As a reminder, Tesfa International School’s last day of school is June 8, 2017.  Students will be dismissed at 12:15pm.  Have a great summer, see you next year.

Good Morning Friends,

As you all know this is our last week of school!  I have written many morning messages throughout the year and I appreciate your commitment to reading them and thinking about my messages to you.  As a special treat today you will get to read a message from our oldest scholars.  The 6th graders decided to demonstrate their courage and their communication skills by writing the blog this morning.  They are excited to share an end of the year message with our school community.  Enjoy!

Happy Last Monday of School Scholars!

Do you remember the first day of school? What were you feeling or thinking on that first day? What events from the year do you remember the most? What are your favorite memories? If you opened the doors to your memories, what would you see? How have you changed from the beginning of the school year to the end of the school year?

As you go into the future, remember to practice using the PYP Attitudes that you have learned from Tesfa. Cooperate with others by always working together. Show Respect to other’s feelings and choices. Be Curious by learning about new things. Use Creativity by thinking up new ways to solve problems. Show Confidence by always being who you are! Have Integrity and do the right thing. Show Empathy to other people by putting yourself in their shoes. Be T]olerant and do not judge others. Demonstrate Commitment by giving your all at school and home. Be Independent and try to do things for yourself. Appreciate what you get and what you have by saying please and thank you. Be Enthusiastic by having a positive attitude!!

Keep learning and growing so you can follow your dreams and become an amazing, fantastic, beautiful, POWERFUL person. The harder you try to be your best the more able you are to become someone who can make a positive difference in our world!

Have a fabulous summer and keep it real!

6^th Grade Scholars

Good Morning Tesfa Scholars!

I hope you enjoyed the long weekend and were able to spend time with friends and family.  I know I enjoyed the beautiful weather and I took time to rest before these busy last two weeks of school.  This week we have a few special events to celebrate your hard work and commitment.  On Wednesday we will have our final all-school assembly for the year where we will recognize our students of the month and congratulate our 6th grade scholars for almost being done with elementary school.  Then, on Friday we will say goodbye to our Kindergarten scholars who are graduating!  Isn’t it cool that we are almost at the end of a wonderful learning year?  You are all so much better readers, writers, mathematicians and thinkers than you were back in August.  Your teachers and I are all very proud of you and you should be proud of yourself!  Think back and reflect…what is your favorite memory from the school year?  What will you remember most about this year?

As we prepare for summer and whatever grade or school comes next, keep these words from Kid President in mind…”The world needs you!”  Watch this graduation video from Kid President and listen all the advice he gives to young people.  Think about leaving a legacy wherever you go and remember to show our PYP attitudes no matter where life takes you.

Have a wonderful and fun learning week! Be kind and stay curious!

Ms. Lauren

Tesfa International School has no school Friday, May 26 through Monday, May 29th.  We will see you all back on Tuesday, May 30th.  Have a lovely weekend.

Our third, fourth and fifth grade students have been participating in the Rock ‘N’ Read program throughout the school year and today we celebrated their hard work and effort with a pizza party!

The Rock ‘n’ Read Project implements proven, research-based instructional  strategies that have demonstrated dramatic improvement in reading achievement. Neuroscience research has shown that beat syncronization (chanting and singing while keeping a beat) enables brains for language acquisition and reading. Singing is the fastest way to learn new vocabulary, and increase comprehension and fluency.

Our students had a great time singing and reading their way through the program this year and we saw tremendous gains for all our scholars!  Thanks to Bill and Ann for leading the program and celebrating with our kiddos today!

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Good Morning Scholars!

Today marks the 12th to last day of school.  Can you believe how quickly the school year has flown by?  I am so proud of all the hard work and effort you have shown and how much you have grown as knowledgeable learners and as caring friends.  In these last few weeks I want you to about the concept of change.

How have you changed since the beginning of this school year?  You have learned many new things, you have developed new skills and now have new strategies for solving problems.  Be reflective of the change you have seen over the year and think about how you can continue to grow and learn as a PYP scholar even in the last few weeks of school.

