Moshi Campus News – 15 Oct 2016

Welcome back for the second quarter. I would like to thank the students and teachers that put together a lovely end of quarter assembly last Friday. As well, it was nice to see the parents attending the assembly and meeting you after for the Secondary conferences. Our next conferences will be on December 16th for the end of the semester.
We start off the new quarter with an OP trip this week to Uhuru Peak on Thursday. In the upcoming weeks we have the UN Day assembly, Hallowe’en festivities and a visit by the University of British Columbia and Lafayette College on November 10th. Bob Cofer

I hope you have had a fun and relaxing holiday. We are now looking forward to starting Quarter 2. Some of our students will enjoy swim training with two Olympians. We wish them all the best with this. The Olympians will also speak to all the primary children in class at times throughout the week, which I am sure will be a valuable experience.
We had a very exciting end to Quarter 1. The EC students showed themselves to be confident communicators when they presented their museums to other primary children and to their parents. They made us all feel very proud of their achievements.
Many thanks to all the parents who joined in with the Goal Setting Conferences. I hope you found this to be a valuable experience, i.e. with your child communicating their successes so far and their aims for the upcoming year. With both their parents’ and teachers’ support they are more likely to achieve their goals.
The primary children did a wonderful job of singing and rapping in the End of Quarter 1 assembly. They entertained all the secondary students, parents and teachers. The P1/2 children also performed a fun dance.
Just a reminder that the EC – P3 students will now start their weekly swimming lessons. Please send your child with their swimming kit on the correct day.
Another reminder that clubs begin from the first day back. Please see your child’s club slip for details. Kate Schermbrucker

Congratulations to all those students who received their Outdoor Pursuits certificates at the assembly at the end of quarter one, and also to those who presented at the assembly and told of their trip experiences.
The next Outdoor Pursuits trip is a six-day trip to Uhuru Peak, the summit of Kilimanjaro, on 20th-25th October. Students aged 16 and above who have successfully completed OP Level 4 are eligible to join this trip. Other trips this quarter are as follows:

Trip	Level	Dates	For:
Uhuru Peak	5	October 20-25	Only for students over the age of 16 who have successfully completed level 4.
Mandara Hut	1	November 5-6	M1 students who have successfully completed campcraft, and other beginners in M2-D2 who are new to the programme
Usambara Mountains	2	November 10-13	M2-D2 students who have completed level 1, and M1 students who have completed level 1 and 1b
Base of Mawenzi	3	November 19-22	Students over 16 years who have successfully completed level 2
Ngorongoro	4	December 3-7	M2-D1: This hiking and camping trip in the Ngorongoro area is not at altitude, but is demanding and is recommended for older students who have successfully completed Level 3.

Primary Hallowe’en Help Wanted If you can help with the afterschool fun, please contact Annalee Horton:
How can I help?

• Start thinking about your child’s Halloween costume.
• Donate baked Halloween treats (cookies, cupcakes etc)
• Donate sweets/candy (leave them at the ISM Reception Desk)
• Decorate the trunk of your car for Trunk or Treat. >> MORE CARS NEEDED! <<
  Drive it to the school pitch – include a Hallowe’en game/trick/treat if you want.

Well done to Sanne, Alicia, Maria, Emily, Shawn and Chris for their participation in the Tanzanian Open National Swim Championships on Zanzibar over the holiday. Further details to come in next week’s newsletter, but all swimmers achieved personal bests and/or medals for 1st, 2nd or 3rd place, despite tough competition.



We are very pleased to welcome Joe and Amy, our UK Olympic swimmers, who will be on Moshi Campus this week and will be hosting a swim clinic for four days in school for those who have paid. This is a fantastic opportunity for our swimmers to get some professional intensive training.

HOME OF THE LEOPARDS

I hope that all students have had the opportunity to rest and recuperate during the vacation, however, this is the time that students need to stay active. When students return on Monday October 17th, a full schedule of practices and games return.
The past Wednesday, October 5th was the Secondary School Athletics Day. It was great to see the passion all the students showed for their house and their competitive nature. Here are the placings: 1. Mawenzi 2. Meru 3. Kibo
Students are encouraged to check the ISM Sport Notice Board on the breezeway for all of the results.
Regarding House Competitions, there are the following events that Houses can participate in the following events: NTAA Logo Competition, House Quiz, and the ISM Fashion Show. Please see Mr Hibbard for more details.
The next scheduled event for these ISM teams will be November 5th at ISMAC, as well as the Primary School Swim Meet at ISM. You can find the rest of the Season One Game Schedule from the NTAA at www.uwcea.org/leopards.
As always the ISM Sports Department wants to advertise three excellent afterschool activities, so please find below information regarding swimming, tennis and horseback riding.
Swimming lessons for beginners, intermediate and advanced with Coach Sabini. Those students and parents who are interested in arranging lessons are kindly requested to contact Coach Sabini in person.
Tennis Lessons for beginners, intermediate and advanced players with Coach Charles. Those students and parents who are interested in arranging lessons are kindly requested to contact him at 0757606766.
Horse riding is also available and those interested need to contact Mr Priva at 0758053280 for more information regarding times, prices and requirements.
As the year progresses please keep up with all the info, news, and sports reports by reading the Moshi Campus News. Go Leopards – Scott Hibbard – Head of Sport and Physical Education

