Welcome back! We hope you had a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year. We are thrilled to see the students back at school, full of energy and excitement for the new semester. We are looking forward to a productive and successful year, and we are grateful for your continued support and partnership in your child's education.
Your children have shared many tales of their time off during the holiday break. The children mentioned trips, activities and time spent with family members and family friends. Several reported that family members also came to Aberdeen for visits to Scotland!
Some of our children have found it a little difficult to switch back into “school mode”. The excitement of the holiday has yet to wear off for some of them and we would all appreciate it if, at home, you could remind the children to arrive each morning ready for learning. This means, among other things, demonstrating respect for each other’s ideas, feelings, personal space, time and belongings.
In the week after our break, the teachers have begun new units of study. A sampling includes:
Kindergarten: a Social Studies unit on Scotland - its culture, language and history
Grade 1: a Science unit on Space
Grade 2: a Science unit on Pebbles, Sand & Silt
Grade 3: a multi-disciplinary unit on Community (including Social Studies & IT)
Grade 4: a Science unit on Energy & Electromagnetism
Grade 5: a Science unit on Space and a Social Studies unit on Trade
As you might expect, the grade level classrooms are also moving forward in mathematics and literacy, with the excitement of the 100th day of school on the horizon and some fantastic creative writing and poetry happening across the grades.
Our Preschool children continue to explore the world around them with curious, inquiring minds. They have the chance to perform their Winter Show next Friday, January 20 at 1:30pm. This had to be postponed from December due to the snow days.
Our language and specialist teachers have also started new units of study. I’m sure many students will have gone home, for example, talking about their swimming lessons or the use of optical illusions in art.
There has also been great excitement about the upcoming production of The Lion King, which will involve Grade 4 and Grade 5 students, as well as a chorus of Grades 3 students. Auditions were held this week, with enormous interest (and talent) on display. The production will be performed May (more details to come).
With the new year comes some changes to the after school activities on offer. There are new clubs, new cohorts for existing clubs and some changes to the days that some clubs are offered. Thanks to the tireless efforts and patience of our ES Assistant, Diane McBain, we think we have everything sorted out. If questions remain, please do get in contact with us so that things can be taken care of sooner, rather than later.
This first week has been a very successful return to school in 2023. There is a lovely and positive vibe in the classrooms. Here’s to a happy and healthy New Year for everyone in the ISA community!
Morio Kajiwara
*Note: If you have read Mr. Little’s Thistle article, you will be aware of the chatbot known as ChatGPT and its remarkable ability to generate original text that sounds like it could have been written by a human. One of the paragraphs in the article above was written by ChatGPT. I wonder if you can tell which one!
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