Moshi Campus News – 21 Sep 2013


Dear Parents,

We hope to see many parents at our outdoor Peace Concert tonight starting at 7pm. Our Peace Concert is an opportunity for ISM students as well as members of our local community to join us in a musical performance. All around the world events will be happening to support Peace One Day, a grand initiative to support a global truce campaign to reduce conflict in the world. For further information go to www.peaceoneday.org to learn about all the exciting initiatives happening in the world that DO make a difference. People who don’t just talk the talk, but make it happen!
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US University Visit
Tomorrow, Sunday, 22nd September we will be hosting six prestigious US universities who are touring Tanzania to promote the Mastercard Foundation scholarships and who can also talk with our students about entry to US universities. Our visitors are from Stanford University, University of California Berkley, Duke University, Wellesley College, Michigan State University, and Arizona State University. They will be presenting in Karibu Hall at 5pm. If your child is interested in a US university and is currently in M5, D1 or D2, it would be worthwhile for them to attend.

Unfortunately, Monash University (Australia) has had to cancel their visit to Tanzania planned for next month.
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CAS: Older students organising primary games


M4 Study in West Kili
This week from Monday, 23rd September to Thursday, 26th September, our M4 students will be travelling to West Kilimanjaro to undertake field study on Simba Farm and in the environs, particularly in the areas of science and mathematics. We wish them a successful week.
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PA Fundraiser
We are looking forward to the Fundraiser being organised on Friday, 11th October. This has been organised to start straight after the secondary parent-teacher meetings on that day and I hope many of you who live outside Moshi (as well as those more local) will be able to join us for the afternoon before going home with your children for the holiday. Good food and some entertainment is promised as well as a chance to meet other families and to support our planned improvements for Karibu Hall.
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Tanzanian Swimming Championships
19 Moshi Campus Swimmers will be travelling to Arusha next weekend on September 28-29, to compete in the Tanzanian National Swimming Open Championships. Over the next week, our swimmers will continue to train hard, so that they can hopefully come home with some personal bests!

We are very lucky that some of our Arusha families will be hosting our swimmers in their home for the Saturday night. Thanks Arusha!
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D1 & D2: University Tests
ISM is hosting a number of tests required for university admissions during this semester:
ACT test: Today, Saturday, 21st September
SAT tests: Saturday, 5th October – regular registration has now closed, but late standby registration is still possible at a higher fee.
SAT tests: Saturday, 2nd November – registration for these tests will close on 30th September.
TOEFL Paper-based test: Saturday, 16th November – registration for these will close on 9th October.
ACT test: Saturday, 14th December – registration for this will close on 8th November.

Other tests available to D2 students are:
TOEFL Internet-based tests in Dar es Salaam most weekends.
IELTS English test in Arusha on 26th October – registration for this is still open.

We have also just heard this week that ISM will be a centre for IELTS English tests on 10th May 2014. This would be an ideal date for any D1 students planning to study in the UK.
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Assemblies
This Monday (23 Sep) we have a Primary sharing assembly to which parents are very welcome. There will be a short presentation from a few students in each class, giving them a chance to share the highlights of their unit of inquiry.

The following Monday (30 September) will be a whole school assembly where the new student council will be presented to the school. They will take the SRC Oath and nominations for the Executive Committee for the Student Council will be announced. The final elections for the new Executive Committee (President, Vice-President, Treasurer and Secretary) will take place in the last week of the quarter.

The final Quarter 1 Assembly will take place on Friday, October 11th at 09.15 in Karibu Hall. The whole school will participate and parents are welcome.
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CAS Activities

Primary games

Woodwork
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Event Changes
As announced last week, the Inter-House athletics tournament has been rescheduled to Thursday, 31st October.

The Outdoor Pursuits trip to Ngorongoro in October has regretfully been cancelled due to the low number of students able to participate.
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Graphic Calculators
Last week we received our TI-84 graphic calculators which are now on sale to D1 students for $155 each. We still have a small number of colour-screen calculators remaining as well as some black & white screen calculators.
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Reports & Parent Meetings
Secondary reports will be issued on 10th October at the end of the school day. D2 students will receive a ful detailed report, whilst other classes will receive a one page interim report. If you would like a softcopy of your child’s report, then please email Totty Aris on . Secondary parent meetings will be held on Friday, 11th October from 10:30am to 12 noon in Karibu Hall.

