The Wave - February 2016

Inspiration

Integrity

Achievement

Caring IB learner characteristic for the month 25 February 2016

the.wave@kaust.edu.sa

Note from the ECC Principals I recently read an article titled Finding Math in Storybooks. The article refers to reading being an opportunity to find out about your child’s world. As adults we do not often understand what the world looks like from a child’s point of view. As you read with and not just to your child you may learn that they interpret events differently from you, they see things in the story that you did not, and they learn from the story in ways you did not expect. Reading with your child can provide an insight into their mind as well as clues to further their thinking. The article also talks about the need to read storybooks that have a math focus.

So how can you read books in such a way that will promote your child’s math learning: • Read books that you both find interesting, amusing and full of wonder, books that will grow the child’s budding love of reading.

• Talk with your child about the various ideas, including the math ideas. “Who is bigger, Mama Bear or Papa Bear?

How do you know? Which bear gets the biggest bed? Why?” • Use math language to describe and explain (“This is a square because it has four sides and they are all the same length.”) and encourage the child to put their ideas into words.

• Keep the child engaged in the book, for example, by asking them to point out certain things on a page. “Show me the biggest bear.” Or you can make the questions very open-ended by asking, “What do you see on this page? What is happening?”

• Think about your own experiences with math and whether you might unintentionally transmit any negative feelings about math to the child.

In the end, reading math storybooks and storybooks with embedded math can stimulate your child’s thinking, language and enjoyment.

Jump, Jump, Jumping in K3 PE The central idea in this PE unit was: Practice can improve our skill and our well-being. Each PE class the students practiced jump rope to see how many jumps they could do in a row, without stepping on the rope. They recorded their scores on a chart and could then compare the data to see if they had improved. The idea behind the unit is for the students to experience improvement of a physical skill through consistent practice. All 151 students improved their scores with 7 students scoring over 100.

Not only did the students gain an understanding of these concepts of practice improvement and wellbeing, but they also gained the physical benefits. Jumping rope improves dynamic balance and coordination, reflexes, bone density, coordination and muscular endurance. It also helps to develop the left and right hemispheres of the brain, reading skills, increases memory and mental alertness. (www.jumpropeinstitute.com/benefits.htm)

By Trudy Vriend, K3 PE Teacher

K3 Assembly

For 7 weeks the K3 students worked hard preparing for the K3 assembly. We wanted to integrate this assembly into the unit of inquiry they were focusing on in class, and decided we were going to research animals from different continents, as well as music and dance from the continents. We also included the oceans.

The children enjoyed choosing their animal and creating a mask that represented the animal. For the costumes, the children looked at the animals they were, and chose a color that best ďŹ t the animal to use for their costume. We looked at scenery from the different continents, and the children created the backdrop for their songs. Each of the songs chosen was either about animals from that continent, or about the continent itself. After the winter break, the children were practicing the dance and lyrics to the songs they chose for their continent.

It was such a fun process! We started with practicing in class, then with the class that was also doing the song (if applicable), then practicing on the stage with no audience, then with two classes as an audience, then the dress rehearsal, and ďŹ nally, to an audience of over 400 people for the assembly! For 5 and 6 year olds this was a huge celebration of learning.

by Katie Hoffman, Early Childhood Teacher

K2 Scientists in Action

Our curious K2 scientists have undertaken experiments with making bubbles. It was agreed that soap and water is needed to make big bubbles, and that we can reuse plastic water bottles as tools. We tried different types of soap, different amounts of water, adding sugar and corn-starch to see what mixture works the best. These investigations led to some very big bubbles and a lot of fun – why not try this at home?

By Stephanie Fairall, Early Childhood Teacher

Celebrating 100 Days in K3 We enjoyed celebrating 100 days of K3 on Wednesday 10th February.

The students enjoyed a number of 100 day centres. They played board games, created 100 year old portraits, decorated 100 day headbands and traced the numbers 1-100! The students all brought in 100 items to organize and display.

Most sorted them in groups of ten ‘so that they are easier to count!’

We even had fun at snack time where the students were each given an oatmeal cookie to eat in 100 bites. We are counting backwards from 100 and also counting the remaining days of K3.

