What an awesome last of Grade 5! Transition day was pretty cool where the students got a sneak peek into Grade 6. Beach Day was incredible – thanks to all the parents and families who came out to help and contribute yummmy food for the day. I have uploaded an amazing album of kids jumping off the raft at DeepWater Bay. Check it out on the link to the right. Thursday was also full of excitement, with a Gr. 5/6 assembly in the morning followed by a rowdy and rocking final Gr. 5 party! The disco was happening.

I’d like to say a HUGE thank-you to all the families of the 5D DISCO. What a year! I was so happy to have spent the past year on a challenging and exciting learning journey with all the DJs. We really made Grade 5 a year to remember. The thoughtful class gifts are so perfect. It means a lot to me that you went out of your way to find things that are really meaningful to me. And useful! Practical gifts are my favorite kind You better believe I will make good use of the CamelBack and Dry Sac. I’m planning on a couple tough treks this summer, starting with a volcano in Lombok, Indonesia, and I’ll wear my new trail shoes! The iPod is also great for all occasions and every time I listen to tunes on it, I’ll think of you! Thank you DJs for being so wonderful. I will miss seeing you everyday.

This will be the last post of this blog. In the new year I will be starting another blog for the new Grade 5D. I have chosen to do this so that you may all check back here to remember all the cool things we did this year. It’s a bit of a digital scrapbook and it will remain here whenever you want to come and visit. You may unsubscribe to the updates if you’d like to, but since I will not be posting here anymore, you will not receive emails from the feedburner service anyways.

Have a happy and safe summer holiday! You deserve it.

Greetings Parents, Students and Caregivers,

We are planning to hold the 2011 CDNIS Grade 5/6 Sports Day on Tuesday April 12.  The staff and grade 5 and 6 students will be participating in a variety of athletic activities at the Stanley Ho Sports Complex in Sandy Bay.  We will be leaving the school at 8:00am and returning for dismissal at 2:30pm.

In preparation for the day, students will need to bring the following items:

• A healthy bagged lunch and snacks and healthy beverages.  No McDonald’s, etc…  Please.  There will be no school lunch provided on this day.
• A bottle(s) of water, which can be refilled at the sports ground. Please label the water bottle with the student’s name. Juice or gator/powerade type drinks are also fine. As part of our “Green” initiative, it is important students bring their own bottle.
• A hat and sun block.
• Students should have a healthy breakfast that day. It would be a good idea to bring a deck of cards to play with or a novel to read during lunch break.
• Dress in your CDNIS PE uniform complete with sports shoes. Bring extra appropriate clothing if the weather is cold or rainy.

Parents are welcome to come out and cheer you on.  Students will begin competing at approximately 8:45 at the sports-ground.

Sincerely, Mr. Steiner

Lower School Grade 4-6 Physical Education Teacher

Hello from Xijiang, Guizhou province! We are having an amazing time despite the cold and rainy weather

I wanted to give you a couple updates for the week ahead, which promises to be a busy one. I hope the DJs have been doing a good job of keeping you informed in my absence. There is something happening every single day this week!

1. No school Tuesday, April 5th for Ching Ming Festival.

2. Wednesday, April 6th we will be hosting a parent information session about Grade 5 camp. Please come to the library, 10th floor CDNIS at 6:30pm. The Grade 5 teachers as well as the outdoor & experiential education organization, DragonFly, will be there to tell you all about the exciting 3-day camp scheduled for May 11, 12, 13.

3. Thursday, April 7th is DiG DaY! We will be heading to South Bay Beach for a fun day in the sun and sand. Please make sure your child has packed appropriately.

4. Friday, April 8th is a professional development day for all teachers in Lower School and there are no classes. Student have the day off!

This year, we’re using VolunteerSpot, a new web service, to help us organize our upcoming Student Led Learning Reviews (SLLRs). Please click the link below to learn more and sign up for your time spot.

Please note: This is the ONLY way to sign up!

Dear Parents:

You will have already received an email from the School outlining the purpose and aims for Student Led Learning Reviews (SLLR) on 29 April.  Please be reminded this is an important learning experience for your child and that student and parent attendance is mandatory on this day. The first appointment may begin at 7:15 am (based on teacher availability) and the last will begin at 4:15 pm.  Each SLLR appointment has been allotted 30 minutes and a maximum of 3 students with their parents will be in the room at one time.  Time has been built into the schedule to allow for transit time. Your child’s homeroom teacher will send you a set of instructions along with a link to an online scheduling system, VolunteerSpot, for making an appointment. Please view the following tutorial outlining how to make your appointment once you receive the link for your child’s teacher:  Should you have any problems with the system please contact the Lower School Executive Secretary, Jean Lo. Priority for choosing an appointment will be given to parents with multiple children in the school.  The timeline is as follows:

Kind regards,

Dylan Hughes, Lower School Principal

Click here to view the embedded video.

