The Wave - February 2017

Inspiration

Integrity

Achievement

The Parade of Nations is coming!

Get out your picnic basket and put on your favorite country colors, hats or special cultural clothing

All members of the KAUST community are invited to Discovery Square on Thursday, March 2 for the 2017 KAUST Parade of Nations and Picnic. Everyone is welcome—faculty, staff, students, parents, brothers, sisters, friends and neighbors—this colorful community event is open to all.

Event details: • • • • • • • •

Drop off your picnic at Harbor Sports Club Track and Field 5:00 p.m. — Meet at Discovery Square and rally around your country flag Wear your country colors or cultural dress or, if you prefer, your usual day clothes. Represent the country of your choice—we have the flags of100 nations 5:15 p.m. — Welcome Remarks and GES children’s song in their country dress 5:30 p.m. — March to the Harbor Sports Club Track and Field (less than 1 km away) 5:45 – 6:30 p.m. — Picnic and visit the circle of nations 6:30 – 7:00 p.m. — Prayer time 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. — Performances.

After the parade, enjoy your picnic throughout a two-hour performance of international music and dance starting at 7:00 p.m. The parade aims to showcase the multicultural strength and spirit of the KAUST community. See you there!

February 23, 2017

Thank You to everyone who completed the TKS Community Survey!

The KAUST School presents the 2016-17

Personal Project Community Showcase and Underwater Photography Exhibit Wednesday March 1, 2017 6:00pm - 8:00pm Gardens Secondary School Flag Pavilion Celebrating and showcasing the Year 5 MYP Personal Projects

Persian Harisse carpet handwoven by student Neeka Ghodsi

from Justin Somerville, KG Principal Dear Parents, February saw many opportunities for engagement between home and school, including the Parent/Child Breakfast, assemblies in K2 and K3, the K1 art exhibition, and a parent information session about Foundation Skills. We are ecstatic that all of these events were very well attended! One of our core beliefs expressed in our http://issuu.com/thekaustschool/docs/kindergarten_guiding_statements?e=23587344/44777420 Kindergarten Guiding Statements is that “children learn through relationships with other people....A quality learning community involves effective partnerships between parents, teachers, and children. Connections with home and family are integral to learning in the early years.” As such, we also encourage you to keep connected with your child’s classroom community through the blog as well as open communication with your child’s teacher. If you are not receiving email updates from the blog, please contact your child’s teacher.

Looking forward, International Week is coming up next week, and we hope that you’ll be able to join in the planned events, which have been communicated via the class blogs. Additionally, we welcome you to contact your child’s teacher should you have ideas for how you might like to be involved in International Week in your child’s class. See you at the Parade of Nations on March 2nd!

K3 Little Beatles On February 9th, all of the K3 students performed a Beatles tribute performance.

Over the course of 8 weeks, they were involved in costume and set design; learning the lyrics to the songs; and learning a variety of instruments to accompany their songs.

At the end of the performance, all of the children came together to sing “All Together Now” and they performed with a band consisting of teachers Mr. Hoffman, Mr. Wright, Mr. Zack and KG principal, Mr. Somerville.

By: Katie Hoffman, K3 Arts Teacher Photos by: Eric Bakken, K3 Teacher

Principled

Risk Taker Open-minded

K1 Large Canvas Art Show

Communicators

Risk Taker Reflective

As part of our ‘How We Express Ourselves Unit’ each K1 class worked collaboratively to create a one of a kind masterpiece on a large canvas.

Each class explored different media and art techniques. The children problem solved, took risks and worked as a team in order to make their works of art.

The opening night was Wednesday February 15th at the Island Recreation Center and it was Caring a great success! The show is a celebration of all their hard work, enthusiasm and learning and will be up for display for a month.

Inquirers Reflective

We hope that the Kaust Community enjoys it as much as we do.

By: Olga Pacheco Oreamuno, K1 Teacher

KG Students: We

On our new playground, the Harbor West KG students are working on foundational physical and social skills without even being aware of it.

They are improving their locomotor skills by riding the trikes, running on the grass and jumping off of the steps. They are enjoying balancing on the rocks and swinging on the swings and working on their cross lateral movement by running up the hills and crawling through the tunnels. When I asked them, what they liked about the new playground this is what a few of them said: Alex: “I like the big swing because we can push each other on it.”

Emily: “We can push high. We can push up to the moon.”

Sarvesh: “I like the climber. It’s like a spider web.

Every day I can climb at school and then I am happy.”

