The American International School of Rotterdam
SHARK
Bulletin...
16.11.12.
From the Director “...This will be a great event for families to get holiday shopping done, taste great food from all over the world, enjoy beautiful music and fun shows.� Happy Friday everyone! I am sure that you have all seen the advertising for the Winter Wonder Fair that will be taking place in the AISR gymnasium next week. A big thank you to the PTSA for organizing the event. This will be a very big event for AISR. There will be more than fifty commercial vendors with a wide variety of fantastic good for sale. This will be a great event for families to get holiday shopping done, taste great food from all over the world, enjoy beautiful music and fun shows. While you have a look at the best of local and international shopping, your kids can enjoy games and crafts, and decorate their holiday cookies. We encourage you to join in the festivities and to invite your friends. We look forward to seeing you there. For more information please refer to our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/TheAISR and the Winter Wonder Fair Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/winterwonderfair
In other school news, we are in the process of repainting our school buses to reflect the new logo and school image. We hope you like the new design. One bus is done and the other two will be completed by the end of the month. We have a few more ideas in the works so you can look forward to few more pleasant surprises before the winter break and early in the new year. Thank you and have a great weekend! Neal Dilk neal.dilk@aisr.nl
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Elementary Principal’s Message “... For those of you who are new to this country, Sinterklaas may be a little ʻconfusingʼ. He is not Santa on his sleigh...” The next four weeks are busy and fun-packed for the Elementary school. We start the festivities off next week with the Thanksgiving Lunch, which will take place on Wednesday November 21. Here is the schedule for lunch and the short presentation of music: Date: Time: Place:
Wednesday, November 21, 2012 10:15 School Gym
An Explanation of the meaning of Thanksgiving will be given by Grade 5 students. All other Grades will provide some musical entertainment;
Entertainment Order
Dinner Schedule*
Pre-K 1 “Turkey Feathers” Pre-K 2 “Jumping Turkeys” K “Thanksgiving Song” Grade 1 “Harvest Time” JSR Students “Believe” Grade 2 “Hip Hop Turkey” Grade 3 “Thanksgiving” – Words written by Gr. 3 Grade 4 “What a wonderful world”
10:50 Pre-K & K 11:05 Grade 1 11:15 Grade 2 11:25 Grade 3 11:35 Grade 4 11:45 Grade 5 12:00 Grades 6 & 7 12:20 Grades 8, 9 & 10 12:45 Grades 11 & 12
*PLEASE NOTE THAT THESE TIMES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE Also on Wednesday November 21, a ‘Book Fair’ will take place in the Library between 10:00 and 4:00. The bookstore, Van Rossum from Amsterdam, will be here with a super selection of books for young and old. A percentage of the profits will go towards the AISR Library. Another date to remember is Friday November 30 from 8:15 to 9:15 Coffee, Croissants and Curriculum: This is for Elementary, Middle and High School, with a special focus on mathematics. The following week, the Dutch Sinterklaas will visit AISR. We look forward to welcoming him to AISR on Tuesday, December 4 between 1:15 and 2:15. Mr. Temminck and Ms. Benard have been very busy working with all the students to prepare the program for this occasion. For those of you, who are new to the country or are not familiar with this celebration, here is some information of the story behind this popular Dutch tradition. Thank you to Mr. Temminck for providing this information. http://sinterklaasjournaal.ntr.nl/ On Saturday November 17, Sinterklaas (Saint Nicholas) will arrive in the Netherlands.The event will be broadcast on T.V. During the weeks to follow, Sinterklaas and his helpers, Zwarte Pieten (Black Peters) will appear in many other cities and towns throughout The Netherlands. For those of you who are new to this country, Sinterklaas may be a little ‘confusing’. He is not Santa on his sleigh. They are related in a way, and they both come with nice presents in wintertime, but Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet have their own tradition in the Low Countries. When the weather is bleak and the wind howls, they come to see how we are doing. They love to reward those of us who have tried hard to do the good things. They like to make fun of things that didn’t go too well. They love to write about us in verses. They are one of the oldest traditions of Holland. Sinterklaas has been around