lebanon

News From ACS in Beirut, Lebanon

December's News

=By: Tamara ACS 5A = =Last night I sang in the Advanced Choir Christmas Concert, directed by Yara Rubb, our music teacher. The Advanced 2009 Christmas Choir was started by a group of young musicians that came to the music room during their recess, wanting to extend their musical abilities. Since then, The Advanced Choir has been rehearsing every Wednesday since September, working on 15 songs. Our performance last night was one of the most exciting things in my entire life. Our program consisted of songs in Latin, Italian and English. To finish off we sang traditional Christmas carols, with the Elementary Choir. Personally, my favorite songs were Maria Mater, Bella Ciao and A Christmas Carol. There were quite a few soloists, one of them being me. I was so proud to be showing everybody how hard we worked, and I cannot explain how grateful I am to Miss Yara for teaching and guiding us through this. = Want to hear us? Check out my homeroom teacher’s blog. [|__http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blog_id=1042898&mode=comment&blogger_id=143203__] 

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By Ghazi & Shea Each year Beirut holds a marathon called Beirut International Marathon with participants from 49 countries. It started on Oct 19, 2003 and had 6,000 runners. In 2004 the amount of runners doubled to 12,000. It started to promote running, health, and personal achievement. It is organized by the Beirut Marathon Association. Students, such as Ghazi, from ACS school participated in this year’s marathon with over 20,000 people participating. Here is Ghazi’s thoughts about the marathon: “I was very excited about this arrangement, but to my disappointment, I regretted signing up. I woke up in the morning feeling good and dressed. When we began walking to the starting line I knew I was ready. When we started, the race was getting boring after having to walk five km since 20,000 people ran and almost half the kids were under 7. The age limit was 9 – 17 so nobody was respecting the rules. I have experienced it now, and I know how it feels, so next year, if I run, I’ll compare it and see what has changed.”

