Students in our 'Digital Landscapes' after-school activity, facilitated by Ms. Leslie and Ms. Fatima, have been getting creative with their landscape constructions.

Beginning Monday, 25 September, we will begin our swimming unit during our Primary PE lessons. Students will participate in swimming during both of their PE lessons each week (one for ELC) from 25 September until 15 December for a total of ten weeks of swimming. Please make sure your child has his/her complete swim kit for each swimming lesson. A complete swim kit includes a swimming suit (one-piece for girls), a towel, flip-flops/Crocs for the poolside, and goggles (optional). If your child chooses to bring goggles, please make sure that he/she is going to wear them as they tend to be misplaced easily if not worn. Please remember to put sunscreen on your child in the morning. For any additional questions, please see Kate Luwisha, our Primary PE Teacher.

On 7-8 September, our upper Primary students had an opportunity to work with students from the John Mackenzie School in Botswana as part of a music exchange during their performing arts lessons. On Friday, all of Primary had the opportunity to see a performance from the students during a PALS assembly. Using instruments, voice and movement, the students from the John Mackenzie school captivated the audience with their beautiful music and storytelling.

Last week, the Grade 4 students in Ms. Bicknell's class wrote a number of letters to the Primary Principal asking for Boy Scouts to be part of AISL's activity offerings in the same way we offer Girl Scouts. Any parents who think they might be interested in volunteering to put this student initiative into action are asked to please contact Darlene Huson, the Primary Principal, to set up a meeting to discuss in more detail. (photo: www.etsy.com/market/boy_scout_fabric)

On Thursday and Friday, 7-8 September, our Grade 4 and 5 students will engage in collaborative music projects with students from the John Mackenzie school in Botswana. To provide some background, Simon Kalomo, a Zambian music teacher who taught at ISL for many years, is now based in Botswana and teaches music at the John Mackenzie School in Francistown. Simon has created a music ensemble called the JMS ensemble with upper primary and high school students at his school. The ensemble is a combination of voice, marimba, and western instruments. The ensemble has performed at AISL during the music camp week in 2015 and were a hit! Simon has organised a week long residential trip for the students in Lusaka. From the 2nd to the 9th of September, the group will tour and have concerts at schools in Lusaka. They will be at AISL on the 7th and 8th of September working with our Grade 4 and 5 students for one lesson each. They will spend the rest of their time with the middle and high school music students. The whole primary school will get a chance to see them perform at PALS on Friday the 8th and then the JMS ensemble will have a public performance in front of the PAC next to the Friday Market from 1:30-2:30. All families are welcome to grab a picnic blanket and some lunch and join us for some amazing music! 

It has been a smooth start to the school year with wonderful learning happening in all classes across the school. As we finish off our second week of school, please make note of the following:

• Primary Open Day will take place on Wednesday, 23 August from 7h25-12h20. Please save the date. More information and a detailed scheduled have been posted separately in this week's Leopard's Tale.
• For parents who are traveling out of the country, we kindly request you to inform the Primary Office and your child's classroom teacher of any arrangements while you are away. If a relative or other guardian will be looking after your child, we ask that you provide us with the contact details for that person so that we can be in touch with someone during your absence if need be.
• For any returning families who have not picked up their yearbook from last year, you will be able to collect your copy in the main reception office.
• After School Activities begin on Monday, August 21st  and end the week of December 8th. Activities run from 14h40-15h40. Student will be walked to the Primary Waiting Hut at the end of the activity by their activity teacher. Parents are kindly requested to pick their child up there. Students attending an activity at 15h40 who are not attending an activity at 14h40 are to be supervised in the library until the start time of their activity. 