The primary rounders team took part in a tournament two weeks ago where the under 11s and under 9s played many exciting games.
The under 11s played 6 good games, some of which were played one after the other. Our bowler, back stop and first base player were unstoppable in many of their games. Their batting also improved throughout each game they played.
The under 9s played 4 games. They played with enthusiasm and determination in all of them even though we were down two players.
Both teams played their hearts out and were an asset to ISM. Well done Leopards.

Daycare Centre Primary Club
A group of nine P4 – P6 showed that they were caring, responsible and good communicators throughout last quarter, i.e. as members of the Daycare Centre Club. Ms Kate and Ms Esnath were so proud of the way they interacted with the Tanzanian infants, showed them how to play games, keep fit and improve their art skills each week. Both the ISM students and the Daycare Children got a great deal of benefit out of this weekly interaction.



 

There are a few more university entrance tests coming up in the second quarter – these are only needed by some D2 students at this stage depending on previous test performances:

SAT Tests: Saturday, 5th November. The closing date for registration has now passed, but standby registration is still possible (at an addditional cost).

TOEFL Paper-Based Test: Saturday, 12th November. The closing date for registration has now passed.

ACT Test: Saturday, 10th December. The closing date for registration is WEDNESDAY, 2nd NOVEMBER
Please check with your D2 child in case they need to register for any of these.
All of the above tests will be held in school in Moshi. The British Council has asked me to let you know that they are conducting IELTS English language tests in Arusha on 26th November. Registration can be done online at https://ieltsukvisas.britishcouncil.org/#/select-country. Please note that the IELTS tests conducted in Arusha are not UKVI, and this means they may not be accepted as part of a UK immigration visa application. Only IELTS-UKVI tests conducted in Dar es Salaam are accepted for UK immigration purposes.

The Board of ISM met at the end of last quarter and, amongst their many tasks, approved a description of the relationship between the two campuses of ISM. This description will soon appear on the school’s website:
International School Moshi was established in 1969 and now has two campuses in northern Tanzania, one in Moshi at the foot of Mt Kilimanjaro, and one in Arusha, 90km away, overlooked by Mt Meru. Both are integral parts of ISM and it is helpful to understand how they relate to each other. As we welcome you or your child to join one of our campuses, you become a member of the larger ISM community.
International School Moshi:

• has ONE set of Guiding statements comprising a Philosophy, Mission Statement and Vision Thus both campuses share a common set of goals and a unified vision for the future of the School

• has ONE Director The Director is the leader of the School who works with both campuses to ensure that our progress is in line with our goals

• has ONE curriculum framework ISM offers the curriculum of the International Baccalaureate through the Primary Years Programme (PYP), the Middle Years Programme (MYP) and the Diploma Programme (DP)

• has ONE set of finances The Board is thus able to ensure that the School’s income is used effectively across both campuses to best meet the needs of ISM

• is ONE legal entity ISM is registered as a company in Tanzania with one Governing Board who manage the School’s affairs

• serves Multiple communities Students on both campuses come from a variety of different national, cultural and economic backgrounds, with varying needs and expectations; some are day students and some, in Moshi Campus, are boarders

• meets Different needs Each campus may operate in different ways, within the School’s Guiding Statements and curriculum framework, to meet the differing needs of the communities they serve

Our School Board of Governors meets on a regular basis once a month. The meeting venue alternates between Moshi Campus and Arusha Campus. The members of the board are: Tine Hemelings (Chair), Monique Janmaat (Vice-Chair), Sameera Remtulla (Treasurer), Carolynn Fisher (PTA Representative), Anna Maze (PTA Representative), Monika Caspary, William Kivuyo, Marius Jacobs, Rachelly Mboya, and Hilder Mungure.

For those families paying school fees quarterly, the fees for the 2nd quarter were due to have been received by us on 1st October. In accordance with school policy, we will be surcharging any overdue fees by 10% early this coming week. If you have outstanding fees, please endeavour to pay as soon as possible so as to avoid this surcharge and the possibility of your child being excluded from classes.

