Moshi Campus News – 15 Nov 15

Please remember that this Tuesday, 17th November will be a “late start day”. On Tuesday, classes for all students will begin at 10:35am. This is to allow teachers to meet to continue and finalise the school’s self-study which is an important step in our accreditation process. This is the last late-start day scheduled for this school year.
Please note that Early Childhood children may opt to remain in class until 13:05 on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, 25th November at 6pm, our Parents’ Association will be holding their Annual General Meeting at AMEG Lodge in Moshi. All parents/guardians with children in ISM Moshi Campus are warmly invited to attend. At the meeting the Director, Bob Horton, will give an overview of the school’s achievements and developments over the last year and will elaborate on our plans for 2016 and the future. The Parents’ Association will also report on their activities over the last year.
The Parents’ Association Committee is a group of 4 parents who give up some time over the year to support the school in various ways and to help to channel parent issues and discussion to the school’s leadership. We are very grateful for the time and energy invested this year by Bianca Joester, Trudi Haller, Anna Maze and Rishi Shah. Bianca and Trudi will be stepping down from the committee this year; if you would like to be nominated to join the committee or know of another parent who would like to do so, please let the PA know by emailing at pa-m@uwcea.net.

Every year, Moshi Campus hosts a major sports weekend for secondary students from schools across the country. This year’s Sports Weekend is scheduled for Friday, 27th to Sunday, 29th November. We are expecting to welcome more than 500 visiting students who will take part in a wide range of different sports activities starting at lunch time on the Friday and finishing on Sunday afternoon. Visitors will sleep in classrooms and all catering is managed by our regular kitchen staff.
As you can imagine this is a massive operation for us and inevitably causes some inconvenience as we have to prepare classrooms for students to sleep in and we have to ensure that about 700 people can eat every meal. But it is extremely rewarding and has been one of the highlights of our school year for a long time. More details will be given in next week’s newsletter.
Also included within the Sports Weekend is a Craft Fair on Saturday, 28th November. You can come and watch the sports activities and pick up some Christmas presents at the same time!

Congratulations to the Primary swim team who competed in the Kennedy House Swim meet last Thursday and came first in the under 8s, under 10s and under 12s, making them the overall winners! We were thrilled at the obvious team spirit amongst our youngest swimmers and their hard work with extra training certainly paid off. Many thanks to Coach Noah and Coach Sabini for the excellent training and support they have provided for the team.
This coming weekend on Saturday, 21st November we shall be hosting secondary swimmers from ISM Arusha Campus for an inter-campus competition between 8am and 11am. All welcome!

Many thanks to Rishi Shah and Coach Charles who are organising a tennis tournament in school on the weekend of Saturday-Sunday, 5th-6th December. There will be matches for students in various categories from Under-6 to Under-18, as well as an adult tournament. It is hoped to get sponsorship for the students’ tournament and there will be an entry fee of TSh 25,000/- for the adult tournament.
If you or your child would like to take part, please sign on the registration sheet on the breezeway notice board by 26th November at the latest. For further information, please contact Coach Charles of 0757 606766, or Rishi Shah on 0754 058268.

This weekend a large group of students has been trekking and camping in the Pare Mountains, south-east of Moshi. The remaining OP trips for this quarter are as follows:

• 19-22 Nov: Mawenzi Hut (Level 3). An opportunity to walk at altitude on Kilimanjaro
• 3 – 6 Dec: Usambara Mountains (Level 1b). An extended trek in some beautiful mountains
• 10-13 Dec: Mawenzi Hut (Level 3). A second chance to take this trip.