On Wednesday, 23 August, the AISL Primary School will be having their annual Open Day. From 7h25-12h20, parents (G1-G5) are welcome to visit the campus, observe their child's classes, and attend a variety of information sessions. To provide the smoothest school day for our youngest learners, families with children in ELC and Kindergarten are invited to attend the information sessions only and requested not to attend classes. Below is a schedule of the different information sessions offered throughout the morning. We encourage all parents to attend the grade-level information sessions for each of their children in the Primary school as these will be opportunities to learn more about the program for the coming year. Additionally, there will be information sessions that will focus on our specialist classes, our student support team, an introduction to MAP testing (G2-10), and an introduction to SeeSaw. We look forward to seeing many families on this special day. If you have any further questions, please see your child's classroom teacher or Ms. Huson, the Primary Principal. We will be happy to help you in any way we can.

Thank you to all the parents that could attend the "Introduction to the PYP" presentation this morning. Attached is the presentation that was shared, both in view and PDF download format.

Please contact Christine Kelly, Primary Assistant Principal: Teaching and Learning, PYP Coordinator (ckelly@aislusaka.org) if you have any questions or comments.

Dear Primary Families,

It has been wonderful to see so many familiar faces back at school for another great year. I also want to extend a very warm welcome to all of our new families and, in some cases, families returning back to AISL after a few years away. We have a few notes/reminders to consider in the coming days:

• For returning families who did not collect their yearbook last June, please pass by the Primary office to pick up a copy for each of your children.
• Please remember that your child needs to wear a hat each day during outdoor play and to bring a water bottle. Please label your child's school items so that if they are misplaced, we can return them.
• If your child will be eating a hot lunch from the tuck shop (G1-G5), please pass by the tuck shop to purchase a booklet of vouchers. The booklets are K100 and include 4 x K25 vouchers. For many children, this will cover the cost of hot lunch for the week. For students in G3-G5, there is also the option to purchase a snack at mid-morning break. If that is the case, there are voucher booklets available with different denominations to cover the cost of small snack items.

One final announcement: Our Grade 3 team is collecting large cardboard boxes as part of a fundraiser for APTERS. If you have large cardboard boxes, please bring them directly to the Grade 3 veranda over the coming weeks. The more boxes we have, the bigger the tunnel we can build!

All of our Primary students had a chance to showcase their athletic talents, sportsmanship, and enjoyment of games as part of our two sports' days over the last week. Thank you to Ms. Kate Luwisha and Coach Brian for organising two wonderful events. It was lovely to see so many families present to support our students.

Students in the primary school wrote poems and students in the Grade 10 Visual Arts class illustrated them. Below are the winning designs that will be displayed around the primary pond, hopefully before the end of the school year.

We are proud of the students for the care they put into their writing and illustrations. Participation in this joint primary/secondary project was not required, rather students voluntarily shared their creativity to add beauty to our school campus.  We hope you will take a moment to stop by the pond and view this collaborative artwork.

Well done to our kindergarten students this morning as they shared their creative talents through storytelling, creative writing, painting, drawing, dancing, and singing. Their interpretation of The Lorax was original, with each child contributing to the story in multiple ways. We also had an opportunity to recognise their transition from ELC to Grade 1 by giving each of them a certificate. Thank you to our kindergarten teachers, Ms. Diana and Ms. Claire, as well to Ms. Natalie for making this morning a special one. Thank you to our families who were able to stay for the end-of-year celebration, marking an important moment in our kindergarteners' school journey. Below are some highlights from the morning captured by Ms. Claire.

This afternoon, the Primary school had their farewell assembly as part of their final PALS for the 2016-2017 school year. We began by celebrating our June and July birthdays followed by a wonderful dance performed by our Primary ASA Dance club. We had an opportunity to recognise the hard work of the students who participated in this year's Math Olympiad, some of whom performed in the top 50 percentile or higher compared to other students around the globe. We sadly said farewell to our students and teachers who are moving on to new places next year knowing that they have all left their footprint here at AISL. The Grade 4 and 5 choir closed our assembly with a beautiful song as part of our farewell...or should we say, 'see you soon'.