Primary Three-way Conferences
The Primary students will receive a goal-setting report on 8th October. This will be used as the basis of the Three-Way conferences on 10th October. Please note there are no primary classes on 10 October as teachers are busy with the Three-Way conferences all day. Parents of day students will visit with your child and then take him/her home with you. A letter will be sent home a week before to organise the times. Primary Clubs finish for this quarter on Wednesday, 9th October.
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MYP English Classes
Continuing with our theme of subject snapshots, here’s an update from Mr Wright regarding his MYP English classes:
M1 have been doing a unit on “Where We Are”, to explore what being in Tanzania means, using a book called “In Our Village” – Kambi ya Simba through the eyes of its villagers.

M4 are doing a unit on short-story writing, involving descriptive/observational writing, preparing them for a trip into town and for the M4 West Kilimanjaro trip this week, where they will use the skills they have developed in class.

M5 have started “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding and have explored ideas about group dynamics and leadership. This nicely compliments the activities M5 completed during their recent leadership Symposium.
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Primary School News
Primary Clubs in Quarter 2
If you would like to volunteer to run a club weekly in quarter 2 for 5 weeks from Nov 4 – Dec 6 then we would welcome your ideas and help. Please email . with your club idea, how many students you would be willing to include and what day.

HeadLice
Headlice have been spotted in the school. Please check your children’s hair and treat as soon as possible. Please inform the school if your child does have lice; it is quite common, but good for other families to know.
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Diploma News
Most Diploma students had at least one assessment this week and this has made their academic work more intense and should also provide a good sense of current performance levels in each subject.

Teachers are finalizing their full report on D2 students as well as an interim report for the D1 students whose first full report will be due in December. Hard copies of D1 and D2 reports will be available by October 10th. Should you desire an electronic copy of the grade reports this academic year, kindly request that in an email to our Head of Secondary, Totty Aris at tottya@uwcea.net.

The ten ISM D2 students taking Swahili B will imminently have their oral and written mock examinations and their written IB exam on the afternoon of Tuesday November 12th.

Some D2s are working intensively these weeks with the school counselor as part of their university application prep work. Everything from starting the online UCAS (for the UK) and Common Application (for most US-based universities) application processes, to fine tuning essays is taking place as D2s look beyond their graduation in May 2014.

The extra-curricular CAS opportunities on offer on a random weekday afternoon for our ISM DP students are tremendous. Here are a few – coaching the ISM Junior Boys football team, teaching English to ISM maintenance staff, entertaining/playing with children from a local kindergarten, learning piano, playing badminton, playing soccer, caring for children at an orphanage. A hallmark of the core of the IB DP – CAS – really provides a superb balance to the rigors of school and our dedicated ISM DP CAS Coordinator Madeline Leno is encouraging our DP students to make the most of their array of chances to make a difference and grow.

Once again if at all possible, a parent of every ISM DP student should aim to travel to Moshi for the Friday October 11th parent-teacher conference.

A stark contrast to the world-class quality ISM education is presented in this article entitled “Poor preparations key factor behind student mass failures” on the state of Tanzania’s national education system – www.ippmedia.com/frontend/index.php?l=59468.

Should you wish to read the IB’s curriculum brief on any of the IB DP courses in which your child is enrolled, go to:
www.ibo.org/recognition/resourcesanddocumentlibrary/moreresources/ documents/CoreElementsBrief1.4.pdf.

The huge value for money of the IB DP education in today’s world is highlighted in this piece from the IB entitled “IB DP – A Strong Predictor of Success in University” www.ibo.org/recognition/resourcesanddocumentlibrary/moreresources/ documents/StudentPerfBrochure1.9.pdf.

A revealing commentary on half of the student population is provided in this article entitled: “To Help a Shy Child, Listen” https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/16/to-help-a-shy-child-listen/?src=rechp.

The link between fitness and academic success is highlighted in this convincing article: https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/09/18/how-physical-fitness-may-promote-school-success.

As usual, feel free to write or call with any questions or concerns related to your child’s program of study in the ISM DP.
Sincerely,
Rick Fitzpatrick
Diploma Programme Coordinator
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Early Childhood Preview
Unit of Inquiry
Last week we concentrated on the importance of cooperation to help us in our learning. Groups of children worked together with a group task to complete. They had to share ideas and listen to each other to be successful with their task. We then looked at photographs to find out how each group did with their task. The children reflected on how they felt they had contributed to the group, thinking about listening skills, sharing toys and sharing ideas. We watched a few Sesame Street sketches to show what cooperation means and how it benefits learning.

This week we still have to interview some older students on how they learn best as this was not completed last week. We did visit the P3/4 classroom exhibition to find out how students in that class presented their recent learning on artefacts.

This week I will also begin to assess the students on their understanding of the Central Idea, ‘Learning is an important part of our lives.’ The unit will finish before the October break and the assessment will be ongoing over the next 3 weeks.

