January 5, 2012
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January 5, 2012
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Upcoming EventsAll School News
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| Upcoming Events | back to top |
 | Week At-A-Glance Pre-K and K Parent Tea - All About Conferences Pre-K and K Parent Ed - Connecting Physical Development to Academic Success Middle School ERB Testing Fifth Grade to Middle School Parent Orientation PAECE Meeting Last Day for Friday Enrichment Classes JV Boys Basketball Home Game |
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| All School News | back to top |
 | No Snow? No Way! There’s Lots of Snow and Discounts at Northstar If you like to hit the slopes you’ve probably heard about the lack of snow in the Sierras, however, we know about a spot that has plenty of the white stuff and is offering CAIS families discounts during three days this month. Click here to see all the snow for yourself. CAIS parent and avid skier, Amy Lui has negotiated group discount lift tickets at Northstar, where they are furiously making snow for us. You can choose one day of skiing on Saturday, January 28 or make a weekend of it and ski both January 28 and 29. The CAIS rate is $75 for adults and $35 for child passes each day. The Fine Print If you are interested in a ski weekend at Northstar at the special CAIS discounted rate, please email Amy Lui no later than January 21 and let her know that you would like to sign up. She will send you payment instructions through either PayPal or via USPS. Click here for discount pricing structure. There's more! For those who want an even better deal and don’t have Chinese New Year plans, we have a midweek CAIS ski day on Monday, January 23. The discounted rate is $61 for lift tickets, rental equipment and lessons for those five and up. The Fine Print If you are interested in the Chinese New Year CAIS discounted rate, please email Amy Lui by January 16 and let her know that you would like to sign up. She will send you payment instructions through either PayPal or via USPS. Click here for discount pricing structure. If you have any questions about any of these fantastic ski deals, please contact Amy directly. Parent Education Event - The Pressured Child: Helping Your Child Find Success In School And Life Marin Country Day School is hosting a parent education event on Wednesday, January 18 and has invited CAIS parents to take part. Event Details
Dr. Michael Thompson will share his wisdom, insight and wit regarding the psychological journey that children experience during their 13 years in school. He reminds parents that children are almost never judging themselves by grades, rather they are always monitoring their own development and constantly searching for three things: connection, recognition and a sense of power. He illustrates how children find those in many different arenas of school life. Dr. Thompson is a psychologist, a school consultant, an internationally known speaker and the author of 10 books, including the New York Times bestseller Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys. Upcoming Workshop - Dyslexia: Translating Scientific Progress into Policy and Practice The Parents Education Network - a local coalition of parents collaborating with educators, students and the community to empower and bring academic success to students with learning and attention difficulties - is hosting a special workshop for parents and educators on Thursday, February 2. Event Details
Sally and Bennett Shaywitz are world experts on reading and dyslexia. Bennett Shaywitz is a pioneer in the application of functional brain imaging for the study of reading and dyslexia in children and adults. Sally Shaywitz has devoted her career to helping children and adults with dyslexia; her research provides the basis for understanding the disorder. Together, they originated a widely accepted model of dyslexia that emphasizes the strengths seen in people with dyslexia. They are the founders of the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity. Gearing Up For Year of the Dragon ‘Tis the year of our school mascot! The Chinese classes are roaring with excitement as they prepare and welcome the year of the dragon for Chinese New Year. Unlike last year when the new lunar year fell during the first week of February, festivities commence early this year starting on Friday, January 13. For a whole week, students will engage in a variety of cultural activities that include learning Chinese brush painting, sharing auspicious sayings, learning about festive traditions and making paper crafts to decorate the classrooms. Kindergarten Chinese classes will have a field trip to listen to a concert on Wednesday, January 18, and fourth and fifth grade Chinese classes will visit Chinatown on Thursday, January 19. All classes can look forward to feasting opportunities when they learn to make dumplings in class and host their own Chinese New Year luncheon. Throughout the week, students will also review class performances in preparation for the annual Mass Greeting, where Kindergarten through eighth grade classes participate in the festive showcase assembly. With the school commemorating its 30th anniversary and ringing in the year of our school