Time flies when you are having fun!

by Rebecca Kent, Early Childhood Teacher

100 Year Old Portrait - Maryam

Note from the GES Principals Defining international-mindedness As we move into international week the question emerges, what exactly do we mean by the words: ‘International Mindedness’.

Across the world today you’ll find schools, both international and increasingly in national systems too, that seek as part of their mission to help children become internationally-minded. But what does it actually mean? As yet, there is no single commonly agreed definition. To some, it may be defined around themes such as securing peace and eradicating poverty, whilst others may see it from a more environmental perspective. The following is an excerpt from Steven Mark who explores this question in a way that I believe suits our context here at KAUST. One definition that I’ve found useful is that of a growing sense of the ‘other’. Howard Gardner describes “declining ego-centrism” as the basis of human development. Therein perhaps lies the most helpful way of considering what international-mindedness might be: a journey from ‘self’ to ‘other’. If we can help our children and students to develop a strong sense not only of themselves and their own identity, which is crucial, but alongside that, a deep sense and awareness of other peoples, cultures, countries and customs, then we offer them a great chance to be truly 21st century global citizens.

Living in such an interconnected world as we now do, and facing complex challenges –ranging from climate change, to resources, to poverty elimination – will require a generation of problem solvers and creative thinkers, who see problems not from one perspective but from many. These global challenges and problems will ultimately be faced by the children going through our schools today, and what better chance do we have to help solve them than by helping our children, from the earliest age possible, develop that strong sense of the ‘other’.

Have a happy international week and I encourage you all to take this opportunity to consider others here in our own little international community.

Grade 3 Students Take Action After finding a number of “American Girl” magazines from the elementary library in a disarray and badly torn, several third grade girls took it upon themselves to find a solution to the problem. Jenna Abdulaal, Zoha Ghauri and Sheera Farmansyah from / 3VL, Jumana Mahfourz from 3EB, Hala Amad from 3JW and Anjum Elsabaa from 4RL, have been creating boxes to “protect” the magazines, and posters to promote the care of magazines. When you pass through the school you may see evidence of their action. It is an ongoing project, and we congratulate the girls on taking the initiative.

by Vivien Sewell, GES Library

Kahoot!

Have you ever heard of Kahoots? Chances are that after our school assembly, many of our students have shared with you this fun app. Fourth grade student, Layla Eliishi was so enthused by what Mr. Hall and Mr Traynor shared during class time about the app Kahoots, that she made a game on Kahoots to help kids enjoy maths.

Layla said “I wanted to help kids enjoy maths and fractions. “ With support from Mr. Hall, Layla presented her Kahoots math game during the Thursday assembly and for fun had the teachers participate. She tested the game prior to launching it, running through it many times to edit errors. The success of the game was echoed by Mr. Robinson the PE teachers who said “He had never seen kids so happy about math.”

World Read Aloud Day - 24 February Every year World Read Aloud Day focuses global attention on the importance of reading aloud and sharing stories. This year in the elementary school, teachers and students could chose whether to read the suggested title from LitWorld “New Day, New Friends” or select their own read aloud. In the library we chose to host Skype read alouds with schools and authors around the world. We had a school teacher Steve Howard and his students from a school in Birmingham, UK, read to our grade 2 students. An UK author - Chitra Soundar - read from her book Farmer Falgu and Where is Gola's Home? to Grade 1 students, and we read to a group of grade 4 students in the International School group Dhahran.

There are more skype for classroom connections planned over the next few weeks, including author Julia Golding, and a mystery skype for grade 4 students, requiring them to develop a series of interview questions to ascertain “where in the world’ the other students are skyping from.

by Vivien Sewell, GES Library

Arabic class in Action - Gr4-5

IB Learner Profile: Caring At the heart of any good school is the focus on student achievement and student well being. The International Baccalaureate Organization had the insight to include “Caring” as a trait to cultivate in every learner from age 3 to age 18.

Reflections

from the Director of TKS

February is a good month to reflect on the IB Learner Profile trait, “Caring. Mid year is a good time to stop, reflect and ask if each of us has felt care for others, and care for self. We need to feel we are a caring community in order for us both to perform well and to achieve well-being. The February break offered both students and teachers a chance to stop, slow down , care for self and care for others..

