ELEMENTARY

October 7, 2021

Dear Elementary Families,

This week we held our first Elementary/DAAPA Coffee Morning. We are always thankful for the participation of our parents in these events. We had 85 parents attend our kick-off to Coffee Mornings! Our goal with these events is to connect with our parents with information about learning at DAA and how our DAA community supports the whole child. We will be organizing our events for the rest of the year in the coming weeks and will send out the information in our Elementary Bi-Weekly Update through Mailchimp and SPOTS so you can plan accordingly.

Our Sharing Spotlight for the Coffee Morning this week was around the Elementary library program. Ms. Hansen provided the parents with some literacy tricks and tips for engaging with your children in reading, an overview of the vision for the library program and some nuts and bolts information on accessing the library. You can view her presentation slides here:

Finally, here are some answers to the common questions she received following the presentation.

Hopes and Dream Parent Conferences

Hopefully you have booked your time with your child’s teachers next Wednesday or Thursday. The Hopes and Dreams conferences are an excellent opportunity for you to share about your child. Over the past month our teachers have been getting to know the students as learners and little humans, and now is the chance for you to amplify their knowledge of your child.

It is very important, for the conversation to be productive at the conference, that you complete the Google Form that will be coming home from your classroom teacher. Here are the questions you will be sent so you can begin thinking about the pertinent information you would like to share with your child’s teacher.

Please remember to note that these conferences are virtual (you will receive links from the teachers you book conferences with) and that students will not be attending school on those days.

Finally, this week was the launch of our first trips to Expo. As the explorers and pioneers we are as a school, we were one of the schools that attended on the very first day. It was an adventure for sure, and the students and adults were in awe of the site and experiences.

As always, thank you for your support of the school and have a wonderful weekend with your family and friends.

Sincerely,

Craig Cantlie

Executive Principal, Elementary

KG1 Learning

KG1 children have been very busy learning about their senses and how they help them explore their world. During our inquiry units, there is a large focus on defining problems and finding solutions just like engineers. The children were asked what they would do if they didn’t have one of their senses. What would you need to help you manage?

They worked in class with the teacher and peers to use the 6 D’s of solution fluency to brainstorm ideas, after which they were encouraged to design their solution/invention. The next step was for them to build their “invention”. They took home their design and collaborated with family members to bring it to life using recyclable materials or loose parts.

We are very proud of our engineers. We look forward to your debrief session.

KG2 Learning

Another wonderful week of learning, exploring, and celebrating in KG2. Reading, creating, swimming, and celebrating the launch of EXPO 2020 - what an amazing time to live in Dubai!