2014 – isk pta newsletteriskonline.org/files/pta/isk_pta_newsletter_december_2014_edition.pdf ·...

December, 2014 – ISK PTA Newsletter

ISK Parent-Teacher Association !1

Upcoming Events

St. Nicolas Fun Night Friday, December 5th

PTA General Meeting

Tuesday, December 9th

Christmas Market Wednesday & Thursday

December 10th & 11th

Winternational Thursday, December

11th

Christmas Bake Sale Friday, December

12th

November Bake Sale! Another great success, the

PTA together with a wonder-ful group of great Moms

made the tremendous profit of

1,140 PLN!

Thank you for your support: Vickie Etoga

Adriana Vrskova Martina Karasova Caroline Brisson

Karen Fudge Klaudia Romanowska

April Mott Grades 3&10 and

Abbott House

Dear ISK Parents, Faculty and Staff,

It’s incredible how fast these months have gone. We are in the last month of 2014, December! Soon we will start with all the Holiday’s preparations. Some of us will stay in Krakow, others will start getting ready for their journey back home to their loved ones. But before we start with this wonderful period of the year, the PTA has a few events that we would like to share and celebrate together with the ISK commu-nity to welcome the Holiday spirit.

But first the PTA would like to recognize the dedication, time and wonderful care given to numerous ISK students during “Teacher & Parents Conference Day.” The

PTA volunteers’ supervision and care allowed parents to concentrate and carefully discuss their child’s educa-tional concerns. We thank all volunteers and Clarisa Fournier for organizing this thoughtful and helpful ac-tion.

At the PTA Cooking Club, ISK parents enjoyed and learned the delightful, creative and exquisite art of mak-ing sushi and spring rolls! Not only did they learn to master this extraordinary cuisine, but had the opportuni-ty to enjoy and share their own cooking creations. Thanks to Vickie Etoga for giving us once more a great, fun and delicious cooking experience. We look forward for more challenging cooking sessions!

As always, the PTA Clubs every week and every month have something new to offer, we invite you all to keep up-to-date for fresh news! You can find dates and information of our coming activities below or remem-ber that you can always contact any member of the PTA Steering Committee.

This month, the PTA would like to invite all ISK Early Years and Elementary students to join us and enjoy the Holiday spirit in the “St. Nicolas Fun Night.” This event will be held Friday 5th from 16:00 to 20:00 at ISK. Students will be able to enjoy and experience several and fun creative Christmas activities. More details can be found below.

Continuing with the Holiday spirit, the PTA once more will hold their traditional “Christmas Market.” This event has become a very special one for the PTA. In the last years, we have had the lovely opportunity to see the joy experienced by the ISK students when they participate by purchasing and wrapping Christmas gifts for their loved ones. The PTA’s intentions are to bring this joy back once again to all ISK students . So, ISK Community mark down in your calendars the very important days of December 10th and 11th - Christmas Market at ISK!

And we are not done yet! The festivities continue at ISK Community. December 11th, ISK will hold their spectacular Annual Winternational Show! The PTA will carry out an after-show reception. We cordially in-vite the entire ISK Community to join us not only to experience and enjoy this magical show, but to stay later to join the PTA After Show Reception. We look forward to seeing you all there!

Remember! The PTA Bake Sale will be held on Friday, December 12th and the PTA General Meeting will be held on Tuesday, December 9th at 9:00 am, in the ISK MPR. We hope to see you there. Come and join us for a cup of cof-fee or more, while we share and discuss our latest news!

From home to home and heart to heart; from one place to another may this Holiday period be bright and cheerful to you and your loved ones. The PTA wishes all ISK Families, Faculty and Staff the warmth and joy of Christmas and a Happy New Year ahead. To all families returning back home we wish you a safe trip! And we look forward to seeing the ISK Community back in 2015!

Warm Regards, Emilia Melgar-Bennaars



Events Date Time Location

Christmas Fun Night Early Years - Grade 5

Students

December 5th 4:00 pm - 8:00 pm ISK Bubble

PTA General Meeting December 9th 8:45 am - 10:45 am MPR at ISK

After Bake-Sale Social Parents’ Gather-

ing

December 9th 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm MPR at ISK

Christmas Martket December 10th & 11th School hours Library

ISK Winter-national

December 11th 6:00 pm Chamber Hall, ICE Krakow Congress Center,

ul. Marii Konopnickiej 17, 30-302 Kraków

Bake Sale Main Building:

PTA “STEERING COMMITTEE”

December 12th 11:15 - 1:00 pm 3:30 - 3:45 pm

Main Entrance Lobby at ISK &

About House

ISK PTA presents

St. Nicholas Fun Night for ISK Early Years and Elementary School Friday, December 5th – 16:00 to 20:00

at ISK

� St. Nicholas Arts & Crafts

� Movie with Popcorn

� Fun Games in Bubble

� Christmas Tree Trimming

� Pizza Dinner � Story Time � Gingerbread Cookie Decorating

50 PLN PER STUDENT

Taxi Service is available at 8 PM. Please contact Daniel Klimkiewicz at [email protected] or +48 518 805 550. ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐

ISK PTA ‐ St. Nicholas Fun Night Permission Slip Child’s Name: Grade:

Parent Name: Tel.: PLEASE CHECK ONE: I will pick up my child at 8 PM.

