Our students have begun their first science unit for the year; the unit is on Nutrition. We have been discussing the importance of making healthy choices in the cafeteria as this is the first year the students have had more freedom during their lunch recess. If we see students choosing gatorade, pizza and garlic bread day after day, we may suggest to them that it would be good to have greater balance with their meal rather than regularly indulging in so many empty calories. Today we watched a number of video presentations discussing the importance of knowing what it is you are putting into your body. We do not want any of our students to think they need to be on any sort of diet; rather we’d like to encourage them to take more ownership of their own daily diet, just like we encourage them in 5th grade to invest more in all of their educational options.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has come out with a new design of the healthy diet pyramid I grew up with as a child. I like that this one is shaped like a plate and their website does have a great deal of useful information we will be using during our unit. As we work through the unit, we will be encouraging the students to think about what they eat and any changes they could make to improve on their health, whether it be in regard to exercise, getting more sleep, eating more greens or eating less empty calories. Our final project for the unit is called the Healthy Balanced Meal Project and all students should have come home with a paper copy of this project last Thursday. I am excited to see what the students come up with and have only ever heard positive feedback with this project during the 5 years it has been run in 5th grade.

In other news, in case your son or daughter has not mentioned it to you, we are celebrating one hundred years of Shanghai American School next month with a Founder’s Day Celebration on Friday September 16th.

Join us as we celebrate our SAS history and kick-off our year long Centennial Celebration. There will be a school wide event, including an all school parade. We are asking that all students, teachers (and any parents that want to participate) get in the spirit and dress up in early 1900s clothing and walk in the parade! There will be special guests, a performance of our school song, and much more. Everyone is welcome to join the fun. For more information contact: cindy.easton@saschina.org

If you would like more information on the history of the school,see this document. SAS Founders’ Day Background Info

I look forward to discussing our Nutrition Project and Our Founder’s Day Celebrations with you more when I meet you at our Open House Evening in the 5th grade project area on Wednesday September 7th at 7 pm.

Now a treat for those who are still reading…
Here is your child reciting the wonderful Robert Frost Poem, “The Road Not Taken” in the first of our Poetry Friday Performances.

http://portal.saschina.org/video/flv_player/Main.swf

Are you still with us??? If so, well done 5KP on your amazing Personality Box Presentations. I really enjoyed learning more about you and even though I am obviously ‘craft phobic’ I know you had a lot of fun with all that glitter!

http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=104087