Moshi Campus News – 24 Feb 2014

ISM will once again be entering a team for the Kilimanjaro Marathon and 5km Fun Run on Sunday, 2nd March. We hope that many parents, teachers, students and friends of ISM will be able to take part and wear the special ISM T-Shirt for that day. Full details are available to download from www.uwcea.org/marathon. Please register soon at the ISM main office. Please contact pa-m@uwcea.net if you have any questions.

PARENTS: We need you to join TEAM ISM. Application forms are in reception for TSh 20,000/- plus an optional donation. All donations go to the ISM Scholarship fund to help us to enrol more scholarship students in future.

STUDENTS: We want as many students to take part in the 5km Fun Run as possible. Collect forms from reception for TSh 20,000/- and join TEAM ISM!

Our Inter-schools Primary Sports copetition takes place next Saturday, 1st March. We will be hosting the following competing schools: International School of Tanganyika (IST), St Constantine’s School, Braeburn Arusha, Geita Gold, Kennedy House and ISM Arusha Campus. All are welcome to join us and support.

A representative from the University of Alberta in Canada will be visiting the school on Thursday, 27th February and will meet with diploma students on that day.

D1 students planning to appply to unversities in the USA will probably need to take ACT tests. These are available in Moshi on 14th June and registrations must be completed by 3rd May. Some students may prefer to take the test in Dar es Salaam on 12th April. If your child wishes to take this earlier option, they must register by 6th March. The fee for either date is $85.50 (plus 8% bank charges if you ask the school to pay on your behalf). Please contact Keiron White on to assist with your child’s test registration.

As announced previously, TANSAO in Dar es Salaam is offering daily ACT preparation classes from 7th to 11th April. The fee for these classes is $400. Please contact Mr Rustad before 6th March on to arrange registration and payment for the ACT classes.

Our trip in Nairobi has come to a successful close. The conference was highly engaging and sometimes very heated. Our students engaged with hundreds of others from sixty seven schools across the region. The experience was academically rewarding as students showed great skills in debating global issues, negotiating, and collaborating in intense diplomatic language. As advisors, we were particularly touched by the the level of responsibility that the students showed, and this was also noticed by teachers from other schools.
George Juma and Ingrid Chavez – Advisors

Please note the following in your diary: Monday, 3 March – PYP Assembly P2/3 A chance to hear what the P2/3s have been doing in class.
Wednesday, 12 March – Primary Swimming Gala All students will participate in this inter-house competition.
Monday, 17 March – Book week Assembly This is a celebration of books assembly, where our students get a chance to dress up in costume as a character from one of their favourite books. Please discuss with your child what they would like to wear, it may require some planning!

We are starting to put together our primary clubs for Q4.Thank you to the parents who have been volunteering their time this quarter for football, swimming, sewing and jiu jitsu.
The Q4 clubs will run from Tuesday, 22 April until Thursday, 12 June. The variety and quantity of clubs relies on parent volunteers contributing to the programme or it diminishes how many times the students can attend a club. We truly appreciate the parents that give their time to make the clubs happen. If you can offer some time on a weekly basis and would like to run a club, either creative or sporty please contact Totty Aris via email on .

DP teachers met recently and decided to further deepen our efforts to educate all eighty-nine of our current ISM DP students (and future classes as well!) on academic honesty issues particularly plagiarism. One apparent challenge for many students concerns how to correctly reference (especially in-text referencing) in academic work such as on an internal assessment or an Extended Essay. In the coming months and in an on-going fashion thereafter, we will conduct special training workshops on Academic Honesty – a central feature of an IB DP education today.
D2 Group 1 (Studies in Language and Literature) and Group 2 (Language Acquisition) oral examinations continue this week and next and serve as a key element of the overall grade for our students.
Public speaking and presentations undertaken in DP classes remain a key feature of an ISM DP education. In addition, reports from Nairobi this week indicate that ISM DP students at the Model UN conference presented themselves very well. (https://www.facebook.com/eastafricanmun?hc_location=timeline)
Thirty-five full diploma D1 students will finalize for this coming week their draft research question for their Extended Essay. Parental guidance on this task and the whole EE project would be much appreciated. The five ‘Diploma Course’ (formerly called certificate status) students need not complete the EE.
Last month the IB produced its updated version of its “Programme standards and practices” for all three IB programs – Primary Years Programme, Middle Years Programme and Diploma Programme (www.uwcea.org/dip07).
We in the ISM DP take particular note of its emphasis on “Collaborative planning and reflection” when implementing the IB curriculum. While we already have all our DP teachers working closely together for student success, this revised version places even more emphasis on this matter of collaboration.
As forty-eight D2 students move into the months of their ISM education, they are cognizant of the official IB May final examinations whose timetable is now set. Parental support at this potentially stressful time would also be invaluable.
Quite a good number of ISM IB DP students will participate in next Sunday March 2nd Kilimanjaro half-marathon or 5 km fun run. (www.kilimanjaromarathon.com).
Another reminder – Try to make the trip to Moshi for the Friday March 28th late-morning parent-teacher meeting at the end of this 3rd quarter of the 2013-2014 school year. Feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns. Sincerely, Rick Fitzpatrick Diploma Programme Coordinator

