Dear Middle School Parents,
Next week, we will invite you to Celebrate AISC Week.
We will begin the week with the Horses of Ayyanar Assembly on Monday, 10 February. Starting on Monday, the AISC Visual Arts Department will welcome a group of local artists with expertise in constructing large clay Ayyanar horses to our campus. Over the course of two weeks, the Tamil artists will demonstrate the ceramic process of building the horses. There will be workshops for our art students across the K-12 curriculum. Artist workstations are planned throughout all areas of our campus from 10 - 20 February.
BACKGROUND: Ayyanar horses stand as tall as 12 feet and have been used as guardians at local temples and villages. This traditional art process originated in Tamil Nadu. Our intention is to create the experience for our students to see this traditional process of large scale clay construction, and also to support local arts and culture within our community and host country.
We will end the Celebrate AISC Week on Friday, 14 February. We will celebrate our first ever All-School Spirit Day! We ask everyone to celebrate our school by wearing AISC colors - blue and white. All staff, parents and students are invited to meet on the soccer field at 8:20 for a school-wide photo! Remember, to wear BLUE and WHITE and to be on the field promptly at 8:20.
Two trips next week…
We announced these trips a few weeks ago. We just want to wish these students the best of luck. We are thrilled to have them represent AISC.
AMIS Honor Band in Shanghai (11-17 February)
We are sending two Grade 7 students: Sae Shimada and Suzu Toyonaga and two Grade 8 students: Hana Suzuki and Ui Hyun Cho.
Math Counts in Mumbai (13-15 Febuary)
We are also sending students to represent us at the American School of Bombay:
Grade 6: Reuben Nielsen
Grade 7: Haegun Cho, Tarun Krishna and Siddesh Vijayakumar
Grade 8: Shreyas Saxena, Uday Saharia, Vikram Sivakumar and Sang Hyeok Lee
Grade 8 Parent Meeting - High School Course Selection Process for 2014-2015
Instead of a regular Middle School Coffee, there will be an important meeting for all Grade 8 parents regarding the High School Course Selection Process for 2014-2015 School Year on Tuesday, 18 February at 8:45 in the Hall of Light. It is important that ALL Grade 8 parents attend this important meeting.
Mr. Steve Summerfield, High School Counselor (Grades 9-10) will go over instructions and answer questions about the Course Selection Forms for students entering Grade 9 next year. Mr. John McCandless (High School Principal), Ms. Susannah McGlamery (High School Counselor), Mr. Alan Phan (Middle School Principal) and Ms. Trish Joudrey (Middle School Counselor) will also be there should you have any questions.
Grade 8 students will have the Course Selection Forms explained to them after the meeting with parents.
AISC Raptorthon 2014 Announcement
AISC is proud to announce its first Raptorthon that includes a swim, run and swim combination. One individual or a team of two people can participate.
- Distance: 150 meter swim, 1600m jog/run and 150 meter swim.
- Date: Sunday, 23rd February
- Time: 7:15 AM
- Who: Students (grades 4-12), Faculty and AISC Community Members, grade 4-Adult
- Fee: 300 RS/Individual, 600 RS/Team of two (one runner, one swimmer). Pay at Cashier. Proceeds will be used to cover the cost of race numbers and Gatorade. The balance will be donated to Charity.
- Registration Information: Register online by February 18, 2014 at: https://docs.google.com/a/aisch.org/forms/d/1AK6xtkayYwwJHsGnlY8RaM66AECLIEZNGQCkOfzb_rQ/edit
Academic Corner
In connection with the local artists coming for the Horses of Ayyanar, we will be focusing on the Art Department this week. This next month middle school art students will be learning about the Ayyanar horses while we have the visiting artists on campus! As the students visit the various workstations to study and document the building process of the local artists, they will be working in the art room to apply the same building techniques to create their own unique animal sculpture.
They will also observe a variety of techniques that the local artists use to design and embellish the surface of the sculptures. The students will not only observe this process, but will create clay stamps that the visiting artists will use to incorporate in the actual horse sculptures. The students will then use a similar process to add decorative motifs to their own guardian animal sculpture.