since the 4th century and his helpers joined him on his journey through the ages. He has become a T.V. celebrity during the last 5 decades and of course the tradition has changed as we have. The essence of the tradition, how ever, still stands: In wintertime it is nice to share good moments around the fireplace. It is nice to give presents, as well as to receive them. And the chocolate and gingerbread delicacies, who doesn’t like them? Schoenzetten is a tradition that may confuse our children here. Lots of Dutch children start setting their shoe by the heater, or by the door as soon as Sinterklaas has arrived in Holland. They put their shoe, sing a Sinterklaas song and leave a carrot, or something else for the horse with it. The next day they hope to find a candy or small present in it. They may also find a note telling them they didn’t clean up their toys! Any way, some kids will come to school showing off their present, while other kids didn’t get anything. Please be aware of this. Then on Thursday, December 6, the annual traditional “Tree Lighting Ceremony” will take place in the cafeteria at approximately 2:40. The students will sing a couple of traditional songs. Then, after a countdown, the outside tree lights will be turned on. And that’s it for now - details about the Winter Performance will be in the next Shark. Have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend and I look forward to seeing many of you at the Thanksgiving lunch. Sincerely,
Anne-Marie Blitz anne-marie.blitz@aisr.nl
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Secondary Principal’s Message
“...Congratulations to our Shark athletes for their recent performance at NECIS.” Dear Parents, I have enjoyed catching up with many of you over the past few weeks. I am adjusting to being back and am settling into routines. Thank you for your patience and support during this transitional period. Congratulations to our Shark athletes for their recent performance at NECIS. As always, the Sharks prove that even though we are a small school, we are able to compete on a large scale! Thanks to those parents who were able to be there to cheer on our athletes. Are you wondering how your child is doing in class? Please remember to check PowerSchool for updates on grades. We are also using Google for various applications and continuing to learn about ways to maximize such tools. Please take note of the change in the posting date of Progress Comments. Progress comments from teachers will be available on PowerSchool from Wednesday, November 21st. These are general overall comments provided mid-way through a given quarter. This is a good time to check in and see how your child is performing in classes. The first Coffee, Croissants and Curriculum session is next Friday, November 30th. The topic is Elementary and Secondary Curriculum with a focus on Literacy and Mathematics. Please let me know if you plan to attend. If you would like the results from your child's recent MAP testing (and previous sessions if you were here last year), please contact Phil Krumrei (phil.krumrei@aisr.nl) and he will share them with you. Please note the following upcoming events: November 20: High School Play November 21: Thanksgiving Luncheon from November 21: Overall Progress Comments available on PowerSchool November 26: All School COR Assembly (Parents are welcome) November 30th: Coffee, Croissants and Curriculum Swimming and Basketball seasons have started As always, if you do have a question/concern/issue, please start by talking to your child's teacher. If the issue remains unresolved, please bring any secondary or curriculum-related issues to my attention and continue to bring IB-related issues to the attention of Mrs. Marga Akerboom. Thank you for your continued support. Kind regards,
Alison Lipp alison.lipp@aisr.nl
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General Notices... Read to Grow - C.A.S. The Read to Grow Crew packing books for CAS. These books will be sent all over the world to help children and adults learn. Keep sending in your contributions! 20 boxes have been taken away already. Let's make that another 40 boxes before November 30! We stand a chance of winning the prize again this year for the most books collected.
Lynda Boot
“Like Us On Facebook, follow us on Twitter, pin us with Pinterest...� If you have not done so yet - please come to the page by reading the QR code on the right with you smart phone or visit; http://www.facebook.com/TheAISR You can also follow us on Twitter @ https://twitter.com/theaisrshark You can pin us on Pinterest @ http://pinterest.com/theaisrshark/
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