Notes:

1. Booths of Nations - April 25: We now have 11 nations represented, so please let Mr. Gaucher know at gaucher@isd.sn if you are also interested in running a booth on the morning of the WCM Finale, April 25. In brief, they will run from 9:00-12:00, there is space for display on one board behind and one on each end, and a couple of tables in front where mini-snacks, books, artefacts or whatever can also be displayed. The more ambitious may also have a couple of games and quizzes! If you need a visual, a couple of photos from last year are HERE. 

2. World Cultural Month Itinerary: The following are the events planned for the upcoming month:

3. WCM Final Afternoon: On the afternoon of Friday, April 25 we will have our celebratory performances. With regard student participation on the day, our Gr 2 students are working on a West African story and dance, while the Gr 3 students are spending their next five music sessions learning drum routines to perform. In addition, all the work produced with the artisans next week will be on display in the gym; please come along:

- Parade of Nations 

4. Senegal Day - Tuesday April 15: Please be aware the there is a change in the schedule that went home. Senegal Dress-up Day and Senegal Lunch (K-5 for the lunch) will be on Tuesday, April 15. All the students are given the opportunity to wear their finest local fashion on that day. 

5. Hands-on Learning: We learn by doing, and here are three grades doing just that:

        a) Pancakes in Pre 3:

        b) Landforms in 3C:

        c) Science in 5G:

6. Earth Day: On Tuesday April 22, ISD Elementary celebrates Earth Day. We will be working with the children to raise their awareness of sustainability; reducing our waste; recycling and reusing what we can; and generally caring for the local and worldwide environment. The theme in our second year is RECYCLE IT! Below are some of the activities - note in particular those in bold:

7. Waste-free Lunch - Tuesday April 22: The idea of Monday's waste-free lunch is to have a day when we produce no garbage. Please send your child's lunch in a reusable container, and there should be no disposable wrapping inside at all. That is the goal - nothing that will be thrown away. Here is a link to a website that might give some ideas. Shady will also be sending over only reusable materials for his food on Tuesday, too.

8. WAISAL Soccer & Spirit Day: You are welcome to come to our Spirit Assembly on Thursday, April 10 to mark the opening of the WAISAL Soccer tournament we are hosting through the weekend. Children are requested to be in yellow and black on Thursday. Please feel free to come and enjoy the matches, too - schedule below:

9. Final Parent Workshop - Resiliency: Pam Pelliccia, our elementary counselor will present a workshop entitled; Building Resilience in Your Child on Tuesday, April 29^th from 8:30 am-9:30 am in the Conference Room (2^nd floor of the Administration building).  The mindset of resiliency is the ability to recover from setbacks; the quality of bouncing back. Resilient people see challenges as opportunities. The workshop will combine information sharing and group discussion to identify strategies to teach your child resiliency. Please consider attending on April 29^th.

10. Early Childhood Playground: We apologize for the fact that the Early Childhood playground has been out of use this week. We have installed three new pieces of apparatus, but there were a couple of overruns. We will have it up and running next week with new sand in place.

11. Career Week in the HS - April 14-18:

...and finally, this from Mr. Scoggin, the HS Counselor:

Dear Parents and Community Members, 

It is our pleasure to invite you to participate in Career Week 2014 to be held the week of April 14 – 18. As a professional, you are a rich source of career information for our students. We hope you are able to join us and share your personal career journey with our high school students. 

Career Week is comprised of a series of 30-minute seminars led by parents and other professionals from Dakar and the ISD community. Seminars are held during lunch each day, 11:45 am – 12:15 am and will introduce students to key factors about each career, such as the following: 

- The education/degrees required 

- The job outlook for the career in the coming decade 

- Typical duties and work day activities 

- Particular rewards and challenges of that career 

- Thoughts, important moments, and memories of the presenter’s personal career journey 

If you are able to join us, or would like more information, please reply by email or feel free to call or drop by my office in the secondary school building. We will make every effort to arrange a seminar for you on the date most convenient for you. We look forward to hearing from you! 

Thank you,

Sam Scoggin (schoolcounselor@isd.sn)

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