By: Trudy Vriend, K3 PE Teacher Inquirers Balanced

our New Playground

K1 Sharing the Planet Principled

Caring Reective

As part of our Sharing the Planet - living things unit of inquiry, our class has been very interested in plants. It all began with a provocation involving some branches with seed pods attached. This then moved into planting seeds and taking responsibility for caring for the plants growing in the garden. The children have been busy digging the earth in the garden, watering, creating soil and peat moss mixtures and observing closely the changes happening. We hope that we might even be able to eat some of what we manage to grow.

By: Rebecca Somerville, K1 Teacher

from Jeff Woodcock, GES Principal Great Changes in the GES Cafeteria Over the past month members of the GES Parent Advisory Council and Tamimi have been hard at work revamping the menu on offer and making other changes to the cafeteria experience. The focus of the menu changes has been on providing more options for students to choose from as well as looking at how salad and dessert items can be improved.

The changes have been met with great feedback from students, parents and teachers.

The new menu will be available soon on our school website tks.kaust.edu.sa but is already displayed in the cafeteria for students and parents to view. While there are many new dishes on the menu, there have been also many small changes that have been a big hit with students. The students now have access to a salad bar where they can make their own salad or choose from freshly prepared mixed salads. There are also now cut fruit and veggies for students to choose from.

The fruit salad cups have been very popular.

While the students have been enjoying the menu for a few weeks now, parents from the advisory council as well as a group of teachers also had a chance to taste some of the new dishes this week. This tasting session was organized by Tamimi to help gather feedback on these new options. A formal opportunity for feedback from our student council will take place in the next few weeks as well.

Perhaps the most popular change was the elimination of plastic water bottles to be replaced by reusable cups or students’ own water bottles.

Many thanks to members of our Parent Advisory Council, Tamimi, Lauratu Osu and Leona Kelly for their efforts in improving the cafeteria experience for our students.

G3 Arts Collaboration During their last unit of inquiry G3 were set a challenge by our visual arts teacher, Kristin Anson and our music teacher, Peter Diglin. Our teachers collaborated with each other to produce some wonderful multimedia presentations.

Using the iPads, our grade 3 students made “stop-motion” animations that expressed an emotion. They invented their own characters and planned out a plot using storyboards. Each movie could include upwards of 100 photographs and included techniques such as zooming in, pausing and fading out.

Alongside this artwork the students used “Garage Band” in their music lessons to compose and record their own soundtracks. They learnt how to express a change in mood through their music and mirror the action that was happening in their animated movie.

Although the finished products were only about 20 seconds long, they took many hours of work to produce, so here is a link to some examples. We hope you enjoy the movies. https://youtu.be/hUsX0H2pZss

Click here

Communicators Knowledgeable

By: Jon Davidson, PYP Coordinator

Inquirers

Humour Tunes.... and more Language Enrichment G3 students were recently struggling to engage with their unit on “How We Express Ourselves.”

Communicators

Inquirers Reflective

Their instructor Mrs. Rowell noticed a natural and persistent curiosity around the puppet theatre she had placed in her room (similar to the ones found in Kindergarten). The marriage of this curiosity to the question of how we express ourselves was made.

With little experience in puppetry or the production of a play, the students inquired into the make-up or elements of a script. The disruptions ended the moment the class broke into pairs and began writing their first puppet show. “The shift in engagement was startling”.

G3, and subsequently G4, have now produced over twenty unique and expressive puppets shows and are already debating their next step in telling stories.

(Titles include the Humor Tunes and The Magic Jungle)

By Daniel Speed for Language Enrichment with Ashley Rowell.

Learning in Islamic Studies for G2 and G3 The Islamic Department shared some student learning in an assembly. G2 sang the Honesty song which talks about how telling the truth affects all our lives. G3 learned about Islamic stories from the Quran, and the students used a simple program to show and present their learning in front of their peers.

By: Azhar Zafar, Elementary Islamic Studies Teacher

Communicatiors

Inquirers Balanced

Sharing the Planet G5 CM embarked on a challenge to show their parents what they learned through the PYP theme “Sharing the Planet.” The focus of the unit was on understanding the differences between renewable and nonrenewable resources and weighing the costs and benefits of each.

Their summative task was to debate the merits of three forms of renewable energy production; solar, water and wind. Each team represented one of the forms where they focused their research on the benefits of their energy resource and the costs of the other two sources. The goal was to show that their renewable resource had the least cost on the global community and environment. The citizens (their parents) from the fictional town of Poppyville were to pick which team was the most: scientific, persuasive and enthusiastic.

In combination with their Writer’s Workshop lessons which were focused on building skills in order to write a research based argument essay, the students prepared speeches about the merits of their team's energy production choice.

They also had to present the faults of the other two and then delivered them to the Poppyville community.

