Moshi Campus News – 9 May 15

You can now recycle plastic bottles at ISM. We are partnering with Pamoja Tunaweza, a local charity that works with unemployed young people, who will be collecting our plastic waste and selling it to make some money for their organisation. The collection point is the container pictured, which is near the bottom of the main car park, making it an easy place to deposit your plastic bottles. All types are accepted: water, soda, shampoo, cooking oil, washing soap, bleach, motor oil and so on. It is very helpful if they are clean and squashed to reduce their volume. If you are not sure, check whether the bottom of the container says PET, PETE, HDPE or PE on it. Unfortunately other types, such as LDPE, PP and PS, cannot be collected. We hope to collect a steady stream of plastic bottles and stop them being burned or ending up in landfill!

The next Parent Association Meeting is on this Monday, 11th May in Bob Horton’s office. Parents who wish to discuss any matters with the PA Committee are welcome to join us between 7:30am and 8am.
Please note that minutes of all PA meetings are posted on the school website on the parent pages at www.uwcea.org/ism-parents/parent-documents/. You may be asked to enter a password – please request this from the Head of Campus.

ISM is an international school, but what do we mean by “international”? Over the last months we have been developing ISM’s definition of internationally-minded people and this was ratified by the Board at their last meeting.
Internationally-minded People:

• Are curious about the world and different cultures;
• Strive to learn about the values, beliefs and practices of their own culture so that they can better understand those found in their host country and elsewhere;
• Seek to understand how personal values, beliefs and practices impact one’s own and others’ contexts for learning and interacting in settings such as social, occupational, and educational;
• Demonstrate the values of the IB Learner Profile;
• Are influenced, but not confined, by the cultures of their upbringing;
• Recognise that many values, beliefs and practices are universal;
• Recognise and reflect on their place in an increasingly interdependent, globalised world;
• Recognise and critically engage with multiple perspectives;
• Bridge cultures and act to create a more peaceful and sustainable world.

In January this year we asked you, ISM’s parents, together with our students, teachers, Board members and alumni to complete an online survey about many diferent asects of the school. The results of this survey are providing us with valuable input to focus our development and action plans and have been the subject of much discussion. If you would like to read the full survey reports from both campuses, these are available at www.uwcea.org/ism-parents/parent-documents/. You may be asked to enter a password – please request this from the Head of Campus.

Cake in the staff room this week!

The messge below is from a group of diploma students:
As an international school, the ISM community always portrays their spirit of internationalism, open-mindedness and caring by acknowledging different worldwide matters. This is then followed by taking significant steps towards that matter.
Recently, Nepal has faced a devastating earthquake, reaching 7.8 on the Richter scale. Homes, schools, and infrastructure systems, over a large portion of land, have been destroyed, killing thousands and living hundreds homeless.
The ISM community acknowledges this tragedy, and the Make-A-Change CAS group is trying to help out, by collecting funds from you, as an act of condolence and courtesy to the people affected by this event.
Charity is giving, and therefore we will accept any amount that you will feel comfortable with giving. And your prayers will as well be something good to do. We have two donation boxes in the school campus – one on the breezeway and another in the duka. We will also have representatives in every dorm, and one for the teachers, to collect money by meeting with people face-to-face. Together we can make a difference.

This quarter the MYP classes are doing Scripted Pieces. These are a celebration of the drama knowledge and skills that the students have acquired in the entire year. It also gives them a chance to experience drama in practice from the concept to staging. Since some of the MYP groups are making decisions on which Art dicipline to choose in either M4 or M5, the Scripted Pieces also give them a chance to taste drama as a discipline in a more practical sense. The M5s will be performing their annual One Act pieces on June 3rd; the other MYP groups are doing excerpts of a text or two group performances. The M4 class will be staging an excerpt of ‘A Raisin in the Sun’ by Lorraine Hansbery. They are split into two groups and each group will be showing one scene of Act 1. The M3s are doing two unrelated scripts in two separate groups. Group 1 is working on “The Evacuees” by Marianne Cook depicting the behaviour and anxiety of school children around the age of 10-14 and their teacher at Paddington Railway station. Group 2 are putting up a comedy “Superheroes Support Group” by DM Larson celebrating the theme “Everyone Can Make a Change”. The M2s are putting together scenes from abridged version of ‘Macbeth’ by William Shakespeare which is a continuation of their Q3 Unit on Magic in drama. And finally the M1s are dramatising two different versions of of the Greek Myth “Pandora’s Box’. The performances are all in-house production with the classes as the main audience except the M5s whose performances are open to the public. The M1s are however inviting a primary audience.

