Friday, March 27, 2020

Dear Parents,

Thank you to each and every one of you for your positivity, patience and perseverance this week as you studiously followed plans and engagements created by our amazing elementary teachers. Calley, Dave and myself have also been homeschooling our own children, and we understand the commitment you are all undertaking. Thank you! Please join us in sharing your experiences with #AISCAtHome and #AISCVirtual.

Remember, we need to manage our own expectations as well as those of our children. Things will not be the same as if we were at AISC, and we all need to remember to lean on each other for support, advice and sanity! 
All Teachers, Counselors and Leadership are merely an email away if you need any help or advice at all.  

Due to the uncertainty we currently are facing, our elementary WIDA testing will not be taking place as indicated
on the community calendar.

Enhancements to Continuity of Instruction

This week was highly successful with over 95% attendance across our elementary section. We have seen great evidence of learning coming through Seesaw posts, photographs and even videos from home.  

• All  classes will be offering opportunities for children to connect face to face through video options such as Google Hangouts or Zoom.  
• On Monday morning, parents will receive the plan for the whole week. This will allow for greater flexibility in offering families who may already be experiencing challenges in engaging with learning.  
• Our expectations for daily attendance will remain similar, with daily engagement and submission of learning in the upper grades counting as attendance. If children appear ‘absent’ from class, your child's teachers will be reaching out to you.
• Specialist schedules will be streamlined with a whole grade level engaging with the same specialist class each day. For example, all Grade 3 will have Art on Monday.  
• Dance and Library classes to be offered every second week instead of weekly.

Elementary Virtual Design Challenges

Click here to go to a website AISC Design Challenges, Ms Jen and others have been building to engage with a whole load of fun design and making challenges while you're at home! This site is here to provide ideas for engaging enrichment STEAM opportunities.


Each week, there will be a new choice board of activities related to the AISC Vision of a Learner Attributes. Feel free to try as many as you would like! You can do the challenge on your own or with another person in your family.

Talk to our Counselors

Elementary School Counselors are here and ready to support you and your child(ren) during this uncertain time. We are working to make sure that you receive quality school counseling services in this online environment.

We want to stay connected to you and encourage you to make an appointment by emailing us. We are available 12 - 2 p.m and 4 - 6 p.m Chennai time every day. Appointments are available for routine social/emotional concerns you may be wondering about with your children in this current dynamic situation.

Linda Gerberich (Kindergarten; Grade 1; Grade 4; Grade 5): glinda@aischennai.org

Vanessa Kim (EY3; EY4; Grade 2; Grade 3): kvanessa@aischennai.org

Digital Library Resources

• Digital library resources are always available to our community members. On the AISC website, visit Learning > CICLibrary. In the Elementary/Middle School section, you will find a section for digital resources in the sidebar. 
• Students may also be familiar with Sora, a web and app based digital library, featuring mostly fiction e-books, audiobooks, and read alongs for students in Grade 3 - Adult. They can login using full gmail address + password. This resource has current and popular fiction books.

EAL Programs - Sarah Sahr, EAL Program Director

Greetings, AISC! As many of you might be wondering, what does English language development look like in an online classroom environment? For our fourth EAL Coffee, we will dive deep into what you can do at home to support our learners. From creating an academic schedule to taking breaks, there will be something for everyone and plenty of time participants to ask questions and seek clarification.

So, pour yourself a cup of coffee or tea and join me by clicking this link for a Zoom invitation to Virtual EAL Coffee, Thursday, 2 April, 8:45-9:45am, for a closer look at language development in a virtual classroom. If you cannot make the coffee but have a question, feel free to email me at any time.

Talking with your Elementary child about CoVid-19 (repeat)

Conversations around COVID-19 can be challenging at home. It is important for us to listen to our children’s feelings and concerns and share factual information. Our Elementary School Counselors have found these resources here to support you with facts and explanations to support your conversations. Please let us know if you found these resources helpful, and remember we are here to support parents, too. 

How Can I Support My Children? An AISC Document

Expert Advice with Facts - From a Psychologist to Parents and Teachers

Talking about, and Preventing Xenophobia and Harassment - From AIS Bucharest

Have a relaxing screen free weekend!

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

Friday, March 13, 2020

Dear Parents,

Thank you for your support this week as we have instituted temperature checks and have made changes to some of our events on campus. We thank you for your understanding and patience as we navigate this dynamic situation together. 

As we all saw this week, we are currently operating within the guidelines that any non-essential events with a large gathering are currently being postponed. This week we had to postpone both the Grade 3-5 Performing Arts Gala and the Grade 5 sustainability rally. We will confirm with you all when we have new dates for anything that has currently been postponed.

Congratulations to our 5th Grade students who participated this week in our NESA virtual science fair. The winning teams, as judged by our AISC judges are:

First Place: Reducing Air Pollution by Yuina, Mihika and Minami

Second Place: Water Purification by Yulha, Nayeon, Gio and Jian

As you will have read in yesterday’s email message we have shared general suggestions for preparing for virtual learning if we are not able to resume classes after spring break. 

