Moshi Campus News – 16 Nov 2014

We are now getting prepared for our major secondary Sports Weekend which will take place from Friday to Sunday, 28th to 30th November. During this weekend we will be hosting about 500 visiting students in the school and enjoying a range of sports including football, swimming, softball, ultimate frisbee, netball, rugby, basketball, volleyball and tennis. The schools visiting this year are ISM Arusha Campus, Braeburn Arusha, St Constantine’s Arusha, IST, Morogoro International School, Haven of Peace Academy, Orkeeswa School, and Isamilo Mwanza.
Events start at lunch time on Friday and continue well into Friday night. With a 7am start on both Saturday and Sunday mornings, the weekend is packed with events. The draft schedule is attached to this newsletter, although this may be subject to change. Parents and friends are very welcome to join us for some or all of the evets and to support our students.
With so many students sleeping in classrooms over the weekend, there will be additional security measures in place. The north and south gate entrances to the school will be closed and all entry/exit from the campus will be via the main gate. Boarders who are remaining on campus will not be allowed to sign out for town visits during this weekend.
On Saturday, 29th November from 9am to 2pm. the CAS Christmas Fair will also be held on campus as a part of the weekend’s events – see below. This will be an excellent opportunity for you to buy those much-needed Christmas presents!

A reminder that this year’s annual Christmas Craft Fair at ISM is scheduled for Saturday, 29th November 2014 between 9am and 2pm. We warmly welcome individuals and groups who would like to sell their crafts and products. Tables can be purchased for TSh 25,000/-. All money raised will go towards ISM’s many community service projects. Karibuni!

We look forward to seeing many parents at the PA Annual General Meeting which will be held at AMEG Lodge on Tuesday, 25th November at 6pm. The meeting is an opportunity for all parents of students on the Moshi Campus to hear from the Director on the current state of the School and our plans for the future, to learn what the Parents’ Association has achieved over the year, and to contribute your views in discussion. We very much hope that many parents will be able to attend.
Also on the agenda will be the election of two new committee members to replace those who will be standing down.

Our Drama club is getting very creative with their forthcoming production of ‘Around the World in 80 minutes’. We are finding we need a little more time to rehearse so we have added the following rehearsals to our schedule: Monday 24 Nov 2.00-4.00pm Monday 1 Dec 2.00 -4.00 pm
Our drama students will be wearing a basic costume of black, please can you put together an outfit that is black trousers/skirt and black plain T-shirt. We will then build on that for costumes.
The performance date of this production is Monday, 15 December at 6.30 pm. All of primary will be joining us for this performance as each class also has a little dance/song that contributes to the story. Please keep this date free so you can come and see your child perform. One night only!

Clubs – Looking ahead to Q3 – towards the end of this quarter we will be once again be doing the sign-up for the primary clubs online. We are very grateful to the parents who contribute an hour every week to enhance our primary clubs. If you would like to offer a club next Quarter and can commit one hour a week Mon/Tues/Weds please can you send an email to ?

Primary Sharing Assembly – Monday, 24th November Parents are welcome to join us for our PYP sharing assembly on Monday 24 November in Karibu Hall at 07.45 for a glimpse into their current units of inquiry.
Primary Swimming Team Our competitive swim team is doing very well with their new swimming programme. The Saturday programme has made a real difference to their swimming technique. Thank you to Coach Noah and Coach Sabini for the extra time they are giving them. Please ensure your child has a swim hat which can be bought at Reception. We will be running a swimming competition for the swim team only on Friday, 5th December, 11.35-12.35. Parents of swimmers are welcome to join us. (The primary swimming gala for all our primary students is in February).

Congratulations to the 9 brownies enrolled into the ISM Brownie pack last Thursday. The girls made their promise in front of their fellow brownies, parents, boarding parents and teachers.
Bags of Love An important part of being a Brownie or a Girl Guide is thinking of others less fortunate than ourselves. The Brownies came up with an idea to provide a HOLIDAY GIFT for the children that attend the Day Care Centre on ISM Moshi Campus. Many of the children’s parents work for ISM or KCMC.
How you can help Every child at the Day Care Centre will be given a draw-string bag full of small presents with a personal card inside to wish them a happy holiday. If you can donate any items (toys, puzzles, crayons, paints, school equipment, clothes, toiletries – toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, shampoo, etc) to help fill these bags, then we would be very grateful. Please bring them to either Ms Debbie’s classroom (room 1) or Ms Annalee’s classroom (room 3) at the beginning or end of the school day. Please note than any items must be as good as new as this is a special present for the Holiday Season. Many thanks for your support, The Brownies and Girl Guides on the Moshi Campus

Used Fiction Please! If you would like to clear out any adult, teenage or children’s fiction books then the Brownies would be very grateful for your donations. They plan to run a book stall at the Christmas Craft fair on Moshi Campus on Saturday morning, 29th November. Please drop your books off with Ms Annalee or Mrs Aris.