The M3 English Language & Literature is currently looking at the power of persuasive writing through the lens of Animal Rights. We have been looking at advertising but also at how people try to persuade people to stand up against animal cruelty or consider vegetarianism. This has been a very interesting unit so far as the students bring their own research to share with the class as well as watching a range of internet videos to understand documentary persuasion. They will soon be writing their own letter of persuasion in which they have to persuade their parents that they have decided to make a lifestyle choice and become vegetarian, hopefully with sound arguments and bearing in mind counter-arguments. Following that we will be visiting Makoa Farm on Monday 25 May to meet the animals at the rescue center and do some creative writing regarding the world through the eyes of an animal. Overall this a thought-provoking unit for the M3 students who will end up making their own Animal Rights short documentary.

MYP musicians are at the mid-point of their current unit and many are already working towards their summative projects each week. The M1 class is doing a short unit on music notation – both traditional notation and alternative. Some are quite interesting! By the end of the unit, they will have created their own form of music notation and notated part of a song of their choice. M2s are working on their melody writing unit, and lately have been hard at work learning about music theory (scales, chords, whole & half steps) so that they know how to create and write down the melody that they create. M3s are doing a mini-unit that stems from their Arts trip a couple weeks ago. They are looking at different genres of music and how these can reflect the communities in which they are present. M4s are finishing up their travel through time in the USA by studying rock ‘n roll music. Finally the M5s are continuing to work individually and in groups to create their M5 class song, which will be performed at their M5 ceremony. Soon there will be lots of great sounds coming from the Music Suite!

The first week of the official DP exams has gone well. Each of the 36 D2 students have two or three exams in each subject and the last day of exams will be Friday May 22nd. That evening at 6:30 PM ISM will host our annual Graduation Dinner which this year will be held at AMEG Lodge, off Lema Road. There will be a graduation rehearsal for all D2s on the morning of Sat May 23rd from 9:00am. Seating for the Graduation Ceremony will take place at 2:00 pm and the ceremony will commence at 2:30pm. This year’s keynote speaker is Dr. Siva Kumari – the Director-General of the IB.
D1s are intensively focused on researching and writing their Extended Essay and will present to their peers a summary of their work to date on Monday June 15th. D1s are also preparing for their end-of-D1 exams and which start on Monday May 25th.
Reminder: D1 parents should arrange to be present at ISM for the last day of the school year – Wed June 17th – to attend the Parent-Teacher meeting.
Australia’s premier newspaper – the Sydney Morning Herald has an insightful article entitled “International Baccalaureate: mind-expanding or elitist and expensive?” at www.uwcea.org/dip89 Sincerely, Rick Fitzpatrick – DP Coordinator

Forthcoming Primary Events Monday 18 May – Muffins for Mums & Dads Assembly Parents & guardians are invited to attend this “celebration of the people who care for us” at 7.40 in Karibu Hall.
Tuesday 19 May – Touch Rugby at Kennedy House – a small, selected team will attend this event, letters will go out asap
Thursday 21 May – P1/2 Football Fun at St. Constantines’ – All of P1/2 will atend this tournament
Wednesday 27 May – Touch Rugby at Kennedy House – a selected team will attend this event, letters will go out asap
A reminder that all students attending sports trips need to pay 15,000 Tsh towards the transport and bring in their permissions slips.
Friday 29 May – Sunday 1 June – IST Primary Tournament – Dar es Salaam Our football and swim team have been working hard towards this annual event and will be accompanied by Mrs Aris, Ms Annalee, Coach Noah and Coach Sabini. We will be travelling with our Arusha primary team who are also competing.
Wednesday 10 June – Moshi Campus 10.00-12.00 – Touch Rugby and Netball Tournament with Kennedy House Team

