Moshi Campus News – 2 Nov 2014

Thank you to the parents, teachers and student team who organized last Friday’s Hallowe’en events. A lot of planning and preparation went into ensuring that both primary and secondary students had an enjoyable afternoon/evening trick or treating followed by a disco. The students really embraced this Oct 31st by dressing up at school (quite a few zombies and vampires) and then going round the houses for a range of activities. The highlight of the secondary disco was our visiting fortune-teller who mesmerized the children with her tales. Thank you to everyone who pulled this event off, especially Christine who led the initiative with the parents.  
 

Congratulations to all who took part in the inter-schools athletics day on ISM Arusha Campus on Saturday.

A reminder that all students who received a letter to attend the Dar Primary Sports Weekend in May 2015 MUST pay their money and return the letter this week. We will not take any more payments after Friday, 4th November as flights will then be booked. Please pass the payment direct to Ms Annalee with the completed form. Payment can also be made by MPesa to 0767 534766.

After the successful Mandara Hut trip this weekend, the next Outdoor Pursuits trip is this week from 6th to 9th November when a group of students from both campuses will be following the Rongai route on Kilimanjaro.

Students from the French Club will be offered the opportunity to go on a field trip to the French institute in Arusha, the Alliance Française, on Tuesday 11th November. They will be following a workshop on the theme of ‘French cuisine’ organized by two French teachers. A great variety of activities will challenge their French skills. A French meal is going to be prepared for them for the cost of 5,000TSH. This will be a fantastic opportunity for the students to experience some kind of French immersion for a day! Valérie Veillon

PYP classes have quickly gotten back into the swing of things in music during Quarter 2. We have had a great time over these past few weeks learning how to play some new percussion instruments, and having fun with Hallowe’en approaching. We read the book Shake dem Hallowe’en Bones and were able to play instruments during the book. It was great fun! In addition to our normal, weekly curricular activities of developing our singing voices, and learning how to read and write music, we are starting to work on songs that will be used in the primary musical in December. It is sure to be a busy, productive, yet fun quarter!
Also, we are in great need of a qualified accompanist for several older students and possible some choir accompanying later on in the year. If you are a piano player, or know of someone who is, and would be willing to help out, kindly contact me at . Thank you very much!

We would like to welcome all members of the ISM community to our first Open Mike afternoon, Friday November 7th from 4:30 to 5:45pm. Bring a blanket and sit outside Karibu Hall to enjoy the diverse musical talents of our students and teachers; or sign-up to participate by sharing a musical performance, instrumental piece or poetry reading. The sign-up form can be found in the breeze-way. Feel free to speak with Jocelyn, Nita or Susan for more details.

If your child will be leaving ISM in the next few months, could you please let me know as soon as possible on ? This may then enable us to offer places to students currently on our waiting lists.

I am delighted to be able to inform you that the new International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) at Arusha Campus is off to a great start! We opened the programme with 15 students and a number of excellent new teachers. Both the Head of Arusha Campus, Eanna O’Boyle and I feel that the quality of teaching within the IBDP programme is very high and that the students are enjoying their studies.
If you know of any family(ies) living in Arusha whom you feel might like to know more about the IBDP at Arusha Campus please ask them to make an appointment to meet with Eanna O’Boyle. The Campus telephone number is +255 27 2505029 and his e-mail address: . Bob Horton

We have welcomed a number of new staff this quarter. Grace Mkumbwa is our new campus PA. Her office is outside Keiron White’s office and she carries out many administrative tasks for the campus.

Linda Kileo has joined our Learning Support team and is assisting a number of secondary students who require additional support in classes.

The Boarding Community is pleased to welcome Nita Pallett, a boarding volunteer who will be working with us this quarter. Nita is applying her musical talents and energy to help organize several Primary and Secondary boarding activities.

