GIRARD COLLEGE LOWER SCHOOL
FRIDAY NEWSLETTER
January 22, 2016
LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW! LET IT SNOW!
The Philadelphia region is going to experience a large snow storm this weekend! The students are certainly excited! Whenever we can, without jeopardizing the safety of students/families and our employees, we will attempt to have classes! There is an Emergency Communications Team that consults with President Armbrister. We plan at this time that the campus will have had the snow removal completed by the time students are able to return Sunday night, and therefore we plan to open for classes at regular time on Monday morning. Stay safe, enjoy your children and READ A LOT!!! We also give great encouragement to those who are doing “Read for Ronald!” (to support The Ronald McDonald House in Philadelphia for sick children and their families who are visiting hospitals here in the city!) Remember your FLIP TABS too!
THIS WEEK:
5th Grade Families: Ask your students about how “the stars” came to Girard for them?!
(their Science Planetarium visit!!)
COMING NEXT WEEK:
-1/28 6th Grade Trip to The University (of Pennsylvania) Museum- Egyptian exhibit
-1/29 MID-MARKING report for 2nd Trimester
This is an important point in the year for you to see that your child is working to
achieve mastery and is working at grade level in Language Arts and Math, especially
after 3rd Grade. We are working diligently to communicate with all families about
student progress, as we havereached this level of implementation of our Common
Core State Standards basedcurriculum and mastery grading system. This coming
summer we will again have all students be required to complete course work to keep
them primed and ready to start the next level in September. Some students will need
remediation work to strengthen their skills. Policies will state how the school and
families must support students in order for them to achieve mastery and
be promoted with a scholarship for the next grade level.
VIRTUE OF THE MONTH= TOLERANCE
As you are aware, we hope, we use an educational curriculum called Cloud9World written about World Values. Theseare values recognized through time and across all cultures and are explained through stories. As a school community, each month, we discuss and practice a different virtue. We hope you get to hear about and see the monthly story booklets and that you discuss the issues raised with your child. We also tell students that just because the month ends, we do not stop practicing that value ….it is a life long challenge!
This has been a very interesting month with our focus on TOLERANCE and we hope you will speak about it with your child. The story for this month is called “Reece and Soni the Seal” – it takes place in Norway and mentions the Nobel Peace Prize. Our monthly stories, like Aesop’s ancient Greek fables, use animals to help tell a lesson using the virtue.
This is a perfect opportunity for you to discuss with your child what you both think about peace in our community and in our world. Before we conclude this month, we will have mentioned the famous expression about peace used by Mahatma Gandhi “There is no way to peace; peace is the way.”
You can have your child look up any of the Nobel Peach Prize winners, both individuals and organizations, who have been recognized since 1901 when the prize was first awarded. Below is a sampling of the winners through the decades. Do you know about these important people and organizations?!
-KailashSatyarthi and Malala Yousafzai (2014)
-European Union (2012)
-Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Leyh=mahGbowee and TawakkolKarmon (2011)
-Liu Xiaobo (2010)
-WangariMutaMaathai (2004)
-United Nations and Kofi Annan (2001)
-John Hume and David Trimble (1998)
-Yasser Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin (1994)
-International Campaign to Ban Landmines and Jody Williams (1997)
-Nelson Mandela and Frederik Willem de Klerk (1993)
-Mikhail Gorbachev (1990)
-Elie Wiesel (1986)
-Desmond Tutu (1984)
-Mother Teresa (1979)
-Amnesty International (1977)
-Henry Kissinger and Le DucTho (1973)
-Rene Cassin (1968)
-UNICEF (1965)
-International Committee of the Red Cross (1963)
-Albert Schweitzer (1952)
-American Friends Service Committee (1947)
-Cordell Hull (1945)
-Nansen International Office for Refugees (1938)
-Carl von Ossietzky (1934)
-Sir Austen Chamberlain and Charles Gates Dawes (1925)
-Elihu Root (1912)
-Theodore Roosevelt (1906)
-Jean Henry Dunant and Frederic Passy (1901)