Page 1 - SN October - Grade 1

OCTOBER 2015 GRADE 1

Specialist
Newsletter

FROM LOWER SCHOOL PRINCIPAL

Dear Lower School Parents, ences in the coming weeks.

Welcome to our first edition of the Specialist Newsletters! I look forward to seeing you all here for
Parent/Teacher conferences on Decem-
Our Specialists Teachers (also referred as single-subject teachers) play ber 1.
an integral and important role in the Primary Years Program. The arts,
physical education, and language study are essential elements to a com- Sincerely,
prehensive and holistic primary school education. The content of these
subjects is transdisciplinary in nature, meaning that the skills and con- Brian H. Lettinga
cepts developed by Specialist Teachers have relevance throughout the
Lower School curriculum, including our students’ lives beyond school. Lower School Principal
Our Specialists Teachers work alongside our classroom teachers to de-
velop lessons that are both interesting and connected to the classroom
Units of Inquiry. An example of this ‘connecting’ might be a recent
field trip or other learning experience here on campus or at home when
students identify ‘connections’ between subjects. Recent examples this
year have been our grade level field trips, current school-wide service
projects with support for refugees here in Belgrade, and our newly re-
designed grade five class trip.

For this reason, we think it is important that we keep our parents in-
formed about the teaching and learning taking place in our specialists
classrooms. You will receive the specialist newsletter six times during
the school year. This is the first edition of the newsletters for this
school year. As always, if you have any questions about your child’s
education, feel free to contact us. Be sure to schedule individual confer-
ences with all teachers during parent conferences on December 1. We
will also have additional conference times for parents and teachers of
specials on Wednesday, December 2 from 8:20-12:00. I will be sending
an email to all parents with directions on how to sign-up for confer-