Moshi Campus News – 8 Sep 2013

Dear Parents,

We were all very excited on Friday when our containers of supplies arrived at the end of a long journey. Staff and students all helped to unload the supplies and we are now unpacking and checking all that is there.
 

A large group of UK universities will be presenting to students and meeting with students in Karibu Hall from 3pm on Monday, 9th September. This event will be valuable for many students in M5, D1 and D2 to attend as they can hear all about the universities admissions process and can discuss courses and requirements with university representatives. We are expecting representatives from University College London, Stirling, South Wales, Southampton, Salford, Northampton, Newcastle, Middlesex, Leicester, Kent, Hull, Glasgow, Coventry, Central Lancashire, Aston and Anglia Ruskin.

In the evening on the same day from 7pm, we will be holding a special session for D2 students applying to the UK. In this session, we will help them to establish UCAS application accounts and to begin their search for suitable universities.

Universities from elsewhere will also be visiting ISM in the near future:

The University of British Columbia in Canada will be visiting school on Wednesday, 11th Septmber at 3pm and meeting with ISM students.

Universities from the Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program in North America who offer full scholarshps to qualifying students, will be visiting ISM on Sunday, 22nd September and presenting at 5pm. These include Stanford University, University of California Berkley, Duke University, Wellesle College, Michign State University, and Arizone State University.

All of these events are excellent opportunities for our diploma students to learn more about the vital next steps in their education.

The Parents Association Committee will again be meeting on Monday morning, 9th September. They have invited any parents who wish to speak with them to do son from 7:30am to 8:30am in Bob Horton’s office.

This week from Wednesday 11th to Friday 13th, the M5 Field Trip is set to take place at Marangu Hotel. The M5 students are getting excited about camping at the hotel and working on a symposium of leadership skills, team-building games as well as hearing guest speakers, Rick Fitzpatrick and Caroline Shraa. Mr Holt and Mrs Aris will be accompanying the trip and we look forward to teaming up with the Arusha M5 students. The overarching theme has been titled ‘Is the world ready for me’? We look forward to seeing the students in action. Parents of day students – Please ensure your child has a lunch pack for Wednesday and that you have checked that they have warm clothes for the night-time. A reminder that there is no security for electronic equipment and ipods/music players etc. should not be brought. The workshops will be a mixture of physical and group work in the seminar room, therefore active clothes are needed. They should wear an ISM T-shirt on Wednesday for the arrival day.

Next week from Monday, 16th September to Thursday, 19th September, our M2 students will be travelling to the school house in Pangani to undertake field study along with their Arusha colleagues. They will be camping in the grounds of Kiraha house, and using the rich coastal environment and the historical background of Pangani town in their studies. More details next week.

At their meeting last week the Governing Board approved two developments on the Moshi Campus. The first is an extension to Kiongozi house (which accommodates M1-M5 girls) to add four self-contained rooms to accommodate eight extra girls. Work on this project will start later this month. A second project approved is the re-surfacing of our basketball and netball courts which is hoped to also take place this semester. The other half of the work (to re-surface the tennis courts) will take place next year.

Congratulations to the M5 class who completed MYP in June 2013. Their results were released last week and we are pleased to see a positive set of achievements. Many can now be confident tthat they have joined the IB Diloma with strong results behind them. A summary of the MYP results is given on the school website at www.uwcea.org/mypresults.

Congratulations to the group of 15 Moshi students and 4 Arusha students who trekked and camped in the Pares Mountains this weekend. This prticular trip is a demanding introduction to the OP programme and a great preparation for other trips to come.

We have some exciting Field Trips coming up over the next couple of weeks for M5, M2 and M4. These provide students with an opportunity to learn in a different environment, across a variety of disciplines, and in a more focused way over a number of days.

Your children will soon receive (or have already received) permission notes with the full details. All trips will include students from both Moshi and Arusha campuses.

• September 11 – 13: M5 are heading to Marangu on their Leadership Symposium. They will be accompanied by Mrs Aris and Mr Holt.
• September 16-19: M2 are traveling to Pangani on the East coast of Tanzania. This trip will have a Humanities focus and students will be chaperoned by Ms Ndong and Ms Farrell.
• September 23-26: M4 will be going to West Kilimanjaro and camping at Simba Farm. Their focus will be Science and Mathematics and students will be accompanied by Mr Dombkins and Mr Applegate.

