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News from the Head of School

A nice long weekend is about to start and I take this opportunity to wish all of the GAIS families a happy and thankful holiday. I feel that all of our students can be thankful for many things including the wonderful education that their parents are giving them. We at GAIS are clearly thankful for the great support we receive from our community.

 

Today we were able to use our new intercom system for the first time to wish every class a Happy Thanksgiving. This little test showed us that all the rooms were connected to the system. Apart from period announcements to the whole school, the system will also become part of our 'lock down' procedure. This procedure is part of our Emergency Plan which you can find on the website under Resources. The 'lock down' procedure would be activated if a belligerent entity were to come on campus and necessitate getting the students in a safe location. From now on we will use the intercom to signal the 'lock down' procedure. We will give this a test run on Wednesday, December 8th in the morning. The teachers will discuss this with their classes and you are certainly invited to discuss the importance of this at home.

 

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PYP Corner by Maike Silver  

In the past few weeks there have been discussions on various levels of how to better communicate the guidelines for playground behavior. Based on the recent feedback regarding the playground interactions the staff collaborated in crafting a playground manifesto which will be published across the school in the near future. The manifesto, playground boundaries and supervision positioning during break are communicated through a letter in your file. Creating  better awareness and understanding of our expectations is a key goal in our quest of transparency. 

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Preschool Corner by Heike Schmalstieg     

There is music in the air. The preschoolers are exploring music in various forms and we have had many visitors during our ongoing music unit, bringing instruments such as a violin, cello, santoor, flute, guitar, alphorn, chakra bowls and many more. Walking from room to room has been like stepping from one mini concert to the next. Thank you all for contributing to our music unit, making it such an enriching experience for all. In the a sprit of collaboration, the preschoolers also visited the middle schoolers during their band practice. They received an introduction by the older students of their instruments and were able to listen to a few musical pieces. The little ones were quite in awe to watch the older children play. This year, we will unfortunately not be able to visit the San Francisco Symphony with our older children, since all concerts during our unit take place on the weekends only. To expand your child's learning  and deepen their appreciation of music, the Symphony has a popular weekend concert series, including great symphonic music, informative talks, musical demonstrations, and free musical materials to use at home. For more info, click here. They also have a web site providing online learning about music. SFSKids.com serves children, parents, teachers, and schools.

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Poinsettia Fundraiser for IMS 

Get your beautiful holiday decorations fresh from the Halfmoon Bay grower:

• What: Poinsettia - colors: peach or red, ca. 20 inches high
• Price: $15
• Preorder by e-mail please:  Manu Hipkins at manu.hipkins@att.net 
• Deadline: Friday, Dec 2nd
• Pick up: at GAIS on Monday, Dec 5th between 2 - 4 pm.
• Payment due with preorder: make check out payable to Manuela Seitz-Hipkins and place into the PARENT FOLDER 'Hipkins" (only prepaid orders wil be accepted)

Thank you for your support of the Middle School ski trip!

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Winterfest

Our annual Winterfest, on Saturday, December 3rd, from 2-5pm, is coming up next weekend. This year the Winterfest will feature outstanding musical performances led by our new Music Teacher, Amy Nathan. In addition there will be a bazaar, café, baked goodies, food, arts and crafts for the children and Santa.

Student performances will take place in three blocks. It is hoped that all students will be on hand to participate. Separate emails will go out next week about the performance details for each class The schedule for the performances are:

• Preschool - Grade 2: 2:15pm - 2:45pm
• Grade 3 - 5: 3:15pm - 3:45pm
• IMS Band (Grade 6-8): 4:00pm - 4:30pm

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Volunteers needed

We are looking for volunteers for the crafts corner at our Winterfest. If you love arts & crafts and are interested in helping out with our team, please contact Stella Klose at sklose@gais.org.

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