Seven ISM Secondary Students (M4 – Lucy; M5 – Kimali, Akshita and Shawn; D1 – Abdoulaye, Max and Mahdi) have organized the first annual ISM Mt. Kilimanjaro Nature Photo Contest. If you have a great photo(s), submit it online at www.uwcea.org/kilifoto.
The criteria are as follows:

1. Each photo submitted must be in its original form and be of a Kili landscape. This includes anywhere on the mountain from Kibo Peak to Shanty Town and everything in between. In sum, it should principally be of a natural landscape somewhere on the slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro. It may include a person but he/she should not figure prominently as the emphasis is on the Kili nature landscape! TPC is beyond the mountain slopes obviously. 2. No more than three submissions per person. 3. The photos may be in color or black/white. 4. No editing of the photo(s) is allowed prior to submission. 5. The deadline for submission of photos has been extended to Tuesday, 1st December.

We have successfully come to the end of the second week of the quarter.
The weekend has been busy, with a number of boarders taking part in different activities. About 40 boarders in secondary went to the Arusha Christmas fair on Saturday morning. Others left for an OP trip to the Pare mountains, while another group participated in the Braeburn football and basketball tournament, all scheduled on Saturday . For those who remained on campus, other activities were planned as well to keep them busy.
Our trip to Dar scheduled for 13/14th November went well. It was encouraging to hear the positive feed-back from those parents of boarders who could join us on Friday evening, and we also enjoyed meeting some prospective ISM families on Saturday morning, as well as presenting the ISM IB Diploma to students at Dar International Academy (DIA).

You may wish to read this article from the British Telegraph newspaper which was published last week and which describes the advantages an IB Diploma graduate has when applying to university. See www.uwcea.org/dip97

D1 Life Skills students learned about the research process and referencing from ISM Parent and guest speaker Tara Mtuy. These skills will prove invaluable when as D2 students they conduct research for their internal assessment tasks and extended essays.
D2 Swahili B students have now completed their official IB written exams.
Please aim to not remove your student early before holiday breaks please on December 18th and it would be great if parents could attend the parent-teacher conference on that day.
Presentations this week included one from the African Leadership University and the other from the University of British Columbia.
This is another reminder to all parents of D1 students regarding the ISM Diploma Retention Policy that all students agreed to and which you should be aware of. As it states: “At the end of the second quarter, all full diploma students will be expected to have a minimum of 22 points (obtained by adding the reported achievement grades from their six subjects excluding ToK and EE). Any student achieving fewer than 22 points at this stage (or achieving fewer than 11 HL points) will be required to undertake a reduced programme with either fewer subjects or with fewer higher levels in consultation with the Diploma Programme Coordinator”.
One cannot overstate how memorable and how much fun this Sports Weekend (November 27-29) each year is for DP students. On a competitive athletic level as well as in terms of social aspects, ISM DP alumni always remember with fond memories this event. DP parents are encouraged to consider making a trip over to Moshi that weekend to see your son/daughter in action.
D2 students should now begin review work for their mock exams that take place in January 2016 following the holiday break.
As usual feel free to email or call with any questions/concerns. Rick Fitzpatrick – Diploma Coordinator rickfitzpatrick@ed.ismoshi.com

The D1 students from both campuses will be taking part in a Theory of Knowledge Symposium on November 23rd and 24th. Full details will be given next week.

It was with shock and great sadness that we learnt of the events in Paris on Friday evening and our thoughts go out to all so terribly affected by these atrocities. As we have learnt over recent years, such terrorist attacks can take place anywhere and it is sadly something that we all have to contend with, wherever we may be.
Our plans for a school trip to Paris in March are still going ahead, but will depend on sufficient numbers of students wishing to join this group. Admissions for the trip to Paris from March 16th to March 26th 2016 are still open for M4-D2 students currently studying French. The deadline for the first payment to secure a place on this trip is November 16th. Past that deadline, we will accept admissions from M4-D2 students not taking French.
Please contact Valérie Veillon on valerieveillon@ed.ismoshi.com for further details and if you have any questions.

We need your plastic waste to fill our bottles! We will recycle your waste for you, instead of it ending up in a landfill or the ocean. How cool is that??
We have enough bottles, we need plastic to fill them. For example: plastic bags, candy wrappers, pasta bags, bread bags, etc. As long as it is clean and dry, we will recycle it for you!

