Please share how your child has shown kindness outside GAA.

Kindness @ Home Form

With thanks,

Mike Hopaluk

Elementary Principal

email: esprincipal_gaa@gemsedu.com

At Gems American Academy we consider ourselves a community of lifelong learners and all of our staff are motivated to continually reflect upon and refine their craft based on evidence from the most up-to-date educational research. We place significant importance on the professional development of all staff so that we can ensure that we deliver the best possible education for our students. At GAA we regularly, have teachers attend courses, in person and online as well as having opportunities to learn from each other and brining in world rebound expert consultants. This mixture of approaches help teachers to continually improve and refine their craft and in turn provide outstanding learning experiences for our students.

Recently, many teachers attended different training courses for the Primary Years Program (PYP) based on ‘Making the PYP Happen’ and ‘Approaches to Learning’ and the 5^th Grade Exhibition, as well as attending the IB Global Conference. Here is what a few of our teachers had to say about their learning;

“The workshop was designed in a way for us teachers to apply what was being taught, which meant learning the vocabulary as we used it, putting our skills to use through planning our next unit. We were able to use our new knowledge of the PYP and collaborate on a deeper level.” - Ms. Courtney Kindrat

This workshop helped me grow professionally by being able to plan lessons that will help my students be more engaged in their learning. By attending this professional development opportunity, it encouraged me to implement the best practices in my classroom and school.” – Ms. Starr Worley

"It was great to collaborate with other teachers from the area to better understand the PYP exhibition. My biggest takeaway was the importance of students taking authentic action throughout the whole process.” -Ms. Lauren Tickel

The IB Global Conference was an incredible experience. I walked away with a bucket full of ideas that I am excited to implement in the class” – Ms. Virgina Ingle

Preparing students for the 21^st Century means changing how we are teaching.

Growing up my family had a favorite saying, “If you’ve always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you always got.” It was their way of encouraging us to take risks and do things different. It sums up perfectly the shift that has to happen to prepare students to be ready for the future.

Karl Fisch said, “We are currently preparing students for jobs that don’t yet exist . . . using technologies that haven’t been invented... in order to solve problems we don’t even know are problems yet.” The world is a rapidly changing place, and we need to be preemptive as teachers to prepare students as best as possible for this new reality. The teaching methods of the past just won’t suffice. This is why I like the IB Primary Years Program so much, because it prepares students for a changing world. This is also why some parents have lots of questions around it. Here is a chart that sums up some of the differences.

If you have any questions about the IB PYP approach please feel free to contact me at t.pulci_gaa@gemsedu.com.

In second grade, we are working on our second unit of inquiry How the World Works. Students have been exploring properties and changing states of matter in the classroom, our school yard, the Makerspace and on our excursion to Little World. Class 2D is full of little scientists keen to learn more about the world around them and share their learning with others.

The students used their knowledge of scientific method in the classroom with water, ice and air to learn about the 3 states of matter. They experimented with glue, starch and borax at Little World to see how properties change when materials combine. In Makerspace the class worked through an excavation challenge by applying their scientific skills and knowledge. The students experienced changing states of matter using ice and heat on the schoolyard to see how matter can change states.

2D are creative and curious and love to apply their learning skills. While working on procedural writing the children wrote and shared their instructions for making a sandwich, remembering to include all the steps was a delicious challenge!

The 3F class has been busy preparing for our Poetry Slam coming up on December 10. Students have been reading different types of poetry and working together to understand the meaning of poems, as well as identify the messages that poets convey through poetry. The 3F students have been inquiring into and writing various forms of poetry. They have also been learning various ways technology can be incorporated into published poetry. Some of the engaging programs they’ve been using include: Scratch coding, Garage Band, Adobe Sketch, Clips, and more! They can’t wait to share their published pieces with others!

Here are some QR codes to videos of 3F students performing group poems for the class. They chose a group poem, added movement, music, sounds, Google Slides settings, etc. to their pieces. Now, students are busy writing their own group poems which they will perform at their Poetry Slam in December.

Two weeks ago, the 3F class decided for World Kindness Week that they wanted to show their appreciation to the cleaning staff at GAA, by throwing them a “Thank You” party. Here are some pictures from the event, as well as a QR code to a video of a song that they sang to the staff. The students really enjoyed serving and visiting with some of our hard-working staff!

In fourth grade, we are working on our second unit, Who We Are. We are thinking about how our body systems work together to contribute to a healthy body. To begin the unit, we had an amazing provocation with Ms. Shillington. We explored several different animal organs and shared wonderings that we had.

We have learned that part of having a healthy body includes exercising and keeping our heart healthy. We put this into action when we went to AdventureHQ! We were able to try the high ropes course, the zip line and explore the cave. This field trip also gave us a chance to show off what we know about being a PYP learner. We were risk-takers on the high ropes and showed a lot of cooperation when trying to solve the clues in the cave.

Students in 5D went on a field trip to the Heritage Village to explore the rich history and migration stories of the UAE. Students enjoyed the field trip a lot. According to Kaitlyn Ross, student of 5D, she said, “ It was amazing, and I learned a lot from it, especially how they made boats back then.”

Another student, Johnathon Jones claims, “ It was the best experience of my life. I can’t wait to go their again with my family.”

What a wonderful learning experience for our upper elementary kids!

Grade 3 artists are writing and illustrating their own poems. Through the creative process they are thinking about how to create poems and art that catch the attention of the viewer/reader, and how, though art and word, we capture and share feelings and ideas.

Our grade 4 artists have been thinking about Leonardo da Vinci as a scientist, and looking at his careful studies of anatomy and nature, as well as his inventions. By doing their own careful drawings from life, our students begin to connect the importance of observation and seeing to understanding the world.

The 5^th grade just completed their migration unit! In art, we learned about Jacob Lawrence and his migration series. We made panels of our own migration combined oil pastel techniques with our own migration stories or the migration stories the 5^th grade have been studying in class.

These are some of the students of 5C showing their migration panels:

In UAESS, students in upper elementary grades are learning about the nature in UAE and human influence on it, difference between past and present and what are the changes that happened in houses, jobs, business and activities. They are also learning about the nature around us and how to keep the environment safe, clean and healthy and they make actions for the sustainability.

Students participated in every national event, they made projects about the first Emirati astronaut Hazza al Mansouri, participated in a competition for flag day and celebrated UAE National Day.

في مادة التّربية الوطنيّة تلاميذ الصّفوف من الثّالث حتى الخامس يتعلّمون عن طبيعة الإمارات وتأثير الأنشطة الّتي يقوم بها النّاس على البيئة الّتي يعيشون فيها ، الإمارات بين الماضي والحاضر والمشاريع المستقبليّة والاختلافات التي طرأت على أشكال البيوت، المهن، الأعمال والأنشطة. هم يتعلّمون أيضاً عن كيفية المحافظة على البيئة نظيفة ، صحّية وآمنة .

وقد شارك الطّلاب في العديد من المناسبات والأحداث الوطنيّة : بحثوا عن معلومات حول رحلة هزّاع المنصوري إلى الفضاء وشاركوا في احتفال يوم العلم بالقيام بالعديد من الأنشطة واحتفلوا باليوم الوطنيّ من خلال المشاركة في العديد من الفعاليّات والأنشطة .

CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE GAA EVENTS CALENDAR

(please note, updated regularly)

• December 12: Last day of school, half-day, school dismisses @ 12:00 pm: Dress Down Day.
• January 5: School resumes
• January 16: GAA Parent Community Lunch (venue TBC)
• January 21: Meet the Elementary Counsellors for Triple P