Moshi Campus News – 5th May 2013

Dear Parents,

This weekend has been an extremely busy one in school. Whilst one large group of students completed the climb to Mawenzi Hut on Mt Kilimanjaro as part of their Outdoor Pursuits trip, another group of students joined a “Hard Labour” group on Saturday to finish painting rooms at Hope Orphanage in Moshi. Meanwhile nearly 30 of the D1s took the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) in school on Saturday morning and another much smaller group took SAT tests. And now the week ahead starts!

A group of students will be taking their Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music (ABRSM) practical exams on Monday morning. The examiner has already arrived and is ready to listen to their performances tomorrow. We wish them all the best.

Our Director, Bob Horton, will be leading a presentation on the school at the Hotel Sea Cliff in Dar es Salaam at 10am on Saturday, May 11th. We would be grateful if you would bring this to the attention of any of your friends and family who live in the area who may be interested to learn more about ISM. This will be the final school presentation in Dar es Salaam for the 2012-13 school year and we would like to thank all parents who have helped to make these so successful.

After Saturday’s TOEFL paper-based test, it is now the time to remind D1 students who are planning to apply for university in the UK, that they should register to take the TOEFL Internet-based test which is only available in Dar es Salaam. Students who register now could take the test in June just after school closes in Moshi or could select another date during the holiday so as not to disrupt their time in school during the term.

Many of our secondary students now routinely bring laptops to school and we already recommend that diploma students have a laptop computer as so much of their work is now expected to be done using a computer. From August 2013, we will require all students in D1 to have a laptop computer in school. This requirement will be extended to some other senior classes in 2014.

Current D1 students are fast aproaching their internal exams which will assess their work over the whole of this school year. These formal exams are from Monday, May 13th to May 20th.

Although the school organises celebrations for the D2 graduation, the students have usually additionally opted to arrange their own private parties off-campus. These are likely to be on 25th May after the official ceremony. These student-organised parties are not school events and we cannot, as a school, take responsibility for them. Invariably, there is alcohol available at these parties and minimal, if any, adult supervision. We are concerned about the inevitable, and potentially serious risks that arise from these situations, particularly for many of the younger students who frequently receive invitations to attend and we have endeavoured to deal with such issues from an educational point of view in our Life Skills lessons. We also need to be especially confident that parents are aware of the nature of these events, and are happy with their own children’s involvement. We would therefore offer the following requests and guidelines.

For parents of boarders:
Boarders staying in school that weekend will NOT be allowed to attend any unsupervised parties. If boarders do want to attend, they can only do so if their parents agree and they have been taken out of the school’s care by staying with another family for the weekend. Even if you have already indicated on the Parental Consent form that your child may sign out to friends at weekends, we would like to further confirm that it is acceptable on this particular weekend. If you have children intending to sign out for this weekend, could you please contact us with that confirmation? You may contact either the boarding parent or Mrs Bango on by whatever means is most convenient (telephone, letter, email or fax). Boarders will be expected to remain in school for the weekend if we have not heard from you before MONDAY, MAY 20th.

We would also suggest on this occasion, that you contact the host family directly to discuss what you feel would be appropriate arrangements, curfew etc for your children on the evening of the party.

For parents offering to host boarders:
Boarders signing out on these weekends will need to sign out for the whole weekend from the Friday afternoon until midday on the Sunday, although they may of course attend the Graduation Ceremony if invited. We would suggest that before you take on the responsibility for the guest students over this period, you are confident of their own parent’s expectations in terms of curfew, supervision etc.

We do not in any way wish to curtail the students’ opportunity for well-deserved celebration on these occasions, but we are concerned for their safety and their parents’ full consent and understanding.

The first two days of IB DP exams went smoothly. Parents would be making a huge contribution in this challenging time for D2 students if you could monitor the sleeping, eating, exercising and water (versus soda) consumption habits – all contribute to a healthy mind and body. These IB exams will continue until the last exams on Tuesday, May 21st.

Reminder: D1 parents should arrange to be present for the last day of the school year – June 14th – to attend for the Parent-Teacher meetings.

ISM D1 students have commenced coursework assignments and this should ease their pressure in the first semester of D1 year. Laboratory assignments in the Sciences and the DP History Internal Assessment and Economics commentaries are among the coursework assignments that are underway.

On June 10th and 11th D1 students will make 7-minute presentation of their EE progress to their D1 peers. Can you this week check in with your son/daughter in the ISM DP and ask them to send you their rough outline/bibliography which they should have completed by now?

