesting projects.

Early Release Wednesday - November 20th

Wednesday, November 20th is the next Early Release Wednesday. Students are expected to depart campus in a timely and organized fashion upon dismissal at 2:00 pm. We appreciate your patience with traffic on these days as all three sections are picking up students at the same time. In preparation, please plan on allowing longer time for entry and exit to the school at release time 

Hackathon/Code Jam - 8:00 A.M. to 12:00 P.M - Saturday, 23rd November in the BBT

Hackathons are social coding events in which programmers of different skills come together to build and create innovative and fun projects. We will also include an educational aspect in which people can come to learn more about computer programming. If you are interested in product design, computer programming, or want to learn more about coding please join us.

Sign up Form:https://tinyurl.com/aischsledhoc

Locations and refined timings will be shared and advertised closer to each event. Fill in the HIgh School Hour of Code Form to register your, and your parent’s and friend’s interest and attendance

Activities & Athletics office - AISC Hoodies

If you missed out on the initial order for an AISC hooded sweatshirt it isn't too late to get one before winter break. Complete this form to customize your order. Choices include zip or pullover, black or navy, name, number, size and if you want "Raptors" down one sleeve. The orders received by the end of the day on November 21st will be sent to the manufacturer.

Support our Elementary Student Council Girls Sports Shoes Drive

The Elementary Student Council is sponsoring the collection of girls’ sports shoes next week. The shoes will be donated to “Educate to Empower” which has created a school in Tamil Nadu for underprivileged girls. Educate to Empower is led by a AISC alumni. The girls need shoes so that they can participate in sports. There are 210 girls in this school that goes up to grade 5. By donating shoes we will be improving the lives of these girls and creating positive changes in their confidence and education. Please donate used or new shoes next week in boxes provided for each grade level. The Student Council will sponsor a pool party for the grade level that collects the most shoes. 

Grade KG-2 Learning Celebration - Friday 22 November at 2:45 pm

Parents are invited to join us next Friday  in our learning celebration which features students from grades KG - 2 in the FAC Theater. Parents can be seated from 2:30 p.m., children will arrive close to 2:40 p.m. and we will begin at 2:45 pm.  

For safety purposes, strollers need to be parked and left outside in the FAC lobby. If you do have your baby or toddler with you in the audience and they need a break, you can also use this lobby area if need be. Thank you for understanding.

Reminder – AQI at AISC

Currently at AISC, we track the Air Quality Index (AQI) by monitoring metered stations in various locales in the city, for example the U.S. Consulate, the airport, and other sites. Please see the Head's Notes for details of AQI levels at which we would limit or curtail activity. 

Our Air Quality Considerations and Practices  are:

·We use the air quality data sourced from a variety of sources that are publicly available online. AISC is currently in the process of acquiring our own monitors for use on campus.

·School administrators will communicate to the faculty and students any need for modification of outdoor physical activity, keeping in mind both the AQI (Air Quality Index) and the multiple other factors influencing the health and well-being of students.

·If necessary, the PE and Athletics Departments will modify activities in order to keep heart-rates and respiration-rates low, while still providing instruction and movement opportunities for our students. Any activity will be short in duration and of minimal physical demand.

·Parents always have the right to request that their child(ren) does/do not participate in aerobic activity, or go outside for recess or classes, and under such circumstances, students will never be penalized for non-participation.

·Students exhibiting or complaining of shortness of breath or irritation in the throat are routinely sent into a building with conditioned air until they feel relief.

Please join NHS and Namma Beach, Namma Chennai.  All welcome!

Come participate in an event that has become a tradition for many AISC families. Ms. Virginie Vlaminck has built a high energy, authentic community collaboration for all

Have a wonderful weekend!

Keryn Dowling, Dave Allen, and Calley Connelly
Elementary School Leadership Team