Literacy
This week the sounds introduced will be n and g. Noisy Nick is the character in Letterland that makes the n sound and Golden girl makes the sound g. The children will sort pictures and objects beginning with the sounds introduced so far this term to begin to assess their recognition of sounds and their ability to hear sounds at the beginning of words.

Children who are ready to word build will concentrate on the short o sound to make CVC words. They are also continuing to develop their sight vocabulary with word bingo and a power point of high frequency words when using the computers in the classroom.

Writing will come into the assessment of the unit for those who are beginning to write independently. Children will have to recognize areas of the school/classroom and write/talk about what they learn in each area. They will also write and draw about their favourite area.

Numeracy
Work will be done on a number portfolio piece as well as continuing to think about sorting objects and matching pairs of objects. Children played picture lotto games last week and sorted shells, bugs, shoes and birds. This week they will be encouraged to think of different ways to sort apart from by colour and ‘exact same object’.

Number rhymes and counting skills always play an important part of every week. At registration we always find out how many children are away and then work out how many are at school. This week we will start using our new number line and count on and backwards from a given number as well as many other activities that a number line provides. On the computer we also practice putting numbers in order.

I look forward to seeing you at the assembly on Monday morning at 7.35am outside the Primary classrooms.
Have a lovely weekend
Annalee
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P1/2 Preview
Unit of Inquiry
We have now finished our unit, Healthy Living. The children showed their knowledge very well when completing their summative assessment, a healthy timeline. We will start this week reflecting on the healthy living unit and then begin our new unit.

New Unit of Inquiry: Seeds and Plants
Central Idea: There are certain conditions that are necessary for plants to grow.
Lines of Inquiry:
1. Types of plants.
2. Growth cycle
3. Conditions and requirements for healthy growth.
We will kick off our unit exploring the school campus with its rich variety of plants. There will be a class outing to a flower farm coming up. More details will follow soon. We will also plant some sunflower seeds.

Show and Tell
A reminder of ‘show and tell’ days.
Monday – Tavari, Sahil, Jay and Prisca
Tuesday – Edvin, Imani, Jelte and Shose
Wednesday – Noah, Aiden, Moses and Patrick
Thursday – Freddy, Mahabibi and Sophie
Friday – Camille, Sameer and Hugo
On Mondays, all children get to share and talk with a friend their weekend news.

Art
We will begin our new unit sketching some plants around campus.

Language focus for the week
Write a recount of the weekend. At the end of your weekend, you could talk to your child about what they did, to give them some ideas about sentences they could write.
Label parts of a flowering plant.
Handwriting: Patterns, own name, numerals and focus on the One Armed Robot Family (bhkmnpr)
Phonics: Group 1 – Revision of middle vowels making the short sound. ( a as in cat, e as in pen, i as in tip, o as in dog and u as in cup).
Group 2 – Revision of sh, ch, th, ng, ll, ss, ff.

Maths focus for the week
Mental skills will include counting back from 20 and beyond. We will also focus on finding 1 less.
All children will learn about subtraction. Relate subtraction to taking away and counting how many are left.
Group 1: Practical experience taking objects away from a larger set. Recall some subtraction facts 5/10. Begin to record number sentences with correct signs. Use counting back as a strategy to subtract.
Group 2: (See Group 1) Also understand that subtraction is the inverse of addition. Understand related vocabulary such as difference. Rapid recall of subtraction facts.

What to bring to school:
A hat for playtime and a healthy snack.

Timetable:
    Monday
  • New homework packet issued. PE (wear trainers and a house T shirt)
    Tuesday
  • PE (wear trainers and a house T shirt)
    Thursday
  • Library (bring books to return and then choose new ones).
    Friday
  • Spelling test and return completed homework packet.
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P2/3 Preview
Unit of Inquiry – Our Unit on Transportation wrapped up well with everyone enjoying our field trip to CSSL, the shipping company owned by the Mudher-Bhamra family. Yuvraj’s father spoke to the class about the routes taken and the goods delivered. I think students were most excited to count the numbers of wheels on the biggest truck (22!) and see the tipper truck in action. At the Primary Assembly on Monday morning, a few of our students will share some of the work that we have done over the course of the unit. We will take some time on Monday and Tuesday to reflect on our learning before we start our introduction to the new unit, Relationships, midweek.

Math – Both P2 and P3 will focus on subtraction with the younger students considering number families and older students also looking at double digit subtraction (without regrouping at this stage). Both groups did a fine job with solving and writing addition words problems last week. (Here’s an example from Amy: I saw a monster with 5 eyes and another monster with 6 eyes. How many eyes in all?)

Language: As was the case when studying past tense verbs two weeks ago, students are using helping verbs well in their speech but not as consistently in their writing. We will spend some more time this week practicing proper word choice (I am/you were/they have, etc) and correcting mistakes in writing. The Spelling chunk for the week is -ug.

