The Primary Update

Pre-K - Grade 1 December 5th, 2012

WELCOME PAGE

Community National Day Celebrations 2012 at JBS

National Day is very much a community day at JBS – and it was marvellous to be joined by so many parents and friends as we celebrated the 41st anniversary of the UAE on a beautiful sunny, but pleasantly cool morning. As soon as visiting parents took their pre-breakfast places around the tents pitched specially on the school field and the secondary students had settled on the cushions in front, our Pre-K students led the way to start the primary walk past, splendid in their National costume or distinctive red, green, white and black outfits. Then, as the younger children dispersed to take part in a series of activities, parents and older students enjoyed finding out more about the Emirates from our special guest speaker, Nasif, from the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding, as breakfast was served. His colleague Debbie gave an equally interesting talk to Primary School students in the gym before a fabulous display of traditional dancing from our primary girls.

Informative, fun and highly enjoyable – the morning got everyone in the right mood to celebrate National Day proper, three days later on December 2. Thank you so much to Khulood Al- Zarooni, and Mejd Al-Huraimel and their team of helper mums who gave so generously of their time and support to make this such a special day.

Andrew Homden,

Principal

Community National Day Celebration 2012 Photographs

PRE-K

Pre-K had our first outdoor assembly! The children were led through a series of movement to music dance routines. They had the opportunity to sing, move and dance with KG1 outside.

Following our very successful ‘face painting’ entry point the children were excited about our topic ‘Patterns’. They have been noticing patterns on clothes, in the classroom and in the playground!

The highlight of our week this week was the Pre-K Swimming Demonstration. The children were amazing in the pool and demonstrated much confidence in the water. They swam many widths of the pool, blew bubbles in the water and even jumped into the pool! The children really enjoyed being cheered on by so many supporters. Thank-you to parents, friends and classmates for supporting each of the groups. A big thank-you to Miss. Ailsa and Miss. Claire for all of their work in the pool and in the organization of the event. Thank-you also to Sharmaine (Joey’s Mum) for capturing the event so beautifully on camera and the PFA for supplying refreshments to the children on their return from the pool.

The week finished with our school celebration of UAE National Day. We were very proud of our Pre-K students, dressed in national dress and UAE colours, leading the whole school parade! Thank-you to all who contributed to the class breakfast. The children had a most enjoyable morning visiting activities and completing art activities!

KG1

KG1- Trip to Jumeira Beach Park

Last week KG1 went on their first trip to the beach. When the children arrived they were eager to take off their socks and shoes to feel the sand between their toes. Ms. Ailsa played some games with the children to warm them up and work up an appetite. It was then time to enjoy a snack on the mats. This was followed with each class building sand castles and seeing who could make the biggest. It was then time to put socks and shoes back on in order to walk across the bridge to the children’s playground. The children had a great day which finished with a wonderful singsong led by some of the mums. Thanks to everyone who came to the beach and helped out. It definitely was a successful first trip.

KG2 Last week KG2 enjoyed taking part in the UAE’s 41st National Day celebrations. They had great fun making Emirati flags to wave in the parade and had fun showing off their lovely traditional outfits during the parade. A special thanks to all our parents for the delicious food you supplied for our National Day breakfast J

To link in with our current IPC topic Toys the children designed and made some very interesting looking camel puppets.

GRADE 1

Grade One began their exciting new IPC topic ‘The Circus’ this month. The children had a fantastic entry point when Mr. Dropsy the clown stopped by to show them lots of exciting circus tricks. Mr. Dropsy preformed juggling acts, cycled a unicycle and even preformed magic tricks. The children dressed up as many different characters from the circus including clowns, ring masters, strong men and acrobats. Following the show the children attended a circus work shop where they learned how to juggle, walk on a tight rope, balance on a ball, use a Diablo and spin plates. Grade One are very excited to learn about the history of the circus, famous circus acts and learn about the various circus animals and the countries these animals come from.

JBS Diwali Workshop

On the evening of Thursday November 22, JBS children, parents and their teachers had the opportunity to find out more about the festival of Diwali, which is popularly celebrated throughout Dubai. Visitors were greeted in traditional fashion by a number of our families and then the children were given an opportunity to participate in a variety of activities, the highlight of which was learning how to make Rangoli patterns from highly coloured powder. Meanwhile the adults not only learned about the cultural background to Diwali, they were also treated to some delicious savouries and sweets! It was lovely to see the library decorated with the lights traditionally associated with the Festival of Lights, and I would like to thank the families who helped, particularly Rajiv & Kanchan. Vora, Preeti Bhatia, Zahabia Bengali, Pooja Kalla, Ms Shazia, Mr. Irshad and his team, who did so much to make the evening such a success.