1. Al Yasmina School Primary Newsletter
16th May 2012
Issue 32 - 2011/12
Dear Parents,
Primary Sports Awards Evening
Congratulations to Katya Ayass and Paolo Pretorius who received the Primary Sports Person of the
Year Award during our Primary Sports Evening last night. Well done!
Vote for the best school in Abu Dhabi
Ahlan! Magazine is hosting a competition for the best school Best In Abu Dhabi Awards 2012. Please
following the link if you wish to vote:
http://www.ahlanlive.com/photos/best-school-182141.html?img=5
Voting closes on 20th May 2012.
Oliver DVD
Just a reminder that all money for Oliver DVDs needs to be in as soon as possible so that the order
can be processed.
ADEC Parent Survey
Kindly be advised that the Parent Survey is still available on ADEC Website until the end of May 2012.
You are kindly requested to participate in this important survey.

2. Primary Library Book Review Competition
All students in Year 3, and 5 are being invited to participate in a Book Review
Competition for which instructions and procedures have been outlined during
library lessons this week. There will be a certificate and small prize for the winning
entry from each of the year groups and house points will be awarded for runners-
up.
The children simply access the template in the attachment, complete it with their review and then
either return it by e-mail to (FMalone@alyasmina.sch.ae),
or print it out and hand in their hard copy to Primary Library. The deadline is May 31st.
We are looking forward to being inundated with lots of beautifully written and creatively illustrated
Book Reviews!
From the School Nurses
Be SMART in the Sun
Sunburn can be very painful, as well as being damaging to the skin. There is an increased risk of skin
cancer and the aging process of the skin is accelerated (think lots of lines and wrinkles!). Here are
some tips for protecting our skin by avoiding sunburn:
 UV Rays are strongest in the middle of the day. Plan indoor activities at that time or look for
shade.
 Cover the skin with a shirt AND sunscreen to avoid sunburn!
 Wear a hat – preferably one that covers the neck and ears. When wearing a baseball style hat,
remember to apply sunscreen to the neck and ears.
 Sunglasses protect eyes from UV rays. Look for sunglasses that wrap around and block nearly
100% of UV rays.
 Use sunscreen! Use a sunscreen with at least a SPF of 15, but preferably higher (30+), and
UVA/UVB protection. Use it liberally and reapply frequently.
 Don‟t be tempted to stay out in the sun with sunscreen for any longer than you would do without
wearing sunscreen.
Spend more time in the shade between 11 and 3
Make sure you never burn
Aim to cover up with a hat, t-shirt and sunglasses
Remember to take extra care with children
Then use at least factor 15+ sunscreen, preferably higher
For more information on sun safety check out these websites:
http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Summerhealth/Pages/Sunprotectioneyesandskin.aspx
http://kidshealth.org/parent/firstaid_safe/outdoor/sun_safety.html
Message from Friends of Al Yasmina (FOY)
Tabletop Sale - Saturday 19th May
Come along this Saturday from 9.30am to 12.30pm in the school Atrium. Bring all of your friends too -
you never know what bargain you may find. For more information, contact Kara Ulgenalp on 050-
5847638.

3. Next FOY Meeting - Monday 21st May
The next FOY meeting will be held next Monday at 8am in meeting room 2 (behind Primary
Reception). If you would like to get involved or simply find out more about FOY, then please come
along - everyone is welcome. The agenda for this meeting is as follows:-
Agenda:
~ Treasurer's Report
~ Tabletop Sale Feedback
~ FOY Constitution - AGM in June?
~ Primary End of Year Discos
~ Welcome BBQ for September
~ Festive Fair Committee
~ Any Other Business (Next Meeting 18th June)
Primary End of Year Discos - Sunday 17th June
Hopefully you have this date in your diaries now. Watch this space for more information in next
week's newsletter.
Snack Time Stars
The second winners for our Snack Time Stars were…. HERONS!
Herons Class remembered to do all of the following things:
 Walking quietly to and from snack
 Eating with our mouths closed
 Sitting down whilst we eat
 Using quiet voices in the atrium
 Using the correctly cutlery when we eat and not just our fingers!
Congratulations!
Who will be the winners in 2 weeks time?...........
Foundation Stage 1 (FS1)
Oooh-aaar me hearties! What an adventurous week we have had as little pirates. It all began with
the wonderful story Lila Pirate. We then made our own treasure maps with hidden treasure marked
with an X, crocodile infested pools and dangerous volcanoes. We followed clues set by our teachers
to find hidden gold coins around our classroom. In the shared area we made pirate ships using junk
materials and outside we drew large maps using chalk.
We also had lots of fun with practical pirate phonic actives, which involved walking the plank to
blend cvc words and hoisting down pirate phonemes!

