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Weekly Newsletter
March 8, 2012
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Art Month at Cafe Zoe
Our month of art exhibits at Café Zoe started this week. The first group to exhibit were the students from the Middle School. IMS Art teacher, Eva Chase, selected a representation of outstanding pieces, such as the tissue paper collage self-portrait by Serena Grown shown here, covering a variety of different techniques and styles taught this year. These include acrylic painting in the styles of famous artists, sketches, watercolors and collages. Congratulations to our artists and art teacher and thanks to Café Zoe for their support of our school.
The next group to exhibit will be Vorschule starting on Monday. The Vorschule teachers, who originally came up with the idea for this event two years ago, will also hold an inauguration/reception for parents next Wednesday morning at 8:30 am.
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News from the Head of School
Promoting a Healthy Lifestyle
Being inspired by a few visits to Grade 1 this week, I have decided to write on this important topic. The central idea for the Grade 1 PYP unit is "There are major factors that must be in balance in order to promote a healthy lifestyle". This unit focuses on balance and the influence of good nutrition, physical activity, rest and hygiene have on an individual's well-being. Nutrition has recently come up as a concern in connection with school lunches. While the Preschool enforces a no-sweets policy, which includes such things as cookies, chocolate and puddings, etc., the School program does not impose these restrictions. It is felt that the parents should be responsible for making healthy food decisions for their children. I urge parents to give thought to what they send to school for lunch/snack and give their children good nutritious food with an emphasis on fresh fruits and vegetables. Grade 1 will end their unit next week with a healthy breakfast and will make a presentation at the end of unit assembly on healthy attitudes and nutritious lunches. Let's all learn something from our first graders (in picture practicing yoga).
In harmony with this theme, our Physical Education teacher, Janine Weers, has written a piece in the newsletter about the important role of physical activity. Also our parent talk this evening on 'The Romance of Risk" addresses the issue of making responsible choices during the pre-teen and teenage years.
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PYP Corner by Maike Silver
In the final year of the PYP in Grade 5, students participate in a culminating project, the PYP exhibition. That requires that each student demonstrates engagement with the five essential elements of the program: knowledge, concepts, skills, attitudes and action.
This year¹s exhibition takes place under the Transdisciplinary theme "Sharing the Planet" exploring the central "Actions Make a Difference". Each student chooses a topic to research of their choice and will present their findings in connection with actions that make a difference on May 5th to the school community. Every student has a teacher mentor, who meets with him or her weekly and helps stay on track during this independent project. The exhibition itself is a celebration as students move from the PYP into the MYP.
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Preschool Corner by Heike Schmalstieg
Exploration & Discovery
Children learn scientific concepts through real experiences such as playing in the mud, holding a rabbit, measuring flour for a cake or observing a worm. For young children, science is a natural process - and sometimes a messy one! Teachers and parents alike can foster the child's understanding of the world around them by allowing them to 'mess around'. Our program promotes the development of the processes that are integral to science: observing, classifying, communicating, inferring, measuring and predicting. Observation skills are learned by examining leaves and rocks or by noticing how a shadow changes.
Classifying skills are learned by sorting buttons or shapes and by noticing their differences and similarities. Children learn measuring by measuring how much a plant has grown or by measuring the size of their friend in blocks. Children predict outcomes by guessing the color changes when mixing paints or what will happen if water or salt is poured over ice. These are examples of how science is used every day. Sometimes teachers organize science activities and experiments to foster exploration. At other times, exploration and discovery happens during free play at the water table, in the sand box, in the garden, etc.
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Student Leadership
 Students can sleep in tomorrow. Students (VS-grade 8) can come to school in their pajama tomorrow. This is another fun activity the student leadership has planned to build school community.
