St. Nicholas

NewsletterUpcoming events

DezembroFri 3rd

Years 5 & 6 Art WorkshopSat 4th

Junior Swimming GalaTue 7th

Rock'n History (19:00 to 20:30)Fri 10th & Tue 14th

Senior House BasketballTue 14th

Christmas Concert (19:30 to 20:30)Fri 17th

Last Day for Junior & Infant Pupils (12:00)Senior Christmas LunchLast Day for Senior Students (15:15)

JanuaryMon 17th to Mon 24th

Mock Exams (Yrs 10 & 12)Mon 31st

School Starts for Pupils

TripsY2 - Galeria dos PãesY8 - Ice SkatingY10 - Ibirapuera Park

www.stnicholas.com.br :: November II :: 2010

Lost & FoundMany, many uniforms items, cake dishes, Tupperware containers, shoes, trainers, PE

kit and green bags are in the LOST AND FOUND cupboard! Could pupils and parents please collect from Maitê in Reception.

"Is that a caterpillar on your lip Sir?"You may have noticed a lot more facial hair in the form of MOUSTACHES around the school in the past couple of weeks. This is because the 'Distinguished Gentlemen' of St Nicholas staff are partaking in MOVEMBER.(with the loving support of our female friends and family!!)

MOVEMBER is a worldwide event designed to raise awareness of cancer and its effect on the male population. This year we are campaigning on behalf of several charities to fund the research into and treatment of Prostate cancer.

We would like to ask for your generous support in this. We will be placing collection boxes around the school, and organising other events related to the cause (there is even talk of a calendar!!),but the easiest way to support us is to go directly to the website and donate to our team "Sao Paulo Mo's". It's very easy to do and for a very good cause.

Unfortunately, at the moment there is no MOVEMBER site for charities in Brazil, but we have requested that the organisers recognise us for next year, and have requested that some of the funds that we raise be directed to charities here in Brazil. We are still waiting for an answer.

Thank you in advance for your generous support.

The website link is http://uk.movember.com/donate.

Mo Bros

In an attempt to save paper, more and more correspondence to parents is being sent by e-mail. Could parents please make sure that e-mail addresses are updated on the school data base by sending an e-mail to office@stnicholas.com.br

Addresses and phone numbers can be updated in the same way.

E-mail Addresses

DecemberSaturday 4th

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Newsletter by e-mailAs from this edition, the Newsletter will not be printed anymore, it is available to parents on website and a link will be sent by e-mail every time it is published. Some hard copies will be available in reception.

SportsJunior Girls Football

Mr Moss

St. Nicks U11 girls were on the sharp end of a let's just say "not the best of starts" against the local rivals as this memorable and enjoyable friendly descended into some good individual performances and a pleasing team performance.

A fine strike from St Paul’s and a bizarre own goal in the first opening minutes put St. Nicks on the back foot, initially and although trailing – but not out of the match, improvements soon happened – the girls positional sense, passing and movement on and off the ball created five opportunities and an open goal miss. Without a touch of luck and three fine saves from the rival goalkeeper, the scoreline would have been far different and a truer reflection of the game.

St Nicks 0 vs. St Paul’s 2

A poor start but a rewarding ending.

We would like to congratulate the kids from RPG and their tutor Mr. Carlos, who participated in the 5th Festbandas of Hebraica. All band members have showed loads of independence and commitment as well as a huge amount of courage as they stood up in a real musical competition against professional bands from Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and even Argentina. After an astonishing performance our children were awarded with a special prize, and Cacau was recognized as a guitar player revelation.

The band and Mr. Carlos would like to say a big thank you to all parents, teachers, pupils and members of St Nicholas community that went there to support us.

See you all at the next concert!

RPG Band Success

Durante as aulas de Português do Year 10, com o Mr. Costa e a Ms. Nogueira, lemos e analisamos uma peça de Gil Vicente (escritor da era do Humanismo, em que o teocentrismo passou a ser substituído pelo antropocentrismo), intitulada O Auto da barca do Inferno. Para conseguir absorver e aproveitar melhor o contexto e as críticas alegóricas à sociedade implícitas na peça, fomos ao teatro e assistimos a uma montagem desta obra de Gil Vicente, que está presente na lista dos principais vestibulares do Brasil. A peça é um auto de moralidade, que explora a sociedade da época e que pode ser refletido com facilidade no século XXI.