4. At lunchtime, we talked about the healthy things we can have in our lunch box. We even shared our
lunch boxes with the class and thought about how we could make them a little bit healthier, there
were lots of healthy, tasty things inside.
Congratulations to our super stARRRRrs of the week:
Sophie Kay from White class, Lucy Greenhill from Yellow class, Mikey O‟Sullivan from Red class, Joshua
Coetzee from Blue class and Damia Mohd Husni from Green class- Well Done
Please ensure that your child‟s reading book and diary are brought to school every day. This is so
that their class teacher can read with your child and replace their book. Thank You.
Foundation Stage 2 (FS2)
“Off with their heads!!!” Is what might happen to you if you cross the „Queen of Hearts Army‟ down in
FS2! This week, we have fallen down the rabbit hole into Wonderland where have taken up the
challenge of helping the queen of hearts turn everything red. During our adventure in Wonderland,
we met a Rabbit who was always late, a cheeky Cheshire cat, a very grumpy caterpillar and a
Queen who was always losing her temper.
On our final day in Wonderland, we were invited by the „Mad Hatter‟ to join him at his tea party. The
children made the most fabulous hats and came dressed in their best party clothes. A great day was
had by all and we would like to say a HUGE thank you to all parents and carers for providing such
delicious food and treats.
As well as our adventure to Wonderland, the children have also been learning about capacity and
weight. We have been experimenting with different materials and finding out which holds more and
which are the heaviest.
Year 1
This week brings Year One to the end of their „Growing‟ topic. It‟s been a wonderful topic to learn
and enjoy together. The children have certainly shown „green fingers‟ in how they have cared for
and looked after the many seeds and plants we have grown during this topic. We hope your lettuce,
sweet pepper and broccoli plants are doing well at home. We would love to see some pictures of
them when they grow even bigger and produce yummy and healthy vegetables.

5. Have a look at the beautiful display showing our work for this topic.
In Literacy this week we have been extremely hard working. We have been WRTING OUR OWN
STORIES! So watch this space for the year one authors! We took our time, planned our settings,
characters, problems, resolutions and the endings. Then we wrote our fabulous stories adding lots of
details and adjectives. They really are FANTASTIC!
In Design and Technology we designed a brand new bridge for the Three Billy Goats to use to save
them from the horrible troll. They were very grateful.
Next week we start our final topic, „Toys‟. Please could you help us by collecting any of the following
items at home, shoe boxes, oatmeal cylinder box, milk cartons, large plastic bottles, cardboard tubes
and bringing them into school. These will help us build our own „Box Town‟ next week.

6. Huge congratulations to our wonderful stars of the week for
this week. Well done to Jayden Joury in Doves class, Niamh
Wright in Robin‟s class, Joel George in Lark‟s class, Mia
Greene in Cuckoo‟s class and Leenah Bassiouni in
Sparrow‟s class.
Year 2
In Year 2 this week we have continued working on The Paper Bag Princess. We
have made our predictions for a sequel to the first book and amongst our ideas
were: Prince Ronald becomes “The Newspaper Prince”, Princess Elizabeth finds
a new Prince to marry and Prince Ronald can’t escape from the tower! Maybe
Prince Ronald should have been nicer to Princess Elizabeth in the original book!
In maths we have been measuring hands and feet. We collected the data
and then put our results into a bar chart. We wanted to find out if the people
with the biggest hands also had the biggest feet. We found out there is no link
between hand and foot size.
In Art we have been making frescos. A fresco is a painting on plaster. We
covered damp newspaper in Modroc and left it to dry. Then we drew our
design in pencil and filled it in with pastels. It is a messy job but it was great fun!
Well done stars of the week! Callum Dooley
Cullinane, Summer Jassim, Rasha Hassan
Beck, Isaac Winstanley and Mohamm ed Al
Khaili
Our next topic is “Around the World” we would like children to bring in flags from their
home countries (big or small) that we can display in our shared area to celebrate all
our different backgrounds. Please name the flag if you wish it to be returned!

