Our Primary Student Council has been organizing our upcoming Kindness Week starting Monday, 18 February. The students have decided on different activities that will be happening during the week:

​Monday: "Dreaming Of Kindness" (Pajama dress-up day)
Tuesday: Class Activities
Wednesday: Class Buddy Exchanges
Thursday: Buddy Bench Launch in the Primary Playground
Friday: "Crazy for Kindness" (Crazy clothes/hair dress-up day)
Throughout the week: Random Acts of Kindness everyday 

Please celebrate and encourage kindness at home! Thank you for your support.

Our G4 students shared some very powerful messages with us during their Performing Arts Assembly last Friday. Through student action, creative expression, and collaboration, the students shared their innovative ideas for solving concerns around the globe. They had to apply their learning from their 'How we organize ourselves' and 'Sharing the planet' units of inquiry to devise a possible solution for the future, using their knowledge of dance from around the world. Thank you to Ms. Hausman, Ms. Natalie, and our three 'investors' for making this assembly possible. We appreciated having all of the families there to support our students.

The ELC was ablaze with colour and activity on Thursday 31 January as the students celebrated the Chinese and Korean Lunar New Year. The morning began with a Korean writing demonstration of student names. Then students heard a reading of the legend of Nian, a monster that lives under the sea or in the mountains (Nian means "year" or "new year"). A grandparent joined the festivities, writing many Chinese New Years phrases for the ELC to display, as well as writing a 'Fu' character for each student. The highlight for many students was the dragon dance performance for their kindergarten friends. After this entertainment, parents demonstrated how to make dumplings, followed by a delicious dumpling tasting. 

The lunar new year is a particularly significant celebration in the ELC since almost a quarter of our early years' students are Chinese or Korean. The school enjoys celebrating the cultural diversity of students to foster an awareness and respect for different cultures. The teachers were very thankful for all the parents that supported the celebrations through stories, writing, decorations, and cooking.

The Grade 4 classes are putting the final touches on their Performing Arts Showcase this week, and are excited to share their learning this Friday at PALS!  After exploring dance elements and styles from around the world, they selected one country to focus on, incorporating their own ideas into a final routine.  They have given and received peer feedback, revised and refined, and are looking forward to finally sharing their ideas with a larger audience. 

As well as the dance routines, students have identified problems in their chosen country and have come up with solutions for the issues they found. The groups are pitching their ideas to the Leopards Lair judges in our (fictional) "Leopards Lair" TV show. 

Which ideas will receive an all resounding ROAR from our Leopards Lair Judges? Tune in and join us Friday February 1 at 11:30 in the Tiyende Pamodzi Theatre and find out. 

The AISL Library is excited to partner with Penguin Random House publishers of Zambia to bring you a book fair on Friday 22 February from 12:30-14:30 in the library.

We will have a wide range of books for readers of ALL ages, with a special focus on regional field guides & books about the wildlife of Southern Africa.

The prices are extremely reasonable and on average are quite a bit less than what you will find at local bookstores in Lusaka.

This is a CASH ONLY event. If the publishers run out of a stock of an item you like, they are happy to take orders.

Hope to see you there! Celebrate #booklove!

The first rehearsal of the Primary Production, "Adventures of a Comic Book Artist" kicked off the production season yesterday!  Actors, theater tech, teacher-directors, and student assistants had a grand time preparing for this year's musical through learning more about the characters, songs, and story line of this year's show, while uniting as a team through theater games.  Pictured here: "Salute the Captain!"

AISL was delighted to host Cognitive Coaching from 18 January to 21 January. The four day workshop involved educators from across Africa and Asia, with nine different schools represented. The mission of Cognitive Coaching is to develop self-directed persons with 'cognitive capacity' to support others with which they work. Cognitive Capacity is defined as the ability to develop both intuition and logic to understand and then develop pathways to plan or resolve areas of work as an individual and as members of a community. 

Dear Families,

We are looking forward to an exciting second semester. To our returning families, welcome back! We hope that all of you had a wonderful holiday with plenty of time for friends and family. This month, we welcome eight new students: Yannick, Ewnet and Lealem (ELC); Kathy, Tristan and Henry (G1); Damien (G2) and Gabriel (G3). All of our students are off to a great start meeting and reconnecting with friends and teachers.

Well done to our G3, 4 and 5 swimmers who did an amazing job showcasing their swimming strokes in their Swim Gala on Wednesday, 5 December. Some highlights from the afternoon are below. A big thank-you to Ms Kate Luwisha, Coach Isaac, Coach Allen and Coach Antonio for supporting our students during their swimming unit these past few months. We appreciate how many families were able to come out to support the event. 

With a wonderful first semester coming to a close, we would like to wish everyone a happy, healthy new year. We have had to say farewell to a few of our Leopard families in Primary who are off to begin new adventures. We hope that it is a 'see you soon' as we remember the footprint that you left at AISL.

​The new semester also welcomes new families who will be joining us. We encourage new families to attend our New Family Orientation on Monday, 14 January at 8:30 in the Tiyende Pamodzi Theater. All students, new and returning, will begin their first day of second semester on Tuesday, 15 January. We hope all of you enjoy the holiday time together with family and friends and, for those of you who will be traveling, we wish you safe travels. 

Well done to our G4 students for a successful holiday sale on Wednesday, 12 December. After much planning and preparation, in connection to their recent unit of inquiry on 'How we organize ourselves', the students applied their understanding of supply and demand by selling their own products. With budding chefs, bakers, artists, and entertainers at work, the sale had something for everyone.  

Showcasing our talents in the Arts may be part of what our students enjoy doing and what our audiences enjoy applauding, but did you know that offering an artwork of music, theater, dance, or fine art can also be a special, expressive gift?

In this festive season, we want to acknowledge some of the ways AISL students have been giving recently:

• "That Sing Thing!" (Primary Choir) sang to teachers, staff, and administrators on (or near) their birthdays as a way to spread joy and celebrate grownups on their special day
• Risk-takers shared their piano, band, and vocal skills at the Music Corner of the PTA Holiday Fair on Friday, spreading holiday cheer and contributing to the festive atmosphere
• Books donated at the "Say it with Song" All Choirs Concert were carefully sorted by the ASA Book Club, and then donated to Africa Development International - a boost for their growing mobile library and literacy program

As you are probably aware, your child's semester report card will be generated on Friday and you will get an email notification to click on a link to access the report card through ManageBac. For those of you who do not know, ManageBac is our Curriculum Management Software, where teachers plan, record and assess.

Once they are generated on Friday, you will be able to access by either clicking on the emailed link or by logging in to https://aislusaka.managebac.com, clicking on your child's name in the top left corner, and then click on the 'reports' link on the left sidebar. This will give you access to all your child's report cards since they have been at AISL.

For more information about the systems utilised at AISL, please head to our password-protected Parent Portal. A reminder that the password for the Parent Portal will be updated on 1 January to reflect the new calendar year.

Many AISL students took part in Computer Science Education Week from 3-7 December. Activities set up in the library were meant to promote computational thinking, coding, and creative problem solving. These activities included

• A game playtesting station created by Grade 9 MYP Design students
• Quiver augmented reality coloring
• 3-dimensional drawing using 3Doodler pens
• Hour of Code activities for iPads & laptops
• MakeyMakey circuitry kits
• 3-D printing & dye cutter printing
• A mac tear-down station

Many thanks to Mr. Langi Shuma of our IT Department & Mr. Frank Louw (Primary IT) for additional support and supplies!