É inevitável. Assim que a pessoa se senta, está, de uma maneira ou de outra, interagindo com as personagens e fazendo parte da peça. O show começa assim que o espectador coloca os pés no teatro, pois é abordada instantaneamente pelas várias personagens que circulam livremente pela plateia. Antes mesmo de apagarem as luzes para que a peça comece, o público está rindo com as palhaçadas do parvo ou admirando a peculiaridade dos movimentos do companheiro do diabo. O ambiente é muito simples, o que nos deixa ainda mais à vontade com a situação e tira o nosso medo de responder à interação.

Subitamente, as luzes se apagam e a peça começa. No palco, a posição das barcas, o lugar do anjo e do diabo, o buraco negro infinito que está no centro, tudo isso tem uma grande relevância. O anjo e o diabo estão em espécies de varandas, acima das barcas, o que demonstra seu poder e autoridade como juízes dos mortos. O buraco no centro é o caminho do judeu, pois não é cristão e não é aceito em barca alguma. Isto foi uma estratégia interessante do diretor, que respeitou a religião e usou o destino da personagem para mostrar ao público que o paraíso e o inferno são criações cristãs, portanto só relevantes a eles.

No decorrer da peça, os atores utilizam uma estratégia interessante para “dar uma quebrada” (palavras do diretor). Eles trazem conceitos modernos a uma peça arcaica para incluir ainda mais o público, como chamar o Fidalgo (que usava uma peruca branca e muita maquiagem) de “Lady Gaga”; o companheiro do diabo (que tinha o rosto pintado de vermelho e orelhas pontiagudas) de “Avatar”; fazer uma imitação do Sílvio Santos e até brincar com a ideia de homossexualidade e malícia (o que pode ser considerado bastante popular entre os jovens de hoje em dia) nas falas do diabo.

Por ser um auto de moralidade, Gil Vicente quer que o público reflita sobre as razões das “sentenças” dos mortos para não agir de maneira parecida na vida. Mesmo sendo uma peça publicada em 1517, podemos trazê-la à nossa sociedade atual e ver que “o homem evolui, mas a essência é a mesma”, como disse o diretor (João Paulo) em sua explicação ao público após a peça. Por exemplo, o sapateiro representa os comerciantes que compram barato de terceiros e vendem a preços absurdos enquanto o procurador e o corregedor são os políticos corruptos. O mais interessante, porém, é que, para nós, a estranheza causada pelo português medieval nos faz pensar que se trata de um português sofisticado, quando, na verdade, Gil Vicente escreveu a peça para o povo e utilizou gírias da época, xingamentos e linguagem coloquial.

Finalmente, vale observar que O Auto da Barca do Inferno é uma peça muito divertida e interativa, o que a diferencia das outras a que o público apenas assiste passivamente. Olhar para o palco é como observar uma apresentação de circo, no sentido de que nunca existe uma só coisa em que podemos nos focar, mas sim várias situações que você pode optar por observar ou não. A diversão e a comicidade são garantidas (especialmente devido ao parvo, ao ajudante do diabo e ao próprio diabo) e é uma peça que nos mostra um grande conteúdo histórico e a evolução da língua portuguesa através do tempo.

Relato da leitura de uma peça teatral do HumanismoSophie de Barros (Year 10) Cultura brasileira agita a Book Week na St. Nicholas

A Book Week deste ano foi caracterizada pelo envolvimento animado e pela discussão sobre literatura em toda a escola. O Departamento de Português teve uma participação efetiva na realização de vários eventos focados, principalmente, na conversa direta com importantes poetas que escrevem em português e que, de diferentes maneiras, se fizeram presentes na St. Nicholas.

Na segunda-feira, alunos do Year 7 leram poemas e conversaram, via Skype, com a poeta portuguesa Odete Ferreira, que demonstrou muita felicidade pela oportunidade de falar, do outro lado do Atlântico, com nossa turma, que comentou com ela seus poemas.

Na terça-feira, o poeta César Borges Magalhães passou o dia na escola declamando performaticamente seus poemas para alunos do Infant, do Junior e do Senior. Ele demonstrou que a poesia tem ritmo, melodia e harmonia, além de discutir a imagem que a palavra desenha nos versos. Em cada fala, sorteou vários livros

seus, que foram recebidos como pequenos troféus pelos alunos, que, carinhosamente, receberam autógrafos do autor.