DP students completed their fourth week of the new school year and many subjects did their first assessments (tests and quizzes) so parents are encouraged to enquire about the results. Based on these grades a number of D1 students have made adjustments – we call it the ‘drop/add period’ in their course selections.

The ‘D2 Deadlines’ sheet is presently being finalised and will be distributed next week to students. This will list the list of DP class course-work assignment due dates and serves as a critical ‘pacing guide’ for the D2 students who must attend to and juggle coursework requirements of their six SP subjects. In collaboration with our DP teachers, I set the D2 deadlines schedule for the academic year with an eye to rationalizing and ‘evenly spreading out’ these due dates to make it as manageable as possible for the students. All D2s plan, organize, research, write up and submit their assignments in order to meet each/every deadline since roughly 25% of the final IB grade in each DP subject is derived from these coursework items. Included in these IB deadlines are other major IB coursework submissions such as the upcoming Extended Essay final submission.

In the interest of ensuring the best quality possible, D2s have been given an additional week (so until Monday September 23rd) to complete the final version of their Extended Essay.

DP teachers these days have been submitting their ‘scheme of work’ plans for this school year. The IB’s well-planned curriculum in each subject undergoes revamping once a decade in each subject. This not only serves to keep each IB subject relevant but also ensures that enhancements are made to our world-class education. For instance, my DP History curriculum examination historical source paper now includes a section – that I am covering now with students – on the Arab-Israeli Conflict 1945-1979 and the need for the inclusion of this topic emerged in the wake of the watershed (for world politics) events of September 11th. Last month Mr Alastair Brandon, our DP teacher of this class for the D1 class, along with his counterparts at DP schools worldwide started their newly revamped curriculum for Theory of Knowledge.

This week kicked off a new ISM DP course school year of collaboration with Pamoja Education for on-line Psychology and Spanish Ab Initio classes. Jon Bigg, our Math and Physics teacher, serves as the Pamoja Education Site-Based Coordinator for D2s while George Juma takes on this role for the D1 students. This school year we have a total of 14 students enrolled in Pamoja/IB on-line classes.

Reminder: Friday October 11th from 1030-12:00 noon will be the parent-teacher meeting time to discuss the results of the August to mid-October 2012 marking period. May I strongly suggest that the parents of all D1 and D2 students arrange, if possible, to be on campus for this incredibly important gathering.

The recently released news (https://enewsletters.ibo.org/i/165519/1) on the IB DP May 2013 depicts clearly the global reach of this growing program as 770 exam papers were given in 74 languages for some 127,000 students. Interestingly, just since March 2013 some 81 new Diploma programs were approved worldwide. The fact that the IB DP is the ‘gold standard’ of secondary education is likely a large part of the reason for this growth.

Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns.
Sincerely,
Rick Fitzpatrick
Diploma Programme Coordinator

Unit of Inquiry
Last week we added to our list of learning areas in the school. This is an ongoing list that will be developed as the children become more involved in different areas inside and outside the classroom and think about what they learn in those areas. Next week I will ask the children to reflect on what they have learnt in a particular area by drawing/writing about it. We will also tour the school to see what the older students are learning in their classes and how they are similar/different to the learning that takes place in EC.

Some children shared what they learn outside school, for example Sahil brought his tennis racquet for show and tell and explained how he is learning to play tennis. Please consider this idea when helping your child choose something for show and tell. If they have learnt to ride a bike this summer then please send the bike to school and we can watch your child in action. If they can play the piano or any other instrument then Miss Jacobs would appreciate them sharing this in class.

Literacy
The children enjoyed their snack of tea and toast last week to help them think about the sound t. The children are now more familiar with the sounds a,c,d,h,m and t. Hopefully they are entertaining you with the Letterland songs and actions at home! These help them to remember the letter sounds so please encourage them to sing and ask them which character in Letterland makes the sound. This week the children will learn the sounds s and i. Our art work will involve using ink to make pictures.
Children that are familiar with most letter sounds will play word building games and sight word bingo to help develop their word recognition. They will use their knowledge of letter sounds to write independently when reflecting on their learning.