Unit of Inquiry This week we will inquire into the life cycle of a frog. We are finishing off our big display outside the classroom on the life cycle of a butterfly. This will be ready for viewing very soon. The children also have to finish their individual books on the life cycle of a butterfly. As we find out about different life cycles we are listing the similarities and differences between them on a class chart.
Literacy

• Retelling the story of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’
• Sequence pictures of the life cycle of a frog and explain what happens at each stage
• EC2 – sight word games
• EC2 – CVC word focus to enable the children to hear all sounds in 3 letter words. Rhyming and the short vowel a will be a focus this week
• EC1 children are focusing on sorting objects beginning with sounds they know. New children will be introduced to Clever cat (not completed last week due to the shorter week) and Dippy Duck.

Hope your children had good fun and a good rest over the long weekend!
Guest Speaker Before the mini break, we had Simon and Tara Mtuy come in talk to the children about Mbahe village community. They had carefully prepared a wonderful power point with lots of stunning photos. The children were fascinated with what Simon had to say. We all learned so much about how the people in the village live and work together. We were able to compare and contrast with Moshi community. A fabulous finale to our unit about communities. Thanks again Simon and Tara!
Swimming The weather continues to be rather unpredictable. Last Tuesday, the water was a little cool so we had a shorter swimming lesson which the children thoroughly enjoyed. Therefore we will continue to decide each Tuesday morning whether we will swim. So please continue to bring your swimming things every Tuesday. Thank you.
Goodbye! It will be Joeka’s last day on Friday. He has only been with us a short time but will certainly be missed. Thank you Joeka for being such a bubbly, happy and hard working member of the class.
New Unit of Inquiry: Going Going…Gone Theme – How we share the planet Central Idea – Many species of animals are endangered and some are already extinct. Lines of Inquiry: 1. The basic needs of animals. 2. Factors leading to endangerment of species. 3. Humans responsibility to share the planet. We will begin pulling apart the central idea and talking about what endangered and extinct mean. We will browse non fiction books and look at the some of the many children’s websites about this topic.
Language focus for the week Write a recount of the long weekend. Children will be encouraged to use the language of time. (First, Next, Then, After that, The next day…) Sentence and word level work will also focus on descriptive language. This will be an unaided, assessed piece of writing for the portfolio and to find out what literacy writing targets can be set for each child. Handwriting: Patterns, own name, numerals and Caterpillar Letters. (cadgoq) Also esf Phonics – Group 1: Introduce words beginning with scr, spl, spr, squ, str and shr. Group 2: Continue to revise all long vowel spelling patterns. Introduce ar as in star.
Maths focus for the week Mental skills will focus on counting on and back from any number. Quick recall of addition and subtraction facts of 9, 10 and 20. All children will learn about data handling. Group objects according to different attributes such as size, shape and colour. Organise information in simple ways such as tables and graphs.
Generate and answer questions about presented data.
Art We will continue to create patterned pictures. We will paint pictures for our Handa’s Surprise display.
What to bring to school: Every day: A hat for playtime, a healthy snack, water bottle and reading folder. Timetable: Monday No School – holiday! Tuesday Swimming (swimming costume, towel, flip flops/crocs, swim aids such as floaters if necessary. Goggles and sun cream are optional.) New class reding books will be issued Thursday Library (Bring library books in your special library bag to return and then choose new ones) New class reading books will be issued. Friday Spelling Test

