Friday, March 22, 2019

Dear Parents,

Have a wonderful and relaxing Spring Break whether you are travelling or staying here in Chennai. Enjoy the time to touch base with your child on all they have learned so far this year, and don’t forget the elementary spring break postcard challenge! 5BT won last time - which class will win the pool party this time?

Towards the end of this semester, we had a wonderful festival of the arts with our Art Exhibitions in the FAC atrium, and our first ever Spring Concert yesterday.  A huge round of applause for all our arts teachers; Ms Anita, Mr Joseph, Ms Priya, Ms Jane, Ms Sarah, Mr Finny and Mr Vasanth.  In addition, we would like to  give special thanks to Yeri Kang, an extraordinary accompanist and parent volunteer for her willingness to step in at the last minute to give her time and talent to The Singing Raptors.

 

Finally, thank you to the amazing and talented community choir; Caroline Vang Kristensen, Yeri Kang, Boksil, Choi(Cecile), Junko Sakamoto, Chigusa Goda, Bénédicte Couto, Aydan Oncul,  Hanne B. Nørgaard, Fumiko Ashihara, Uttara Bharath Kumar, Virginie d'Yvoire, Cathy Tanaka, Lisa Payne and Myla Bodary.

Playground Supervision

Unfortunately, towards the end of this quarter we had several serious accidents occurring after 4:00 pm on our playgrounds. It is absolutely imperative parents supervise their children closely after school as we have no teachers on duty during this time. If you are choosing to remain at school, and your child is playing on the playground you must be within sight and hearing range. Sitting in the cafeteria is not an option if your child is playing outside.

Early Release - Wednesday April 3

Our first Wednesday back after Spring Break is an Early release Wednesday. Please be prompt at collecting your child at 2:00 pm.

Spring Break Postcard Challenge

Building on the success of the Winter Holiday postcard challenge, we would like to encourage students to send a postcard (or two or more) from your Spring Break travels. To encourage writing over the Spring Break, all Grade 1 - 5 children are encouraged to send a postcard from their spring break 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!

  

Postcards must include a message and be posted in the mail. You can send as many postcards as you like - and the class who sends the most postcards wins a pool party. Postcards must arrive at AISC by the end of April to be counted. Challenge starts from next Friday 22 March, and we will do the final count on Monday 22 April.  5BT won the first challenge - who will win the next?

 

Early Years Coffee - Tuesday 9 April

After the break, our next parent coffee will continue our communication and education on our multi-age classroom approach to the early years programme.  While this is specifically for EY3 parents, any parent is welcome to learn more.

Viewing progress reports online

This is a reminder of how to view your child's report cards online.  Please click on the link and it will show you how to view your child's recent progress report cards on Powerschool.

April Lunch Menu & Order Links   

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

Elementary Lunch Menus: (Grades EY- 3 Pre-order) and (Grades 4 & 5 - No Preorder)

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

Friday, March 15, 2019

Dear Parents,

Thank you for giving up parts of your day on Thursday to support our learners with their student led conferences. The students faces were beaming with pride and we appreciated all the positive parent feedback too!

Students from Grade 3 and Grade 5, Bianca, Johanna, Koshiro and Wonyoung even presented parts of their student led conferences at the board meeting this week to give the board and other leadership members a feel of what our Elementary conferences are like. Well done to each of these amazing presenters!

Early Releases Announcement

Please plan ahead for two upcoming Professional Learning early releases March 20th & April 3rd: The Wednesday before Spring Break, as well as the Wednesday after. Thank you for picking up students promptly at 2:00 PM.  

Lost and Found Items Display

Please check the Lost and Found Items which are displayed near the Main Reception opposite the BBT. After the Spring Break unclaimed items will be donated.

Scholastic Book Fair

Next Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, the Scholastic Book Fair will be on campus in the unity courtyard. Students are invited to visit the fair with their parents before or after school. It is a great opportunity to celebrate your child’s reading growth by choosing a “just right book” together.  