Parenting in the Net Generation

The internet and associated electronics has changed the way people operate in their daily lives, from the work place to the home and everywhere in between.  Parents often struggle to make sense of their children’s relationship to cyberspace and are therefore posed with challenges in their parenting of their net generation sons and daughters.  In this presentation Dr Justin Grayer (Clinical Psychologist) and Ms Anuradha Mathur (Clinical Therapist) will discuss issues such as the advantages and disadvantages of cyberspace, including the over use of electronics, and will provide advice on how parents can speak to their children about developing a balance in their life.

Dr Justin Grayer, Clinical Psychologist, works with adolescents and adults on a range of issues including abuse and dependence (addiction), which has also begun to include cyber use.  He will apply his knowledge of the addictions field during the presentation.  Ms Anuradha Mathur, Clinical Therapist, works with children and adults providing guidance and counselling services. Among other issues, a large part of her work includes understanding and developing parent-child relationships as well as designing and implementing age appropriate behavior management programs for various situations. She will apply these skills in the context of safe cyber use during her presentation.

Date: 4th April, 2011
Venue: LLAC Lobby
Time: 7:00 to 8:30 pm
RSVP: Priya Bharwani – priya.bharwani@cispa.hk
Cost: $50/person

Dear Parents,
Your children will have the opportunity to participate in Festival of the Arts (FOA) activities very soon. Information on the FOA please click to fond out more information. I would especially like to highlight 3 opportunities for students:

1. Community Art – Our Kaleidoscope of Colour & Culture

Individual students may participate in Grades 1-6. See important submission criteria at the link below. Artwork is due in the LLAC between Friday 4 March and Friday 11 March. Students may only submit one piece of work for the exhibit.

2. Student Showcase Performances

Open to all students who audition and know their piece/act. Auditions will take place from 2:45 pm to 4:00 pm on Tuesday 8 March and Wednesday 9 March in the Alan Dick Forum. Audition/application forms are due in the 9/F main office by Friday 4 March.

3. Evening of the Arts Performances

All students may audition though this is a highly selective event.
Auditions – will take place at the same time and in the same location as Student Showcase auditions (8 and 9 March after school in the Forum). Application/audition forms due on Friday 4 March also.

I can’t wait to see our students in action!!

Dean Croy
Vice Principal, Lower School
deancroy@cdnis.edu.hk

Happy Lunar New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai! 新年快乐!

I hope that you had a restful and relaxing break with your family and friends.

Teachers are back to school today and tomorrow for 2 days of professional development PYP workshops. I’m already looking forward to seeing all the DJs and hearing stories about adventures and trips in our time apart.

I miss you guys!

For CNY I went to the San Francisco Bay Area to visit friends and see the beautiful campus of Stanford University. I will show travel pictures and share stories on Wednesday.

This battle is designed to improve your blogging expertise, challenge your writing skills, while constructing connections and community amongst CDNIS bloggers and Teacher Advisors. Through this process we will learn about each other, learn from each other and open doors to a broader community, making new friends and acquiring readers from around the world.

Check out the Better Blogging Battle blog site for lots more information, including signing up as an individual student blogger or a homeroom class blog!

Students will receive two tickets each from their classroom teacher this week.  Students requiring further tickets need to make their request directly from the LLAC box office, based on availability. Please return any tickets not needed to their classroom teacher. Students are to arrive at school no later than 6:00pm on the evening of our “Let’s Make It Happen” Celebration, Wednesday, January 12, 2011, going directly to their classroom. The dress requirements are black pants and a solid green top with minimal writing and/or images. Starting at 6:15pm, students will be seated in the LLAC with their teacher. Light refreshments will be served in the lobby of the LLAC for parents and guests starting at 6:00 – 6:25pm. The programme will begin promptly at 6:30 and finish approximately at 7:45pm. Buses will pick up in Admiralty at 5:45pm and leave the school after the celebration at approximately 8:00pm for Causeway Bay and Admiralty. A DVD of the celebration will be available in February purchased directly from the LLAC Box Office.

