Dear Parents, Thank you all for taking the time to attend our parent conferences early in the month. I hope it gave you some time to reflect on the progress of the year. We are now well into the last few days before our break, but there are still plenty of valuable things happening in classes through Friday. The students are working right up to the final hour, teachers often have culminating assessments and activities in the last few days of term, and many are also saying goodbye to their friends who are leaving on the last day of school. We have seven families who are departing this December, and we wish them all the best with their moves on to pastures new. Other notes: 1. Authors’ Visit: Last week, Gretchen Woelfle (http://www.gretchenwoelfle.com/) and Carolyn Marsden (http://www.carolynmarsden.com/) visited the school. The students had a wonderful time listening to these authors, and it was great to see the rapt attention on the children’s faces. Here are a few photos from the days they were here speaking to groups, organizing drama lessons and signing books:
2. Book Character Spirit Day: Thanks for the costumes we saw on the first day of the authors’ visit. We had a host of Harry Potters and Pippi Longstockings. Much fun. We’ll be doing the same dress-up next year; just as a heads-up if you find yourself browsing dress-up stores in the summer!
3. Books: On the subject of books, I have pasted below links to two web pages which have lists of books for kids, which may be a useful guide for any vacation purchases:
4. Thanks Music Department!: The Winter Concert and the 4th Grade Musical were both extremely well arranged and attended. Becca and Nathan did a great job. In addition, Mr Fuhr is wondering whether any parent has a video of the whole concert. Please email him if you do.
5. New Building: As you know, we begin the construction of the new MS and HS building soon, and stand by for information about the webcam that has been set up for us to follow the process through the school web site. We are having a groundbreaking ceremony at 12:00 on Friday.
6. Assemblies: We recently enjoyed Ms. Gina and Mr. Ramsay's assemblies. They were most entertaining:
7. Sharing our Work: Our students love sharing their work; be it an assembly, concert, conference, classroom presentation, insect museum, biography, publishing party or bulletin boards. I would just like to add that we have three large bulletin boards in the main Elementary School building and these are changed monthly, with a different class in charge each time. The lower board is coordinated by grades K-2 and the upper boards by Grades 3-5, and we hope you have time to enjoy them. There are more boards going up around school over the vacation.
8. Pre-4 Winter Break Party: The Pre-4 classes gathered to celebrate the end of the year with a surprise guest. He had disappeared by the time I got my camera out, but left some gifts behind!:
9. Winter Break: We at ISD wish you all a relaxing and enjoyable Winter Break. Regards, Ian Clark Ian Clark Ed.D. Elementary School Principal International School of Dakar |
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