A Semana do Livro também contou com a presença do grupo Cupuaçu, que apresentou um trecho da tradicional festa maranhense Bumba-Meu-Boi. Os alunos do Year 1 e do Year 6 confeccionaram seus trajes e dançaram junto com o grupo vestidos tipicamente. O Grupo Cupuaçu apresenta essa festa três vezes ao ano: no sábado de Aleluia, no dia de São João e no final do ano, todas no Butantã, no Morro do Querosene, há 15 anos.

Na sexta-feira, o Year 7 e o Year 11 conversaram com o jovem poeta Gustavo Schorr sobre seus poemas e sobre poetas que, como ele mesmo, começaram a escrever jovens, como Rimbaud e Álvares de Azevedo. Fizeram perguntas a ele e lhe entregaram poemas que eles mesmos escreveram em aula.

Finalmente, também na sexta-feira, a poeta e letrista Alice Ruiz, duas vezes vencedora do maior prêmio literário do Brasil – o Prêmio Jabuti – participou de uma conversa sobre Hai Kais com os alunos dos Years 10, 11 e 12 no Hall da escola. Alice Ruiz também falou sobre a diferença entre escrever poesia e escrever letra de música, mencionando seu trabalho em parceira com grandes compositores brasileiros, como Arnaldo Antunes, Itamar Assunção e Zélia Duncan, entre tantos outros. No final, declamou seu poema “Sem Receita”, emocionando toda a plateia, que, de pé, pediu para ela voltar em breve à escola. Sobre a conversa com nossos alunos, a poeta declarou: “Eu adorei ter estado com a turma da St. Nicholas. Raramente eu tenho um público jovem com tamanha excelência nas perguntas”.

É inegável, portanto, que a Book Week foi uma verdadeira Semana do Livro. E que esta Semana dure muitos anos em cada um de seus sete dias.

Departamento de Português

Uma visita poética

Ana Bruner (Year 9)

Na terça-feira, dia 09 de Novembro, o Year 9 recebeu a visita do poeta César Magalhães Borges, que nos contou um pouco sobre seus poemas e também sobre a relação dos poemas com a música e a pintura.

O poeta nos mostrou que, como a música, os poemas possuem ritmo e melodia. Ele também mostrou como a sonoridade é importante nos poemas e declamou “Trem de Ferro”, de Manuel Bandeira, e “Mosca”, de sua própria autoria. César Magalhães Borges ainda apresentou alguns ideogramas japoneses e a relação entre a pintura e a poesia.

Em seguida, César Borges falou um pouco sobre a origem da palavra “trabalho”, que veio do latim “tripalium”, que era um instrumento de tortura. Após essa explicação, ele declamou o poema “Pão”, também de sua autoria, que fala sobre o trabalho.

Eu gostei muito da visita do poeta, pois aprendi bastante sobre o processo de criação de um poema. Também foi muito interessante ver como a música, pintura e poesia podem se misturar. No final da conversa, César sorteou cinco de seus livros para os alunos poderem desfrutar ainda mais de sua poesia.

Conversa com Gustavo Schor

Dia 12 de Novembro, o Year 7 recebeu a visita do poeta Gustavo Schor. Ele nos contou que escreve poesias desde pequeno, disse-nos que começou a escrever por volta dos 10, 11 anos. Na visita dele, a gente falou sobre o que era poesia. Ele nos leu algumas poesias e nos perguntou o que elas significavam para nós. A maioria das poesias dele parecia ser complicada de entender, mas ele disse que cada pessoa entendia da sua forma e isso era o que tornava a poesia legal. Ele também nos mostrou um livro que escreveu entre os seus 16 e 18 anos.

Nós lhe entregamos um poema que fizemos para ele e ele o leu em voz alta. A visita foi muito legal e nós pudemos aprender bastante com ela.

Paloma Martin (Year 7)

Conversa com o poeta Cesar

Borges

César Borges é um poeta que já escreveu vários livros, como: Contrastes (1987), Canto Bélico (1994) e Ciclo da lua (1999). Ele começou a escrever inspirado no poema “Trem de Ferro”, de Manuel Bandeira. Esse poema inspirou César a escrever seu poema A Mosca, que foi um dos mais famosos poemas de sua autoria.