7. Year 3
This week the children have been writing exciting, imaginative newspaper reports and stories about
the first tourist space shuttle in Abu Dhabi.
They have continued to learn to tell the time; a helpful website to reinforce this at home:
http://www.timemonsters.com/
Of course the most exciting thing this week has been our Design Technology projects. The children
have been designing and making what they think the first Abu Dhabi Tourist shuttle will look like and
some have even included safety features like parachutes. The children had an opportunity to make
a prototype using different construction kits. This is a lengthy process and still a work in progress but
we will keep you informed about our „Launch‟ day - which will be soon.
Well done to the Year 3 Stars of the Week –
Mohammed Mohammed, Areeb, Mubarak, Rashid and
Inaya.
Year 4
Well done to last week‟s stars, Adam Tibi, Halimatun
Ahmad Taslem, Aaisha Hassan, Ethan Fletcher, Wasay
Kham and Joshua Hatcher

8. Year 4 started the week with our very own mini
Olympics. The children had lots of fun but spent their
time productively, measuring and recording the results
of the different events. We have since turned this data
into a variety of charts and graphs in numeracy. This
week in literacy the children have been working up to
writing their own dilemma story. The children are
continuing to enjoy their work on rainforests and have
been learning about the different layers on the
rainforest in more detail this week.
To Parents of Years 4-6
All classes will return to swimming as of next week (20th May). They will swim to the end of the year.
Year 5
It‟s been heads down and full concentration in Year 5 this week, creating our
„Escape‟ stories. From what I‟ve spotted over hard working shoulders, the
content looks great – the teachers can‟t wait to read them!
As you may know, Ms. Orr is absent at the moment, recovering from an injury
and the subsequent surgery. We are all missing her and many cards have been
sent to cheer her up and wish her a speedy recovery. In the meantime, we are
very lucky to have Mr. Booth in Parakeets and everyday he tells me how much
he is enjoying working with such a lovely class!
Well done Parakeets for making him feel so welcome.
The Stars of the Week
As per the message we sent home on Tuesday, we are
not teaching a spelling rule this week, so instead of sending a rule home, we are asking the children
to practice their spellings on these sites: here are some good websites to develop spelling skills: Try the
spelling game Alien Hangman - http://www.crickweb.co.uk/ks2literacy.html
Or go to http://www.gamequarium.com/spelling.html for a whole variety of spelling games &
activities.
To Parents of Years 4-6
All classes will return to swimming as of next week (20th May). They will swim to the end of the year.

9. Year 6
This week the Year 6 children had an important visitor who came to give a talk about careers. Mr.
Gale, our school Principal, was invited to talk to the children about his life and career in education.
His interesting story was an inspiration to the children who possibly thought that they might also like to
be a teacher one day.
As the SATs tests are scheduled to take place on the 27th - 31st of May, final revision is now taking
place in all Year 6 classrooms. We have created a fantastic display in the corridor that gives the
children some helpful tips to make sure that they perform well on the day. Leading up to the exams, it
is a good idea to have a good balance of work, rest and play. During the exams make sure to
distribute the time well depending on the mark scheme. Always have a system for re-reading and
checking answers for silly slips. Above all, the teachers only want you to do your best and wish the
children the success they deserve.
Behaviour Award Progress Award Volcano of Victory (Yr 6 Top
Award)
(Ospreys) Ali Al Hashmi (Ospreys) Fehim Korkmaz (Ospreys)
Sami Shahrour (Owls) Darius Rameshni Eoin Wright (Owls)
Adel Audhali
Jad Nasser (Owls)
Katrina Radin(Falcons) Hashim Abu Hassan Alanood Alambri (Falcons)
(Falcons)
Riyadh Hassan-Beck (Kestrels) Zara Woodrow (Kestrels) Tahira Kalsoom (Kestrels)
Zahra Jaffar (Eagles) Ali Al Haddad (Eagles) Matthew Pretorius (Eagles)
To Parents of Years 4-6
All classes will return to swimming as of next week (20th May). They will swim to the end of the year.
Dates for your Diary
Saturday 19th May - Tabletop Sale from 9.30am – 12.30pm
Monday 21st May - FOY Meeting at 8.00am
Sunday 27th May - Half term
Sunday 17th June - Primary End of Year Disco (Year 1/2/3 & Year 4/5/6)
(details to follow)
Al Yasmina School
Tel: 02 5014888
email: primarypa@alyasmina.sch.ae