Director Update!

Something to Smile About

We all know that the past year hasn’t been the easiest. But as I write this, I hear happy children playing outside my office. I was in several classes this morning where eager students were happily engaging in a wide variety of learning experiences. Then I thought of the experience of so many of my friends and colleagues around the world whose schools have long been online with little sign of a return to in-person learning any time soon. Indeed, some were never able to open their doors. I fervently hope that the situation in Freetown allows us to continue to operate something like normal, and I am thankful for each week that we are able to complete together. Long may it continue!

24 Hill Cot Brow Hill Station Freetown, Sierra Leone

Phone: 076 622453

Website: www.ais-freetown.net

“Preparing Students for Success in an Ever -Changing World.”

Volume 20/21 Issue 018

February 5, 2021

Parent-Teacher Conferences

By now you will have received information about our upcoming virtual parent-teacher conferences and soon you will receive a message from your children’s teachers to link up on Google Meet. I encourage you all to make time for these meetings to hear personally from your children’s teachers and to ask questions about your child’s progress. We report to you about your children’s learning five times a year—three times in writing and twice through these conferences. Please do join us.

Thank You and a Request

I would like to thank those parents who have taken the time to complete our short strategic planning survey. If you haven’t completed the survey yet, please take a few minutes to do so by clicking on the following link: https://forms.gle/W4CpQwZZicoqMot97 .

Important Upcoming Dates

Tuesday 9th February Internet Safety Day

Tuesday 16th February Parent-Teacher Conferences begin

Wednesday 17th February Parent-Teacher Conferences (Virtual)

Thursday 18th February Sierra Leone Armed Forces Day (public holiday; school closed)

22nd—26th February Black History Week

Thursday 4th March World Book Day

Monday 8th March International Women’s Day (public holiday; school closed)

9th—11th March Women’s History Week

Quote of the Week: Do one thing every day that scares you. Eleanor Roosevelt

This week we celebrated book week by sharing our favorite stories and books with each other. We had both fictional and nonfictional books and our favorite non-fiction book is a history book about courageous women. We enjoyed reading the story of Harriet Tubman and we all agree that her bravery is remarkable. Our favorite fiction book is Fly __Guy, we think Fly Guy is hilarious and smart.

ECC

As part of our International Primary Curriculum unit on The Stories People Tell, Pangolins started hearing some Greek myths. Our art work was inspired by the boy who flew too close to the sun. In Math we began a unit on measurement and in Science continued learning about how light travels.

Grade 1

Icarus art work after Henri Matisse

Ordering things by length Sequencing a Greek myth

Chimpanzees class wrote and read us their own fairytales

We are on the last chapter of our epic Class Reader, Ickabog. A story about life, death and a friendly monster!

Grade 2-3

Putting the finishing touches to our non-chronological dinosaur reports.

Crocodiles all read aloud outside to the whole class as part of World Read Aloud Day on Wednesday

Welcome to our new Crocodile Luis!

Sharing our dinosaur reports which we have created as part of our Footprints in the Past Topic.

Playing build and defend!!

It has been a very active week for us. We learnt how to play Volleyball and Rounders in PE. Mr. Roach read us the original, somewhat grim, version of the fairytale Hansel and Gretel and we wrote and shared our own versions of fairytales to Pangolin Class.

Grade 4

In Social Studies, 5/6 wrapped up their lesson on Early Sumerians by creating real estate advertisements highlighting the many solutions the Sumerians came up with to solve their problems and how this led to the creation of city states. 7/8 concluded their lesson on the cultural influences of medieval Japan by writing letters to 'friends' in which they explained the differences between medieval Japanese culture to their own. In ELA, 5/6 learned about various forms of propaganda (name-calling, glittering generalities, endorsement) and then created their own slogans using these techniques. 7/8 practiced debating using evidence through a mini-debate discussing the effectiveness of same-sex education over coed education.

Grade 5-8

This week grades 7/8 learned about the circumference and area of a circle in Math. They conducted a hands on experiment to learn about the relationship between properties of waves in Science. Grades 5 and 6 learned about photosynthesis in Science. 5th grade multiplied multi digit numbers by decimals and 6th grade divided fractions by mixed numbers in Math.

The High School girls have been busy working online on their courses with Nebraska University Online High School. They have been submitting work and have been preparing for a bunch of upcoming Progress Tests. The two Fatmatas did five experiments in Science to complete a Lab report. Wednesday, February the 3rd was the World Read Aloud Day. We talked about why we read aloud and the class took turns reading the short story of the “Lamb to the Slaughter” by Roald Dahl. They liked the story and then they discussed it finding the main character “Guilty for …” but if you want to find out more, read the story! It is very catchy! In the end, the students came up with their answers about why we read aloud and created a poster. The High School students had Mr. Brian as a guest reader. He read aloud a fragment from the “Kubla Khan” epic poem where the message is suggested mostly by sound imageries. Thank you, Mr. Brian for this choice! On Thursday, in PE, the girls had fun playing dodgeball.

High School