mascot, this school year definitely brings a lot to celebrate. Please join the Chinese New Year celebration at Mass Greeting on Friday, January 20 starting at 9:00 a.m. in the Oak Street gymnasium. Chinese Program Director Travels to China This Week To help facilitate our international program with SYA Beijing Academy, Chinese Program Director, Kevin Chang will travel to China tomorrow to meet with SYA (School Year Abroad) program faculty and staff. This is CAIS’s first year in developing the partnership and launching CAIS-SYA Beijing Academy, a three-week intensive language immersion program for CAIS seventh grade students. Kevin is looking forward to the opportunities in supporting curriculum planning and sharing best practices with the SYA team. In an effort to build a relationship with the school, he is also eager to observe numerous SYA classrooms and expects to bring back new insight as resources for our Chinese faculty. Following Kevin’s return to San Francisco, CAIS will host a team member from SYA who will visit our school in early spring. The CAIS-SYA Beijing Academy program aims to provide challenging language immersion experience in an authentic learning environment for seventh graders from March 31 to April 22. Please Help Four-year-old in Need and Spread the Word In December Kyle Crawford, a four-year-old boy from San Mateo, was diagnosed with aplastic anemia. He is now hospitalized at Stanford's Lucille Packard fighting for his life. He and his family are desperate to find a bone marrow donor. If they don't find a match in the near future, Kyle will die. The would-be-donor must be half Chinese and half Caucasian. If you are interested in seeing if you or your family member could be a match, please contact the director of the child’s school, Serendipity Preschool. Her name is Patrice Warto patricewarto@gmail.com. Those who participate in the test will have a swab of saliva taken by medical professionals to determine compatibility with Kyle's genetic makeup. Serendipity School will make a to-be-determined financial contribution for the testing or other medical fees. The boy’s parents have offered to absorb the balance, if any, of the $50 per applicant processing fee. Please help spread the word to finding a potential donor for Kyle and please feel free to post this on your Facebook or your other networking sites. Time is against Kyle and the more people reached, the odds are increased of finding a donor. |
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| Development | back to top |
 | Annual Fund Campaign Continues its Momentum Thank you Annual Fund Class Captains and CAIS families for your overwhelming demonstration of support for CAIS. Our incredible team of Annual Fund Class Captains contacted families before the winter break with reminders to make a year-end gift. Their efforts have made for an amazing showering of gifts to CAIS during the break. Thank you Class Captains. CAIS families should be very proud of the donation total of $544,600 from 70% of families to date. First grade gold is the first class to reach 100% giving. What a great showing of generosity from these families who are united in their support for CAIS and the work our teachers are doing. Thank you to everyone who remembered CAIS in their year-end charitable donations made in 2011. With every gift, you are making CAIS a stronger place for your children.Thank you to the following new donors: Vince Ridley and Melissa Sterling, Albert Yu and Suzy Leung, Andrew Owen and Kobi Conaway, Brian and Diane Cragg, Chris and Lisa Babel, Craig and Kyoko Harmer, David and Sandra Belda, Eric Anschutz and Jennifer Toton, Evan Matteo and Rachel Matteo-Boehm, Greg and Yalan King, Jame Ferguson and Christine Wan, James and Sandy Chen, Jeffrey Anhalt and Dana Ellsworth, Joey English and My-Nghi Lo, John Collins and Susan Lai, John DeLoche, Jonathan and Alison Howe, Kenneth and Jian Mellquist, Kenneth Lee and Ying Fung, Kerry and Robin Workman, Ketayun Keown, Lily Alisse, Luke and Hsian Winter, Michael Bauer and Emily He, Michael Clarke and Donna Wei, Peter and Jennifer Heilmann, Peter Scanlon and Nancy Aquino, Randy Condon and Helena Chiu, Randy Wu and Lorrine Chao, Raymond and Lily Lee, Robin and Rachel Bordoli, Roger Kuo and Julia Wong, Scott Yarbrough and Karen Kasch, Shankar Chandran and Rong Pan, Vance Maverick and Pei Yu. |
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| Early Childhood Division | back to top |
 | New California Car Seat Law May Affect You! Get out the measuring stick and scale, as of January 1, a new California car seat law is in effect which requires kids to ride in booster seats until they are EITHER eight years of age OR 4'9” tall. The fine for anyone who is not compliant with this law is $479 for the first offense. Prior to 2012, the car seat law required children to be six years of age OR 60 pounds. Click here for the full scoop. Tuition Assistance Deadline is February 1 If you haven’t already started the tuition assistance process for the 2012-13 school year, the deadline is quickly approaching. The online submission deadline for all applications is Wednesday, February 1, 2012. Your tax return must follow the submission, and be postmarked by Friday, February 10, 2012. This year we are utilizing the online service of Financial Aid for School Tuition (FAST) to process applications. FAST does not decide whether tuition assistance will be given or how much to give; rather FAST provides a need-based tuition assistance analysis service which includes a recommendation of what a family should reasonably contribute toward tuition. All information from FAST is kept confidential. Results are reviewed by the Tuition Assistance Committee who makes recommendations to the Head of School based on next year’s budget. Upon approval by the Head of School, tuition assistance offers are then sent to families. Here’s what you need to start the process:
