Elementary News
This week each class came up with nominations for the Toy Hall of Fame located in the Strong Toy Museum in New York. Previous winners include such classics as Monopoly, Lego and Mr Potato Head. The students felt the game SNAKES AND LADDERS should join the list along with the Rubik’s Cube and Beyblades. There were many more suggestions, particularly board games like Chess, which I took as a healthy sign that during these ‘pandemic’ times families are still enjoying activities that have nothing to do with electronic devices. This is the last Thistle article before our holiday and I wanted to include a simple message: Let the holidays be a time for family fun and in general lots of social engagement through activities like board games.
I’m sure you will also enjoy lots of chatter from your children throughout the holiday. When it comes to conversations from children, I’d encourage parents to use this time as an opportunity to build up articulation skills. For young boys and girls, you might want to insist on the use of complete sentences, and for the older children parents could ask for additional and focused details about a particular experience.
There has certainly been a lot of fun this week with classes making the most of December through activities like: making ginger bread cookies, poinsettias, elf magic (or as the third graders would say mischief) snowman watercolour, owl trees and decorations. We even had a mock wedding in third grade where the students and teachers came together to celebrate the upcoming nuptials of Rachael Charles.
Next week special class parties have been planned, including a day of events shared by grades 3 through 5. Bertolotto Bingo is one of the most anticipated occasions along with the Fairy Tale Ball in second grade.
We still miss sharing in-person celebrations with parents, but have tried to include you all as much as possible in our school experience. I hope you’ve set aside time to watch all the shows planned from Friday through next Tuesday. The links will be available on the Community Hub. The goal for the concerts and ‘The Lost Panto’ has been to maximise both student involvement and opportunities to perform. So much work has gone into the making of the shows and particularly the recording and editing aspects that are required for a quality production. Congratulations to all of the teachers involved in the various productions. Your dedication to meaningful student performances is remarkable.
I know I speak for everyone when I say how much we all appreciate the extra safety measures, including quarantining, taken by families that travel or get together with others during the holiday. After a three-week break, filled with family fun, I look forward to seeing your children when they return on Thursday, 7th January 2021.
Message from the Grade Five Teachers and Students
Thank you all for your generous contributions to the Shoebox Appeal 2020. The K.A.F.K.A.H (Kids Acting For Kids Abroad @ Home) project organisers were overwhelmed at the abundance of items donated by the ISA Community. The attached photo shows the items collected by the ISA Preschool/Elementary School; there were also more donations from the ISA Middle and High Schools. This will really make a huge difference to children who are currently living in migrant camps in Greece.
Don Newbury
Elementary Principal
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