A Fin-tastic Finale: Celebrating Finding Nemo Kids! 🐠

What a joyful, colorful, and heartwarming conclusion to our elementary musical, Finding Nemo Kids! Our students truly brought the ocean to life, and we couldn’t be more proud of their incredible performances.

First and foremost, thank you to our dedicated team of teachers who worked tirelessly behind the scenes—directing, choreographing, rehearsing, designing, and encouraging every step of the way. Your passion, patience, and creativity made this production possible, and your impact on our students will last far beyond the stage.

We are also deeply grateful to our amazing parents who consistently support the arts at GAA. From helping students practice lines and songs to providing encouragement, costumes, and time, your partnership makes a tremendous difference. Your commitment to your children’s growth and confidence is truly appreciated.

And of course, a huge round of applause for our performers! These students showed courage, teamwork, discipline, and joy as they learned music, memorized lines, practiced choreography, and stepped into the spotlight. Watching them grow in confidence and skill was one of the most rewarding parts of this journey.

The arts program at GAA plays a vital role in developing the whole child. Through theatre, music, and performance, students explore their interests, build self-discipline, learn responsibility, collaborate with peers, and develop communication skills that will serve them for life. Most importantly, they learn that their voices matter and that creativity has a place in our community.

Thank you to everyone who made Finding Nemo Kids! such a success. We are so proud of our students and excited for many more creative adventures ahead! 🎭✨

Grade 2 STEM Update

Our Grade 2 students have been busy exploring the exciting world of STEM through hands-on investigations! They’ve been learning how circuits work, experimenting with batteries, wires, and bulbs to make things light up. ⚡

The class also explored static electricity, using balloons to lift and move pieces of paper—lots of curiosity along the way! 🎈

To finish off, students designed and tested magnetic mazes, discovering how magnets can move objects without touching them. These activities helped build problem-solving skills, teamwork, and a strong foundation in scientific thinking.

Grade 3 STEM Update

Grade 3 students have been diving into the engineering design process! They’ve been learning what brainstorming and prototypes are, and why engineers plan and test ideas before building.

Students created sketches and detailed plans for a machine designed to make things move, thinking carefully about how parts work together. 🛠️

This process encouraged creativity, critical thinking, and thoughtful discussion as students shared ideas and improved their designs. We’re excited to see their ideas continue to develop!

A Special Storytelling Visit in Grade 1

We were delighted to welcome one of our parents to Grade 1 for a special storytelling session of Little Red Riding Hood. The students were highly engaged and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, listening with great enthusiasm and excitement throughout the reading.

Thank you to our parent volunteer for sharing their time and helping to foster a love of reading in our young learners.

زيارة ممتعة من أحد أولياء الأمور لقراءة قصة (ذات الرداء الأحمر)، حيث أبدى الطلاب تفاعلاً وحماسًا كبيرين أثناء قراءة القصة.

This week in KG1A, our students have been busy learning and growing! In Maths, we have been practising addition and using different strategies to help us find the answers. In Literacy, we have been innovating the story of The Little Red Hen, sharing our creative ideas and retelling the story in our own way. We have also been working hard on forming our letters correctly and improving our handwriting. It has been an exciting week as we celebrated 100 Days of School by dressing up as 100-year-olds, and we had lots of fun taking part in Sports Day on Friday. We are so proud of all the effort our little learners are putting into their learning! Well done KG1A 😊 

Do you know the difference between a science "demonstration” and "experiment?” You can ask any one of our Grade 5 Scientists and they might even break into song and dance to explain it to you!

Conducting a science experiment requires you to “think like a scientist” — that is, to follow the scientific method. You need to observe, hypothesize, experiment, analyze, and report your findings. 

To put their learning into action, our Grade 5 Scientists designed, conducted, and presented their own science experiments. They explored questions such as: 

• “How does the type of glue affect the viscosity of slime?” 

• “Does the color of a tray affect melting speed of ice?” 

• “How does the presence of baking soda affect how quickly a lava lamp reacts?” 

They worked hard to ensure they changed only one independent variable at a time, while carefully measuring their dependent variable. This helped them collect accurate data and draw thoughtful conclusions based on evidence.

We are so proud of the curiosity, creativity, and critical thinking everyone demonstrated!

Here are a few photos of our Grade 5 Scientists in action below. You can also click to sing and dance along to our favorite ”Think Like a Scientist” GoNoodle video!

This year in Elementary Visual Arts, students in Grades 1–5 have been busy creating, exploring, and growing as Artists through engaging projects and consistent routines. Each art class begins with a five-minute Daily Doodle, giving students time to rest their thinking (left) brains while sparking the creative (right) side of their brains. This whole-brain approach helps students focus, regulate, and ease into the art-making process while reinforcing that art is about exploration, practice, and self-expression.

Students also learn and practice our CALM expectations—being Clean, Artistic, Listening, Mindful, and Calm—which support a positive and respectful Art Studio environment. Thoughtful listening is encouraged through Mona Lisa Listening, with Monthly Mona Lisa Listeners recognized for outstanding focus and respect.

Across grade levels, students explored a variety of units and materials. Highlights included Dot Day projects inspired by The Dot, expressive Name Monsters in Grade 1, Perspective Cities in Grades 2, identity-based artwork in Grade 3, Deep One-Point Perspective Drawings in Grade 4,and Op Art in Grade 5. These projects encouraged creativity, problem-solving, and personal expression while building foundational art skills.

Classes earn points each lesson for demonstrating CALM expectations, with the class earning the most points each month receiving the Golden Paintbrush Award. At the end of the term, the top class earned a Double Daily Doodle, enjoying extra time in the art room with sketchbooks and art-themed SpongeBob activities and manipulatives.

It has been a joyful term of creativity, focus, and growth, and students continue to learn that being an artist means taking their time, trying their best, and having fun!

• February 18-20 - Mid-Term Break (no school in session)

• March 5 - Community Iftar

• March 16-29 - Spring Break