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| Lower School | back to top |
 | Tuition Assistance Deadline is February 1 If you haven’t already started the tuition assistance process for the 2012-13 school year, the deadline is quickly approaching. The online submission deadline for all applications is Wednesday, February 1, 2012. Your tax return must follow the submission, and be postmarked by Friday, February 10, 2012. This year we are utilizing the online service of Financial Aid for School Tuition (FAST) to process applications. FAST does not decide whether tuition assistance will be given or how much to give; rather FAST provides a need-based tuition assistance analysis service which includes a recommendation of what a family should reasonably contribute toward tuition. All information from FAST is kept confidential. Results are reviewed by the Tuition Assistance Committee who makes recommendations to the Head of School based on next year’s budget. Upon approval by the Head of School, tuition assistance offers are then sent to families. Here’s what you need to start the process:
CAIS-FAIS Play Yard Community Project Please join CAIS and FAIS families in the garden installation and painting project on the Hickory play yard on Saturday, January 14 for painting planter boxes and stencils and Saturday, January 28 for garden installation; bring gloves and small spades, as needed. Handy people, garden enthusiasts and community support are needed to:
If you wish to participate in this community project, please sign up here. New California Car Seat Law May Affect You! Get out the measuring stick and scale, as of January 1, a new California car seat law is in effect which requires kids to ride in booster seats until they are EITHER eight years of age OR 4'9” tall. The fine for anyone who is not compliant with this law is $479 for the first offense. Prior to 2012, the car seat law required children to be six years of age OR 60 pounds. Click here for the full scoop. |
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| Middle School | back to top |
 | Tuition Assistance Deadline is February 1 If you haven’t already started the tuition assistance process for the 2012-13 school year, the deadline is quickly approaching. The online submission deadline for all applications is Wednesday, February 1, 2012. Your tax return must follow the submission, and be postmarked by Friday, February 10, 2012. This year we are utilizing the online service of Financial Aid for School Tuition (FAST) to process applications. FAST does not decide whether tuition assistance will be given or how much to give; rather FAST provides a need-based tuition assistance analysis service which includes a recommendation of what a family should reasonably contribute toward tuition. All information from FAST is kept confidential. Results are reviewed by the Tuition Assistance Committee who makes recommendations to the Head of School based on next year’s budget. Upon approval by the Head of School, tuition assistance offers are then sent to families. Here’s what you need to start the process:
Deadline Approaching for CAIS-SYA Beijing Academy THANK YOU for the enthusiastic response to the new CAIS-SYA Beijing Academy! We are pleased to have received 17 registration forms so far; however, we have only met half of our goal of 100% participation from the seventh grade student body. As a gentle reminder, the online registration form and $500 deposit are due by Monday, January 9. The online registration form can be found and completed here. The CAIS-SYA Beijing Academy is a three-week intensive language immersion program that CAIS has developed in collaboration with School Year Abroad (SYA) and Beijing Sanfan Middle School. The group will depart on Saturday, March 31 and return to San Francisco on Sunday, April 22. Highlights of this exciting program include:
Cost to families is only $1000! Financial assistance may also be available to eligible families. We have been able to move forward with this program largely due to donations from an anonymous donor and the Board of Trustees. We are grateful for the generous gifts that enable us to take on this program and weave the "embrace Chinese" piece of our new mission into the lives of our students. We are committed to making this experience accessible to as many students as possible and would love to have 100% participation from the seventh grade student body. Click Click here to complete the application process by Monday, January 9. If you have any questions pertaining to CAIS-SYA Beijing Academy, please email Nicole Wilson. |
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