I hope everyone enjoyed the long weekend! We will be wrapping up on our wonderful Simple Machines unit this week and preparing for our class’s Assembly next Monday. Please join us at 7:40 in Karibu Hall to see our presentation about all we have been learning! We will also spend a bit of time introducing our new unit, Tanzania. The P3 students will kick us off by telling about what they learned about the Chagga people during their successful field trip last week.
MATHS – We will continue with currency. Our focus has been on adding coins to make a sum but now we will start with a sum and consider what coin combinations are possible. Naturally, this is a very good review of counting by 10s and 5s.
LANGUAGE – We will use the index, table of contents, and glossary to answer questions about non-fiction texts. We will consolidate our Simple Machine knowledge into an illustrated glossary of terms. The Spelling chunk of the week is -ow (focusing on the Long o pronunciation like low or grow) and we will review all Long O phonics.
Tuesday: Homework will be sent home and students will have the chance to swap out their library books. Wednesday: PE, remember to wear your sneakers and a hat and bring your water bottle. Thursday: Swimming, bring your suit and a towel. Reading books swapped out, bring your Reading Log as well. Friday: Spelling test and return completed homework.

The P3/4 camp was a great success. The children all had a fantastic time of fun and learning and not even the rain could dampen our spirits. For many students it was the first time they had camped or spent a night away from home and they all coped very well with this new experience. They were all very engaged in their learning about the Chagga people and their interaction with the environment and loved experiencing a rain forest first hand.
I trust you all had an enjoyable long weekend break. Week 7 is another short week and this is what our learning in class will look like:
UOI Unit 4 – Where We Are in Place and Time – Biomes Central Idea -There are a wide variety of environments on our planet made up of living and non-living elements. Lines of inquiry – Types of biomes         Location of different biomes         Interactions of living and non-living things         Human responsibility to share resources with other living things         Preservation of natural environments The children will finish off their research on their chosen biome and begin to make their posters in preparation for their summative assessment task.
Maths – Miss Jann’s Group – will complete their unit on money and begin to look at units of measurement and the relationship between these units, beginning with length, height and distance. Miss Debbie’s Group – Measurement – estimating metres and centimetres, measuring length and comparing length.
Language – Factual writing and writing reports. Spelling – Group 1: words ending in -ation e.g station, population, operation Group 2: -ing as a magic ending e.g naming, escaping, hoping Group 3: consonant digraphs i.e. two letters together that make a new sound, but not the usual sound of the letters e.g. ch, sh and th e.g. chair, ship, thumb
Reminders Our ice cream sundae times table challenge Please encourage and assist your child to learn their table for the week, so that they can make the most delicious sundae possible at the end of this term.
Every day: School T-shirts or polo shirts, zip bags (reading book, reading log, spelling book all need to come to school every day), a healthy snack for break time. Monday: No school – public holiday. Tuesday: School resumes. Homework handed out. Baroque music concert for primary students. 7.45am in the music room. Wednesday: P.E. – gymnastics. Please wear shorts or tights and school or house t-shirts. Long hair should be tied up. Thursday: Library. Please remember library bags and any books that are due back for return/renewal. Friday: Homework due in. Spelling test. Times tables test – 4x P.E.- swimming Looking forward to a great week together. Miss Jann

Last week we wrapped up the Wild Weather Unit with a summative task.
From Tuesday 25 Feb until Friday 2 May the P5 & P6 classes will be split into two groups. P6 will be working on their PYP Exhibition with Mr Scott and P5 will follow their own unit ‘Law and order’ with Ms Patricia Sipman. Ms Patricia is an experienced teacher who has taught at ISM before on a maternity cover, she knows our routine well and is looking forward to delving into this unit with the P5s. They will move into Room 16 for the duration and make that their homeroom. The P5/6 students will still come together for the specialist subjects such as PE, French and Swahili.
UOI – P5 Unit 5 – ‘Law and Order’ The children will discuss the need for their new class rules linking it to the unit and begin to look and laws and punishments that existed in the past in several parts of the world.
P6 Exhibition Unit. ‘Shaping positive change’ Central Idea: A rapidly changing planet requires modern approaches, thinking and action The children will determine their own central ideas, lines of inquiry and questions. They will meet with a mentor for the first time, establish goals and begin their research.
Reading and Writing For P6 Language lessons will be consumed by work on the exhibition now which will involve much reading, note taking and writing up. P5 will be drafting laws and latterly comparing them with instructions.
Maths We will begin to explore the properties of 2D and 3D shapes; to verbalise them, draw them, label them and make them using nets.
P.E. – is on Wednesday and Thursday. Thursday will once again be swimming.
Library – will be on Monday morning. Please remind your child to return any finished books.

IN THIS ISSUE