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News from the P. E. Department - Janine Weers
Physical Education is very important for a well balanced lifestyle and for developing positive habits, especially for kids at Elementary School age. One of my main goals as a Physical Education teacher is in motivating and encouraging the kids to live an active lifestyle, enjoy running, jumping, playing games, doing summersaults, cartwheel, throwing balls and more. But the reality is that the students just have two lessons of PE each week and this must be supplemented by outside activity. I need you, the parents, to help by giving your kids the opportunity to be active outside of school. You can do this in many different ways like spending time outdoors, go hiking or skiing, join in different sports clubs (soccer and baseball are common here) or just play a game of badminton in the garden instead of a video game. The important thing is to give each child the chance to experience what is most rewarding and fun for them! At school, I try to give students the chance to try different sports, games and activities and hope that this small taste may inspire them to go further on their own. It has been proven that the more active kids are, the better overall learners they will be :-)
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News from the Math Department
Christine Burris - Head of Math Department
 On February 9th we celebrated 100 days of school. To make this an extra special and fun day we gave the students the opportunity to work with the number 100 in many different and creative ways. Second graders for example brought objects to class that were built from 100 pieces of various materials. Others created number problems and wrote them on the schoolyard. 3rd and 4th graders worked on logicals using problem strategies and manipulatives. Some 5th graders wrote stories on how they could improve the world by spending 100 dollars. Others did estimations on what the amount of 100 pennies looks like. One 5th grade also decided to collect $100, which they donated to an animal shelter.
But of course this kind of math/writing doesn't just occur once a year. Learning through inquiry and applying problem solving skills are an important part of our math program at GAIS. And I am confident that we will again achieve great results in this year's Kangaroo Math Competition, which is scheduled for next Thursday, March 15.
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Yearbook Pictures
 We are still looking for some high resolution pictures (no cellphone pictures) for following events:
- Beach Party
- Auction & Fundraising Parties
If you would like to share 2 or 3 pictures please send them to to office at offmgr@gais.org. Thank you very much for your help!
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Notre Dame Math Competition
 Girls from GAIS competed for the first time at the Notre Dame Middle School Math Contest at Notre Dame High School in Belmont. In Grade 6, Wiebke Janssen, Emma Doettling and Franziska Wendker made up the team. For Grade 7, Genna Corlett, Nina Hipkins and Eden Grown-Haeberli worked together and for Grade 8, Alexandra Wendker, Kendra Schuster and Serena Grown-Haeberli made a threesome. Eighth grader Serena Grown-Haeberli won Best-in-School. Besides Best-in-School, prizes were given for best 6th grader, 7th grader, 8th grader and Best-in-Competition. The girls learned math is both challenging and fun!
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Yearbook 2011-12
 The orderform for the Yearbook 2011-12 has been sent out. Please order your copy by March 23rd for a discounted price of $45. Thereafter it will be $50 per copy. Only the exact number of pre-ordered books will be available! Please send your order form to offmgr@gais.org.
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Last Chance for Girl Scout Cookies
 GAIS Girl Scout Troop 32628 will have a booth sale at GAIS on Monday, March 12th, to support their Silver Award project. The girls are working on a children's literacy program for kids in Menlo Park whose families are temporarily homeless. The girls plan to hold story hours, create book/cd sets, and donate a bookcase, books and book/cd sets and a cd or mp3 player. Cookie sales end soon. This is your last chance for Thin Mints until next year. We appreciate your support!
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Desaster Preparedness Day
 Please mark your calendars and save the date, as Saturday, June 9th, 2012, the 8th Annual San Mateo County Disaster Preparedness Day will be held at the San Mateo County Event Center, 2495 South Delaware Street, San Mateo. Once again this year the event will be held on Opening Day of the San Mateo County Fair, from 10:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m., and free parking and free admission to the Fair will be offered to everyone who arrives before 11:00 a.m. that day. What a fabulous opportunity to collect and hear about the latest emergency preparedness updates, take a short but important free CPR course and bring your friends and family to the San Mateo County Fair!
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For newsletter information, questions or article submissions, please contact Dagmar Stullich at offmgr@gais.org or call the office at 650-324-8617.
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