I will arrange taxi service for my child. Parent’s Signature:

Please return this slip and 50 PLN to Basia at the ISK Front Desk by Thursday, December 4th.



Clubs Description Organizer

Zumba/Latino Club Location: At ISK Bubble Meeting: Every Tuesday, except when a PTA General Meeting is scheduled (9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.) Fee: Yes (50 PLN for 4 lessons and 15 PLN individual lessons)

Zumba is a popular fitness program inspired by Latin dance . The word "Zumba" comes from a Colombian word that means to move fast and have fun. Using upbeat Latin music together with cardiovascular exercise, Zumba is aerobic dancing that is lots of fun and easy to learn.

Emilia Melgar-Bennaars [email protected]

Painting Club Locations: Sessions to take place at private residences as agreed upon by participants. Meeting: Every Tuesday, except when a PTA General Meeting is scheduled (9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.) Fee: None

PTA Members gather to fine-tune their creative skills together in an informal setting. Members bring their supplies, from paints to laptops to yarn. Some members work on a traditional painting, while others work on photobooks and knitting. Any creative endeavor is acceptable!

Adriana Vrskova: [email protected]


Photography Club Locations: Initial lessons are hosted. Subse-quent sessions may take the form of field trips to various locations around Krakow. Meeting: Twice each month Fee: None

Avid photographer Adriana Vrskova communi-cates her love of photography by sharing pic-ture-taking skills and techniques in hands-on and interactive applied sessions. Any type of digital camera will work for this club!

Adriana Vrskova [email protected]

Book Club Locations: Sessions to take place at private residences as agreed upon by participants. Meeting: once each month. Fee: None

Do you love reading? ISK PTA’s Book Club is a fun and social way to keep up on your literary knowledge. Books are randomly chosen by participants leading to lively and fun discus-sions!

Cam Welch [email protected]

English Conversational Sessions

Locations: Sessions to take place at private residences as agreed upon by participants. Meeting: Twice each month, or as agreed upon by participants. Fee: None

These are informal conversation sessions to leg by native speaker. The purpose is to promote the use and application of English/Polish language skills in a fun, social setting.


Adult Polish/English Lessons Meeting times are soon to be announced.

A collaborative Adult Polish/English course between ISK and Polish4You.

Aneta Szymkiewicz [email protected]

Cooking Club Location: Sessions to take place at private residences, as agreed upon by participants. Some sessions may be led in restaurants by professional chefs.

Meeting: once each month Fee: Yes! Fees are determined by session. (If session is to be led by a professional chef, the cost will be determined by an equal division of the chef’s fee (and ancillary costs) among participants. If the session is hosted at a pri-vate residence, the host will procure the re-quired ingredients and advise each partici-pant of the fee in advance.)

Share your culinary expertise! Participants learn different cooking techniques and cultural recipes from each other and professional chefs.

(Please note that you do not need to be a host to join and/or participate!)

Vickie Etoga [email protected]

ISK PTA CLUBS

mailto:[email protected]










Photography ClubThis month we had the opportunity to learn how to make Portraits. Marta, a professional photographer showed us many interesting points on how to master this interesting subject in the world of Photography. We also had the opportunity to visit the World Press Photo in Krakow.

We will continue with our Portrait lesson, part II on Wednes-day 3rd at 10:30 am. For more details, please contact Adri-ana.

If you have any questions please contact Adriana Vrskova at [email protected]

English Conversational

The English Conversational Club, will contin-ue to get together on a regular basis. At each meeting we share our interest in several sub-jects and we help each other to better our English Language.

Our next meeting will be held on Wednesday, December 3rd at 10:00 am. If you have any questions please contact Emilia Melgar-Bennaars at [email protected]

Latino Zumba

Latin Fitness continues - PTA fun and great Latino Zumba sessions are held every Tuesday!

Come join us! Our next Zumba session will be on Tuesday, December 16th at 9:00 am, in the ISK Bubble. After the Holiday period, we will continue with regular sessions.

If you would like to join or have any questions, please contact Emilia Melgar-Bennaars at [email protected]

We have plenty of spaces!

Cooking Club

This coming month we will be busy with all the Holiday events, gatherings and prepara-tions for the Christmas holidays.

The PTA Cooking Club will take a break, but will be back in January 2015. New year, new creativity and delightful cooking ideas!