MYP students have been hard at work this quarter, investigating music from various viewpoints. M1 and M2 students are approaching their investigation from the standpoint of innovation: M1s via technical innovations to instruments and how that can change the role or identity of an instrument within an ensemble, and M2s via innovations in sound production with instruments and how that affects the instrument’s ability to express or communicate. M3 students have ‘traveled’ to West Africa in class and are learning about how everyday events can be a foundation for the aethetic ideals within a culture and its artistic endeavors. Using cultural and/or historical events to spurn artistic responses is the main idea in the M4 “I’ve Got the Blues” unit, while M5 students are looking at structure and how using different elements can affect how a composition is able to communicate ideas or feelings. Your MYP child should have a lot of musical ideas and knowledge to share by the time we reach the end of this quarter!

Our M5 students continue to work hard on their Personal Projects. Gladness Mayenga is passionate about dancing and has woven her love of dancing into her Personal Project. The product of her project is a Dance Performance that will take place at ISM on Sunday, November 23rd from 5:00pm to 6:00 pm. The goal of Gladness’ concert is to raise awareness of dance as a career. Tickets will be available from Reception beginning next week. The cost of the tickets is Tsh 2000 for students and Tsh 5000 for adults. The money raised will be donated to Watu School to help cover the cost of tuition for many students. We hope you can join us for a dynamic evening of dance with a valuable purpose.

I hope that you received the notice last week requesting an update for our parents’ contact details. If you have not already done so, please go to www.uwcea.org/contactdetails now and help us to update our database. It will only take you a couple of minutes.

If you are bringing your child to school, collecting your child, or coming to school to use the swimming pool, tennis courts or another facility, please park in the main car park. Only school vehicles and teachers’ cars should pass through the internal barrier on to the campus. Please help our security staff by following their direction.

ISM as an IB World School forms part of the Africa, Middle East and Europe Region within the IB. Its annual conference in Rome featured a series of outstanding speakers whose presentations bespeak the first-rate quality of the IB and you can learn about these presentations at www.uwcea.org/dip53.
Parents of D1 and D2 students are reminded to ensure that you do not make reservations for your son or daughter to leave ISM earlier than the afternoon of Wednesday December 17th. We have arranged important plans for DP students in which the early removal inhibits students from participating. In the same spirit, please ensure that all DP students return so that they are able to start back b 7:30am on Wednesday January 14th.
The DPC will meet this Monday with all D2s to stress the importance of full academic focus in the coming half year in the lead up to the May 2015 IB exams (www.uwcea.org/dip54). Students will be reminded of the importance of using chunks of their unscheduled weekend hours to study. Each school year the second quarter of the D2 year is typically one of the most intense due to the combination of coursework deadlines, on-going class lesson demands as well as the university application process. In preparation for the seven school days of D2 mock exams (January 16-26, 2015 – recently revised dates) DP teachers are completing unit lessons and selecting past IB exam papers that will be used. D2 students have been advised that they ought to begin now to revise for these important “practice” exams.
D2 Swahili B students have now finished their course of studies as they completed their official IB written exam on this past Tuesday.
All course registrations have been entered for the thirty-six ISM D2 students in the class of May 2015 and the first registration deadline is this weekend. Further alterations in course levels or the like will come at a cost to families.
Recently a DP student was so upset for having lost many of his work files as his computer crashed. I emphasize, but I think it would be hugely important for you too, to encourage your son/daughter to BACK UP their files, as you probably do for your work – right?! This article highlights this well – www.uwcea.org/dip55.
This piece provides an interesting look at research that shows that the IB Diploma prepares students in Mexico for university success www.uwcea.org/dip56.
Again this school year we have had cases of academic dishonesty and I have shared with our DP students this short advice-packed video on this subject from our on-line IB DP course provider Pamoja Education – www.uwcea.org/dip57.
As usual feel free to email or call with any questions/concerns. Sincerely, Rick Fitzpatrick – DP Coordinator

Unit of Inquiry We are looking forward to our field trip to Makoa Farm and Mount Meru Animal Sanctuary on Monday. Please remember to send your child with a water bottle, snack and lunch. We will be back at school by 2pm at the latest. Next week we will reflect on the job of a vet and the work of animal sanctuaries and then set up our own EC Vet’s Surgery. If you have any of the following to make the experience more meaningful please send them into school: Bandages Pet carriers Small blankets Any Soft toy animals Brushes Water bowls Collars and leads
Literacy

• We will continue to work on our non-fiction book about safari parks. EC2 children are writing their own information and EC1 children are telling us what they know about safari animals.
• EC1 and new children will be introduced to the sounds l and b made by Lucy Lamp light and Bouncy Ben
• EC2 children will continue to work on rhyming word families
• Role play in the vet’s surgery will be a major part of our language work this week as well as reflecting on the trip.

