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Beach Party a Huge Success
 This year's annual GAIS Beach Party was again blessed with near perfect weather. The popularity of this event grows year by year and the 2011 edition once again saw a record crowd of families in attendance. Fun activities included volleyball, soccer and other games as well as the typical beach activities of creating sand sculptures and surfing the waves. This event, like all of the other events in the school's yearly calendar, was put on by parent volunteers. Our thanks go to the Jandeleit and Pyka families for organizing this great afternoon for all the GAIS community.
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News from the Head of School
 We are now finishing our third week of school and a lot has happened already thus far. Last Friday was the first meeting of class reps and helpers and I would like to thank and commend this group of parents for taking on these important roles. Facilities improvements are continuing to occur on a daily basis. The IMS Forum project is moving forward nicely with the arrival of a new shade structure and wood chips which now cover the entire area. Bleachers have also arrived and will be installed shortly. The huge increase in bicycle traffic this year has resulted in the installation of an additional new bike rake. We have also installed two water fountains on the school playground for our thirsty students during break times. Finally, please have a look at the newest edition of the GAIS Handbook which is on the school website under the Resources/downloads tab.
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PYP Corner by Maike Silver
 On Wednesday, September 21 we will celebrate the "International Day of Peace" for the fifth consecutive year. This is a global holiday (sponsored by the United Nations) when individuals, communities, nations and governments highlight efforts to end conflict and promote peace. The Preschool teachers will use this day to introduce the attitude tolerance by establishing the rule "YOU CAN'T SAY, YOU CAN'T PLAY".
The day is designed to be a special project day, so that teachers have time to go more in depth into the meaning of peace in our school and around the world. The student council will be offering activities for students to promote peace during break time. We will conclude the day with an assembly where we will watch a slideshow of the days' events, sing a peace song and observe a minute of silence. May we do our part so that peace may prevail on earth!
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Preschool Corner by Heike Schmalstieg
 Parent Coffees are informal meetings that are scheduled throughout the year with the purpose of talking about the preschool and meeting other parents. The first parent coffee will take place on Friday, September 16th from 8:45-9:45 AM in the school library. Small children are welcome to come along. Please bring toys or snacks to keep them busy.
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Student Leadership Academy
 Tomorrow is the first event planned by the student leadership academy. All students are asked to wear the school colors yellow and blue. Class representatives will be asked to count participants in their classes and we will see how much school spirit we can see on campus! Go GAIS students!
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Carpooling at GAIS
About 30% of families have so far submitted their vehicle registration forms and will receive placards for all of their vehicles in the next week. So far, GAIS has 62 Carpools, 36 SOVs (single occupancy vehicles), and 12 Preschool cars. If you have not yet turned in your form, please download it here you are still looking for a carpool or want to offer seats in your car to another family, please download the carpool form here and return it to the office. The carpool coordinator will contact you. Also note the carpool parking spaces have been painted and are ready to go!
Another success story...
This week's carpool story is on the Bulfon, Ciortea and Vaughan Families. These families live in the North Fair Oaks neighborhood in Menlo Park and have recently started a carpool which has taken a bit of creativity. Paul Bulfon (2nd grade) and Constantine Ciortea (VS) ride in the Vaughan mini-van (1st, 2nd & 5th) twice a week to school. Then on the other days, the three Vaughan boys are split between the Bulfon and Ciortea cars to school since these cars are not able to carry five children. So a total of 6 morning trips per week to GAIS have been eliminated by this carpool.
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Members Meeting
 The first annual Members Meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 29 at 7:30 pm and will take place in the Gym. All parents are invited to attend this important meeting.
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Fall Break/Hort sign-up
 Our Fall Break is from October 1 - 14. As in the past, we will offer HORT from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm during the break. Spaces are limited, therefore sign-up or email to the office to reserve a spot. The deadline is September 26. Sign-up forms have been sent out.
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MYP Assessment Workshop
In order to receive the MYP certification we have to use the official MYP assessment system. One key change will be that everything will be graded against specific weighted MYP objectives and clear "task specific rubrics." The final grade will be from 1 to 7. This will not cause any difficulties for transitions to high school or European schools, because the MYP is well known worldwide.
In order to get more familiarized with this new assessment procedure, we'll provide an MYP workshop for Grade 6 and Grade 7 parents on Thursday, September 22, 2011, from 6 to 8 pm. Attendance is highly recommended.
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Playing Soccer in Germany 2012
 The Fussballschule-1 in Germany is offering soccer camps to students from all over the world during summer break 2012. The camps are for boys and girls age 8 to 18. If you are interested in one of the camps please visit their website www.fussballschule-1.de.
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