Update:

• Students commence Q2 on Monday Oct 17, 2016. No DP student should return late. Each class day missed is consequential and should be avoided.
• IB DP Swahili B and Afrikaans Lit exams on Fri Nov 4th (Paper 1) and Mon Nov 7th (Paper 2).
• Wed Oct 5th provided students with a fabulous sports day full of competition and comradery.

Welcome back to school. I hope you had an enjoyable break. This week EC will start tuning in to their new unit of inquiry under the transdisciplinary theme of ‘Sharing the planet.’ This is ‘an inquiry into the rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within and between them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.’
The central idea we will be exploring is as follows; ‘The diversity of life on earth creates opportunities for different interactions.’ Our lines of inquiry are:

Identifying and grouping different types of animals (FORM)

Ways in which people and animals interact (FORM)

Different relationships people have with animals (PERSPECTIVE)

How people care for and help animals (RESPONSIBILITY)
Further details of how you can support your child with this unit of inquiry will be in next week’s newsletter. As a way of tuning into the unit we will look at the central idea to enable the children to start make meaning of it.
Literacy

• Retelling real events- sharing holiday stories
• Letterland – EC1 children will find out about the letter sounds g made by Golden girl and u made by Uppy Umbrella.
• Letterland – EC2 children will revisit the sounds x made by Fix it Max and y made by Yoyo Man.
• Sharing stories about animals (please send favourite animal stories into school if you have any)
• EC2 will continue to build CVC words with the e sound.

Numeracy

Develop number skills at children’s own level through games, puzzles and hands on activities. This week we will play dice and card games in small groups.

Continue to explore 2D shapes; make 2D shape patterns (not covered in the week before the holiday)

Measurement including vocabulary tallest, shortest, taller than, shorter than, longer than.
This week we will be starting our swimming programme. The children will swim on Friday in their PE lesson. Please send the following with your child every Friday in a separate swim bag;

Swimsuit

Goggles (if required)

Armbands or floaties

Suncream

Towel

Crocs/flipflops There will be 5 adults and a life-guard at the pool with the children and at least 4 of us will be in the water. It would really help if you could blow up your child’s armbands before you send them to school, so that we can maximize our time at the pool. Many thanks for your support.

I hope you all had an enjoyable and recharging holiday!
We had a very productive, busy and successful last week before the holiday. The children were very excited about performing a dance choreography at the final assembly. It was wonderful to see how much they enjoyed it and the way they have grown in confidence since the start of school year.
Language focus for the week This week the children will write about their holidays in their news book. We are going to focus on punctuation and forming the ‘sky’, ‘grass’ and ‘ground’ letters correctly.
Maths focus for the week We are going to continue to work with 2D and 3D shapes through some fun games and arts and crafts. After looking at the artwork of the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian, children will create their own abstract arrangement of shapes.
Unit of Inquiry: How the world works. Central idea: Understanding how and why living things thrive can help us connect with nature. This week the children are going to plant some carrots and flowers and germinate some beans. They will start a plant diary to write down their observations. We are also going to learn about the painter Monet, look at his nature related paintings and try out his techniques. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you feel connected to this topic and would like to share some interesting experience with the children. Thank you!
Literacy This week we will carry on revising the sounds, practising correct letter formations, sounding out and blending lots of ‘cvc’ words. The children will continue to be tested individually on their grapheme, phoneme knowledge.
Swimming Good news!! We are going to start our swimming lessons this Monday. Mr Sabini and myself will be teaching the lessons. I will test the children’s swimming abilities and organize them into two groups in the first lesson. Goggles are not required yet. Please send a swimming cap for safety reasons in case your child has long hair.
What to bring to school every day:

A hat, a water bottle and a healthy snack.

Indoors shoes.
The Week Ahead: Monday: Swimming trunk/costume, towel, swimming cap (for long hair) and a plastic bag for the wet kit Homework goes home. Tuesday: Library Wednesday: ‘Show and Tell’ for group 1 Thursday: PE lesson Friday: Homework due in. No ‘Show and Tell’ for group 2 as the day ends at 10:15.
Have a great week ahead! Ms Andrea, P1/2 Teacher