Since 1994 the Dutch school has organised language classes for Dutch children aged 6 to 18. The Dutch school for language and culture provides after school classes for PYP and MYP students and offers Dutch language A and B in the diploma programme, in order to attain a smooth transition for the students to either Dutch secondary or higher education. For such a small country, it is remarkable that 7% of the ISM student population is Dutch. Currently 29 students follow the Dutch school’s classes, of which 6 are in diploma.
The Language A course focuses on ten texts, covering poetry, plays and novels, covering a large period of time dating from modern day prose and novels back to medieval plays. As gruelling as the Dutch language might sound to non-speakers, the language has a long history of creative writing, dating back to the 11th century. In the 1930s a small romantic poem was found in the flyleaf of a manuscript written in Latin, what is believed to be one of the oldest pieces of written Dutch: “habban olla vogele nestas hagunnan, hinasse hic enda thu wat unbidden we nu?”, which roughly means: “all birds started their nests, except for you and me, what are we waiting for?” , presumably written by a monk, trying out his pen. From that moment on Dutch writers kept on producing world class literature, of which some works are studied by the Dutch language A students in ISM.
The Language B course in designed for those students who don’t consider Dutch to be their native language, but do feel they have a strong connection to the country and its language. The course mainly concentrates on non-prosaic text and aims for a better understanding of the culture and the use of the language. News articles, interviews, advertisements and other sorts of texts are studied and written, and a number of oral skills are practised during the course. Although the Dutch government cut most funding for Dutch schools abroad due to the financial crisis in the Netherlands, the Dutch language and culture school of northern Tanzania will continue to provide classes for Dutch children in the Arusha and Moshi area in the coming years. If you are interested in these classes, please feel free to drop by in classroom 33 on the ISM Moshi Campus! Merijn Mook

MYP maths students are challenging themselves to dive deeply into mathematics.
M1 has focused much of this year on number patterns as being able to see and develop patterns is much of the foundation for mathematics.
M2 students have created some amazing geometric constructions and have started to compute rate problems.
M3 can be seen in the photos refining their conceptual understanding of the geometric relationships between polygons and their angle measures.
M4 students are completing a great unit on probability. They are currently creating a game where the creator of the game has an advantage to win the game. Next week, they will get to play the games created by their peers.
M5 students have been working on graphs of functions and understanding how multiplication and addition affect their shapes.

The official IB November 2014 exams on the ISM Moshi campus will take place from Thursday Oct 6th until Wednesday October 19th. Six D2 Swahili B HL students and two other candidates will undertake examinations.
Many DP students had a fabulous time demonstrating their class spirit on Hallowe’en with some impressive costumes and then all enjoyed a fun dance party in the dining hall that evening.
Next week is a registration deadline for the class of 2015 students. All students have confirmed their classes with the DP Coordinator. Any additional changes in levels for the May 2015 exams will come at a cost.
Slipping behind in DP work can be very difficult. Again this year we have noticed that D1 and D2 students who have left early or returned late from holidays or taken family trips during school time have paid a heavy price in terms of stress and lower grades…understand that parents do a great dis-service to their children’s education when they opt to pull them out. Avoid this at all costs. Every day of DP lessons counts and our DP teachers invest considerable time and energy in each day.
Six and a half months from now will be the D2 class of 2015 graduation weekend with the main event – the graduation on Saturday May 23rd. ISM is very pleased to announce that our Graduation speaker will be the International Baccalaureate Organization Director-General Ms. Siva Kumar (www.ibo.org/dg).
You may enjoy glancing at IB World school statistics at www.ibo.org/facts/schoolstats. Read the September 2014 IB World magazine at: www.uwcea.org/dip47.
Regarding exercise and brain development, this article “How to support the ‘air traffic control system’ of your child’s brain” provides some valuable insights – www.uwcea.org/dip48.
Feel free to contact me with questions or concerns about your IB DP student. Sincerely, Rick Fitzpatrick – DP Coordinator

Unit of Inquiry This week we will start to look at the second line of inquiry; Habitats and Organizations that support animal life The focus will be on zoos.
We will try to answer the following questions:

• What are zoos for?
• What jobs do people do in zoos?
• What are the advantages of zoos?
• What are the disadvantages of zoos?
• What are the differences between zoos and safari parks?