César Borges também escreve hai kais, poemas de estilo japonês, onde são usadas 17 sílabas. Ele fez um hai kai chamado A Tarde. Lendo esse hai kai dá para sentir como um poema tão pequeno pode sugerir coisas tão grandes.

Ele é uma inspiração para os jovens escritores por tudo o que já realizou até hoje e o que pretende realizar no futuro. Nas palestras que ele realiza nas escolas, presta um grande serviço para a cultura.

Kyle Sogl (Year 9)

Year 8 Students go to Paraisópolis

Last Tuesday we (Damasia Correch and Lucila Goldfeld) and three other Year 8 students (Yoon Shu, Esther Hwang, and Camila Martin) went with the Year 12 CAS students to a school in Paraisópolis, where the CAS students teach the children English and do fun activities. We had the pleasure of going to deliver gifts that were prepared by the whole Year 8 as part of our Diaries Unit in English classes.

The children were happy to see that we had brought them so many wonderful presents

for their classrooms. We specifically went with Abram to work with a group of 7-year-olds, but we arrived there to find out that they were on a fieldtrip, so we worked with the younger 5-year-old children. We taught them how to say a few animals in English, and even though they insisted that Spiderman was NOT the same as Homem-Aranha, they ended up having lots of fun naming the animals that we drew on the board and drawing some themselves.

The new toys, kindly donated by the Year 8 students, are going to be used as prizes throughout the year, while the second-hand toys will be kept in the classrooms for the little ones to play with. The director was very appreciative of our eagerness to help them out, especially the CAS students, who go there every Tuesday afternoon. We thank all the Year 8s for putting so much effort into making these boxes for the people in Paraisópolis!

Damasia Correch & Lucila Goldfeld

The Infants’ Book Week was a huge success!

To begin with, on Monday morning, everyone was invited to stop whatever they were doing and choose a book to read.

Children had the chance to listen to different types of stories told by special story tellers: the parents. Throughout the week they also visited booksellers and swapped books at the library.

The Early Years children joined in a musical parade where famous book characters could be seen. Meanwhile kids from Kg. on up took part in a beautiful dance on the court listening to the Book Week version of “Black Eyed Peas”.

All this excitement led to a group effort all around the Infant School and the result was over 2500 books read at the end of the week.

Congratulations everyone!

Infant's Book Week

Kindergarten ZOne of the nicest things about our Book Week was to celebrate the diversity around school. In Kindergarten we have children from different part of the world. To celebrate this internationalism Kg Z invited Mrs Yu to read us a Chinese Rhyming Book. That was a lovely moment where children could show their ability in speaking so many languages.

Thank you for all those who came to read to our Kindergarten classes.

Videoconferência com poetade Portugal

Catarina, Year 7

Na segunda-feira, dia 08 de novembro, a classe do Year 7 estava estudando poesia quando a Ms. Lima chamou todos para falar com a poeta portuguesa Odete Ferreira. Apesar da imagem e do som estarem um pouco ruins, pudemos fazer perguntas para ela sobre sua poesia e sua inspiração.

Toda a classe falou com ela via webcam e Skype. Lemos o poema “Divagações” em seu blog, o portate-mal.blogspot.com.

Escolhemos as estrofes de que mais gostamos e falamos porque tínhamos gostado. Achamos seu poema incrível e conversamos sobre nossa experiência anterior com videoconferências e vários do grupo já tinham feito videoconferência com algum parente europeu: na Inglaterra ou em Portugal.

Todos gostaram da experiência e pudemos entrar novamente no seu blog e conferir que ela escreveu sobre nossa turma no dia 10 de novembro.

Alice Ruiz: poesia Sem Receita

Alice Ruiz, vencedora de dois prêmios Jabutis da Poesia, mãe e poeta, nos inspirou com a sua presença na sexta-feira para finalizar a semana do Book Week.

Uma poetisa esplêndida, que cativou

e contagiou a todos com a sua energia inesgotável e sua paixão pelo que faz. Durante a conversa sobre a sua profissão, ela mencionou que o tempo é irrelevante quando se trata da criação de uma obra artística.

