Dear Parents,

One of our divisional goals is to further our culturally inclusive practices in order to ensure that we are promoting a strong sense of belonging to all our students, who are representative of diverse cultural backgrounds. This year, as a part of this divisional goal, Lower Elementary School faculty have been reading the professional text, No More Culturally Irrelevant Teaching and participating in professional reading discussions across all grade level teams and specialist teams.

A topic addressed in the book thus far pertains to ‘mirrors’ and ‘windows’ in childrens’ literature. Literature which provides mirrors involves engaging readers in material which is reflective of their own experiences and realities, whereas literature which provides windows allow the reader to engage in a variety of experiences, fictional and non-fictional, that offer new experiences and learning. It is important that students have ample opportunities to experience books that present them with mirrors reflecting their known realities and windows allowing them to experience unknown or less familiar realities and in doing so to experience both mirrors and windows in the literature with which they engage.

With this being said, and with the aim of continually advancing the cultural learning of all our students, we are taking a closer look at the literature we are engaging students in as part of our instructional repertoires. This entails taking a close look at our class libraries and the literature we select to support classroom instruction to ensure it is culturally inclusive; providing students with mirrors and windows as they engage with the content. Parents are encouraged to share books that represent their cultural backgrounds with their child’s teacher. Moreover parents are invited to share cultural learning, events, and celebrations representing their respective cultures with their child’s class throughout the year.

Art Learning Highlights: Prepared by Ms. Joni Muller and Ms. Heather Hall - LES Art Teachers

In Lower Elementary School Art, students have been working on developing their creative skills.

Pre-K 3 artists have been busy exploring different art materials and techniques. They have tried using oil pastels, watercolor paints, and tempera paints and have experimented with collaging and a variety of methods of applying paint.

Pre-K 4 artists have explored various materials and techniques inspired by illustrated children’s books. They have practiced using scissors and glue sticks for collaging, experimented with an oil pastel and watercolor resist technique, learned how to use ink daubers to draw, and used tempera paint.

KG artists began the year with their Drawing Unit in which they practiced using a variety of drawing tools including: metallic Sharpies, scratch art paper, colored pencils, and oil pastels (with watercolor). The theme for the unit was “Bugs” and the students presented their favorite bug drawings in the form of accordion books.

Grade 1 artists began the year with their first Element of Art unit -- Line, in which they created their mixed media Yarn Lines and Line Lions projects. They have recently begun the Shape Unit and are creating “Shape Castle” collages inspired by the artwork of Mary Blair.

Grade 2 artists have been busy with the Portrait Unit. They began by learning about the artist George Rogrigue and his Blue Dog paintings, and then the students created their own animal portrait with oil pastels. Their second portrait project incorporated yarn and tempera paint. They are currently working on a mixed media collage self-portrait.

Pumpkin Patch

This week students had the opportunity to visit the Pumpkin Patch, which was set up in the central administration area. We thank the Jr/Sr Parent Committee who organized this enjoyable experience for our students.

Halloween Celebrations

We will be celebrating Halloween on Sunday, October 31. Students will have the opportunity to come to school dressed in costumes and class parties will be held during the school day. We ask that students do not bring costume accessories to school as this will be distracting to classroom learning.

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Virtual Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held this year on the afternoon/evening of Wednesday, November 3, and the morning of Thursday, November 4. Due to the conference schedule, there will be no school for students on Thursday, November 4.

Sincerely,

Dr. Lana Al-Aghbar

Lower Elementary School Principal

American School of Doha