Greetings GAA Community,

It was great to have a full week with few interruptions. This year, we have had a lot of interruptions, and I could tell that there was a sense of importance in having a full week of school. With that sense, I would like to share a few thoughts about how to support our students in making sure they do get a full week of school.

Each morning, we have many students who arrive to class late. Speaking to students, waiting for their late slip each morning, they share a number of reasons for this. Traffic in Khalifa City, siblings not ready, waking up late- these are all common themes that are not new to this year or this school. I do ask that parents do everything they can to help students arrive at GAA so that they have time to get to class before the UAE National Anthem at 7:45 am. Arriving to class late is both disruptive to a child’s own learning, but also to the ‘flow’ of the morning routines. I know every family is dedicated to their child’s learning and this is one way to make sure each day starts in the right way.

We also have many students who are picked up early each day. As the start of the day is important to set the tone for the whole day, the end of the school day is a time for students to have opportunities to consolidate their learning and get mentally prepared for what is coming on the next day in each of their core subjects. Unless there is a very important reason to have your child leave the school earlier than dismissal time, please allow them to finish the day with their teachers and classmates.

This year, our school week was shortened by almost 3 hours. Teachers are doing everything they can to make up for their previously planned curriculum timeline, and I know you will support this by ensuring your children get the most out of every offered week, day and hour that they can be learning.

As always, that you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Mike Hopaluk

Elementary Principal

For our Unit of Inquiry unit students have inquired into ways to be healthy and balanced. They often think of food and exercise as the only ways to be healthy, but they have learned that being healthy and balanced is also being mindful. They learned different breathing strategies to stay calm, ways to think better and longer, ways to counteract distractions, and have control over their emotions. They really enjoyed the mindful coloring too! Students began to take action by using transition time in school to practice relaxing and staying calm. They also shared how they began to take action and be mindful at home.

Our Grade 3 students are inquiring into “How We Organize Ourselves” during Market Day. Students were learning about trade and how an economy works. They worked very hard on their products for market day.

It’s been wonderful to once again have a long stretch of uninterrupted in-school learning and the chance to make music together in the classroom. We have been working hard on performing on the recorder, doing so in accordance with Covid guidelines. Many students are finally experiencing the satisfaction of overcoming technical challenges to produce a pleasant sound on what is a deceptively difficult instrument, and we are able to play some fun pieces together. In Grade 3, we are also revisiting the xylophone, and in Grade 4 we are reviewing what we learned earlier in the year on the ukulele. As always, we continue to learn elements of music, and have recently focused on musical notation.

In both Grade 3 and Grade 4, we are beginning to make preparations for our virtual performance at the end of year arts celebration. This performance will be a culmination of all we have learned this year, and will showcase different instruments and different musical styles. Grade 3 classes are preparing a recorder and voice performance, which they will accompany themselves using tuned and untuned percussion instruments. Grade 4 classes are each preparing songs from different countries, which they will accompany themselves using ukuleles, keyboards, as well as tuned and untuned percussion. We are very excited to put these performances together!

• March 17-18: Secondary Musical "Annie" Virtual Production

• March 24: Book Character Dress Down Day for KG & Elementary (5 AED donation goes to support School Community through GAA Parent Association events).

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

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

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

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