Hopefully parents and family members related to our class of 2013 students (D2s) are planning to participate in the three major events associated with the graduation:
a) Friday May 24th – Graduation Dinner at 6:30 P.M at AMEG (ISM pays for the graduating student and the parents) Any families who will be bringing additional guests must purchase the tickets (Tsh 20,000 each) by Monday May 20th.
b) Saturday May 25th at 2:00 P.M. – Graduation
c) Saturday May 25th at approximately 4:00 P.M. – Graduation Tea in the ISM Director’s Garden – snacks, graduation cake, juice and a special musical treat.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s assertion that our hyper-connected world means “more rests on you” certainly applies to our DP students. The pro-active, self-starters and motivated students who do the best. Read his article to get the gist of my point – www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/opinion/friedman-its-a-401k-world.html.

D1 students that are on track with assignments, whether it is my DP History coursework or their Extended Essay, (nearly one-quarter are far behind where they should be) or any other, are most likely the ones who are organized. Kindly take time when next you see your ISM DP child to provide them with advice in this regard as I/we do at ISM but, I feel, your actions would be invaluable on this critical piece. Pages 23-28 of “Parent Power: Build the Bridge to Success” [produced by the US Education department] provide invaluable nuggets of advice for parents of high school-aged children which would be useful to you as a ISM DP parent. www2.ed.gov/parents/academic/help/parentpower/booklet.pdf.

Feel free to write with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Rick Fitzpatrick – (Diploma Coordinator)

The students have been very engaged in all the school work and non-academic activities. M3 students have come back from their field trip and as promised in the last newsletter, I have included an account of the trip from one of the students, Sarah Khaki:
“When you read about a trip that one group from the school went to, your first impression would be that of one of the students explaining how much fun it was and how exciting the bus ride was, but this trip was more than just ‘A fun way to learn and be out of school for a couple of days’. It was a pivotal and inspiring experience. UAACC is an Alliance center on the way to Arusha that shows and demonstrates how art can change communities. Community and service is all about helping the community by doing even the slightest and smallest actions. During the course of this trip, we looked at how the Ngoma dance brought people together to the extent that they would leave the food burning on the stove when they heard the music. To show that we had been there, we were told to paint a mural as 5 different groups but as one body. The mural was based around the idea of ‘Arts changing communities’. UAACC was a truly amazing experience that inspired us to bring the communities together in a fun and creative manner.” Sarah Khaki

Students of M4 were introduced to the Personal Project and have been given the guide and the necessary documentation that will help them start this long term assignment. I would like to thank the parents who came on Thursday for a special presentation for parents. Thanks also to those who emailed me to apologise that they could not make it. For the benefit of the parents of our boarders, I will be putting the presentation and all the documentation on our school website. If you have any queries, please do contact me on the following address: .

M5 students have very little time left before they head on to their work experience. I have been contacting the various companies where the students have expressed an interest to do the work experience. I am very grateful to say that most of the requests have been granted and I would like to thank the members of the community for their support. I would like to stress the importance of this event – apart from choosing the placements, students are being trained to write letters of application and CVs – all skills that are very useful in life. I have also emphasized to the students the importance of following the norms during this week they will be away from their usual environment. I am separately sending a letter to the parents of M5 students regarding this activity.

As you can see, many busy and exciting weeks ahead of us. Whilst we are all occupied to meet our goals, I would like to leave you with this thought:
“Goals are simply tools to focus your energy in positive directions, these can be changed as your priorities change, new ones added, others dropped.”
Christopher Columbus.

An excellent week to All!!!
Jaimala Quinlan (MYP Coordinator)

P1/2 Assembly
The P1/2 Class will be leading the assembly on Monday. As always, parents are welcome to attend.

P5 Action
The P5 Class have been working really hard on their Unit of Inquiry on Recyle, Reduce and Re-use. They performed a recycling health check on the Moshi Campus and presented Mr White with a letter voicing their concerns and possible solutions. Following advice from Mr White, they have followed up on some of the solutions they had come up with and have already seen real results from their actions. This is a great example of Action in the PYP. On Thursday they taught P1/2s how to do paper weaving from recycled school catalogues. On Friday they taught EC how to make interesting photo frames using recycled materials.

Collection Boxes
The P5 students will be running a bake sale at the P6 Exhibition on the 16th May as part of their support to the P6 Class. They will also put out collection boxes to collect unused/old toys, clothes as well as food cans or packets which are at the back of your grocery cupboard never being used. These will be distributed amongst disadvantaged people in Moshi.

P6 Exhibition
Thursday, 16th May at 6.30pm in Karibu Hall! In addition, the exhibition will be on Friday 17th May until lunchtime.

Early Childhood Preview

Unit of Inquiry
This week we will tune into the ‘sound’ part of our inquiry by going on a sound walk round campus to start to answer the first question, “Where does sound come from?” There will be books, photographs, instruments and other objects that make sounds for hands on inquiry and investigation. We will observe the children to find out what they already know about sound.