Recently, John D’Arcy and I co-hosted a CISPA parent information session about our new CDNIS Lower School blogs. New to CDNIS this year, a WordPress platform is being used by all classrooms, teachers, Grade 5/6 students, parents, administrators and specialist teachers. It has been a huge learning curve, setting up individual access points, interconnected and open to all participants, to form a massive collective community of learners. Now the entire Lower School community can access and participate within this virtual area for enhanced communication and sharing of learning, achievements and general school news. If you weren’t able to make it to the presentation, you can view my presentation PREZI file below and please feel free to ask your own questions here in the form of a comment. I look forward to hearing more from you!

Please check this schedule and make sure it is what you are expecting. If there is a mistake or a change that you’d like to make please email me as soon as possible. There are blank sessions which can be used if switches need to be made. A session with a dash in it means it is not available.

————————————-
Last year, the Lower School implemented a student-centered approach to assessment and a transition in the ways we report student achievement. As a means of supporting the development of parents’ understanding of our purpose and approach, a committee of teachers created a podcast which articulated the role of student, parent and teacher in the 3 Way Learning Review.

3 Way Learning Reviews are 20 minutes in length and provide an opportunity for all participants to discuss the strengths, areas for improvement and goals of the child. This open dialogue is crucial in the learning journey of your child.

Below you may watch the 3-minute podcast created last year to inform parents of the learning review process. Please note the dates on the last frame are from last year and could not be revised. This year, 3 Way Learning Reviews will be held on Friday, November 19 and Monday, November 22.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Kind regards,

Linda Parnsalu
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Season 2 Sports (Week of November 8, 2010 to Week of February 14, 2011)
Basketball: U12, U14, U16 and U20
Tennis: U12, U14, U16 and U20 (team will be divided up into Division A and Division B based upon skill level)
Golf: U12, U14, U16 and U20 (Golf Club and Golf Team)
Ball Hockey: U14, U16 and U20 aged students
Squash: U14, U16 and U20 aged students
Rugby: U16 boys
Touch: U16, U20 girls

Age category is based upon your child’s age as of Sept 1.  For example, If your child is 11 years old on Sept 1, then they will compete in the U12 Division.  If your child is 12  years old on Sept 1 then they will compete in the U14 age division.

Tryouts
All students in grade 4 to grade 12 are welcome to attend tryouts in their age category.  Tryouts dates and venues are listed in a chart is our classroom. Your child must attend all tryout sessions to be eligible. If you’d like a copy of the tryout schedule for detailed information on team tryout dates, times and venue, please email me and I will send it to you.

Your child must be prepared to make a commitment to the team and attend all practices and competitions.

From: CDNIS Athletics Department

Welcome back DJs and DJ parents! I hope that you had a marvelous and relaxing October Break. I went to Bali and the Gili Islands in Indonesia. I spent 3 days scuba diving with SHARKS! It was an amazing and thrilling adventure and some of the best scuba diving I’ve ever done in my entire life. I loved it!

The DJs are writing about their holidays as I type this, so if you’re interested in seeing what they all were up to over the break, then click on the DJ numbers on the right to see their posts. The DJs are also showing off more blogging skills by adding a picture and citing its source. Feel free to leave comments because we love, love, love the feedback

Here is a picture of the Island of Bali, where I was on my trip.

http://www.indonesia-tourism.com/bali/map/bali-map-high.png

A few updates & reminders:

1. Friday, October 29th we will be celebrating Halloween at school with a fun assembly, costume awards and a Grade 5 afternoon PARTY. I hope to see some creative costumes!

2. We made it to the finals in Grade 5 soccer intramurals. We will play vs. 5E on Tuesday, October 26th at lunch for the final prize of a free dress down day. The DJs have really pulled together as a team, supported each other and demonstrate cooperation and teamwork on the field. Way to go!

3. Monday, November 1st we will be going to ART JAM. All students have submitted their permission forms and I will be emailing parent volunteers with more information later today.

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It was wonderful to see so many supportive and enthusiastic parents on Tuesday night and we hope you enjoyed all the presentations and information we shared with you about the exciting year ahead in Gr. 5. We appreciate that you could manage it into your schedules!If for any reason you were unable to attend, then please look at the 5D presentation below and feel free to email me with concerns or questions. We did not give out any paper documents this year as an example of how we are taking our environmental responsibilities seriously and working towards paperless (or less paperful) lifestyles.