We have a four day week so be sure to use every minute possible to work hard.  I know it can be difficult at this time of year to contain your excitement, especially with summer just around the corner.  However, we are still looking and listening for students that are showing our PYP attitudes each and every day.  Can you name all of the attitudes?  Which ones do you show most often?  Which ones are you working on?

Have a wonderful learning week.  Be curious, be kind, and work hard!

Ms. Lauren

Good Morning Tesfa Scholars!

With only 17 days left of the school year I hope you are thinking about how you will leave a legacy at Tesfa.  Whether you are moving from Kindergarten to first grade, from 5th to 6th, or even from 6th grade onto a middle school, think about how your actions will leave an impact on the people and the places you leave behind.   Have you made helpful, caring choices?  Have you shown commitment to your learning? Do you empathize and cooperate with others?  Think about how you can demonstrate our PYP attitudes in these last few days of school so that you can leave a positive legacy at Tesfa.

Remember that this week we have our Spring Family Night!  We will be engaging in fun science activities and we hope to see you all there! Spread the word and feel free to invite your friends and family members.

Have a wonderful, curious, learning week!

Ms. Lauren

Good morning teachers and learners!

I hope you enjoyed the beautiful weather this weekend and were able to find balance.  The end of the school year can be a busy time.  We are rushing to finish projects at school, assessments are taking place, and we are completing many of our units of study.  Remember to take time to rest, relax and reset your mindset.  It is important that even in these last few weeks of school that we don’t let our excitement, or anxiety, get the best of us.  Take a deep breath if you find yourself feeling a strong emotion, try to pause and think about your choices, then act.  Make a choice that is both helpful to yourself and others.

We can use our creativity as we work through challenges in academics as well as challenges we face with other students or with own behavior.  Be mindful of how your emotions and actions can affect others.  Think carefully about your Essential Agreements and the big goals you set for yourself this year.  Stay focused, be calm, and work hard.

We have NWEA MAP testing beginning this week.  This is an opportunity for you to show what you know.  Be sure to try your best, read each question carefully and choose the best answer.  There is no rush to be the first one done, so again, take a deep breath, have confidence and show us how knowledgeable you are!

Have a fun and productive learning week.

Ms. Lauren

Good Morning Creative Kids!  Happy May!

Can you believe we only have 27 days of school left?  As you learned at our all-school assembly last week we will be focusing on our last attitude of the month, which is creativity.  Being creative means using your imagination when solving problems and dilemmas.  It can also mean being creative in your writing, your thinking and your play.  You will be learning more about creativity this month in your classrooms and we will be looking to catch creative students throughout the building.  Think about ways you can use your creativity during this last month of school.

This week we will be celebrating Teacher Appreciation Week!  This is a time to celebrate and thank all of the adults that work at Tesfa.  I am so proud of all of our teachers and staff members and I appreciate their commitment to our school every day.  Our teachers work hard to plan challenging and fun lessons, they help out with lunch duty and bus dismissal and they meet with me to think about how they can be better at their jobs.

Being a teacher takes a lot of work and it is and extremely important job.  During the week, think about how you can show appreciation for our teachers.   Maybe you could make a card, or say please and thank you when your teacher helps you.  Perhaps you can show appreciation by cooperating and following your classroom essential agreements.  What other ways can you show appreciation to the staff at Tesfa?

Work hard, be kind and have a great week!

Ms. Lauren

Good Morning Confident Kids!

This past Saturday was Earth Day, which is an annual event celebrated worldwide on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection and to celebrate the natural world.  Have you been learning about Earth Day in your classroom?  Perhaps you have made connections to how you can help support the Earth by recycling, not wasting water or reusing materials in new ways.  I hope you take some time in the next few weeks to think about what action you can take to make the environment a better place.  

We have our monthly assembly coming up this Friday.  We will be recognizing students who have shown confidence in their daily work at school.  Perhaps this means you tried something new, or believed in yourself to accomplish a goal.   We look forward to gathering as a school community to recognize students that show our PYP attitudes on a daily basis.

MCA testing continues this week, so please be quiet and calm in the hallways.  This shows respect for our testing classrooms and allows students to concentrate and do their best on their exams.  Good luck to our testing scholars as you show what you know!

Have a great week!  Work hard and be caring.

Ms. Lauren