Moshi Campus News – 20 Jan 2018

One of the things I enjoy about ISM is the involvement of the students.  With the support and help of teachers and other staff they get involved in a number of activities both on and off campus.  Since getting back I have had conversations with students about some of these projects.  We have a group of boys that are working with a local school to turn the field they play football on into a proper pitch with goals.  There is the group working with animal welfare at a local shelter as pictured below. 

Sparkling Elephant is working on new projects this year and one involves work on the beehive fences.  In fact, if you have been on campus recently you may have seen all the hives ready to be repaired and repainted.

This year the M3 students have decided that they would like to build a closer relationship with the daycare on campus and are planning different projects with them.  This is only a sample of projects based on my conversations with students, if you want more information, I would talk with the students or Anthony Hemmens the coordinator of these activities.

I would be remiss if I did not mention that the involvement went beyond service.  We all know the wide range of sports students engage in and the swimming event yesterday was a perfect example.  The arts are also part of this involvement.  In fact, we have the Variety Show on Friday February 9th.  For those who went last year I am sure you remember the great work the PTA did in organizing this event which displayed the wide range of talent in the community.  Watch here for more information or look for the posters which will be popping up around campus to sign up.

Many congratulations to Tyler, Luke, Safiya, Nathan and Lamiyah, the participants of the first ISM welding workshop. Led by the masterful instruction from our fundi Josephat, it was a great success and enjoyed by all. Next week our new welders take a turn at their own work and two more welding teams get their first introduction to the craft.

Additionally, students have been out around Moshi involved in a number of activities like the Animal Welfare CAS.

Anthony Hemmens

The D2 students completed mock exams this Friday and resume regular lessons on Monday the 22nd.  The D1 students are at a point where they have regular formative assessments and projects due in their subjects.  Preparing for these is often a collaborative effort to take advantage of each other’s knowledge and understanding.  Scenes like those in the photo are common around campus at the various seating locations.  The D1 students will start work in February on their Extended Essay (https://www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/extended-essay/).  I will start working with the D2 students imminently in graduation planning meetings. 

I would suggest parents start planning for the graduation as well and you may want to reserve rooms for the graduation weekend (May 18-19).  Aim to attend the parent-teacher conference on Friday March 23rd.

Rick Fitzpatrick

M5
Work Experience Location Details
We need these by Thursday February 1 to facilitate preparations, please submit these as soon as you have them.

Personal Project Exhibition
We invite you to come to the M5 Personal Project Exhibition on Tuesday February 6 in Karibu Hall from 10:35 am to 2:00pm.

ePortfolio, PP and Assessments
The M5 students are on the last stretch of the year. Draft 2 of the PP reports are now with teachers for feedback. Similarly ePortfolio assessments in Language Acquisition(English, French), Arts (Drama, Music, Visual Arts), PHE and Design assessments are going on. The assessments will culminate with the Mocks on March 6-8.

Careers Day
M5 students will join D1 students on Thursday March 22 for a Careers Day. We intend to invite professionals within our community to present to students on various sectors including but not limited to Business, Architecture, Medicine, Education, Engineering, Law, Tourism and the NGO sector.

We invite professionals within our community to help in the presentations and/or give suggestions of other sectors we may have left out. Please contact me or Mr. Rick Fitzpatrick for more details.

David Ochieng

Boarders are settled into their normal routines now.

This past week was particularly busy for the D2 boarders who were writing mock examinations. They ended on Friday, and this weekend has various activities to keep boarders busy. These will include a baking activity in the diploma boys’ dorm on Saturday, a pool party, movies for different ages, and various sporting activities.

Boarders are from time to time invited to spend weekends with host families in and out of Moshi town. We encourage both the host family and the boarders’ parents to inform the boarding team of such arrangements in good time, by Thursday preceding the weekend.

There will be a variety show on Friday 9th February. It will be full of entertaining performances from the ISM community. All are reminded to start preparing for this very interesting event.

The following weekend from Friday 16th to Monday 19th will be an ISM long weekend. There will be no classes on Friday and on Monday. The boarders are planning on a trip that weekend and we will have more information for you concerning this soon. Parents who may wish to have their children return home that weekend are free to make the arrangements, and let the school know in plenty of time. However, the boarding houses will remain open for those who wish to stay in school for the long weekend.

Rosemary Bango

We have now started the third quarter of the school year. Any student who is changing/adding must speak with the coach and to Mr Hibbard before being allowed to start. During quarter three the following NTAA teams will be competing:

• U15 Boys and Girls Football
• U19 Boys and Girls Basketball

The first NTAA Tournament for these teams will be Saturday January 27th at Braeburn. The bus will depart at 06:30 and the ISM teams will play 3 to 4 games. Check back in future newsletters for the schedule and photos, and scores.

The Primary Swim Gala on Friday January 19th was a great success. Please see the notes and pictures below.

As the season and year progress please keep up with all the info, news, and sports reports by reading the Moshi Campus News.

