1

Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

1 2 3 National Holiday

4 G4 trip to Garbage Plant

5

6 7 8 9 10 G2 Field Trip to Seto

11 12

13 14 Parent Conferences (pm)

15 16 17 Mr. Natsume lecture

18 19

20 21 22 23 National Holiday

24 Thanksgiving Lunch

25 26 G1 Entrance Exam (For outside students)

27 28 29 30

December 2016

• Saturday 3rd … Hoshigaoka Terrace Concert • Thursday 7th … Christmas Concert Rehearsal • Friday 8th … AIS Christmas Concert 2016 • Friday 16th … Term 2 Last Day • Dec 19-23rd … Winter School • Dec 24-Jan 9th … School is closed

Dear AIS families and friends, October was a busy month at AIS. In the classroom, we looked at the topic of Grit, which is continuing to do your best, even when you experience failure or feel like quitting. This is a very important character strength for learning English, or any language in fact. In addition, we welcomed members from the Meito Police department to school to give a presentation on road safety and avoiding being kidnapped. Finally, at the end of the month, we held the annual AIS Halloween Party. It was wonderful seeing the teachers and students all dressed up in costume, and we hope that the students enjoyed playing the Halloween games. November is a similarly busy month with lots to look forward to. For parents, there is the opportunity to listen to a lecture about raising children who are globally minded in their thinking. We hope that it is interesting and helpful for the families of AIS. For the students, we have our annual Thanksgiving Lunch. We will send out further details about this in a letter. Since November is the time we celebrate Thanksgiving, our topic in the classroom will be Gratitude. We will take time to bring to mind people and situations that we are grateful for, and discuss different ways to show appreciation. Finally, November is the month of Parent Conferences for Term Two. We look forward to welcoming parents into school, from November 14-16th and taking time to appreciate each child as an individual, including their personality, strengths and areas for development. As November arrives, we hope that you enjoy the beautiful changes that the season brings, and we look forward to another month of partnership in your child’s education. Kind regards, Steve Morris Elementary Principal smorris@aisnagoya.net

The image cannot be displayed. Your computer may not have enough memory to open the image, or the image may have been corrupted. Restart your computer, and then open the file again. If the red x still appears, you may have to delete the image and then insert it again.

2

Grade One Dear Grade One Families, This has been quite an exciting month!! Students had a wonderful time on their field trip to Morikoro Park. I must say it was an awesome day filled with fun and laughter. They thoroughly enjoyed it. Last week Friday was Halloween Party and students had an amazing time! In October we started the theme Home Sweet Home which includes long vowel sounds, diagraphs sh, th, wh, ch, and tch words ending with –nd, -ng and –nk. For the month of November, students will identify rhyming words, study vowel pairs “ee, ea, ai and ay” and write poems. I think this will be quite exciting to see what they will write about in their poems. In Math, students will continue on the topic place value to 100 and will move into order/compare numbers. We will also identify even and odd numbers and use symbols to compare numbers. For Life lessons, students will study weather and seasons focusing on autumn. We are hoping to connect Life lessons with art activities depicting autumn. Thank you for your support and teamwork! Ms. Hunter

Grade Three Dear Grade 3 families, It is great to be here in Nagoya and become part of the teaching team at Aichi International. I am from Derby in the UK and have enjoyed being a teacher for three years. This is my first trip to Japan and I look forward to exploring it and learning more about traditions and cultures. I have already been made to feel very welcome by the staff and the happy children here. I look forward to getting to know my class and helping them progress with their English. Ms. Clarke

Grade Four Dear Grade 4 parents and students, We had a busy yet fruitful October. After participating in & visiting the Art Festival, students used their creativity in designing the classroom for the halloween party. We focused on talking about GRIT throughout the month, and hopefully, students would be able to strive through difficulties and try their best even in failures. As failure is NEVER the end of anything, it's only a process of learning. Starting in November, we will go into a new theme called "Problem Solver!" for English. We will start off by predicting outcomes and figuring out plenty of problem solving skills. For Science, we will start a new theme in Ecology and first look into matter and energy flow. Is saying "Good morning" that hard? I believe greeting others show respect. It is funny how some of the students need to be reminded in order to say "Good morning". I hope students would be able to have self-discipline and develop good characters, even when no one is around. E.g. Speak in English when it is not Japanese lessons and follow the instructions whenever necessary. Miss Li

