Benjamin Scoville, Director

Dear Parents,

We've made it to Chuseok Break! I'm sure that students and teachers alike are looking forward to taking a long rest. We've had such an active school year so far.

This week students worked very hard sitting for MAP tests. It was clear that they were committed to doing their best work on these exams. We're proud of their perseverance and sincere desire to do well. Students who were not able to finish an exam this week will have the chance to do so once we're back from the holiday.

Coming up following the break, we can look forward to the CDS Book Fair, MS Book Week, Hispanic Culture Day, and We Run Cheongna. I'm happy to announce that our middle school will join FP and HS in supporting a charitable cause with our fun run this year.

You can find more details about all of these events within the Newsletter. You will also find many great learning moments captured this week by our wonderful teachers.

Have a safe, restful, and well deserved Chuseok break!

Best regards,

Benjamin Scoville

Director of Middle School

Collaborative Writing & Illustration Activity

As part of this year's Middle School Book Week, we are excited to host Bryn Barnard, an author, illustrator, artist, and international school teacher.

On Monday, October 8, 2018 from 4:10-5:00 p.m., he will offer a special presentation for parents, students, and teachers in which he will lead participants through a collaborative writing and illustration activity. Participants will do a creativity exercise based on the image-making process of the artist Barron Storey. They will work in teams of two to draw a picture and write a story, which will be passed around to other teams who will add more elements to the original piece.

Participation in this event is limited due to space and availability of materials. Registration is first-come, first-served, and will be capped once the maximum number of participants has been reached. Thank you for your understanding, and if you are interested in this event, we hope you can join it!

-Ms. Choo

This year, We Run Cheongna is happening during Middle School Book Week, so the two have been combined into a fundraiser for literacy! First Program and High School are having separate We Run Cheongna fundraising activities.

Middle school students have voted to support Worldreader, a charity that promotes digital reading in developing countries. They will be collecting pledges (or donations) for their participation in We Run Cheongna. Individual students and the House with the most sponsors (or donors) will be recognized. We hope students will be motivated to run for health and a good cause!

-Ms. Choo

The Canadian Open Math Challenge (COMC) is coming to Seoul! This contest is officiated by the Canadian Math Society and not through CDS. This is a great chance for students in Korea who enjoy solving challenging math problems to add to their list of achievements.

- Date: November 9th, 2018
- Location: Math Training Center; At COEX Conference Hall in Gangnam-gu, Seoul
- Deadline: Registrations must be made before Fri. October 12th, 2018. First come first served.
- Fee: 50,000 won per student.

The contest lasts for 2 hours and 30 minutes, has 12 free response questions and does not feature calculus. The problem difficulty ranges from AMC level problems to even AMO level problems.

International Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Honorable Mention awards are available to students who do exceptionally well on the exam. However, there are many more awards given out and every student will receive a certificate of participation.

If you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact mathtrainingcenter@gmail.com or
call at 02-529-8808(Korean), 010-4369-1360(English).

CDS has been celebrating the Moon Festival! One of the most important traditional festivals in Chinese culture, Moon Festival (aka Mid-autumn Festival) is celebrated on the 15th day of the eight month in the Chinese lunar calendar (Monday 24th September this year) during the full moon.

In our Chinese lessons this week, we have learned the traditions, stories, rhymes and songs related to the Moon Festival in our differentiated classes.

The delightful legend of Chang’e and Houyi captivated our young learners in the Beginner class. They designed the moon cake patterns on their own, and also created a fancy lap book of the Moon Festival.

The Intermediate class took centre stage with a wonderful presentations about Moon Festival in China & Chuseok in Korea.

The Advanced class has been captivated by beautiful Chinese songs of moon, and enjoyed making lanterns, paper cutting and other handcrafts.

Students have also had an exciting opportunity to taste the special food for the festival – moon cakes! We learned that the round shape of the moon cakes resembles the full moon and we really enjoyed their taste. Many of us are already looking forward to the next Moon Festival when we can taste them again!

-Ms. Gong

CDS hosted a booth at the Cheongna Beauty Festival last weekend! We had a great time representing our school while interacting with the community. Many thanks to these 9th grade girls for supporting us!

-Mr. Scoville

The fifth graders are continuing their Second Step exploration during Long House. This week, 5A learned about how their brains get smarter when you challenge yourself and learn new things. To demonstrate how often students strengthen their brains, they tried passing a ball around in a circle as quickly as possible. Then, they worked together to strategize how they could complete the task more efficiently. They were able to cut their time in half!

- Ms. Montelibano

In Long House, 6B starting a program called Second Step. It is a program that helps them navigate the perils of middle school. In this program they will learn how their thinking is changing during this time and positive ways to handle these new thoughts and situations.

The first lesson was about realizing that the changes are happening to all of them. Realizing something is happening is the first step in learning how to deal with issues. They discussed with each other the importance of the following topics: knowing how their brains are working and how to handle their thoughts and emotions, getting along with others, and solving problems that arise in their lives.

- Mrs. Hinds

This week, 7B had a team building activity, in which the students had to show communication and patience in order to be successful. They started with 2 people and 1 exercise ball and go up and down the basketball court and then added on an additional person each time. If they dropped any of their balls, then they must have restarted back at the beginning.

The students seemed to like it and Ms. Van Liew and I thought that it might be a good activity for some of the other houses to try with their kids as well.

- Mr. Monette

The Student Council had its first bake sale on Tuesday! During Lunch and Lab time, we sold popcorn, brownies, Demisoda (데미소다), and yakult (야쿠르트). The lines were very long, and we sold a lot of popcorn throughout Lab Time, and even during SSR time. We made around 60,000 won and some teachers participated as well, so we thought this bake sale was very successful. The money we raised for this bake sale will be used for future events in Term 1 and 2. Thank you to everyone who participated!

-Sophia Seo

Student Council President

9/24 - 9/28 - Chuseok Break

10/6 - Badminton @CI

10/6 - Boys Soccer @ CI
10/8 - 10/12 - MS Book Week
10/8 - Author Visit (Bryn Barnard)

10/9 - 6B Music Traditional Korean Music Performances

10/10 - Hispanic Culture Day
10/12 - We Run Cheongna (½ Day)
10/17 - Term 1 Ends