Last week end I found myself around a campfire with over 20 seniors at Wadi Haqaq, a beautiful oasis an hour and twenty minutes north of our KAUST University setting. Seniors laughed, joked, threw Frisbees, swam in the cool waters surrounded by tall reeds, watched the kites circling overhead, put up tents, built a fire, noticed the stars come out, identified Orion’s belt, hiked up the sand dunes to see the moon rise, cooked burgers, drank Pepsi, roasted marshmallows, told stories, strummed the guitar, sang and laughed and teased each other, and then sang and laughed some more. It was a fun time, a time to relax after the mock exams, and a time to slow down, and connect.

I hope that in years to come, when these TKS graduates reflect on their final year in Secondary school, they will recall moments of care, and perhaps they will remember the beauty of a shared experience in the Wadi Haqaq.

Maddy

Note from the GSS Principals Grade 12 mock exams are now finished and report cards midyear have been issued for all students. We have had our Annual Talent Show, featuring over 20 musical presentations; our Annual Sports Day, some RSAC U14 football tournaments and MUN in Riyadh.

Today is an extra special day for students and teachers. On behalf of the teachers I’d like to say thank you to all the parents for contributing food and donations to today’s wonderful Teacher Appreciation Luncheon. I’d also like to acknowledge the hard work of the Student Council Association and Global Issues Service Summit team who have done a wonderful job with Funguka February.

This evening culminates the month of energizing Action on campus with the Big Brother-Big Sister Night School Legacy Project from 7pm-7am. It should prove to be a wonderful 12 hours for the over 100 students who are participating!

Sports Day 2016

Photographs by Roger Gribbins, Education Technology Specialist

6th Annual Talent Show

The 6th Annual Talent Show was a huge success. Students from grades 6-12 performed to a packed auditorium. We had a wonderful range of songs, instrumental work, modern dance, and cultural dance. The students put in a huge amount of work to pull off another great GSS Talent Show. Thank you to all who made it out to see the performances.

Mrs. Jennifer Hermanson

7th Grade - Circus

The 7th Grade students recently finished their circus unit in Physical and Health Education. This unit involved movement as well as gymnastics. At the end of the unit, we all performed for the students in kindergarten and they loved it. “Our children really enjoyed themselves and so much enthusiastic discussion happened on the bus and back at school.” - K2 teachers Personally, I enjoyed this unit a lot as movement and gymnastics is something that I feel very passionately about. I was given the opportunity to choreograph the finale for our performance and it was a great opportunity. I really enjoyed teaching my classmates a dance that I had created and I think they also enjoyed learning a dance not from a teacher, but from a student.

I think I can speak on behalf of most of my classmates when I say that this unit was very enjoyable as it was somewhat unique compared to the other units as we got to take action and present our movement compositions to young children. We were given the chance to express ourselves as circus performers and we were given the freedom to choose the theme of our sequences.

By Amy Tulley, Gr. 7 Student

SAIKAC High School Model United Nations (MUN) This year’s SAIKAC High School MUN (Model United Nations) was a thrilling experience in many ways. We were nine students trying to grasp an exponential amount of information on the topic of national sovereignty. In total, more than a hundred delegates attended the conference that took place at the American International School of Riyadh (AISR).

It was so enriching to hear an opening speech by the Deputy Chief of Mission at the US Embassy in Riyadh. Timothy A. Lenderking, gave his personal account on how his desire to do good for people has led him to begin working a in a refugee camp and later as the Deputy Chief of Mission to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In addition, the Danish and Austrian Ambassadors were also present at the opening ceremony.

The venue provided a sublime setting to intitiate meaningful discussions, tackling climate change, extremism, disputes in the South China Sea, as well as the Syrian refugee crisis.

TKS did a great job representing the school by bringing back two “distinguished delegate awards”. The students debated with great intensity and at times were stupefied by convincing arguments presented by the North Korean Delegation. The conference helped to broaden the perspectives of all the participants by making them realize that any political achievement in our society is an accomplishment of great significance.

The reason for this is that it requires cooperation at an unprecedented scale, looking at the interests of the world as opposed to our own.

Andre de Levay, Gr. 11 Student

Fenguka February The high school Global Issues Service Summit (GISS) team will soon travel to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, for the 2016 summit on Action and Service. This year the slogan for the event is ‘funguka’, the Kiswahili word for ‘are you ready?’. Aimed to promote global consciousness and local change.