Spring Break Postcard Challenge

Building on the success of the Winter Holiday postcard challenge, we would like to encourage students to send a postcard (or two or more) from your Spring Break travels. To encourage writing over the Spring Break, all Grade 1 - 5 children are encouraged to send a postcard from their spring break 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!

  

Postcards must include a message and be posted in the mail. You can send as many postcards as you like - and the class who sends the most postcards wins a pool party. Postcards must arrive at AISC by the end of April to be counted. Challenge starts from next Friday 22 March, and we will do the final count on Monday 22 April. 5BT won the first challenge - who will win the next?

Blue and White Swim meet (Repeat)

This Saturday March 16 we will have a blue and white swim meet featuring many of our Raptors swim club swimmers. The meet will begin at 8:45 a.m. Come out to support our Elementary School swimmers!

Please add to your calendars 21 March, 2:30-3:15 pm for the Spring Concert in the FAC auditorium. This concert will feature The Singing Raptors, The Dance Troupe and all students in grades 3, 4, 5.

Please come and Enjoy!

Outdoor Learning Center Fun

Finally, enjoy a little bit of early years fun in this picture of our students exploring their new auto rickshaw, safely tidied up and installed on blocks in the Outdoor Learning Center. Who’s driving?  

Have a wonderful weekend!

Keryn Dowling, Dave Allen, and Calley Connelly

Friday, March 08, 2019

Dear Parents,

Congratulations to all our 5th grade students who participated in the NESA Virtual Science Fair. Five groups of 5th graders presented their projects to an audience of students, parents, faculty and leadership from AISC. The calibre once again was very high and we were proud of our students’ hard work through their investigations.

This week our student council also visited a local school to deliver all the toys they had collected through their annual toy drive and were able to see first hand the impact donating toys can have to other children.

Finally, this week, all our 5th graders presented their passion projects to a wide community audience in our Unity courtyard. We saw incredibly impressive projects including stop-motion movie making, highly sophisticated origami, cooking, art, as well as projects about why we dream!

Student Led Conference - next Thursday 14 March (repeat)

Student led conferences are all day of Thursday 14 March. No regular classes will be held on this day.

This Student Led Conference is the time for your child to share their learning, growth and future goals with you.  

Please expect your child’s teachers to be involved as facilitators, and not directly involved in the discussions; on this day the main focus is on the sharing between you and your child. There will be multiple children and their families sharing their learning at the same time in each classroom.

• The conference will take approximately 30 - 40 minutes in the classroom and 30 - 40 minutes with the specialist areas - Music, Art, PE, Indian Studies and World Language.  
• Your child will have a passport to lead you through each area and will know whether to begin in the homeroom or in the specialist areas.
• Students are responsible for leading the conference and also take responsibility for their learning by sharing the process with their parents.  
• Supervision for AISC siblings will be in the ES CIC only. Please note that this is only for enrolled AISC students. You will need to make your own separate arrangements for younger children and babies. 
• Please do not hesitate to contact either the homeroom/specialist teachers, or Dave, Calley or myself, should you have any questions regarding these upcoming conferences.

                       If you have not already done so, please sign up for your child’s Conference via Edmodo

Blue and White Swim meet

On Saturday March 16 we will have a blue and white swim meet featuring many of our Raptors swim club swimmers. The meet will begin at 8:45 a.m. Come out to support our ES swimmers!

Please add to your calendars 21 March, 2:30-3:15 pm for the Spring Concert in the FAC auditorium.

This concert will feature The Singing Raptors, The Dance Troupe and all students in grades 3, 4, 5.

Please come and Enjoy!

Grade 3-5 Art Exhibition (repeat announcement)

We invite you to the ‘Upper Elementary Art Exhibition’ starting from Monday 4th March 2019 through Friday 15 March 2019. Our aspiring student artists have worked hard on producing artwork for your enjoyment and reflection these past six months. Please support them by viewing their work and talking to them about it. This impressive display will be showcased at the FAC Atrium Gallery. All are welcome!

