AIS West ES Parent Newsletter
February 13 - 17, 2022
Assembly Highlights
From a narrative on honesty, our February Character Trait, from our Grade 4 and 5 students, to learning about earthquakes from our KG2 students to hearing opinions about various topics from our G3 students and listening to Zainab, a grade 5 pianist with exceptional skills.
Our next set of assemblies will take place during the week of February 20th.
Strategies for Parents: Improving Children's' Behavior and Reinforcing Honesty
Children with behavior challenges and lying often lack the skills and behaviors necessary for ineracting positively with others. Behavior and lying problems can interfere with a child's ability to succeed in school. Parents and teachers must work together and support each other to find ways to support children to overcome such challenges.
Strategies for parents:
- Be a positive role model.
- Show respect to your child and expect to be shown respect.
- Be enthusiastic and supportive.
- Show your child that care and that you believe in his/her ability to behave appropriately.
- Teach acceptable behaviors and then reinforce positively when your child follows rules.
- Identify behaviors that are unacceptable and explain why these behaviors are unacceptable.
- Focus on prevention more than correction.
- Set high expectations for your child.
- Model courtesy towards others.
- Show interest in what your child likes to do.
- Allow your child to make choices; talk about the differences between good and bad choices.
- Avoid overreacting when your child experiences problems.
- Encourage your child to exercise regularly to decrease stress, anxiety, anger, and depression.
- Deal with issues before they escalate.
- Hold and support your child to be accountable for their behaviors.
- Teach the importance of honesty early and teach them how to resolve situations so they don't need to rely on lying or other behaviors.
- Identify responsibilities and use responsible language. When your child completes a task, tell him or her :
- “Nice way to follow through on your responsibility.”
- “I like the way you took care of that responsibility.”
- “You know, it’s your responsibility to do that, and I like that you did it.”
- “You know, I’m rewarding you because you met your responsibility.”
Research shows all children misbehave at one time or another. It also shows that lying is common among children. No one's child is perfect. However, research also shows positive behaviors and honesty are learned and reinforced when teachers and parents honor and support one another.
Dress up as a Valentine!
Children, faculty and staff are all encouraged to dress in pink, red, white, wear hearts and cupids - whatever reminds them of Valentines - do celebrate the day.
To show our appreciation to all of our maintenance workers who keep our learning spaces safe, clean and in repair we are collecting 20 LE if you dress up!
After School Activities and Tutoring
Important Days Ahead:
- Sign ups will be done through the parent portal. Signups will open up on February 14 at 8AM and close on February 16 at 10AM. This will allow teachers to prepare for those parents who will be attending conferences.
- No school for children on Feb 17
February 23 - Literacy Workshop:
- Our Literacy Coordinator will be facilitating a workshop on Interactive Read Alouds at 1pm on the 23rd. Come join us and learn some tips of how you can engage your children at home when reading aloud!
February 24 - Professional Development for Staff and Faculty:
- No school for children