Ela escreve desde os nove anos, mas só publicou o seu primeiro livro de poesia aos trinta e quatro anos, muitas das quais foram transformadas em música, como por exemplo, a mais conhecida, “Socorro”. Esta obra foi muito debatida durante toda a conversa, pois conseguiu despertar a atenção de todos os estudantes ao desejarem discutir o paradoxo encontrado na letra, que fala de alguém tão desesperado pedindo socorro para a falta de emoção.

Seu talento descobre inspiração em tudo a sua volta, especialmente na natureza, quando escreve os seus Hai Kais. Mas eis a pergunta que levanto: onde Alice encontra tanta inspiração nesta falta de natureza, na selva de concreto que é a cidade de São Paulo? E ela nos respondeu: “A natureza esta em toda parte, está no por do sol, na chuva, nos pássaros, no jardim da minha casa ou até na poça que se formou no chão após uma tempestade”.

No final, a poetisa nos ensinou que não devemos nos deixar afetar pela opinião dos outros quando se trata de algo que é feito de coração, e o importante é viver sem fronteiras e “sem receita”, título de um lindo poema escrito por ela e que Alice Ruiz declamou para os alunos.

Fernanda Amad (Year 10)

Pronunciation is a tricky thing! Circle the odd word out in the groups below according to their pronunciation. Give your answers to Mrs. Toffoli (ESL) and you may get an R.O.A.!

Name: ______________________________________ Year: ______________Last issue’s winners: Congratulations to Luiza (3Y), Marina (4X), Bernardo and Andressa (4Y), Micaela and Lebo (5X), Felipe and

Dhruv (5Y) and Bryan Cho (6X)

LANGUAGE CORNER ?? ?Dedé Toffoli

a) TASTY – NASTY – PASTY – HASTY

b) GO – SO – DO - NO

c) SHOES – GOES – FOES - TOES

d) BEARD – CLEARED – FEARED - HEARD

e) SEAT – BEAT – TREAT - GREAT

f) WRONG – AMONG – PROLONG - BELONG

g) GIVE – FIVE – DIVE – HIVE

Universidade e Carreira“Acesso ao Mundo

Corporativo”Vestibular

Alunos do Year 11 e 12 assistiram no dia 17/11/10, à Palestra “ Acesso ao Mundo Corporativo”, ministrada pela Profa Silvia Boarin – Coordenadora do curso de Administração da ESEG (Escola Superior de Engenharia e Gestão). A representante da ESEG ressaltou a importância de uma boa formação, do conhecimento da língua inglesa, ética e liderança.

A FUVEST (Fundação Universitária para o Vestibular), divulgou a relação candidato/vaga para o Vestibular 2011 da Universidade de São Paulo e Faculdade de Ciências Médicas da Santa Casa de São Paulo. Os cursos mais concorridos foram os seguintes:

Carreiras 2010 2011

Arquitetura - São Carlos 16,56 26,04

Artes Cênicas - Bacharelado 27,07 30,27

Curso Superior do Audiovisual 34,14 31,40

Design 29,93 28,53

Jornalismo 32,30 34,62

Publicidade e Propaganda 39,72 44,44

Relações Internacionais 37,52 37,82

Medicina 41,73 49,25

Ciências Médicas - Ribeirão Preto 36,97 37,35

Psicologia 25,84 29,17

Engenharia Civil - São Carlos 26,37 36,52

Para maiores detalhes sobre os demais cursos, acesse o site www.fuvest.br

Mystery! Horror! Romance! Adventure! And lots of Rock’n Roll!

Mr. F would like to invite you all to watch this term’s Rock’n History Play, “The Phantom of the School Festival”. This is going to be the first full theatrical presentation of the Rock’n History ECA to take place on the Tuesday December 7th, at 19:00. The play is an adaptation of the Rock Opera movie “The Phantom of the Paradise”, by the acclaimed director Brian de Palma, a rock version of the classic story “Phantom of the Opera”.

Tickets will be available at the school’s reception.

Rock’n History Presentation

The Phantom of The School Festival

“We raised a lot of money!”

“It was a nice day. It was so fun to collect the money at the gate.”

“It was hard work to count so much money.”

“We hope S.O.S. Mata Atlantica can help a lot of animals with this money.”

“We worked as a group to make posters and count the money.”