Maker Saturday – March 16, 2019 (repeat announcement)

Timing: 9 am -12 noon

Facility: ES Discovery Studios (Rooms 2602/2603)

Eligibility: Grade 1 - 5

This session is last one of the 2018-2019 school year! We are offering two design challenges. Please choose one activity from the choices to challenge yourself and your child on Saturday. The time is designed that one activity will take up most of the entire three hours. If you have children doing different activities, you must have one parent at each activity. To know more about the activities click on this Link.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Keryn Dowling, Dave Allen, and Calley Connelly

Friday, March 01, 2019

Dear Parents,

Happy high five Friday! It was so much fun on the gate this morning where Mr Hoover and I greeted so many parents and students with big high fives. Thursday evening we also celebrated our music programme with a wonderful array of school wide performances in our vertical music concert.  I’m sure you will join me in congratulating Ms Sarah and Ms Fiona for their hard work preparing our Singing Raptors for their performance.

Raptorthon (this coming Sunday!)

Sunday, March 3rd at 7 AM is the annual Raptorthon. This year, since we have a track, we are changing the event a little and it will be a 180 meter swim then a 2 K run (Younger athletes can do a shorter run). Hope to see many of you there to support our runners and swimmers.

Student Led Conference - Thursday 14 March

Student led conferences are all day of Thursday 14 March. No regular classes will be held on this day. This Student Led Conference is the time for your child to share their learning growth and future goals with you.

Please expect teachers to be involved as facilitator and not directly involved in the discussions; on this day the main focus is between you and your child. There will be multiple children and their families sharing their learning at the same time in each classroom.

• The conference will take approximately 30 - 40 minutes in the classroom and 30 - 40 minutes with the specialist areas - Music, Art, PE, Indian Studies and World Language.  
• Your child will have a passport to lead you through each area and will know whether to begin in the homeroom or in the specialist areas.
• Students are responsible for leading the conference and also take responsibility for their learning by sharing the process with their parents.  
• Supervision for AISC siblings will be in the ES CIC only. Please note that this is only for enrolled AISC students. You will need to make your own separate arrangements for younger children and babies. 
• Please do not hesitate to contact either the homeroom/specialist teachers, or Dave, Calley or myself, should you have any questions regarding these upcoming conferences.

If you have not already done so, please sign up for your child’s Conference via Edmodo

NESA Virtual Science and Engineering Fair

The fifth grade NESA Virtual Science and Engineering Fair showcases student efforts to solve real-world problems through a process of experimentation and inquiry. We invite all parents to visit the science fair from 2:30-3:30 at the BBT on March 4, 2019, to view projects and interact with our teams.

Grade 3-5 Art Exhibition

We invite you to the ‘Upper Elementary Art Exhibition’ starting from Monday 4th March 2019 through Friday 15 March 2019. Our aspiring student artists have worked hard on producing artwork for your enjoyment and reflection these past six months. Please support them by viewing their work and talking to them about it. This impressive display will be showcased at the FAC Atrium Gallery.  All are welcome!

March 2019 Lunch Menu & Order Links   

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

Elementary Lunch Menus: (Grades EY- 3 Pre-order) and (Grades 4 & 5 - No Preorder)

Maker Saturday – March 16, 2019

Timing: 9 am -12 noon

Facility: ES Discovery Studios (Rooms 2602/2603)

Eligibility: Grade 1 - 5

This session is last one of the 2018-2019 school year!  We are offering two design challenges. Please choose one activity from the choices to challenge yourself and your child on Saturday. The time is designed that one activity will take up most of the entire three hours. If you have children doing different activities, you must have one parent at each activity. To know more about the activities click on this Link

REGISTRATION DETAILS

Please click HERE on this link for online sign-up.

The cost of the activity is: INR 3000 - Payment details will be communicated after the online sign-ups are finished.

From the ASA office; Jump off - Spring Camp & Coaching

The Athletics and Activities Department is offering great opportunities for students to be engaged during their time off for Spring Break. Follow this Link for more information about the Camp & Coaching classes, Registrations & Payment details.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Keryn Dowling, Dave Allen, and Calley Connelly