On Monday, 23 November our primary parents are invited to Karibu Hall for our PYP sharing assembly. Students from each primary class will share what they are doing in their current units in PYP this quarter. 7.40 – 08.15am

Primary Years Programme: Collaboration Collaboration is an important part of how teachers work and how students learn in a PYP school. This reflects the world outside our school, i.e. there are now very few jobs where people work completely on their own.
To be able to work as part of a team is considered to be a vital skill for life. Therefore, although they do carry out some tasks independently, our students will spend much of their time at ISM operating in different sized groups – pairs, threes, fours etc. Whichever grouping strategies are employed, students become aware that inquiry is a collaborative process. Within their groups children learn to adopt different roles – each must participate fully, and none ought to overshadow the others. Together they are responsible for the outcome of the work.
When disagreement or conflicts arise, the children are expected to find solutions and complete the task at hand. In this, they will be guided by the teacher, who will remind them of the Learner Profile attributes and PYP attitudes.
As a school we think of ourselves as a community of learners – staff, students and families. We learn and move forward together and we aid each other in this process. Kate Schermbrucker (PYP Coordinator)

Unit of inquiry Central Idea: We use our senses to explore and discover the world around us.
Last week the children explored sound through a variety of activities; sound lotto, sound games in music class, a walk around the campus to find out about sounds in our environment and free exploration of a variety of sound sources. We read the book ‘Polar bear polar bear what do you hear?’ and this week we will finish our power point based on this story. We sorted sounds according to what they are for; sounds that are for pleasure, sounds that warn us and sounds that help us.
This week we will inquire into our sense of touch. Learning engagements to allow inquiry into touch will include:

• Feely bag games
• Feely table of objects with different textures to sort using a blindfold
• Finger painting/printing activities
• Textured collage art
• Hot/cold activities
• Trays available with a variety of textures to feel; jelly, foam, lentils, shredded paper, cooked pasta,etc
• Chocolate pudding to make, feel and eat!
• Seal lock bags filled with different textures to feel; toothpaste, rice, sand, lotion, sugar
• Art and craft using clay

Information for Parents We will have a late start this Tuesday. School will begin at 10:35, and we will finish up at 1:05. Clubs will go on as usual.
Thank you to Mama Kamili for coming in this week to teach us a bit about Diwali. We had a good time celebrating with the sparklers and treats she brought in.
We would like to invite you to our Primary Sharing Assembly. It will be Monday, November 23 at 7:35 at Karibu Hall. All of the primary classes will be briefly sharing something that they have been learning. We hope to see you there.
Language focus for the week This week Group 1 will be learning how to read short vowel words, and Group 2 will learn about multiple spellings for certain sounds. We will also continue to read and write every day.
Maths focus for the week The Group 1 children will work on adding doubles this week, while the Group 2 children will learn about rounding to the nearest 10.
Unit of Inquiry We will finish up our plant unit this week. The children will work with a partner to create a demonstration about what they have learned. Then they will present to the class.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.

Timetable: Monday PE (wear PE shoes) Tuesday Library (please send your books in the library bag) Friday Swimming (please send swimsuit, goggles, and towel)

As we are nearing the end of our unit the students have been working hard on their summative assessment task. They are working in pairs to construct a machine which will transport a toy car. The machine cannot be wider than a piece of A3 paper and must include at least two of the simple machines. The students have been very creative and each of the ten machines are different to the others.
As part of their assessment the children must also write a set of instructions to explain how their machine works. We have been practising this skill in English lessons and also looking at examples of real life instructional texts, e.g. those which explain how to use household machines.
On Friday the students carried out peer assessments which has given them further ideas to improve their summative assessment work. The students’ machines and instructions will be finally assessed using criteria which they helped to design. They have ensured that it includes all the elements of the unit.
If your child has not yet brought in a pair of indoor shoes, please send in a pair on Monday. They will be asked to wear these on muddy days so that we can keep the classroom clean.
Unit Focus: Transdisciplinary Theme: Who we are Central Idea: People’s relationships with each other can have an impact on well-being This week we will be finishing off our summative assessment task and adding to our portfolios of work. We will then start tuning-in to the new unit on Wednesday. Third year student teacher Ms Kaira, under the supervision of Ms Kate, will be leading many of our lessons this week.
Mathematics Focus: Basic multiplication, i.e. as groups of an amount
English Focus: The differences between there, they’re, and their
What to bring to school every day: A hat, water bottle, a pair of indoor shoes and a healthy snack.
The Week Ahead: Monday: Homework will be set | swimming lesson Tuesday: Lessons start at 10.35am Wednesday: New unit starts Thursday: PE lesson Friday: Homework due in Kate Schermbrucker – P2/3 Teacher and PYP Coordinator