Go Leopards

Scott Hibbard

The P1 – P6 children have a week left of their third unit of inquiry. This means they are busy drawing conclusions which will feed into their summative assessment work. There is naturally a lot of frenetic activity around the Primary School. It is great to see the children enjoying their inquiries so much and wanting to fit in as much as possible.

We wish the P6 class all the best for their PYP Exhibition Retreat which takes place in Arusha towards the end of next week. This will get them prepared and thinking about the culminating work of their PYP education. It’s always an exciting time in any IB student’s education.

In just over a week we will begin ISM’s annual Book Week. Monday 29th January is a Book Week Spirit Day. On that day the primary children can dress up as their favourite book character. So it’s time to start preparing your costumes! Do let myself or the class teacher know if you are interested in coming in to class to read a story out loud. The children love to hear a variety of different readers. You can either pick a book from home or borrow one from the library.

Kate Schermbrucker

Congratulations to our Primary Swim Squad who competed so enthusiastically in the NTAA Gala on Friday. We had swimmers from ISMAC, St Constantine’s and Kennedy House who joined us here on campus and it was great fun. Very many thanks to our PTA members and other parents who helped us with timing and marshaling. We could not have done it without you! The results of the competition will be announced in the coming days.

This week our EC children have been using a variety of books to begin to think about our five senses. These books have spawned lots of discussions and a few simple tests. Have you ever tasted food without seeing or smelling it? Our ‘tuning in’ poster is up and our experimentation with texture and smell continues.

Please remember that the children will need hats, bottles and well-fitted training shoes for PE each Monday, and their swimming gear each Thursday. Library books are changed on a Friday.

Thanks,
Owain Evans

Thank you for all the boxes, newspapers, magazines and knickknacks which we used to make all sorts of things in class this week. The children have started to put together their creations. They drew up a plan, glued together their pieces and painted a first coat of paint. Next week, they will be painting the details onto their work and gluing on extra items to make their models fancier! We will be welcoming you in soon to see their finished products.

In maths, we are venturing on further into Time Land for a last push!! We will be looking more deeply into digital clocks and how they tell the time. It is refreshing to see the children looking at their watches or reading the wall clock and telling each other the time. Please keep on helping them at home.

Please keep on reviewing the Handy Questions in the Reading Record Books as you read at home. Your comments are valuable.

Mboka Mwasongwe

Dear P2/3 Parents,
Well done P2/3`s for their presentation during the Primary Gathering.

The children have been busy this week working on their Family History Scrapbooks. Many of the children have brought in information and photographs from home to help them with their research. There is still some time if you have not.

On Friday 26th January at 7:45am parents are invited to a Scrapbook share. Your child will show you their scrapbook and share what they learned about their family history.

In Math, some children will be focusing on place value of two and three-digit numbers. Others will be developing their subtraction skills. Estimating is another important skill we will be reviewing.

In reading we are continuing with reading with expression. The children are also working on scooping words. This strategy helps children improve their fluency.

• Monday: Homework goes home.
• Tuesday: Library and PE
• Wednesday – French
• Thursday: Swimming
• Friday:  Return homework.

Clare Hibbard

This week we had fun making video book reviews and learning how to write procedural texts effectively. Students enjoyed explaining their force experiments to the class and are beginning to understand the importance of repeating tests multiple times and the need to control variables in order to make a good scientific test. We found out different materials can increase friction and influence the distance a vehicles goes.

Next week we will begin our summative assessments which will have students applying measurement skills they learned this unit and using their new knowledge of materials to determine how to make a working kite.

Congratulations to all our classmates who participated in the swimming gala.

Julie Bowen

This week the children have been looking at newspapers and online sites to see if they can identify bias in news reports. They have written a “biased article” themselves using techniques such as emotive headlines, misleading pictures and the omission of facts that don’t support your argument. Next week, as part of our summative assessment task, the children will look at well known fairy tales and write a biased news report from the villain’s perspective. We will also watch news programs online that are aimed at children and will read some Tanzanian newspapers.

In language we will continue our work on prefixes and suffixes. We will also start reviewing books in preparation for book week which starts 29th January. Our art activities next week will focus on decorating our classroom door ready for the book week competition.

In maths we have been working hard on multiplication and next week will start division work. We have been learning to play dominoes as some new sets arrived in the shipment and we plan to use them for maths problem solving and investigations in the coming weeks (see photo.)

Deborah Mills

The P6s enjoyed the challenge of solving simple algebra problems and working on their summative assessments. They have all worked very impressively on their first drafts of their migration stories and in the coming week they will present their final drafts. Shared below are some links to the stories they have written.

 

The Story of James and His Family
Louisa’s Story

In the coming week, the students will be going to ISMAC for a night, for their Exhibition retreat. Due to this they will do their end of unit presentations in the following week and with the short week, their homework will be due on Wednesday.  We will be working on revising concepts taught over the last semester as well as editing and publishing our stories.

Cathy Wambua