DAAPA Annual Winter Carnival 🍭

Dear Parents,

The Winter Carnival is fast approaching and we are very excited to see all of the students having fun at our winter wonderland.  As always, there will be a photo opportunity to capture the spirit o the season.  

This year the photos will feature the children in an amazing candy house.  The cost of photo with card matt is AED 15.  If you wish to order a picture of your child and his/her friends, please return the green form sent home in your child's take home folder along with exact change to your classroom teacher by Wednesday, December 8th.  

We would love volunteers to help at the Carnival.  If you can spare an hour or two the week of December 11th,  please shoot us an email at Nadia.p.sheikh@gmail.com or n.elahalbi79@gmail.com, we will be happy to give you all the details. 

Your DAAPA Winter Carnival Committee

The Hour of Code is Coming!

The Hour of Code-Anybody Can Learn!

Primary and Elementary School are kicking off the International Hour of Code with an after school activity on Sunday, December 4, from 3:00-4:00 pm. 

Parents are welcome to come and join the student coders.  This activity will be for students in grades 3, 4, and 5. Please note there is a limit of 25 students total, so please make sure to sign up quickly if you are interested.

Please sign up with this Hour of Code form.

Why is coding so important?

"We live in a world surrounded by technology. And we know that whatever field our students choose to go into as adults, their ability to succeed will increasingly hinge on understanding how technology works.  Every student should have the opportunity to learn computer science. It helps nurture problem-solving skills, logic and creativity. By starting early, students will have a foundation for success in any 21st-century career path."

Source: code.org

News from the Library

Dear Parents,

The library will be getting new carpet over the winter break. This means the library will be closed to the DAA community as of December 4th. Library lessons will be held in the classrooms during this time; however, students will not be able to check out books. Please feel free to come to the library this week to check out books to read in December, but please remember to keep them in a safe place at home, and not to take library books with you when you travel. We will reopen the library as soon as possible in the new year.

Kind regards,

DAA PS/ES Library Staff

UAE Day

Tuesday, November 29th is our day to celebrate the UAE!

The ES will proudly celebrate UAE Day on November 29th. Students are encouraged to come to school dressed in UAE national dress or they may wear the colors of the UAE flag (red, white, green, black). The day will also be celebrated with a number of special activities, including a variety of classroom and recess activities and a school assembly. 

Maker Day

On November 22nd, ES students will be participating in their first Maker Day of the year. This Maker Day is inspired by the Rube Goldberg Machine Challenge. A Rube Goldberg Machine is a contraption that uses chain reactions to perform a simple task. Examples include moving a ball into a cup, ringing a bell, and turning on a light. (Here's a complex, yet inspiring example that we'll watch in class next week: Ok, Go video)

This will be a very exciting day for students, but we need your help!

In conjunction with the Maker Day, we will host a “Beautiful Junk” Drive. Students are asked to bring in old “junk” that can be used for creating, making, and tinkering. A list of materials is provided here. Please note, any materials brought in will not be returned. Students will use these materials to create Rube Goldberg Machines and any left-overs will be used in future Maker Days, MakerSpaces, and class projects.

Please send in materials by Monday, November 21st.

Thanks so much for your fantastic support! It's going to be an innovative, creative, and thrilling day!

Mark your calendars...

UN Day Festivities

As we celebrated UN Day today, there was no shortage of colors, smiles, cheers, and movement! 

Students proudly walked with their country in our Parade of Nations, then we gathered to form a human friendship bracelet, holding up "beads," so a picture could be taken from above. (We are excited to see it soon!) Then, we enjoyed a creative assembly put in by Student Council, which kept us laughing as we learned more about countries of the world. When students viewed this video, which featured all of the countries represented in the Elementary School, the loud cheers and clapping was a great indication of just how patriotic our students are...and how happy they are to be part of such a diverse student body. 

In the classroom, students wrote messages of friendship on their "beads" (balls). We are curious to see how they will be used in an artistic display in the lobby sometime soon. We also viewed this fun video, called Tour the World, and again, there was no shortage of enthusiasm. 

I tried my best to capture our day of international fun through these pictures, so I hope you'll enjoy them. I always just love seeing our students dressed up in their national costumes. Somehow, it always makes me emotional. 

On that note, I think it's safe to say that we all feel so grateful to be part of such a dynamic international community here in Dubai and at our special school, Dubai American Academy, in particular, where children not only accept each other's difference, but truly embrace and celebrate them. We know that this makes us a rare jewel in a world that seems to be facing increasing division and challenges. We hope that our students will be among those ones to make a lasting difference in the years to come. ❤️

Here are just a few pictures from our fun, but be sure to check out the link above with all the rest! 

A few items...

Learning is in full swing as we have now wrapped up our first reading, writing, and science units. Our class has worked very hard in the last few days as they've written assessments, done "on demand" writing, and have shown me what they have learned in these units. I'm very proud of them. Well done!

As we enter this new week, please be sure to check out our latest "Assignment Sheet and News," which now looks slightly different. In an effort to save time, I've put two weeks worth of lessons onto one document. I'm hoping that it'll reduce the time I work during the evening and weekends and it will also give you an even farther look ahead into what your child is learning. Our lessons may change slightly, but we are very good at adapting and being flexible. If anything major changes, I'll be sure to let you know. Not to worry.

Thursday will be an important day at DAA. Please take note of the following:

Thursday, November 10th, will be United Nations Day in the Elementary School. The ES UN Day is an opportunity for us to celebrate our cultural diversity at DAA, something we are truly proud of!  ES students may come dressed in their country’s traditional dress or the colors of their country's flag.  The morning will begin with a Parade of Nations (similar to the parade that starts the Olympic Games) around the track. All children from grades 3-5 will be walking in the parade in groups with other children from their same country. Parents are invited to join us on the main field between 8:05-8:30 am to watch the Parade of Nations. We ask that you please stand on the inside of the track to watch. Hope to see you all there cheering on the many United Nations of DAA! 

Pictures!

To see some fun pictures of our mini-golf field trip and our fall costume parade and class party, please click here and you'll find both links under October. I hope you enjoy the memories!

IT News

Please click here to learn more about the great things your child is learning in IT with Ms. Claire.