23th January 2015
Dear ISHCMC Community, I hope that you have all had an enjoyable break. It’s wonderful to see everyone refreshed and energized ready for this new semester. Next Wednesday, 28th January at 9 am there will be a fire drill at ISHCMC with a difference. We regularly rehearse fire drills at the School to ensure that in the event of a fire everyone knows how to calmly leave the buildings and gather together as a school. We are also required by regulation on an annual basis, to do a drill with the local fire authorities and police. Therefore next Wednesday this will take place. The authorities will place a ‘smoke bomb’ on the roof of the Design Technology/Art building to make the exercise a little more realistic. The fire brigade will also attend and they will then put the ‘fire’ out with their fire truck hoses and also using the water mains at the School. The Tet holiday is just around the corner, and we have received reports of theft in the surrounding areas and on the main highway. This is a friendly reminder to everyone to take care and be extra vigilant during this time. Also, congratulations to Mr and Mrs Peterson that married during the holiday break. Students joined in the celebrations by sending cards full of well wishes that were decorated on their door as a surprise for when they returned home. To assist with traffic flow around the School, I encourage all parents to consider ‘carpooling’ or using the school bus services. If we could reduce the number of cars traveling to and from ISHCMC by 30 or 40 cars it would make a big difference to the traffic flow. I would be grateful also if parents could ask their drivers to be patient and thoughtful when driving to or from the School. One incident where a driver blocks the flow of traffic can mean congestion and long delays elsewhere.
Primary News Exploration through non-traditional methods We started off the new Semester by learning through play. With no predestined outcome, students are free to make their own explorations and connections. We have learned already that there are many ways in which to make a line and many materials to use to make that line. We began by reading the classic children’s book “Harold and the Purple Crayon” by Crockett Johnson. We agreed that crayons were very good at making lines, as were markers, pencils, and colored pencils. We then tried to make lines using other, non-traditional materials, including yarn, pipe cleaners, Q-Tips, paper towel rolls, plastic straws, chop sticks, Styrofoam pieces and bundles of raffia. By themselves, they don’t work, but if first dipped in paint, it is possible to create lines using those materials. Some materials worked better than others, so after discussing which items to use, students created a drawing using paint and found objects. We will combine all of these discoveries in a large-scale, collaborative piece. We started out by painting a one large sheet of paper per table of 3-5 children, covering up all of the white but being careful to not mix colors. The final step will be to use our non-traditional items to create lines and images in black paint. To Be Continued! Deborah Paul PYP Art Teacher