The result was a fiercely, yet fairly, contested debate that demonstrated the classes listening comprehension and public speaking abilities in argument and counterargument much to the delight of the people of Poppyville.

Thinkers Communicators

Reflective

From the Director Maybe you’ve signed up as a country captain for the Parade of Nations?

Or You have come to the Flag Pavilion to see the 10th Grade Personal Projects? Maybe you attended the cross-country meet last week, or the Talent Show? Or, if you are a G5 parent you attended the informational session on 5th Grade Exhibition? I know many of you attended the Partners for Learning Program on Wednesday Night and I thank you for coming.

These are the many wonderful happenings at TKS, and whatever your engagement level, we are delighted that so much is going on to support student learning and growth.

As you may recall, we targeted 4 Areas of Focus in our TKS Strategic Plan, and one of those areas is School Engagement.

We value engaging students, parents, alumni and community members as we seek to be the best school we can be.

Related to our aim to engage, is our ability to communicate well.

With effective communication in mind, before we re-designed our TKS website, we sought information from our PAC team members, our students and our teachers so that we could build in helpful features with all TKS constituents in mind.

The site has been revamped with a fresh look, and it contains relevant and up-to-date information in a vastly improved format: http://tks.kaust.edu.sa/ Family members can now click on a particular date in the live month-by-month calendar and view all the events happening on that day. http://tks.kaust.edu.sa/Calendar The new website gives students and parents easy access to the portal, school events, handbooks and The Wave, as well as access via Quick Links to the TKS Library, Calendar and the Activities Facebook page...and is still developing.

With many more events in store for us between now and the last day of school in June, I hope you will find the site helpful for planning and staying up to date and engaged.

For TKS events visit the Calendar page on our new website. http://tks.kaust.edu.sa/

from David Tigchelaar, GSS Principal Dear Parents, This month we issued the end-of semester reports. The upgrade of PowerSchool necessitated us to review our report layout.

We received many positive comments from parents on the new layout and the style of the report comments.

Our Annual Sports Day on 16 February, proceeded very smoothly. I was impressed with the organisation skills of the students who hosted this event together with the PHE department and grateful with the support of PAC parents and other parents with the preparation and serving of the lunch.

Our school is traditionally strong in the sport, both in terms of participation and in achievement. I’m pleased with the performance of our students in The Arts as well, including the Talent Show that took place this month as well as the new bi-weekly informal matinee on Wednesday in our school library.

We appreciate the parent interest in the school as evidenced in your participation in Partners for Learning on 22 February, and hope that the students enjoy themselves tonight at the Night School from 6 - 9 pm.

For International week we will organise a number of events, including ďŹ nger food prepared by students and parents but we will also dig a bit deeper into the topic of identity during the advisory sessions and of course we will all see each other at the Parade of Nations.

Wednesday Arts Matinee On Wednesday February 8 for the ďŹ rst time ever, the GSS Library hosted a Wednesday Arts Matinee. Students treated the audience to songs and instrumental numbers as well as presentations of their visual art pieces.

The Arts Matinee is a regular performance opportunity for all students to showcase their creativity. It can include pieces developed both inside and outside the classroom, across the performing and visual arts, from poetry to dance, painting to music. The setting and atmosphere are informal and anyone from any grade level can participate.

JOIN US! As a performer or in the audience: every other week, Wednesdays from 3.30-4 p.m. in the GSS Library. March Matinee: Wednesday March 8 and Wednesday March 22, 2017.

By: Claudia Kennedy, Drama teacher Caring Risk Taker Open-minded

Understanding Health in all its Facets Principled Reflective

Open-minded

Nineteen G6 English Acquisition students visited The Kaust Health Center for a guided tour of their facilities.

The students are currently studying a unit titled “What determines health?”

At the clinic, we were welcomed by Malissa Underwood, the school health coordinator, and Richline Wilson, the patient relations officer. We were taken on a tour of the clinic and had the opportunity to visit many areas and learn their functions. We began in the Rehab center, where the students learned about physical rehabilitation and had the opportunity to use many of the machines. We then moved to the Emergency Room and had a tour of an ambulance and learned the function of the equipment and in what cases they are used. Next, onto Radiology where we saw the CT machine and watched digital images of brain activity.

Finally, we visited the laboratories and saw the state-of-the-art equipment. The students had a chance to use the microscopes to look at blood samples and see the difference between red and white blood cells, and platelets. The students left with a Health Center gift bag.

Overall, the trip was a huge success. The students were engaged and interested and asked deep questions to further their knowledge and understanding. Thank you to Malissa Underwood for organizing the trip and to Richline Wilson for leading the tour.