Numeracy
On Monday your child will bring home the class schedule that they have helped to make. It indicates their show and tell day, their PE and library days and IT and Kiswahili. Please talk to your child about the days of the school week and ask them to explain what they do each day. If you stick the schedule on the fridge or some other prominent place then they can refer to it themselves and help you remember library bags and PE shoes. This will help to develop their independence and also learn the days of the week. We spend time every day talking about the calendar, including the day, date and weather.

Number work
The children are working on ordering numbers correctly from 1- 5, 1-10 or 1-20 depending on their ability. There are many ways that this can be done in a hands on way; doing number puzzles in our maths area, hanging up number cards in the correct order, practising writing the numbers and singing rhymes. They practise this on the computer in IT lessons too.
Other number work this week will include counting objects, estimating numbers of objects, playing dominoes and other number games.

Capacity
When playing in the water tray children are encouraged to use the terms full, empty and half full when filling and emptying containers. They compare amounts in different sized containers and are encouraged to predict and find out if they were correct. Through water play your child is learning so much! This will be a focus for this week.

Unit of Inquiry
Our Unit of Inquiry is ‘Healthy Living’. We will continue to consider indicators of healthy living. The children will answer the question, “In what ways can we tell if our bodies are healthy?”. The children have started making their own mini healthy living book.

Art
Our dot pictures inspired by Roy Lichtenstein were fabulous. This week we will continue to look at Pop Art and make some salt do models of fruit.

Language focus for the week
Write a recount of the weekend.
Write a simple poem using words with opposite meaning. (eg dirty-clean, healthy-unhealthy, fit-unfit)
Write a simple non fiction book about healthy living.
Handwriting: Patterns, own name, numerals and continue the Ladder Letters (litujy)
Phonics: Revision of initial sounds and words with o as the middle vowel (eg got, hot, dog, frog, troll, long)

Maths focus for the week
All children will continue to work on calculations and learn about addition. They will recognise addition can be done in any order and use the + and = signs. Some children will engage in lots of practical activities combining sets of objects and finding the total. They will begin to record addition number sentences using the correct symbols. Some children will learn about ‘counting on’ as a strategy to add. Others will be extending their understanding of addtion and will learn by heart some addition facts.

What to bring to school:
A hat for playtime and a healthy snack.

Timetable:

Monday

• New homework packet issued. PE (wear trainers and a house T shirt)
  Tuesday
  
• PE (wear trainers and a house T shirt)
  Thursday
  
• Library (bring books to return and then choose new ones).
  Friday
  
• Spelling test and return completed homework packet.

The arrival of the shipment was a treat for our class because it supported our Transportation Unit so well. We’ve just begun a shift from looking at the transport of people to the transport of goods so being able to see the shipment supported the class’s learning in a fun way! We’re looking forward to hearing from two of our class dads this week who have special stories that relate to our topic.


Math – With the support of Ms Debbie, we’ve effectively divided our math class into levels. The P3s added hundreds to their study of place value while P2s spent some more time learning and practicing counting strategies. We’ll continue with that for both groups in the week ahead with P2s doing double-digit addition and P3s doing three-digit addition. (Neither group will be regrouping yet.) We will also concentrate on doubles facts.

Language – We will find mistakes in sentences this week with an emphasis on proper capitalization and punctuation. Students will be asked to find these mistakes in their own writing this week as well. They will also be expected to use past tense in their creative writing when appropriate. The Spelling chunk of the week is -ag.

The Art project that we started last week will continue as children make vehicles for land, air, or water that will go onto our large class bulletin board. Do stop by to take a look and find your child’s creation.

Reading Folders and Homework – Thank you for the good start with the reading logs last week. New books will come home again on Monday and be switched out on Thursday. It was nice to read notes from many parents about the reading that was done at home. Homework will come home on Monday to be returned in completion on Friday.

