Art, Culture and Geography in the Vorschule

The students in the Jungle and Aquarium are having a lot of fun with their unit on 'How we express ourselves'. This unit builds upon a 5 year old's natural creative and artistic instinct to also learn about other cultures and world geography.   This week the Vorschule classes talked about art in Africa and the students made their own masks. Next, the students will tackle the Impressionist period in Europe. The unit will end with an art exhibition at Café Zoe.

News from the Head of School

First Semester Report Cards Go Home Tomorrow 

As the first semester is coming to an end, it is also time for the mid-year progress reports. These will be handed out to the students on Friday, January 27^th. The teaching staff spent some time this semester in reviewing the format of the Elementary Report Cards and a few adjustments were made in Grades 3-5. To give more precise information about a student's progress in the core subjects of English, German and Mathematics, a grade will be given to the specific skill areas in addition to an overall subject grade. In language these skill areas are Reading, Writing, and Oral Communication and in Mathematics they are Computation, Measurement, Geometry and Problem Solving.  Also in the Unit of Inquiry, a grade will be given for each unit.  These grades take the place of the expectations rubric indicators of EE, ME, PE, NE, used in previous years and which are in fact still used in Grades 1&2. Also in Grades 3-5, the subjects of Physical Education, Art, Music and Information Technology will now be given letter grades instead of the aforementioned rubric indicator. These grades will be using the German scale of 1-6. 

The mid-year progress report constitutes one part of a holistic view of a student's progress at school and should be combined with other aspects such as the parent-teacher conferences. In fact, all parents are urged to meet with their teachers to discuss their child's report card results and discuss how the teacher, student and family can work together to achieve mutual goals. At GAIS, we are very proud of the progress made by all of students in their academic, social and emotional development and take this opportunity to congratulate all students and their parents on an outstanding first semester.

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Lately there have been some concerns from parents about conflicts on the playground. Questions came up about why we even have conflicts in an IB school where we place such a high value on attitudes like respect and tolerance. With that in mind we need to understand that conflict between peers is unavoidable. It can occur between children of any ages, at home, in the classroom or on the playground. Conflict between children is not only a normal part of childhood, but also an important part of social interaction. And just like we know that students have different learning styles, children have different abilities to deal with conflicts. That is why in the PYP resolving conflicts is identified as one of the sub components of the social skills planned for and taught in the classroom.
 

The indicators for these skills are listed as: listen carefully to others, compromise, react reasonable to situations and be fair. Now having said this, we also need to take into account everybody's personal perspective on what is fair, what is reasonable. I believe in a classroom full of adults you might get into some interesting discussions about this. The school's agreed approach to ensure fairness during conflicts is listed in our handbook and begins if necessary with separating the students to allow them to calm down. We than listen to both accounts and identify the problem. An example can easily be that one child believing they were just playing, while the other one felt threatened and started to defend him/her self. Other times students misinterpret students not wanting to play by their rules as other's being intolerant.  Only through good of communication can we understand each child's perception and put it into perspective. Once we have listened to all the stories we can discuss appropriate solutions. 
 

Learning healthy conflict resolution methods as a child improves coping and communication skills, and promotes better relationships into adulthood. In many cases our students are able to solve conflicts independently. If they cannot we encourage them to come and speak about a situation to a teacher on duty or their homeroom teacher. During "grosse Pause" we have 4 teachers on duty. Unfortunately some students will talk about conflicts only at home. What makes this situation difficult is that a parent will only get the perception of their child, which makes it often tricky to put things into perspective.
 

So please encourage the students to talk about the issues at school and if you have any questions please use the appropriate channels of communication as outlined in the handbook pages 35 and 36. Talk to the teacher directly, or if it involves children from multiple classroom come talk to Heike for the Preschool, Maike for the Elementary School or Dominic for the Middle School. Most of the time issues can easily be fixed, when dealt with immediately and professionally. It also prevents misconceptions and unnecessary concerns. Finally our teachers, who have combined experiences in over 100 schools world wide, agree that as a whole we truly have a highly functional social environment at our school, where known conflicts are dealt with according to our guidelines and professional expertise.
 

In the MYP (Middle Years Program) we have Units as in the PYP, however they are between four and eight weeks long and developed in every discipline. Similarly to the PYP, we also have Summative Assessments. Therefore, at the end of the Unit, in English the 8^th graders, under the guidance of Mrs. Jasprizza, published and illustrated children's books about either social or physical environmental issues, then planned and presented a lesson for 2^nd grades. The focus in this Unit was environment, one of the six "Areas of Interaction" in the MYP Model. In the assessment process the students analyzed a variety of literature to identify elements of children's books and environmental issues.

An important part of the MYP curriculum is to integrate technology skills into the curriculum. This subject is not taught as a stand-alone discipline but instead it's built into several subjects in an interdisciplinary approach. This week we launched the IB Virtual Community (IBVC, www.ibo.epals.com) for our MYP students. The IBVC is an online community for sharing information, for posting research project and for reporting about interesting activities such as fieldtrips and overnight trips. In addition the Middle School students can reach out in the IB community and connect with other MYP students around the world.