I hope that you have all had a wonderful and restful holiday and that the children are returning to school energized.
The Week Ahead in class: POI: We will be focusing on the line of inquiry – interpreting artistic expression. We will be looking at a variety of artist and their art work. The class will be identifying what they see, why did the artist use certain colours / shapes, what were they think at the time and what did they think inspired this piece.
Writing: During our poetry focus the children will be selecting a poem to type in computer class and then they will be illustrating it. They will also be creating a mood (emotion) poem. Each child will choose a colour and then create a poem based on how that colour makes them feel. We will be work on handwriting and letter formation of some letter. Spelling – the children will continue to work on their partner spell and words that appear in their writing work.
Math: We will learn and play Go fish number game. It will also be part of our weekly homework. www.dltk-kids.com/games/go-fish.htm www.dltk-teach.com/t.asp?t=https://www.dltk-teach.com/numbers/images/bnumbersquares1.gif www.dltk-teach.com/t.asp?t=https://www.dltk-teach.com/numbers/images/bnumbersquares2.gif
We will begin to work on subtraction and looking at how to solve a subtraction problem. They will also be encouraged to use addition when checking their answer.
Reading: We will continue to read using the reading strategies that we have learned. One of the strategies that some of the children practice is Flip it- this is where the children say the word with the short vowel sound and then and the magic e to make it a long sound i.e. cav – cave. This strategy will only be used with some children and for certain words. Other will be working on inferring and developing those deeper reading comprehension skills.
The Week Ahead: Monday: Homework will be sent. Tuesday: Library and Swimming starts (costume, towel, pool shoes) Wednesday: Reading / French P3 Thursday: Reading/ French P3 Friday: PE (sport shoes and comfortable clothes – no jeans) Homework returned

Useful websites: www.speedtypingonline.com/games/type-the-alphabet.php pbskids.org/wordworld/characters/game_dlp.html www.bbc.co.uk/schools/wordsandpictures/phonics/sandcastle/flash/fsgame.shtml www.learninggamesforkids.com/science_games.html
Please note that after school clubs start Monday 17th October Have an enjoyable weekend Clare Hibbard P2/3

Last week before the holidays we were delighted to have a real archaeologist visit us. Mr.Owain talked to us about the importance of artifacts in archaeology and how and how we use clues to determine the significance of an artifact. We also began to introduce the idea of legacy and will carry this on in the week ahead. He gave us a link for his website www.arcsocmoshi.com and invited the students to write him an email to become the first Junior members of his organization.
In maths we continue looking at mapping and reviewing basic number skills. Keep using Studyladder and checking the set tasks to keep concepts fresh.
In language we are crafting stories surrounding the islands we have created and we will be making adventures. We will be constructing and fabricating stories similar to those the explorers created about dangerous sea monsters on their adventures. We will be looking at expanding our vocabulary and using more creative language in our writing.
We looking forward to reading and learning about David Livingstone this week and learning some basic note taking skills. Julie Bowen (P4/5)

It was lovely to see you all at the 3 way conferences on Thursday 6th October and have the opportunity to discuss the children’s progress and their goals. We will work on the goals in class time but progress will be quicker if practice takes place at home as well. I am looking forward to seeing the children on Monday, 17th October and hearing how they spent their time over the break.
In Maths next week we will focus on addition strategies. I will be sending home flashcards and setting work on mangahigh.com for those children who have maths goals to work on that were identified at the conferences.
Our UOI on Sharing The Planet will continue. We will be carrying out some online research about the use of resources and how they can be conserved. The children will use this information to write a non-fiction book. For homework next week the children will be identifying a resource such as water, electricity, food (or one of their choice) and collecting data on how much of this resource their family uses/consumes during the week. They will analyse this information the following week and use it as the basis for an independent presentation which they will work on for the final 2 weeks of the unit.
If your child still has his/her homework folder at home please send it back to school on Monday. Monday – Library and new homework packet will go home. Tuesday – Swimming, French, Music Wednesday – Swahili Thursday – French Friday – Swahili, Swimming, Music. Return homework packet to school. Deborah Mills, (P5 Teacher)

The first quarter was great and the students enjoyed working collaboratively various projects. I enjoyed getting to know them better and watching them build stronger relationships with each other.
The 3 way conferences towards the end of the quarter were very successful, thank you to the parents who could make it. The students got an opportunity to share their strengths and areas they would like to improve. They spoke confidently and very articulately and I was so proud to watch them share their thoughts.
This week, the students will continue to work on the third line of inquiry of our Unit as well as work towards completing the information booklet in Language Arts. We will also study some suffixes and apply them in our daily writing.
In Math we will continue with our fractions, decimals and percentage unit. We will review addition and subtraction. We will link this to factorization of numbers, Lowest Common Multiple and Greatest Common Factor.
Gentle reminders: Students that did not return their goal setting sheets are encouraged to do in the first week of Quarter 2 for purposes of filing and portfolio selection.
Timetable Monday – Library Tuesday – French and Music Wednesday – P.E., French and Swahili Thursday – Music Friday – Swahili and Swimming

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