Information for Parents We have been doing a lot of singing lately. We are preparing for a couple of events that you may want to put on your calendar. We will be presenting at the sharing assembly on November 24th. We will also be singing a song at the drama club production on December 8th. Hope to see you all there.
Literacy Focus for the Week We will of course continue to read in our reading groups this week. Thank you for continuing to read with your child every day at home. P1 children will work on letter sounds this week, and P2 children will work on “ou” and “ow” words.
Maths Focus for the Week In Maths we will focus recognizing and constructing patterns.
Unit of Inquiry We are excited about our new unit beginning this week. We will be learning about how stories have a message. For the next six weeks we will be learning about the components of a story, morals of fables, and we will be writing stories of our own. This week we will focus on retelling.
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)

The children have had an exciting and rewarding week during this final week of our unit. They have used their IT and English lessons to produce postcards from their countries. In Maths they have been Hotel managers, preparing rooms and menus for their customers and buying and selling products in their restaurants and holiday shops. They had to put their addition and subtraction skills to good use during all these roleplay activities.
In teams the children were set the task of preparing a display board and table in order to present their knowledge and understanding of the unit to groups of visitors from the other primary classes. They enjoyed explaining their display items to the visitors and did a great job! All teams were super proud of their displays and the activity provided a real purpose for communicating their knowledge.
In PE the children have begun learning a new game: Rounders! We are all quite excited about this game and are looking forward to learning more about it in the coming weeks.
Language Focus for The Week: We will be getting familiar with the features of Instructional text. We will be reading and identifying features, and following good and bad examples of instructions.
Maths Focus for The Week: Multiplication and division. The children will gain an understanding of what these operations actually mean, and will learn how they are related.
Unit of Inquiry: We are beginning a new unit, which has the central idea: understanding the way materials behave and interact determines how people use them. Next week we will be naming, identifying and grouping materials.
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 had a lot of fun wrapping up our energy unit this week. We have finished our public service announcements and the students really enjoyed the film editing process! We teamed up in maths for an energy-related challenge. Filming took so much time this week that we didn’t get actual photos taken! I hope you will enjoy the videos instead, I will work on getting them sent home soon. I was impressed with how well the students did interpreting data from various graphs this week. They are really growing in their critical thinking skills.
Language focus for the week Next week we will begin learning about different types of figurative language to help prepare us for our next unit of inquiry. We will start by learning about simi-les and metaphors. We will also have a new focus in our spelling and word study. We will begin focusing on a different prefix and suffix each week. Students will work with the words both at home and at school. At the end of the week they will be assessed in both spelling and vocabulary to see if they understand the word definitions as well.
Maths focus for the week We will begin the week by looking at measures of central tendency. We will use both a song and poem to help us learn the process for discovering four different central tendencies. Our next focus will be on measurement, so later on in the week we will begin measuring length and choosing the best units of measure.
Unit of Inquiry The central idea of our next unit is: We can connect to others and express our thoughts and feelings through poetry and sings. We will be tuning in this week by playing people bingo and playing some warm-up games to review prior knowledge.
Timetable: Tuesday: PE (Wear PE shoes and house shirt) Thursday: Swimming (bring swimming kit) Library (bring books)

We are now rather sad to have finished our unit on the solar system. It’s been another fascinating inquiry. This week the students put together all of their learning from this unit by creating a hand made space related newspaper. Through this they have demonstrated their understanding of the central idea, lines of inquiry, key concepts etc. Each one has turned out differently although they all include the correct features of a newspaper, e.g. headlines and subheadings, columns, pictures with captions, short punchy sentences, quotations etc. They all look fantastic and will be on display once they have been assessed by the teacher (the students have already carried out their own self-assessments).

This week we welcomed Ms Elizabeth into the class. She is a young, aspiring teacher from the USA with a happy disposition. She has already been embraced by the students. We look forward to having her assist in our classroom until the end of this quarter.
New Unit of Inquiry Transdisciplinary Theme: How we organise ourselves Central Idea: Systems of exchange serve the needs of the community Unit of Inquiry: ‘Tuning in’ to the new unit, including via thinking routines
Maths focus: Solving money related problems
English focus: Writing formal letters
Monday: Homework will be set for the week | Library session Wednesday: Swimming session (please bring swimming costume, towel, flip flops and goggles) Friday: Homework due in | sport 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.

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