Information for Parents The children had a very busy week last week at school with UN Day and Hallowe’en. This week settles down to a little bit more of a “normal” week. With that, I want to thank those of you that are helping your child with routines at home. I can see that many of you are making sure your child reads every day at home. I also can see that many of you are making sure that your child’s homework is be-ing done on time and done well. Thanks for helping your child build habits to make him/her successful in school.
Literacy Focus for the Week This week the children will be working on alphabetizing words. The P1 students will work with letter order, and the P2 students will learn about alphabetizing words even if they start with the same letter.
Maths Focus for the Week In Maths we will focus on tens and units. We will learn how to construct larger numbers, and we will add and subtract tens.
Unit of Inquiry We will continue to learn about homes around the world. This week we will study a variety of homes and what makes them special.
What to Bring to School: Children need a hat for playtime and a healthful snack every day.
Timetable Monday: Library (we will choose new books) Wednesday: PE (wear PE shoes and a house T shirt) Thursday:Swimming (please send swimwear)

Last week we celebrated UN day, and made flying bats for Hallowe’en. We have also been trying out different forms of art from our different cultures, including Weaving and Pop Art. We have learnt how to safely find, save and use images from the internet for use in our unit work, and presented a piece on a festival of choice. In Maths we explored 2D shapes, whilst in English we have been identifying and describing settings.


Language Focus for This Week We will be writing our own stories next week, using our previous work on settings, and focusing on character feelings and actions within that setting.
Maths Focus for This Week Naming, describing, comparing and sorting 3D shapes.
Unit of Inquiry Costumes, Dances and Music from around the world.
Please Remember that: Monday: PE and homework folders sent home. Thursday: Swimming and library day. Friday: All homework folders to be handed in. Spelling test day.

Information for Parents We really had a lot of fun this week, especially in PE class with Ms. Ima. This week we began working on our summative assessments for our energy unit. Students are working either in pairs or individually to create a public service announcement about an energy source of their choice. They are working hard and are very excited to make their own videos!
Language focus for the week We are continuing to focus on reading nonfiction texts. Students will be reading articles related to energy and identifying the perspective of the author. They will compare the author’s perspective with their own to evaluate whether or not they agree with the author. We will also be practising a reader’s theater performance for the unit assembly later in November.
Maths focus for the week To help sort out our unit of inquiry, we will be looking at how we ourselves use energy. We will conduct energy assessments of both our classroom and school and use the information to create data displays.
Unit of Inquiry This week our focus will move into making conclusions and taking action. We will be focusing on the responsibilities that we have and brainstorming ways to save energy. We will continue working on our public service announcements.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Tuesday: PE (Wear PE shoes and house shirt) Thursday: Swimming (bring swimming kit) Library (bring books)

Current Unit (Transdisciplinary Theme): How the world works (Central Idea): Life on Earth is dependent on how the solar system works. This week the students completed their solar system paintings. They took their inspiration from famous works of art including van Gogh’s The Starry Night, Miro’s Blue Star, Klee’s Sunset and Kandinsky’s Several Circles. Some of their best pieces have been displayed outside the classrooms for the community to view.
The class was divided into six groups for IT (Information Technology). They collaborated with their teammates to create an online newspaper about the solar system (www.newspaperclub.com). They will complete these next week.
In PSPE (Personal, Social and Physical Education) the students wrote a statement about each of their classmates and what they appreciated most about them. They then read what others in the class thought of them. The students really enjoyed finding out these personal observations and their confidence appears to have grown. In their reflections some of them wrote: “I feel great. I got really good comments. I never knew people would write good comments about me.” “I feel like I’m wanted here.” “They are all very kind. I didn’t expect them to be so nice. They are all wonderful people with caring hearts.” “I feel more confident about myself now.” “I feel like people like me for who I am.” “I feel very changed and I can’t stop smiling.”
Looking at the week ahead: Unit of Inquiry: Science experiments Maths focus: Bearings English focus: Writing useful interview questions in order to create attention grabbing newspaper reports
Monday: Homework will be set for the week | Library session Wednesday: Swimming session Friday: Homework due in | PE lesson
What to bring everyday: Please bring a bottle of water to keep on the desk. A healthy snack for break times. A hat for break times, lunchtimes and sport lessons.

IN THIS ISSUE