If you would like to be part of the PTA Cooking Club or have any questions, please contact Vickie Etoga at : [email protected]

Book Club

The PTA Book Club has rescheduled it's November meeting to Thursday, December 4th at at 10:00 a.m. at Liesbeth Dirickx's home on Ul. M. Krzyzanskiego 12, 30-698 Krakòw to discuss A Thousand Splendid Sounds by Khaled Hosseini. A summary follows:

Born a generation apart and with very different ideas about love and family, Mariam and Laila are two women brought jarringly together by war, by loss and by fate. As they endure the ever escalating dangers around them — in their home as well as in the streets of Kabul — they come to form a bond that makes them both sisters and mother-daughter to each other, and that will ultimately alter the course not just of their own lives but of the next generation. With heart-wrenching power and sus-pense, Hosseini shows how a woman's love for her family can move her to shocking and heroic acts of self-sacrifice, and that in the end it is love, or even the memory of love, that is often the key to survival. A stunning accomplishment, A Splendid Suns is a haunting, heartbreak-ing, compelling story of an unforgiving time, an unlikely friendship, and an indestructible love.

If you are interested in a discussion of A Thousand Splendid Sounds, please join us on December 4th. A book club member will also share her "Must Reads" list at the meeting and we will select books for upcoming meetings.

In January, the ISK Book club will be reading and discussing Adultery by Paulo Coelho. Stay tuned for the meet-ing date and location. A summary follows:

Adultery by Paulo Coelho

A woman in her thirties begins to question the routine and predictability of her days. In everybody’s eyes, she has a perfect life: a solid and stable marriage, a loving husband, sweet and well-behaved children and a job as a journalist she can't complain about. However, she can no longer bear the necessary effort to fake happiness when all she feels in life is an enormous apathy. All that changes when she en-counters an ex-boyfriend from her adolescence. Jacob is now a successful politician and, during an interview, he ends up arousing something in her she hadn’t felt for a long time: passion. She will now do anything to conquer that im-possible love, and will have to go down to the pit of human emotions to finally find her redemption.

The PTA Book Club is a place to share your reads, laughter, ex-periences and have fun. And remember, new participants are always welcome! If you would like more information on the PTA Book Club, please contact Cam Welch at [email protected].

Happy Reading! Cam Welch

http://www.powells.com/s?author=Paulo%20Coelho








http://www.powells.com/s?author=Paulo%20Coelho




ISK Wishing Tree This year, the ISK PTA is hoping to share the magic of the Holiday Season with others in the Krakow community. We have received a list of children's names from local orphanages. Each of these names (with the child's age) will be written on a paper ornament hung on the Christmas Wishing Tree in ISK's Front Lobby beginning Monday, December 8th. We encourage all members of the ISK Community (students, parents, faculty and staff) to select a name and purchase a gift for the child on your chosen ornament. We ask all participants to attach the ornament to their gift and leave it with Basia at the Front Desk by Wednesday, December 17th. This is our opportunity to make a meaningful gesture in support of a city that has welcomed us with open arms, and to share the spirit of the Holidays beyond our own community. If you have any questions, please contact [email protected].

Happy Holidays!





“Health and Safety” The health and safety of our children and all of us is priority! With winter around the corner, the PTA would like to reming all ISK Community to drive carefully and be conscious when sharing the road to school. Here some tips to help us raise up our awareness: Be cautious every time you drive!

Avoid any distractions as much as possible!

While you are behind the wheel, there should be no GPS, no mobile phones, and definitely no texting. Anything that can distract you and allow you to lose focus on the road must be out of your sight. It only takes a split second for an accident to happen. Remember, safety is the main principle of defensive driving. If you value life and care about your loved ones, you need to keep these things in mind. It takes a lot of tolerance, control, discipline, and pres-ence of mind when you are on the road, but it is well worth it if it means saving lives.

PTA Cooking Club “Sushi Session” was phenomenal and delicious!


The PTA Newsletter invites you to participate in our future newsletter editions by sending your feedback, sugges-tions, and content to us. Be a part of our News! Send your information and photos to: [email protected].


Who is a PTA member? All parents with children currently enrolled at ISK, and all ISK faculty and staff, are automatically members of the PTA which is led by a Steering Committee.

Your current PTA Steering Committee: President: Emilia Melgar-Bennaars ([email protected]) Vice President: Victorine Etoga ([email protected]) Vice President: Joanna Jakimowicz ([email protected]) Treasurer: Adriana Vrskova ([email protected]) Secretary: Karen Fudge ([email protected])

Newsletter: [email protected] General Inquiries: [email protected]

What are the PTA’s Goals? The PTA’s primary goal is to help our school create and nurture the rich learning environment in which our children grow. We encourage parental support and participation to enrich the educational experiences of our children. We also welcome new families and promote a spirit of community by offering assistance, information, and friendship.

How to get involved in PTA? Begin by reviewing the list of upcoming ISK PTA Events and Clubs. Then drop by one of our PTA General Meetings and Coffee Mornings, or feel free to contact any of the ISK PTA Steering Commit-tee members or your Room Parent for more information.

0

550

1100

1650

2200

Other Bake sale Total: Expenses/Income

2,030

1,140

890

1,165.41,165.4

Expenses in PLN Income in PLN

The PTA’s November 2014 Financial Statement














2014 – isk pta newsletteriskonline.org/files/pta/isk_pta_newsletter_december_2014_edition.pdf ·...

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