Greetings GAA Community,

I hope everyone is ready to begin their Spring Break with a number of exciting ways to enjoy the UAE or wherever else your families may find themselves.

Please view my video message here for a few updates:

• Reminders about Spring Break dates

• Reminders about school hours during the Holy Month of Ramadan

• Positive Discipline for Everyday Teaching

Have a wonderful break

Sincerely,

Mike Hopaluk

Elementary Principal

How to keep your Child Reading During Spring Break

It’s almost vacation time and we know that our families are excited to spend some special time together. However, we also know how important it is to keep our students reading during the breaks. Here are some suggestions to keep your children reading during the vacation.

Choose some Books

At the beginning of Spring Break, take your child to a library or bookstore and let them choose some books for the week. Now, remember: let you child choose. She wants to read comic books? Absolutely. He wants to read a book from his younger reading days? Why not? Make sure they know they can choose anything that gets them excited. The important thing is that your child wants to keep reading. Encourage them to choose whatever suits their like and, before you know it, your child will have a stack of books so high they’ll probably exceed their checkout limit…and that’s a great thing.

Read with them

Having an adult who reads with them helps children get more involved in the reading process and feel more confident. The children love it…and they’ll love it even more if that adult is a family member. It takes only 15 minutes of your day to keep your child on their reading schedule. Set a regular time such as bed time or in the morning. This will reinforce what they are learning in school. Best yet, reading with your child creates a special bond that neither of you will forget.

Give them a challenge

Just because the little ones are on vacation, doesn’t mean there can’t be challenges. Set a minimum page limit for the week, or set a minimum time amount for them to read each day. Make the challenges attainable, and wherever possible, make them fun! Your children will even love it if you can participate with them in their challenges. Then for each challenge they meet, reward them with a trip to the library or bookstore to get a new book, a trip to the park, or more quality time with you.

Get excited with them

When your child talks incessantly about a book they’ve read, that is the best thing you can hope for. Encourage that. Get excited with them! Ask them questions about the characters, the story, and what makes it special for them. Knowing you can get excited with them keeps them excited. It keeps them reading.

Enjoy the break!

Joe Aldus

Elementary VP

Please check out the weekly Elementary School Update by our Student Leadership comprised of 4th and 5th graders.

It has been a busy month for Grade 1E! We have started a new unit with the central idea: Where and how people live is influenced by their environment. The students are excited to learn about the weather and climate in different places around the world. We explored homes around the world on Google Earth and looked at library books and e-books about the different lines of inquiry. We started inquiring about our central idea. Check out some of our questions:

• How do people make homes in deserts?

• How do people in the desert get water to drink?

• How do rain and snow come?

• Why is there no snow in the UAE?

• How do clouds make weather?

• How do people build homes in the mountain?

• How do people make homes in the UAE?

This week was full of celebrations! We joined the GAA community in celebrating Book Character Day on Thursday. We had animal characters, princesses, an astronaut, a football player, a rainbow, superheroes, wizards, a pirate, Majed, Bruno, Dog Man, and an EXPO Opti robot. On Friday, we celebrated the 120th day of school with fun math games and a hallway full of 120 balloons! We also had so much fun at Camp Read-A-Lot in the library. Now we are ready for Spring Break and Ramadan.

4A has worked hard winning the reading competition on the website Achieve 3000. The IB learner profile attributes they displayed were principled, balanced and thinkers.

As a class every single student needed to compete and receive a score of 75% or higher to earn points. 4A were committed and determined and I am extremely proud of them!

4A said it was hard and challenging but they are so happy now! Bring on the next challenge!

4B have been working hard all term, and are all really looking forward to our Spring Break. This term we have been busy learning about space. We have found out lots of really interesting facts about our solar system. To end this unit we chose a topic we would like to explore more about space and researched it. We created presentations and shared our findings with the class. Have a look at some of our projects.

In Upper Elementary PE we have been playing invasion games including Soccer, Hockey and Frisbee. Students have had the opportunity to play in teams building on key skills such as teamwork, tactical analysis and communication. All pupils have enjoyed having the opportunity to work within a competitive environment and compete against an opposing team again.

With the increasing temperatures now upon us, recent lessons have been maximised playing games/ matches giving ample opportunities for students to become a leader both on and off the field.

Kind regards

Zach Winters and Ryan Hunn

• March 25-26: Elementary Musical "School of Rock, Jr." Virtual Production

• March 28-April 8: Spring Break - NO SCHOOL

• April 2 - Expected start of Holy Month of Ramadan

• April 11-12: School resumes as asynchronous learning.

• April 13: School resumes face-to-face.

• April 19: Information Session about "Positive Discipline in Everyday Parenting Program" @8:00am

• April 22: Senior Walk

• May 2-4: Eid Al Fitr (Ramadan Holiday)