Grade Six Dear Grade 6 Families. It was great seeing all the students in interesting costumes and I hope you all enjoyed this year's Halloween party! I think it was the best one since I've been here. Now it is time to focus on our Christmas concert, and the final stretch until the break. In English this month, we will start our debate project, where pairs of students will debate a topic, using their ability to express opinions, which we have been practicing throughout the year. In Math, there are a number of short units, some of which may involve a small project. In Social Studies, the students have a chance to become the teachers, and help the class learn about an aspect of ancient Egypt that they studied. I am looking forward to their presentations and activities. In PE, we will play American football, which will lead up to our Thanksgiving lunch, and hopefully a football game afterward. I am looking forward to connecting with you at the parent conferences coming up soon. Sincerely, Mr. Collett

Grade Five Dear Grade 5 parents and students, We had a busy yet fruitful October. After participating in & visiting the Art Festival, students used their creativity in designing the classroom for the halloween party. We focused on talking about GRIT throughout the month, and hopefully, students would be able to strive through difficulties and try their best even in failures. As failure is NEVER the end of anything, it's only a process of learning. Starting in November, we will go into a new theme called "Problem Solver!" for English. We will start off by predicting outcomes and figuring out plenty of problem solving skills. For Science, we will start a new theme in Ecology and first look into matter and energy flow. Is saying "Good morning" that hard? I believe greeting others show respect. It is funny how some of the students need to be reminded in order to say "Good morning". I hope students would be able to have self-discipline and develop good characters, even when no one is around. E.g. Speak in English when it is not Japanese lessons and follow the instructions whenever necessary. Miss Li

Grade Two Dear Grade Two Families, I hope you all had a pleasant October. We certainly were busy, what with our animal studies and Halloween party. I think the party was a lot of fun. I hope you all enjoyed it, too. This coming month, we will be paying taking a trip to the Children’s Craft Center in Seto. This will be a good chance for the kids to show off their creative abilities. I look forward to seeing their finished products. Academically, we will be continuing our animal studies in English. We will be studying physical science as it relates to our planet and solar system. In mathematics, we will be studying money calculations. We will also be practicing for the Christmas Musical. Busy, busy, busy! Let's not forget the best part: Thanksgiving Dinner! We will be having Turkey Day at AIS this month, so be ready to chow down! Sounds like a fun month in store for us all. I'm looking forward to it. I hope you are too. Sincerely, Mr. Meek

Elementary What an awesome Halloween party this past week!! It was great to see all the costumes and spend time with the students in a less formal setting. I was glad to see everyone that stopped by at drop off and enjoyed my duties at the bouncy house. There were many changes this year but with the kids help, we had amazing decorations that covered the halls and classroom. In PE this past month, we extended our knowledge of “football” named/styled games with the beginning of our Soccer unit. From learning the proper way to kick and dribble, to passing and shooting, we will continue to work on the fundamentals of the sport. We have also, to a lesser extent, started to scrimmage, discuss what it means to be on a team, and how to work out conflicts on the playing field. Each sport has its challenges and opportunities, but it is great to see the kids outside, playing a sport that they love, and getting better each day. In G4 and G5, we will start new units on time and temperature, as well as and units of measure. While there will be some commonality in the subject matter, both classes will be learning from class and age appropriate sources. For Art, we are going to do a Thanksgiving project and assist Mr. Wade in the painting and decorating creation of the backdrop of our upcoming Christmas holiday play. Mr. Richardson

Elementary Dear Parents, The students are hard at work learning the songs that they’ll be performing for the Christmas Concert. The first grade is doing a fantastic job learning their first Christmas song “It’s All True”. The second graders are doing a fine job choosing their class Christmas song. I am sure it is going to be a great one. The Third grade has shown great enthusiasm as they begin to prepare their Christmas skit. The forth and fifth graders are eagerly waiting to start getting ready for the coming events. They missed a few classes do to swimming, but have what it takes to exceed all expectations. Finally, the six graders; It’s their year and they have taken charge as I knew they would. It is going to be a truly incredible holiday season and they are going to be the reason why. I know every student looks forward to sharing their hard work with you. “One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” Bob Marley Mr. Wade