Year 2

Agradecemos às mães do PTA pela colaboração ao projeto Semente do Amanhã, proporcionando muita alegria no dia das crianças, através da doação de brinquedos e roupas, como também no investimento para realização de uma festa.

Projeto Semente do Amanhã

The First House Cake Competition

The second event organised by the house captains and vice captains was a tremendous success. They organised a cake competition where the participants had to make a cake and prove they made it by taking photos or filming. There were over 30 cakes from Year 3 to Year 6. The judges had a tough time choosing which cake tasted the best as they were all delicious.

We would like to thank Mr. Chambers and Ms. Freitas who helped cut and deliver the cakes and Ms. Keunicke and Ms. Tanganelli for being judges together with the house representatives.

In the end they decided that Vitória form Y4x and F r a n c i s c o from Y6y made the most delicious cakes!

Well done for all those who participated and made the event so successful!

The next event to happen will be on Make a Difference Day where children should create a St. Nickible costume to represent their qualities as heroes.

Year 7 trip to Serra da Cantareira Park

Have you ever noticed it is cold and windy in certain locations whilst in other places it is warm and calm? Year 7 certainly have. They have been working on an enquiry to find out if St Nicholas School has a microclimate.

Year 7 students then took this knowledge and understanding to the field. Would Serra Cantareira Park have a microclimate too? Would it be different from St. Nicholas school?

The fieldtrip not only looked at the microclimate but also tourism management. Students used their map skills studied at the start of the year to produce a detailed map of the forest trails so tourists wouldn’t get lost (you are lost without Geography). Geographical skills such as using a compass, working out distance and scale were used in this task.

Next was the steep walk up to Pedra Grande. Up we went, through the Mata Atlantica, amidst the birds, and via the monkeys and snakes. The view was awesome. With a geographical eye the students made a sketch of the view and added annotations of the different bairros, rivers and the distant mountains of Serra do Mar.

After lunch the geographers observed a change in the clouds and an increase in wind speed which signified a storm was on its way; it was time to leave. We had a quick look at the pond, made some more microclimate observations and then back to the bus.

Well done year 7!

1st dayThe first day started at 6:30 am on a Thursday and it was a long but rewarding bus ride of about 6 hours with one stop to buy healthy food and to go to the restroom. After that we decided the team leaders. We arrived at the camping site at 12 am and went to build our tents. We handed the equipment out and helped other pupils to put their tents up. Later we took our bags to the tents and gathered round ready to leave. We split up into two groups: abseiling and hiking. The abseiling was very exciting and the hiking was also amusing. We arrived at the camp site at

6:00. We got the cooking group to cook delicious spaghetti with three different sauces.

2nd dayWe got up early and got ready for a long and tiring day. We had a delicious breakfast (my compliments to the cooking team for the pancakes) and prepared our lunch for the trip. We took an hour and a half going up a hill to get to the plain part of the hike. When we got to the rock we split again into two groups: abseiling and climbing. The climbing group had lunch immediately and listened to Mr. Pearcy’s jokes. We got the equipment on and tried to climb (successful ones: Nodoka, Yoon, Jason, Gabriella) the gigantic rock. The abseiling group walked for an hour to arrive at the site. They took a break to eat their lunch while the guides went to prepare the equipment. We all took a turn at the 30m rock. It was also chilly up there. Thankfully Mr. Highdale knew a heating method (penguin’s method) up there and we were saved but unfortunately we couldn’t go twice. We all gathered up back at the gate. We arrived at the camp at 5:00pm and had a magnificent chicken stroganoff. Later on we packed our bags for the morning.

3rd dayWe woke up and took our bags to the cafeteria. We had another magnificent breakfast and took off. This time we (Lucas Bender and Sofia) went hiking on a very cloudy day. We had to use totems to lead us up to the rock. We (Congratulations to Mr. Pearcy, Ms. Van, Sofia, Nicholas, Bender, Ivan, Lucas Gomes, and Jassen) took the liberty to go to the mountain’s peak but it was very cold and windy. We arrived at the bus and left. Finally we had a decent lunch and headed back to São Paulo.

Year 8 Life Skills Trip to ItatiaiaLucas Bender & Sofia Soares (Year 8)

Last day to borrow items

from the library

The last day to borrow books, DVDs etc from the Library will be Friday December 3rd.