Here are some additional suggestions for preparedness specific to Early Years - Grade 2

• With your child, identify spaces in your home that work well for learning over extended periods of time. For example, you may want to identify an area of your home that is a work space where you can support your child as they complete their learning. You may want to designate a different area for quiet reading.
• Establish clear daily routines that include physical breaks and time to socialise with other family members
• Read to your child every day!
• Have a supply of blank paper, lined paper, pencils, erasers, markers, crayons, other art supplies such as scissors, glue, water colours. Almost all of these items are easily available at the grocery store or a book store in one of the malls. 
• Consider a small amount of time each day for your child to have access to a device to view any learning videos or resources shared with them
• If you are not already familiar with regularly logging into SeeSaw, please practice this with your child over the break.  
• Our helpdesk will be available on ITsupport@aischennai.org 

 Here are some additional suggestions for preparedness specific to Grades 3-5

• With your child, identify spaces in your home that work well for learning over extended periods of time. For example, you may want to identify an area of your home that is a work space where you can support your child as they complete their learning and monitor their online learning. You may want to designate a different area for quiet reading.
• Establish clear daily routines that include physical breaks and time to socialise with other family members (or connect with friends virtually)
• Ensure your child is reading every day!
• Check your child’s device is fully charged, can access internet and that your child can log onto all platforms and programs (Seesaw, Razz kids, Sora, Epic etc)
• Have a supply of blank paper, lined paper, pencils, erasers, markers, crayons, other art supplies such as scissors, glue, water colours. Almost all of these items are easily available at the grocery store or a book store in one of the malls.   
• Our helpdesk will be available on ITsupport@aischennai.org  

Digital Library Resources

• Digital library resources are always available to our community members. On the ASIC website, visit Learning> CICLibrary. In the Elementary/Middle School section, you will find a section for digital resources in the sidebar. 
• Students may also be familiar with Sora, a web and app based digital library, featuring mostly fiction e-books, audiobooks, and read alongs for students in grade 3 - adult. They can login using full gmail address + password. This resource has current and popular fiction books.

Conversations around COVID-19 can be challenging at home. It is important for us to listen to our children’s feelings and concerns and share factual information. Our Elementary School Counselors have found these resources here to support you with facts and explanations to support your conversations. Please let us know if you found these resources helpful, and remember we are here to support parents, too. (repeat announcement)

How Can I Support My Children? An AISC Document

Expert Advice with Facts - From a Psychologist to Parents and Teachers

Talking about, and Preventing Xenophobia and Harassment - From AIS Bucharest

April 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 restful and relaxing spring break, and we hope to see you back on Monday the 23rd!

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

Friday, March 06, 2020

Dear Parents,

Thank you for your attention to reading this fully, there is a lot of important information here. There is a lot of conversation even among our students about the new coronavirus, CoVid-19, and here are some good resources to share with your child to help ease any uncertainty or anxiety you may be noticing. Please do not hesitate to reach out to Ms Linda, Ms Vanessa, our leadership team or your child’s class teacher should you need to.

Our faculty and staff are keeping well informed of the situation and are planning thoroughly lessons that will continue in school next week, as well as considering what these may look like if they needed to be delivered virtually.

Temperature Screening

Next week, as you know, we will move to temperature screening protocols upon entry into campus. Please refer to Head of School’s notes for details about the temperature self-check process for your family. We encourage families to allow for some extra time for arrival in the morning as we refine this process. We are here to support you, and we appreciate everyone's patience and flexibility as we work together to keep our community safe, well, and learning.  

Conversations around COVID-19 can be challenging at home. It is important for us to listen to our children’s feelings and concerns and share factual information. Our Elementary School Counselors have found these resources here to support you with facts and explanations to support your conversations. Please let us know if you found these resources helpful, and remember we are here to support parents, too.

How Can I Support My Children? An AISC Document

Expert Advice with Facts - From a Psychologist to Parents and Teachers

Talking about, and Preventing Xenophobia and Harassment - From AIS Bucharest

Jump-Off Spring Camp
Over the Spring Break, students and family members who are staying in Chennai are invited to join the Jump-Off Spring Camp and use the AISC facilities. For more information on facilities and to find the registration form  for the Jump-Off Camp, check out this informational page. Registration will be closed at 10:00 am on Friday, March 13.  

NESA Virtual Science and Engineering Fair - 9 March (repeat)

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 9, 2020, to view projects and interact with our teams.

Parenting Book Group Starting March 30th

Following popular demand and positive feedback, Nigel Holdsworth, School Psychologist, and Jen Gold, Middle School Counselor, are inviting parents to join us in our second session of the book club 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. All English language levels are welcome and encouraged to attend. We look forward to seeing you on Mondays on the following dates and times:

• March 30th at 2:00 (Chapters 1 and 2) in the BBT
• April 6th at 1:00 (Chapters 3 and 4) in the HOL (before the PCA meeting)
• April 13th at 2:00 (Chapters, 5, 6,7) in the HOL
• April 20th at 2:00 (Chapters 8, 9, 10) in the BBT

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.

Elementary Art Exhibition (repeat)

We  invite you to the ‘Elementary Art Exhibition’ starting from Monday 2nd March 2020  through Friday 13 March 2020. 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!

ES Arts Gala - 12 March (repeat)

Please come and celebrate our upper Elementary students as they show off their skills and talents across the arts. This year, Grades 3-5 will perform and present their artwork at the Visual and Performing Arts Gala. The gala will be held on Thursday, 12 March from 4:00-5:30 p.m. in the FAC Theater and Atrium.  

Gr 3 - 5 students who have an ASA on 12th, should attend the Gala. 

Have a wonderful weekend!

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