The week has been very enjoyable, students have been very excited to join Raz Kids; a website with reading and other related activities. Your child knows how to log in and should be able to carry on their leveled reading from home.
Language Arts – we will be looking at various words and how they change when the tense changes. We will be using some of these words for our weekly spelling and in our writing activities. With our next unit, we will be doing a variety of imaginative writing pieces. We welcome parents that are interested in story telling, puppetry and any other form of art to come and enrich our lessons.
Maths – In the coming week we will be learning how to calculate the perimeter of objects and spaces. Students will decide the appropriate tools to use for measuring distances around both regular and irregular shapes and will learn some vocabulary related to this Math unit.
Unit of Inquiry – this is the final week of our “Energy” unit. The students have set up their experiments and write-ups ready for their presentations.
The Central Idea for our next unit is “The Arts are an avenue for creative expression.” We will be inquiring into;

• The Arts- visual, music and performing
• Appreciation of creative expression

Information for Parents We will begin our new unit of Inquiry on Wednesday. To kick things off, we will have a Mythology day on Wednesday. Students will need to find an interesting myth and prepare a costume or props to bring to school. We will share our stories, watch a movie relating to myths, as well as participating in several mythological activities. Finding the story and developing their costume/props is part of their homework for next week.
Language focus for the week Students are conferencing with Miss Alley on their writing and brainstorming ways that they can improve their personal narratives. As groups finish their current chapter books they will be moving into reading nonfiction texts. We will be reading pairs of texts on similar topics and comparing them.
Maths focus for the week Students have a good understanding of bar graphs. This week they will begin learning about other data displays, such as line graphs and data plots. We will continue to use our natural disaster statistics in our data displays.
Unit of Inquiry We will be wrapping up our natural disasters unit on Tuesday and beginning our new unit of inquiry on Wednesday. The central idea is: Myths exist throughout human culture and explain beliefs and values as well as the natural world. Our lines of inquiry are: types of myths, characteristics of myths, and the function of myths in different cultures.

What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Monday PE (wear PE shoes and a house T-shirt) Tuesday Late start (classes start at 10:35) Thursday Swimming (bring swim kit) Friday Library (bring books to return or renew)

This week students have been creating their own stories in written form. They have impressed me with their thoughtful descriptions and their attention to grammatical accuracy. In maths we have been telling time to the nearest 1 minute, finding time difference and using different types of clocks. The students have membership now to an online reading program, as well as a storyboarding program. They have enjoyed exploring these greatly in IT sessions, and can continue to access both at home. In our unit lessons this week we have thought about Remembrance Day and Diwali. The students created Rangoli patterns and red poppies, and have started putting together a drama piece showing their understanding of how conflict can be resolved.

English this week: The student are continuing their story writing, developing their ideas and editing for improvement.
Maths this week: Our final week on time will focus on problem solving and will require the students to recall and use all their gained time knowledge.
UOI: Students will develop their drama pieces further in their groups, preparing for it to be filmed and shown to a wider audience.



Notices:

We welcome Mr Lukas from Germany into the P6 class He will be with us until the end of this quarter.

I return from my course in Belgium, ready to teach on Wednesday. Thank you to Ms Patricia for covering, as well as Lukas and Tumaini for their support.

Tuesday is a late start day – lessons begin after breaktime.

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