How can you support our unit at home?
Please help your child to find things that make sounds in the home. If you have any sound making objects/toys that you can send into school for our display I would be very grateful to borrow them for a few weeks. Later on in the week I will be sending a ‘sounds in the home/garden’ survey for you to complete with your child.

The end of the school year is fast approaching and therefore the next few weeks will be a time for assessment and observations. I will be spending quality time observing each child at play and working with them in one to one situations. We will be working on portfolios this week as the children choose two more special pieces to go into their portfolios.

Numeracy (continuing on from last week with counting objects, addition, subtraction and measurement)
EC2 use non-standard units to find the longest, shortest, tallest.
EC1 compare objects to find out which one is the longest, shortest, tallest.
EC2 using manipulatives to add and subtract to 10
EC1 continuing to develop an understanding of one to one correspondence when counting objects

Language

• Differentiated work on sounds and letter names
• EC2 – Word building (CVC words) concentrating on the short vowel sound u.
• EC1 – letter sound m. Please send objects into school beginning with m. We will make magic mobiles to integrate into our sound unit.

P1/2 Preview

General Information
Date for your diary: Monday 6th May will be our class assembly. Children need to be at school promptly at 7.30am and go straight to the hall. All parents are welcome!
We look forward to a new student, Isabel, joining us in P1 on Monday.

IT
We have been using a great website which some of you may be familiar with already called ictgames.com. If you have internet access, this is a great website to practise basic literacy and numeracy skills. Your child will be able to direct you to the games we have been using.

Language focus for the week
Writing:
Recount of the class assembly. Using the language of time. (First…Then I…Next I…Later…At the end). Using adjectives, (amazing, fantastic, wonderful, scary, huge…)
Continue summative assessment. Draw and label 4 ways Farmer Pickles could use his land.
Handwriting: Patterns, writing numerals and a focus on the ladder Letters (litujy) Some children are joining letters together.

Phonics:
1. Sh as in sheep and ch as in chimp.
2. Long vowel: ie as in tie
3. Introduce Magic e words: u-e as in tune

Maths focus for the week
Mental skills will focus on doubles, near doubles and counting on and back. Quick recall of addition and subtraction facts to 10/20.
All children will learn about addition and subtraction. Recognise addition can be done in any order. Calculate missing number sentences, eg, 5+?=7. Link addition and subtraction. Solve + and – word problems.

Unit of Inquiry
Land Ahoy!
Central Idea: People interact with, use and value the natural environment in different ways.
Lines of Inquiry:
1. How land is used.
2. Local land use.
3. Actions that benefit and harm the local environment.
Due to two short weeks at school, we continue to complete the summative assessment task: Draw and label 4 different ways Farmer Pickles could use his land. This unit will be wrapped up this week.

Art – Papier mache

What to bring to school:
A hat for playtime and a healthy snack. (No hat, no play!)

Timetable:
Monday
P1 and 2 Class Assembly
New reading books and homework packs including spellings issued.
Tuesday
Library (New books can be chosen if there are no overdue books)
Swimming (swimming costume, towel, flip flops, sun cream, swim aids such as arm bands if required)
Thursday
New reading books issued
Friday
PE
Spelling test (Hand in yellow homework pack)

P3/4 Preview

This week we will be welcoming a new student to our class – Jasmijn van Heerbeek from the Netherlands. P3/4 have been looking forward to this event for a while now, and we hope Jasmijn and her family will feel very welcome and happy in the ISM and Moshi communities.

This is what our learning in class will look like this week:
UOI – “Exploration”
Central Idea: People explore their world; their methods and reasons are constantly changing.
Lines of Inquiry: Who explorers are
        How people explore
        Why people explore
        Consequences of exploration
All groups have now finished their investigations into famous explorers. This week we will be conducting individual research into an explorer of our own choice. This will form the basis for our summative assessment task.

Writing – Continue with historical recounts of explorers and newspaper articles/reports using the 5 w and 1 h questions – where?, what?, why? , who? and how?
Publishing stories about Neil Armstrong on the computer using Word.
Spelling Groups 1) phonetic words ending in -and & -all (e.g. sand, ball), 2) words ending in -ick (e.g. thick) and containing -or- (e.g. born), 3) Words that have a soft g combined with e, ( e.g. courage) 4) words ending in “y” that sounds like “ee” (e.g. company).
Language/grammar – past, present and future tense and suffixes, prefixes and singular and plural nouns. Comprehension exercises.
Cursive writing – Nelson script. Letters which start at the top of the ascender – b, f, h, k, l, t plus those already learnt and the different joins between them.