What to bring to school: a hat for playtime and a healthy snack

Our Timetable: Monday: Library, please bring your books and bag. New homework sent home
Wednesday and Thursday: PE, remember to wear your sneakers and a hat and bring your water bottle.
Thursday: Reading books swapped out, bring your Reading Log as well
Friday: Spelling test and return completed homework
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P3/4 Preview
We had a fantastic museum operating in our classroom last Friday. The children were so excited to share their learning and did a really great job. Thank you to all parents, family and friends who came and supported the children as they presented their research and knowledge about different artefacts and civilisations. I am sure you were impressed with them all; I know I was!

This is what our learning in class will look like this week:
UOI
Having come to the end of this first unit, we will be reflecting on the learning that took place over the past 6 weeks.
We will also spend a day selecting pieces of work for our portfolios and reflecting on why we chose them, what we learnt through them etc.
Unit 2 – How the World Works “Up ‘n Moving” will be introduced.
Central Idea – There are a variety of energy sources which cause objects to move in a variety of ways.
We will be unpacking just what the central idea means and assessing the students’ prior knowledge about this topic.

Maths – Miss Jann’s Group Children will be tested on the work covered to date. Continue with/introduce vertical/column addition and subtraction with and without regrouping, multiplying by 2s, 5s, 10s, 3s and 4s, story sums involving addition, subtraction and multiplication.
Miss Debbie’s Group Continue with multiplication as repeated addition. Aaddition and subtraction of basic facts. Story sums involving addition and subtraction. Vertical/column addition with and without regrouping.

Language – Procedural writing/instructions. Past and present tense. Verbs and adverbs. Commas.
Spelling: group 1 – silent k – words that sound like they start with “n”, but have a “k” before it e.g. knock, knowledge
group 2 words that end in “el” which sounds like “ul” e.g. camel, label
group 3 the silent “e” which makes words have a long vowel sound e.g. cake, ride, here.

Reminders:
Every day:
School t-shirts, hats, zip bags (reading book, reading log, spelling book and homework books), a healthy snack.
Monday:
Primary sharing assembly. Parents welcome. 7.35am outside Rooms 4 and 6
Homework handed out.
Wednesday:
P.E. wear suitable attire – house/school T-shirts, shorts and trainers.
Thursday:
Library bags and books to school for exchange/renewal
Friday:
Homework handed in
Spelling test
P.E. – wear suitable attire – house/school T-shirts, shorts and trainers. This will be our last Friday athletics lesson. From next Friday this lesson will be used for swimming.
Early finishing time – 12.35pm

Looking forward to another great week together,
Miss Jann
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P5/6 Preview
This week will begin with the children presenting their biographies to their peers. By midweek I hope to introduce the new unit to the children. Although we presented a class assembly to the whole school recently parents will have an opportunity to see a much briefer insight into our recent learning at a primary sharing assembly on Monday morning at 7.35am.

UOI – Our second Unit is “Peace and Conflict.”
Central Idea: Finding peaceful solutions to conflict leads to a better quality of human life
On completion of the summative task presentation the children will write reflections on their learning during this unit. Following that they will undertake a pre assessment on the second unit.

Reading and Writing
In language we will discuss and practise the use of alliteration before commencing a focus on metaphors and similes. Reading groups will finally commence now the summative tasks are complete and we are not using those sessions in the IT suite.

Maths
The children have been demonstrating very good column addition. However many of them still make occasional careless errors which they must be encouraged to check and correct themselves. Having already focused on addition of money we will move on to word problems involving addition this week and then examine the relationship between addition and subtraction.

P.E. – is on Wednesday and Thursday. Please ensure that your child/children are dressed in or bring the appropriate clothing to school on these days – house T-shirts/school shirt, shorts and trainers.

Library – is on Monday. Please remind the children to bring back books for exchange/renewal.

Assembly – On Monday there will be a primary sharing assembly in the courtyard outside the primary classes. All parents are very welcome to attend. Refreshments will be available afterwards.

Scott Hawkins
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IN THIS ISSUE
   
CONTACT US
   
International School Moshi
PO Box 733
Moshi, Tanzania
Tel: +255 27 2755005
Fax: +255 27 2752877


Mobile: +255 767 534766

MEET US
   
If you wish to meet with either Keiron White (Head of Campus) or Totty Aris (Deputy Head of Campus), you are welcome to make an appointment to do so. We also have an “open door” time each week during which parents are welcome to drop in without an appointment:
Keiron: Tuesdays 8am-9am
Totty: Fridays 8am-9am
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NOTE
   
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Head of Moshi Campus

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