__October/November News__
 * __Student Writing__**

<span style="font-family: Blox; font-size: 9.0pt; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-arabic-font-family: Blox; mso-armenian-font-family: Blox; mso-ascii-font-family: Blox; mso-asciisym-font-family: Blox; mso-bengali-font-family: Blox; mso-bopomofo-font-family: Blox; mso-braille-font-family: Blox; mso-canadianabor-font-family: Blox; mso-cherokee-font-family: Blox; mso-currency-font-family: Blox; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Blox; mso-default-font-family: Blox; mso-devanagari-font-family: Blox; mso-ethiopic-font-family: Blox; mso-eudc-font-family: Blox; mso-georgian-font-family: Blox; mso-greek-font-family: Blox; mso-gurmukhi-font-family: Blox; mso-halfwidthkana-font-family: Blox; mso-han-font-family: Blox; mso-hangul-font-family: Blox; mso-hansurrogate-font-family: Blox; mso-hebrew-font-family: Blox; mso-kana-font-family: Blox; mso-kannada-font-family: Blox; mso-khmer-font-family: Blox; mso-lao-font-family: Blox; mso-latin-font-family: Blox; mso-latinext-font-family: Blox; mso-malayalam-font-family: Blox; mso-mongolian-font-family: Blox; mso-myanmar-font-family: Blox; mso-nonhansurrogate-font-family: Blox; mso-ogham-font-family: Blox; mso-oriya-font-family: Blox; mso-runic-font-family: Blox; mso-sinhala-font-family: Blox; mso-syriac-font-family: Blox; mso-tamil-font-family: Blox; mso-telugu-font-family: Blox; mso-thaana-font-family: Blox; mso-thai-font-family: Blox; mso-tibetan-font-family: Blox; mso-yi-font-family: Blox;">**Torture!** <span style="font-family: Blox; language: en-US; mso-ansi-language: en-US; mso-arabic-font-family: Blox; mso-armenian-font-family: Blox; mso-ascii-font-family: Blox; mso-asciisym-font-family: Blox; mso-bengali-font-family: Blox; mso-bopomofo-font-family: Blox; mso-braille-font-family: Blox; mso-canadianabor-font-family: Blox; mso-cherokee-font-family: Blox; mso-currency-font-family: Blox; mso-cyrillic-font-family: Blox; mso-default-font-family: Blox; mso-devanagari-font-family: Blox; mso-ethiopic-font-family: Blox; mso-eudc-font-family: Blox; mso-georgian-font-family: Blox; mso-greek-font-family: Blox; mso-gurmukhi-font-family: Blox; mso-halfwidthkana-font-family: Blox; mso-han-font-family: Blox; mso-hangul-font-family: Blox; mso-hansurrogate-font-family: Blox; mso-hebrew-font-family: Blox; mso-kana-font-family: Blox; mso-kannada-font-family: Blox; mso-khmer-font-family: Blox; mso-lao-font-family: Blox; mso-latin-font-family: Blox; mso-latinext-font-family: Blox; mso-malayalam-font-family: Blox; mso-mongolian-font-family: Blox; mso-myanmar-font-family: Blox; mso-nonhansurrogate-font-family: Blox; mso-ogham-font-family: Blox; mso-oriya-font-family: Blox; mso-runic-font-family: Blox; mso-sinhala-font-family: Blox; mso-syriac-font-family: Blox; mso-tamil-font-family: Blox; mso-telugu-font-family: Blox; mso-thaana-font-family: Blox; mso-thai-font-family: Blox; mso-tibetan-font-family: Blox; mso-yi-font-family: Blox;">ACS 5C Tala and Maya **Tired** I’m so tired. I work so hard and my food is shockingly disgusting. I am so skinny and tall and my feet are always attached together. I get dizzy very often but at least I’m not always being stared at and poked. Nobody ever gives me a shower so I am so filthy. I only move on a yearly basis but at least I don’t get sat on like those 4 legged creatures. I was supposed to get a three day rest this week but nobody helped me calm down. ACS 5C Joe Empty It’s so empty, nothing’s in here except for me, Tuna, and Old Red. It’s been empty for a month. I wonder why Tommy doesn’t come anymore. I miss looking at the brightness; well I only do because it’s part of my job. Old Tuna’s always complaining because he hasn’t been touched since Tommy shoved him in the corner. Serves him right; he sure is smelly. I don’t mean to boast but I’m the important one here; without a click of me, it would be too dark to see anything. I miss Old Bulb; I wouldn’t be anything about her. Fuzz would always show off because Tommy loved him most. I’m glad he’s gone now. I was afraid those big versions of Tommy would pluck me out of my place like all those other things. Old Red is patient, so silent, she never opens and she’s so empty, I feel sorry for her. Wait a minute something’s creaking… ACS 5C Lynn
 * Ouch! People don’t know how I feel! If they were in my place, they would die! But me, I’m very strong and can handle all the troubles in my life. I know every single fairytale in the world. That’s what I’m known for! Well, anyway, I’ll stop bragging and focus on what’s annoying me. A lot! Cinderella, Snow White, Peter Pan, and Sleeping Beauty are fighting me and they don’t care how I feel. They are treating me like I’m invisible. They’re hitting my spine and ripping my jacket. Oh! I feel something holding me! I must be going out!**

Hi! My name is Lindsey Nickas and I’m a grade 4 teacher at ACS in Beirut. I enjoy sharing my enthusiasm for looking at maps with my class and I do this in a number of ways including exploring books that have maps in them such as __Poppy__, by Avi, __My Father’s Dragon__ , by Ruth Stiles Gannet, __My Side of the__ __Mountain__ , by Jean Craighead George and __Treasure Island__ , by Robert Louis Stevenson. **What is a map?** Most maps are drawings of landscapes that use lines and symbols to represent real-life objects like roads, fields and buildings. A map is a snap-shot in time and gives viewers a chance to gain insights into the nature of a place. This year, my students are also making their own maps as they create our own imaginary classroom country known as QUINTOPOLIS. We are still in the early stages of this project but we have been talking about the importance of learning to work together, to negotiate and solve problems and find peaceful resolutions as a nation. We are in the process of assigning jobs to each member of the class such as librarian, gardener, IT technicians, mailmen, nurse, suppliers, and various other positions which will benefit our new nation. The class has been working on creating the overall nation of QUINTOPOLIS as well individual states within the country. Each state has their own map depicting topography and points of interest. The states also have their own flag, customs and some have their own language. The maps for all of our states are well underway and next week we will be fitting the five states together to form the larger map of QUINTOPOLIS. QUINTOPOLIS will have a national flag, anthem, animal, bird and flower. We will be choosing delegates from each of our five states who will be representing the other students in their nation at bi-monthly meetings. The delegates will hold their position for two months and then they will rotate to other members of the class. The excitement generated through imagining our own land and working together on our maps is high and we look forward to keeping you posted on our developments! - Lindsey Nickas
 * __Map of Quintopolis__**