What to bring to school: a hat for playtime and a healthy snack

Our Timetable: Monday: Library, please bring your books and bag
Wednesday and Thursday: PE, remember to wear your sneakers and bring along a hat and water bottle.

Week 5 and we are half-way through the first quarter already!

This is what our learning in class will look like this week:
UOI – “Learning from the Past
Central Idea: Atefacts and other evidence help us to understand history and how people lived in the past.
The children enjoyed being archaeologists last week as we carried out our archaeological dig in the school long jump pit. We found many treasures and also lost a few in the process, but we got to experience how difficult it can be for archaeologists and how they have to persevere when “digging up the past. We were also able to use the skills we have been learning about, in trying to find out what the artefact was and what it could tell us.

The children have all been thinking about an artefact that they would like to research and present for their summative assessment task. We have looked at various web sites and learnt about searching for information on the web. We have also been looking through the different books in our class library which relate to our current topic. For the next two weeks, the students will be preparing for their summative assessment task. They will create a museum exhibit showing an artefact or evidence of a particular civilisation, which helps us understand history and how people lived in the past. Materials may be brought from home if you wish and we will have some supplies in class too. Students may NOT start working on this at home – all work is to be done at school.

Reading – Please check your child’s reading log each day to find out what reading homework they have (usually on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays). Once reading homework is completed, please sign your child’s reading log as an as an indication that reading homework has been completed. You may make a comment if you wish, but this is not essential. It is really important that readers and reading logs are brought to school each day, as we use them in class and it is annoying for the teacher and distressing for the student if these are left at home.

Maths – Miss Jann’s Group Vertical/column addition with and without regrouping. Multiplying by 2s, 5s and 10s. Introducing multiplication by 3s and 4s. Rounding to the nearest 10 and the nearest 100. Story sums involving addition and multiplication.
Miss Debbie’s Group Multiplication as repeated addition. Using basic facts for more complex addition sums. Odd and even numbers. Rounding to the nearest 10. Vertical/column addition without regrouping.

Language – Historical Recount – writing about mummification. (not completed last week). Writing up information for UOI museum display.
Punctuation – Full stops, capital letters and question marks.
Assessment on common nouns and proper nouns. (not completed last week)
Verbs (doing words). Combining verbs and nouns.
Spelling – group 1- “spelling the “k” sound – words that end in “k” after two vowels e.g. steak, soak, shook group 2 words that have “al” in them which sounds like “all” e.g. almost, also, (plus a couple of exceptions to the rule) group 3 the short “o” sound as in “on” e.g. from, shop.

Reminders:
Every day:
School t-shirts, hats, zip bags (reading book, reading log, spelling book and homework books), a healthy snack.
Monday:
Homework handed out.
Wednesday:
P.E. wear suitable attire – house/school t- shirts, shorts and trainers.
Thursday:
Library bags and books to school for exchange/renewal
Friday:
Homework handed in
Spelling test
P.E. wear suitable attire – house/school t-shirts, shorts and trainers
Early finishing time – 12.35pm

Looking forward to another great week together,
Miss Jann

I was very proud of all the children last Monday as they performed at short notice, in front of the whole school at the assembly. Whilst nerves were understandably evident, all 24 children spoke clearly and knowledgeably. Thank you to all parents who were able to attend. This is what our learning in class will look like this week:

UOI – Our first Unit of Inquiry, “Heroes”
Central Idea: We look to heroes to show us who we can be.
3) Role models and their influence on us
The focus on role models will conclude in the early part of next week before we begin to consider our summative task and prepare for that.

Reading and Writing
We will review note taking, look at another style of biography, assess its key features and rehearse the use of them before language and UOI lessons provide the necessary time for research and preparation of the summative tasks.

Maths
Last week we consolidated, at length, multiplication of whole numbers and decimal numbers by 10, 100 and 1000. We then looked at the reverse processes when dividing. Next week we shall begin looking at methods of addition including adding near multiples of 10, 20 and adding by partitioning, both mentally and using written strategies.

P.E. – is on Wednesday and Thursday. Please ensure that your child/children are dressed in or bring the appropriate clothing to school on these days – house t-shirts/school shirt, shorts and trainers.

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

Scott Hawkins