Here are a few reminders for parents and students:

• Most activities run from 1.55pm to 2.40pm. Please be on time to collect your child from their activity.
• Make sure your child has everything they need for their activity – PE kit for sports activities etc
• Pack extra snacks and drinks as activity days can be long!

The schedule for activities is available in the right hand column of this website. Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns at ncook@istafrica.com

The first session of activities is drawing to a close and already it time to sign up for the second session!

At IST we base our program on a similar tenet to that of the secondary school in their CAS program (Creative, Action, Service). We loosely interpret these into Creativity (Arts, Music, Languages), Sport and Community Service and encourage students to choose a mix of these.
Students in Grade 1-2 can choose a maximum of two activities and two reserve activities. Students in Grade 3, 4 and 5 can choose three activities and two reserve activities. Due to the longer school day it has been decided that there will no activities fort Kindergarden for this academic year.

Things to consider when choosing activities:

Include your child in the decision making – they are the ones who have to attend the activity and there will be no changing of activities!

Children are encouraged to choose activities from different areas (eg, One Creativity, One Sport, One Community Service).

Grade 5 students must to take at least one community service activity during the course of the year.

Sign up for Activities!

You will need your log in and password information to complete this process.

All parents in Grade 1 to 5 will be sent an email containing this information. Your child’s class teacher also has a record of this for your reference – please see them first for username and password enquiries.

Important Dates to Remember

• Monday 5th December – Online Activity Sign Up Opens
• Monday 12th December – Online Activity Sign Up Closes
• Week beginning Monday 9th January – Parents receive confirmed activity choices
• Monday 23rd January – Semester 2 activities start

Neil Cook
After School Activities Coordinator (ncook@istafrica.com)

Welcome back to IST and a warm karibu to all of our new students and families. At IST we offer a wide range of activities to try and encourage your child to reach their full potential in whatever area they may choose. As part of the PYP philosophy we feel it is very important to make our learners as well-rounded as they can be. This will prepare them for lifelong activity and will support them when facing new challenges.

We base our program on a similar tenet to that of the secondary school in their CAS program, which stands for Creative, Action and Service. We loosely interpret these into Creativity (Arts, Music, Languages). Sports and Community Service and encourage students to choose a mix of these. This term we will be offering close to 50 different activities, which is extensive for any elementary school.

Students from grade 1-2 can choose a maximum of two activities while grade 3-5 can choose up to three. Grade 5 students, to prepare them for the CAS program at high school and to put back into the wider community, are required to do at least one term of a community service activity over the course of the year.

Letters are going out next week with your child’s individual username and password for making your activity application online. Please keep these details safe as they will be used again later in the year to make further selections. The selection window should be up and running by Monday the 29th of August and will be closed by the end of Friday the 2nd of September. New students will get instructions that will take them through the process step-by-step. We understand that not everyone has internet access so we will be offering the computer lab and classroom computers to those who need them on the mornings before school to register.

Term one activities will start on Monday the 5th of September and will run through until the 2nd of December. I look forward to an action-packed year full of fun and learning across the After-School Activities Program.

Sincerely,
Julie Strait
After School Activities Coordinator

The swimming times remain the same with EC-Kindergarten from 11-11:45, G1-2 11:45-12:30 and G 3-5 from 12:30-1:15.

Lets spread the word and get as many kids down to share the fun!

Our IST students try to help out the best they can by helping with feeding the young babies, dressing the younger children or playing games with some of the older ones. The also offer emotional support by hugging them or just trying to make them laugh. They get back to school a bit later than everyone else but are real troopers and are fantastic representatives of our community service program. They all deserve a big pat on the back for their caring attitudes and commitment to making our community a better place.

We are the book worms who have been filling our Monday afternoons with fabulous books by different authors. We take a look at different authors from different countries every 1-2 weeks. One of the authors we’ve enjoyed is Helen Lester. Some of her books that we’ve enjoyed are “Hooway for Wodney Wat” and “Tacky the Penguin”. The following author we looked at was Dr. Seuss. He writes funny books in rhyme form about weird creatures. “The Lorax” and “Yertle the Turtle” made the top of our list. The last 2 authors we’ve looked at are Emily Gravett and Mem Fox. Ms. Ellen always reads us a story first. We then do a fun activity which ties in with the story. The rest of the time, we read more books or look up the author on the internet. Some authors have great informative websites that show you their books and have cool games and activities that we can play on the smart board.

If you’re interested, you can check out the following websites:
www.seusville.com
www.memfox.com
www.helenlester.com
www.emilygravett.com

You can also check out books by these authors from the school library! We highly recommend them!

Enjoy reading!

The Author Maniacs

This week we will have a look at what happens in Acrobat Gymnastics

This activity is all about exploring some of the amazing things our bodies can do. So far this term we have looked at traveling, balancing and rolling. We have traveled in different shapes, at different levels and in different ways, such as galloping, skipping and sliding. We have done balancing as individuals on a range of different points, like a 3-point balance of a knee, an elbow and a head, and as groups, where we use our partners to find balance. We have just started rolling where we move around over different body parts in forwards, backwards and side-to-side directions.

Later on we will be looking at jumping along surfaces and using apparatus to get height and distance. Then we will start learning ways of linking moves together to produce a sequence that we can hopefully present to parents at the end of term.

The students in this activity are very enthusiastic and are always keen to try new challenges. Mr  Mac and Miss Fenton want to thank them all for their hard work so far and encourage them to keep it up.

A few notes to remember -

• Please make sure you know where you are going and where and when you need to be picked up by. The activity leaders have got plenty of work to do and cannot wait around for a student to be picked up. A good idea is to have your linkbook with you with your contact details, in case parents need to be called. This applies especially to those students who go off-campus for their activity.

• You cannot change an activity once it has started so stick with the ones you have chosen and be a principled and committed participant.

Keep up the good work!

Click here to schedule your activities!

Mr. Mac
IST ES Activities Coordinator

We base our program on a similar tenet to that of the secondary school in their CAS program, which stands for Creative, Action and Service. We loosely interpret these into Creativity (Arts, Music, Languages), Sports and Community Service and encourage students to choose a mix of these. This term we will be offering close to 60 different activities, which is extensive for any elementary school.

Students from grade 1-2 can choose a maximum of two activities while grade 3-5 can choose up to three. Grade 5 students, to prepare them for the CAS program at high school and to put back into the wider community, are required to do at least one term of a community service activity over the course of the year.

Letters are going out this week with your child’s individual username and password for making your activity application online. Please keep these details safe as they will be used again later in the year to make further selections. The selection window should be up and running by Monday the 16th of August and will be closed by the end of Friday the 20th. New students will get instructions that will take them through the process step-by-step. We understand that not everyone has internet access so we will be offering the computer lab and classroom computers to those who need them on the mornings before school to register.

Term one activities will start on Monday the 30th of August and will run through until the 3rd of December. I look forward to an action-packed year full of fun and learning across the After-School Activities Program.

Mr Mac
Elementary Activities Coordinator