Information for Parents As it gets muddier and muddier, there is something you might want to think about. On muddy days the children really need to have a pair of outdoor shoes and indoor shoes. Some children like to keep the indoor shoes at school all the time. Others like to take them home each day. Either way, you should plan for your child to have both indoor shoes and outdoor shoes on muddy days.
Literacy Focus for the Week Our work with comparing and contrasting stories last week was very successful. The children are improving in their ability to pick out what is important in a story. This week the Group 1 children will work on long vowel words. The Group 2 children will focus on comprehension. We will also continue to read in our reading groups.
Maths Focus for the Week This week we will focus on learning about time. We will use clocks and calendars, and we will learn about elapsed time.
Unit of Inquiry Last week we began our new unit about teamwork in the workplace. This week we will continue to learn about different jobs and community helpers.
What to Bring to School Children need a hat for playtime and a healthful snack every day.
Timetable Monday: Library (return your books) Wednesday: PE (please send proper shoes and house shirt) Thursday: PE (please send proper shoes) Friday: Show and Tell

Last week in P3 we have been continuing with telling the time in Maths. The children have been applying their knowledge in order to solve a range of problems, and have been thinking about what time they do everyday activities in real life. We have put together our performance of Dinosaurs and all that Rubbish by Michael Foreman and we hope you enjoyed watching it on Friday morning. We explored the story Where the Forest meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker, and the children wrote postcards from the setting of the beach and rainforest. This is another fantastic story for helping us to tune into our Sharing the Planet unit of inquiry with the central idea: our planet has limited resources that are unevenly distributed.
If you think that you (or someone else you know) might be knowledgeable enough to come and speak to the children during this unit, please let me know. Anything to do with earth’s natural resources – importance, pollution, mismanagement or conservation of our natural resources would be great at this point in the inquiry.
In Maths next week, the students will explore how many days are in each month and will be solving problems involving calendars. In English we will be reading a range of information texts to help us find out more about earth’s natural resources, and how they are distributed around the planet. We will use a range of maps and data charts to assist with this during our UOI and IT time.
What to bring to school Hat , Water-bottle , Communication book (every day please).
Timetable Monday: PE. Homework will be set. Thursday: PE and Library. Friday: Spelling and mini-multiplication test. Homework due in.

Information for Parents The students have really done a great job of tuning in to our new unit. They have looked at the difference between innovation and invention and begun to brainstorm needs and problems that people have. There has been a lot of enthusiasm this week. Just a reminder that swimming is finished for the remainder of the school year, so students should wear trainers and PE clothes on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
Language focus for the week We are about finished with our stories, most students are in the last stage of typ-ing them. This week we will collaborate together on some group stories. We cre-ated a class story last week and students really enjoyed the process of building in each others’ ideas. We will continue to read nonfiction articles about innovators, focusing on how to read for information.
Maths focus for the week The students show a good understanding of writing fractions and comparing them. We will now move into adding and subtraction fractions. We will also begin writing our answers in simplest form.
Unit of Inquiry We will be doing a variety of activities this week to find out more information about innovation. Students will begin to learn about different innovators and what they have worked on. They will also practice some brain-boosting activities to encourage their creative thinking process.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Tuesday: PE (wear trainers and house shirt) Thursday: Library (bring books)     PE (wear trainers and house shirt)

This week we got back to our usual, post Exhibition, routine. The children have adapted well to normal lessons and having the P5 and P6 children back together again in one classroom. They seem to be excited to learn about health and exercise, i.e. our new and final unit of the academic year. This week we completed our ‘Tuning In’ activities as we begin again on the inquiry cycle. The children completed some thinking routines which included one named Peeling the Fruit. In this they had to explore the different layers of the text about exercise in order to come to deeper conclusions rather than just a superficial understanding. It also caused them to ask some questions which they will need to answer as we explore the unit further.
In art the students have started to create their own graphic novels. They have studied the features which makes this kind of art distinctive from other art. They have so far created their own characters and next week they will begin to tell their story about health and fitness through this medium.
In PE lessons the children are learning Touch Rugby skills and gymnastics techniques.
Unit: Transdisciplinary Theme: Who we are Central Idea: Our health is affected by the choices we make
Maths focus: Measure, angles, averages
English focus: Writing and punctuating believable dialogue
Monday: Homework will be set | Library session Wednesday: PE lesson 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. A change of shoes if it is muddy.

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