Thank you to the members of the different departments for welcoming us and answering all our questions. Special thanks to Laura Howley, Lindsay Wright, Alison Mullens and Abdullah Alsemsemi for supervising the trip.

By Laura Howley

Talent Show TKS students gathered in the Discovery Square Theatre to present to the KAUST community a wealth and variety of performances at the annual GSS Secondary School Talent Show.

From lyrical ballads to rock and pop numbers, contemporary and hip-hop dance, solos, duets and instrumentalists – a wide range of pieces by performers across all the grade levels who played for a very appreciative audience.

An enjoyable and entertaining evening for all!

Communicators

Risk Taker Open-minded

Sports Day Sports day is an annual event that brings the student body together for collaborative activities. It creates an opportunity for people to bond together and work as a team. While additionally, showcasing people's ability to come together in order to achieve one goal thus, allowing us to realize the true power of teamwork.

While sports day is a collaborative activity, it also brings out the competitive nature of students. It is one of the most exciting things to see the unnerving energy of students come to life on the ďŹ eld. Therefore, showing the true shark spirit!

By: Lana AlSulaimani, G10 Student

Model United Nations hosted at KAUST The KAUST School recently hosted the High School Model United Nations. It was a wonderful experience where students from TKS and visiting schools came together representing different countries in different committees to solve real world problems occurring in the world today.

We had some unforgettable moments such as dealing with new American foreign policies and heated debates with fellow delegates.

We highly encourage all students to join this memorable event next year. It offers an opportunity to practice and develop communication, collaboration and critical thinking skills, to become better more aware global community members. The knowledge gained in MUN helps students understand current events and specifically recognize the complexity of modern society. Fundamental life skills required for success in the real world.

A huge thanks goes to Mrs. Kimberly Halverson and Mr. Aaron Thompson for guiding us all through the preparation for MUN along with the Secretary General Alice Kershaw, chairs, and other members of the MUN core team, for bringing this fruitful experience into reality.

By: Hanifa Mohammed G10, Hamza Mohammed G11

Model United Nations Udhayiliyah In January, ten TKS students traveled to Udhayiliyah school eager to debate their topics, which they had been preparing for a month. Each person was a delegate representing a country. We not only met up with our “allies” but also formed new friendships, making MUN one of the best experiences ever. We learned the MUN procedures and that MUN is not all about debating but rather negotiating to find a solution. At the end of our journey, all enjoyed their accomplishments and bringing back three TOP DISTINGUISHED DELEGATE awards. MUN is definitely an experience that we will remember.

By: Chelsea Lai, G8 Student

Risk Taker

Science News

Innovation Fair G9 students visited the KAUST Global IT Summit 2017 Innovation Fair during their science lesson on the 8th of February.

Students enjoyed interacting with representatives from Saudi Aramco, Siemens, Falconviz and the Red Sea Research Centre as part of the event.

By: Euan Riddell, Subject Team Leader for Science

Understanding Waste-water Management at KAUST DP Environmental Systems and Societies students (ESS) enjoyed a talk about KAUST waste-water management from Shahzad Ghauri and SuďŹ yan Khan.

The talk was extremely valuable to students who heard about real life examples of concepts they have learnt about as part of their studies.

Principled Reective

Open-minded

U14 Girls Football

The 2016-2017 KAUST Sharks U14 Girls Football season began just before winter break, and continued across five weeks of training in preparation for our upcoming tournament. With well over twenty players in the squad, including fifteen students from G6, there was plenty of energy and enthusiasm in training as we worked on goal-keeping, defending, passing, shooting and scoring goals.

Our tournament was the 2017 RSAC Girls Football Festival, held here at KAUST on Friday, February 3rd. On the day of the tournament we split the squad into two even teams: TKS White and TKS Blue, which were quickly nicknamed White Sharks and Blue Sharks by the players themselves.

Both teams had a deep substitute bench, reflecting the increased interest of students in participating in U14 Football this year!

The White and Blue Sharks both competed hard against older and more experienced Jeddah teams, including American International School of Jeddah (who won the tournament), British International School of Jeddah (who had two teams: Red and Blue), and Jeddah Prep and Grammar School.

All players tried their best and never gave up, impressing their coaches with their commitment to fair-play and positive football. The Blue Sharks came out on top 1-0 against the White Sharks in the local derby game featuring a goal from striker Rasha Badroun. A good time was had by all players and coaches. This enthusiasm for football has resulted in the creation of GSS Girls Football games being played three times a week after school, to maintain fitness and skills and in preparation for next year!

By Andrew Wright Photos by Andrew Wright, Scott Herrington