Follow the child. I have been hearing this for almost a decade. Follow the child. This phrase has even a deeper meaning to me now. Guides follow the child.  Parents are encouraged to follow the child.  And as board president, I learned that there is no better way to lead than by following the child. I had the pleasure of walking the Abintra grounds with an alumni who hadn't stepped on the campus since graduating 13 years ago.  It was truly one of my most cherished moments.  His insights of this school and his connection to this land was amazing to hear. He was Abintra Rooted.  I followed the child. And I learned. The day after his visit, he sent an email to the Board – something I can't stop reading. It is a reminder that at this school, the important thing isn’t what a child is learning today. The important thing is who the child is 10, 20 or 30 years from now. I ...

For the past several weeks, the Abintra Upper School Choristers have been rehearsing some fun and challenging songs to present on March 23 at 4:00 PM, kicking off our Spring Family and Friends Day. Our goal is to entertain you and lift your spirits with songs from Rogers and Hammerstein's The King and I , John Lennon, Paul Simon, Violeta Parra, Randy Newman, and Domenico Modugno. We are grateful to have musician and Abintra parent Tony Taliaferro accompanying us on keyboard. We hope to see you on Friday, March 23 at 4:00 PM in the Parent Ed room!

Spanish is part of our lives in the Early Childhood community. The children are exposed to Spanish from the beginning of the day when we greet them in the morning with, "Buenos días. Cómo estás?" Children learn Spanish by listening to the language and receiving lessons with many different materials in the classroom. We use Total Physical Response (TPR) to teach simple commands, such as: Cambiar los zapatos (change your shoes), lavar las manos con agua y jabón (wash your hands with soap and water), caminar despacio (walk slowly), acerca la silla a la mesa (push in your chair), etc. We reinforce language lessons by creating physical actions involving our entire bodies, which duplicate the message. Children learn sounds in Spanish by consistently practicing the two phonemic awareness skills that are the foundations for all of the language curriculum in the classroom: The Beginning Sound Isolation and the Phoneme Segmentation. With the first activity, the c...

Air Play By Ella Last week, students attended Air Play at the Tennessee Performing Arts Center. Air Play is about how things move in the air. There were two people who had huge pieces of fabric and balloons of all sizes. In one of the balloons, there were packing peanuts and glitter. There was also confetti. Everything would fly in a circle of fans. There were also beautiful umbrellas that would dance all through the air. There were suitcases that had all the props for the performance in them. For an example of what was in the suitcase: there were balloons that the performers would go inside of, but do not try that at home! Images courtesy of airplayshow.com News From the Stock Market By Max and Ben Note: In a previous newsletter, it was reported that UE Guide Garrett closed down banks with $10,000 worth of Abint Coins (cyber currency) in them. A group of students decided to sue Garrett, but discovered that they did not have a case. They have formed a new p...