Maths – P3 Assessment on time (not done last week). Simple multiplication – as repeated addition. Extending a repeating pattern, constructing, describing and extending number sequences with constant increments. Tables 2x, 5x, 10x 11x 3x, 4x. Basic facts up to 10/20 (+ and -).
P4 Assessment on decimals and fractions (not done last week). Ontinue with perimeter and area – understanding that shapes with the same area can look different, finding the area of irregular shapes, designing a shape for a given area, the link between perimeter and area.
Tables – 2x, 3x, 4 x, 5x, 6x, 9x, 10x , 11x, 12x . Basic facts up to 20 (+ and -).

REMINDERS:
Every day: Hats and polo shirts/T-shirts
        Zip bags, spelling note books, reading books and reading logs.
        Healthy snack for break time.
        Lunch if necessary.

School Readers: Unfortunately some students are not bringing their reading books and reading logs to school every day. This causes great inconvenience at reading time. Please could all families check that books are in zipped folders every day and that reading homework is done and reading logs signed. Could everyone also have a good look at home for any school readers that may not have been returned and send them back as soon as possible.

Spelling books: There are also too many spelling books being left at home. Work then has to be done on bits of paper which are subject to getting lost. Please make sure spelling books also come to school every day. Thank you.

MONDAY
Homework – spelling, reading and maths and language sheets sent home.
P.E. – wear house T-shirts, shorts and trainers. We will be doing orienteering, so students will need suitable attire and trainers, as we will be running around the school grounds.
THURSDAY
Library – bring book bags and books – No bag, no books. Overdue books incur a fine.
P.E. – bring swimming gear. We swim at the warmest time of the day. I invariably get in the pool with the children and the temperature of the water is still very pleasant.
FRIDAY
Spelling test
Homework – due in (or before if finished)

Looking forward to another great week together.
Miss Jann

P5 Preview

Maths
We shall be focusing on problem-solving activities using fractions and consolidating the new concepts we’ve learned the past few weeks.

Language
We shall complete our adventure stories and publish them as the final part of the writing cycle. Students will be looking at news articles to find the main idea and key points and practise writing the information in their own words. Students will begin to plan their own newspaper articles.

UOI
Students have been divided into a boys’ group and a girls’ group for their summative assessment task. The past week they met with their group and brainstormed ideas. This coming week they will prepare for and work on the task. The end result will be two movies which will educate people about Recycling, Reducing and Re-using.

Visual Arts
At last our paper-making frames have been made by the school’s maintenance department and we’ll be experimenting with making our own paper.

IT
We’ll learn how to use Moviemaker.

P6 Preview

The children have continued to throw themselves in to their exhibition inquiries, some with tremendous enthusiasm. I know many of you have been supporting them both at home and when conducting field trips and interviews. Some of you have even been interviewed! Thank you all for everything you are doing. Many thanks go also to Mrs van Zwetselaar for introducing several doctors to those groups investigating health issues.

UOI – Exhibition Unit
Central Idea: Seven billion people requires us to confront the threats to our health, environment and society
At this stage, with only 13 days to go before the exhibition, students should have completed research and found evidence for each question / line of inquiry, they should have conducted any interviews, surveys or field trips and should now be discussing with their partner and mentor the many varied ways in which they intend to present that evidence at their exhibition.

I have spoken at length with the children about the many ways they can present. They each have a list in their exhibition folders detailing a long and diverse range of presentation methods to engage people.
Last Friday morning I made, in collaboration with the students, a rubric to outline just what they need to achieve in terms of research, academic honesty and presentation. Hopefully, because the children shared ownership of this rubric they will better understand what is required of them and how they can achieve success. Each child will print a copy of this this week to include within their folder so that you might see it.

Reading, Writing and Drama
Reading, writing, viewing and presentation skills will all be much used over the next few weeks as the children look for evidence and information to support their inquiry.

Maths
Whilst the main focus now is to concentrate on preparing for the impending exhibition we will embrace some mental maths. Many children are consolidating their data handling skills through their exhibition as they both analyse and create bar charts, line graphs and pie charts.

P.E. – Swimming remains on Thursday and Karibu Hall based activities will provide the essence of Friday’s P.E. lesson. I have once again become disappointed with the number of children missing swimming on Thursdays often without a note to explain their ailment or ‘forgotten’ costume. Obviously all children will get sick sometimes. However, in each of the last two weeks the number missing swimming has been between 33% – 40% of the entire P5/6 group of 27. The same children are not too sick to come to school, to play football at break time and lunchtimes, to do PE on the field or in Karibu Hall, or to participate in sporting clubs, yet they are too sick to swim. Swimming is a fundamental part of PE. PE, like every other subject including Maths and Language, is a compulsory part of the curriculum and not optional.

Library – is on Tuesday. Please remind the children to bring back books for exchange/renewal.