In the International Middle School we incorporate the IBVC into the curriculum. On the one hand the students are posting their Unit portfolio online, which contains one reflection in each subject per year. On the other hand we are using the IBVC to communicate the Unit Information to our parents, which have access through RSS feed or their log-in's. In fact, our goal is to synthesize and channel all the communication in the Middle School. The students will introduce it to the parents during the student-led conference in March. The IBVC is a secure environment because it's moderated and supervised by IB and the administration. Moreover it's not open to the public, we have had several discussions with the students about the appropriate usage of IBVC and finally the students and their parents signed an IBVC contract based on the IB Learner profile. In sum, the IBVC gives us a great opportunity to connect and to equip the students with the necessary 21^st century skills.

Next week the International Middle School is going on the legendary Ski Weekend at Sugarbowl. We leave on Wednesday morning and are coming back on Saturday evening. I'll report about it the week after. I

In addition this is just a friendly reminder that you get a $1500 referral bonus for each additional student in the International Middle School.
 

We do offer Hort/Day Care during the Winter Break from February 22^nd to 25^th. On President's Day February 21^st the school will be closed and no Hort will be offered. If you need a space in Hort please send in the sign-up form, which was sent out Wednesday. The deadline for signing up for Hort is February 11^th.

Re-enrollment has been moving at a very steady pace and we are significantly ahead of where we were at this time last year. Please remember that the deadline for the re-enrollment discount is January 31 which is this coming Monday. Enrollment for siblings starts on February 1 for those that have handed in an application form.  If you have not already made an application for a sibling please do so soon.  Forms are available from the office or on the website. If you do have any questions please don't hesitate to contact the office.

There will again be a summer program on the GAIS campus this June to July.  The program will be run by GASPA, which is the German American School of Palo Alto who also run the Saturday School on our campus. This Summer Camp will go from June 20 to July 15 with hours from 9:00-13:00 plus an option to extend to 18:00.   For more information and application forms please go directly to their website: www.gaspa.ca.org. 
 

Spring Extracurricular starts next week

The following great programs are in need of more sign-ups:

• Fun with Games (Wed 2-3pm, Grade 3-4)
• Chess (Fri 2-3pm - Grade 2-8)
• The Mysterious Number Club 2 (Mon 3-4pm, Grade 4-6)
• Solver's League 1 (Thu 2-3pm, (Grade 3-4pm)
• Solver's League 2 (Thu 3-4pm, Grade 5-6)

In addition there are some spaces left in the following programs:  

• Electricity and Magnetism (Fri 2-3pm, Grade 2-5)
• Arts & Crafts 2 (Thu 2-3pm, Grade 1 & 2)
• Young Rembrandts (Wed 2-3pm, Grade 1-3)
• Ballet and Movement (Thu 2-2:50pm, Preschool & VS).

To sign up, please contact Stella Klose sklose@gais.org.

The deadline for early re-enrollment is January 31^st. Parents that return their enrollment contracts by this date will receive the 5% discount.  You can certainly still hand in contracts after this time but we will not be able to guarantee a place in the class as we will start accepting external applications. Parents wishing to enroll siblings should have application forms in to the office as soon as possible. Sibling enrollment will commence immediately after January 31^st.  Should you have any questions, please contact the office.

I remind all parents that parking on Elliott Dr. is not permitted in accordance with the terms of our campus use permit by the City of Menlo Park. Parking outside of the parking stripes is also not permitted and potentially dangerous to other cars and pedestrians. 
 

Please remember that families with student in Grades 1 and up should make use of the drop off zone. The drop off zone eliminates the need to park your card. To make this smooth we ask that: 

1. Drivers do not leave the car.
2. The cars go to the end of the zone or immediately behind the last stopped car.
3. No students should get out of the car before entering the drop off zone which is marked with a cone.

Your cooperation is appreciated and will help us maintain outstanding relations with the neighborhood.

The SMV is organizing a Valentine's Talent Show that will take place on February the 14^th during the sixth period (1:15-2:00pm) of school. Sign up sheets have been sent home.  Children who wish to perform in the show need to fill them out with their parents and return them by February the fourth to the school office. All students and parents are welcome to join us in the gym for this fun event! If you have any questions please contact SMV Vice-President, Olivia Pintz at: SMV@gais.org.

On Sunday January 30, at 11 am., the Goethe Institute in San Francisco will have a silhouette film making activity for children.  These are films that are simply made out of sharply outlined black figures which play various parts. After watching some sequences of Lotte Reiniger's filmsAschenputtel,Dornröschen,Der Froschkoenig, andDas Tapfere Schneiderlein, the children will make silhouettes with you! Give it a try! And once your character is done you can even put it on stage. Suggested donation: $ 5 per child (parents are free).