The KAUST School GISS team wanted to promote and create more of an action-oriented culture in the school. A month-long program, coined ‘Funguka February’ was organized to inspire secondary students to alter their existing paradigms to action and service. Each week carried a different theme and the month created a progressive journey for students to see that change starts with the self, and is then implemented locally.

One of the events was themed ‘Look in the Mirror’. Everyone has the potential to be great and to make change. It’s cheesy, but true. A “Pay It Forward” board for students to post acts of kindness given and received was implemented. The GISS team also added a gift of a coloring and puzzle station for people who needed a break during the school week.

During week two, a MUN Peace Forum was established to provide a dialogue for students to talk about current events affecting various parts of the world such as climate change, the refugee crisis, as well as other important events shaping our society.

In week three the team aimed to focus the school’s (and community’s) attention on the practices and lifestyle of living more compassionately as a vegan. Students organized three documentary screenings with short discussions, open to the entire community, featuring the highly influential films, “Forks Over Knives”, “End of the Line”, and “Cowspiracy”. The films delved into the environmental, health, and ethical implications of meat, fish, dairy, and egg consumptions. Additionally, the team held a vegan food tasting event at the secondary school, which proved to be a great hit! On the last day of the week, the team was able to save 455,000 gallons of water by providing the entire school with falafel burger lunches, rather than beef burgers.

A few students in Grade 11 started a knitting club called the Procrastiknitters. They also started a website and their goal is to knit a few items for the Syrian refugees and ship out the items they’ve made. The group then went on to expand this project by adding tutorial videos for beginners on our knitting website. These are just a few of their goals.

MARCH 2016 EVENTS TKS - Whole School

Date

International Week MYP Personal Project Fair Parade of Nations

February 28 - March3 March 2 March 3

ECC – Early Childhood Center ECC Pac Meeting ECC K1 Assemblies

Print and stick on the fridge

March 16 March 14 - 17

GES – Gardens Elementary School GES Arts Celebration GES PAC Meeting GES Student Led Conferences GES Youth Sports Season

March 1 March 16 March 22 March 29

GSS – Gardens Secondary School GSS GISS - Tanzania GSS PAC Meeting GSS G6 -10 Student Led Conferences GSS G12 Visual Arts Exam GSS G12 Visual Arts Evening GSS G12 Visual Arts Exhibition GSS End of Quarter 3

Co-Curriculum / Sports

March 10 - 14 March 16 March 23 March 23 March 24 March 27 - 30 March 31

For updates on schedules and more info visit: Click here ttps://www.facebook.com/TKS-Sharks-Activities-282668925259824 RSAC U19 Boys BB (JPGS) March 4 RSAC U19 Girls BB (YIS) March 5 SAIKAC HS Music Festival March 10-12 SAIKAC U19 Girls/Boys BB (DHS) March 10-11 SAIKAC WR U16 Girls (TKS ) / Boys (YIS ) BB March 17-18

Contacting ECC: K1 Receptionist: 808 6320 K1 Health Office: 808-6280 K2 Receptionist: 808 6267 K2 Health Office: 808-6212 K3 Receptionist: 808 6408 K3 Health Office: 808-6312 Contacting GES: Reception: 808-6363 Health Office: 808-6412 Contacting GSS: Reception: 808-6703 Principles offices: 808-6867

News from the Health Office There is a new service for children and teens at KMC. Raye Pietruszka, a KAUST community member for 5 years, was recently welcomed to KMC to provide child life services on a part time basis. Raye holds a Master's Degree and is a certified Child Life Specialist who has worked with children (birth to 18) and their families in hospitals and other settings for more than 12 years. Child Life Specialists have a strong background in Human Growth and Development and how this is effected by illness, healthcare experiences, and life changing events. A Child Life Specialist is a trained professional who works with the healthcare team to minimize stress, promote positive coping skills, and encourage normal development. Even children and teens who are considered to be cooperative and quiet experience stress and concerns that are not voiced. Please don't hesitate to request child life services if you have concerns for how your child or teen may cope during medical care. For more information about Child Life Specialists please visit the following website at: www.childlife.org.