The materials must be returned by Friday December 10th.

Library Reminder

The Eco Bags are waiting for you! If you are interested in buying the new Eco Bag please talk to the Marketing Department or any of the girls from Year 6 involved in the Enviromental Group (Diana, Minji, Giovanna and Maria). The bag costs R$15,00 and the money will be used for the Eco Corner Projects.

Eco Bags The last day for all non-paid ECAs will be December 10th. Capoeira, Rhythmic Gymnastics and Tennis will finish during the last week of school.

ECAs

1st - World AIDS Day is dedicated to raise people’s awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection, which has killed more than 25 million people, and infecting an estimated 38.6 million people living with HIV, more than half a million (570,000) were children.

1st to 9th - Hanukkah also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday beginning on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may fall anytime from late November to late December. The festival is observed by the kindling of lights on each night of the holiday: One on the first night, two on the second, until the eighth day when all lights are lit.

7th - Pearl Harbor Day is a commemoration of the day when United States Pacific Fleet base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii was attacked by the Imperial Japanese Navy, on the morning of December 7, 1941 that made the United States enter World War II.

10th - Human Rights Day was declared so that all of us can become aware of our rights and create awareness among others, of people who are deprived of their rights. This year is the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

24th - Christmas Eve, the night before Christmas Day, is observed by Christians around the world with special meals with family or friends, gift-giving, and for Catholics, a midnight mass.

25th - Christmas Day is a commemoration of the birth of Jesus Christ, and modern traditions include the display of Nativity scenes, Holly and Christmas trees, the exchange of gifts and cards, and the arrival of Father Christmas or Santa Claus on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning. Popular Christmas themes include the promotion of goodwill and peace.

26th - Boxing Day is a public holiday celebrated in the United Kingdom, Canada and most other Commonwealth countries, or alternatively on the next weekday after Christmas. Different countries have different ways of celebrating this holiday, but

many of them observe the day with post-Christmas sales and various sporting events.

26th December to 1st January - Kwanzaa is a week-long Pan-African festival primarily honoring African-American heritage, observed almost exclusively in the United States of America. Activities for the occasion include candle-lighting, pouring of libations, and a feast and gift-giving on the last day.

31st - New Year’s Eve is celebrated with family gatherings and parties to mark the end of the year and to welcome the new one. Many cultures use fireworks and other forms of noise making as part of the celebration.

Commemorations, celebrations and fun events around the worldAction Committee / International Committee

December

Think Green

Vertical garden!

Ms Vassellucci

Urbanisation has robbed Mother Nature of space to place her beautiful brood of plants and flowers. Known also as a living wall, green wall or sky farm, vertical gardens are well-suited for an urban environment where space is limited. So if you can’t go wide, what do you do?

One of the most well-known buildings that have adopted this greening effect is the ‘Musee Du Quai Branly’ which is a French museum near the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It is home to one of the best examples of vertical garden and was created by artist Patrick Blanc.

You go up!Many business establishments are going green in their step towards being both environmentally-friendly in today’s urban jungle. These features are becoming more popular inside office buildings, homes, and retail stores for several reasons. Vegetated roofs and walls affected on these surfaces reduce the urban heat-island effect. Not just a spectacular sight to behold, vertical gardens help filter clean air into the building where they grow. This also has economical impact as well, as vertical gardens are good insulators that protect the building from the cold in the winter and naturally cool the building in summer. This keeps energy costs low.

What You Should Be Mindful of When Building A Vertical Garden

The plants will need to take hold of the structure that supports it, and in turn those structures must be strong and sound enough to bear the weight of the plant. You should take into account roof loads, any problems that may arise from leaking, or any damage that plant’s root can inflict on the architectural surface.

It’s a no-brainer that you will need to supply the living wall with enough nutrient-rich water. This should be channeled from top to bottom of the wall, allowing gravity to work its magic, through a network of irrigation that will cover the whole surface so that water is evenly distributed through the whole surface. Uneven distribution may cause a skewed growth, so unless this is the desired look you are going for you will need to make sure that you build a good irrigation network.

For more information check:www.verticalgardenpatrickblanc.comThe site might take a while to load but it’s worth waiting for!!

Also check:www.verticalgardenplanter.com