Moshi Campus News – 25 Oct 2013

We are expecting all boarding students to return to school by 6pm this Sunday, 27th October. If you need a school driver to meet your child at Kilimanjaro or Moshi airports, please let Rosemary Bango know as soon as possible by email on or by SMS on 0689 772346.

Classes start as usual on Monday morning, 28th October, at 7:30am.

This Thursday, 31st October we will be holding our inter-house athletics tournament for both primary and secondary students. There will be no regular classes or CAS activities on this day and students will be fully engaged in both the morning and the afternoon in participating or in supporting their house. Please ensure that all students wear house colours on Thursday and that they are equipped with hats and sun block as needed. House T-Shirts are available to buy from Reception in school. The PA will have a variety of goodies on sale should you wish to make use of their stand and support their fund raising efforts.

Thanks to all who contributed in many varied ways to our Parent Association fundraising events on Friday, 11th October. With a great range of food and with dances and singing on display, we had a great afternoon. Thanks also to the many donors who gave generously for the raffle draw and the silent auction and to those who bought the offerings. Initial figures suggest that about TSh 13 million was raised; we will publish more details once these are all calculated. PA fundraising will continue this quarter – the first such event will be the PA drinks and food stall at the athletics tournament on Thursday.

Many thanks to our tireless PA Committee who did so much for the Project Karibu Hall event.

These pictures are from the end of quarter assembly held on 11th October:
 

We are now moving ahead with implementation of our plans to extend the International Baccalaureate Diploma programme to Arusha Campus next year. There will be three presentations in Arusha over the next week to present this to prospective parents and any interested in joining ISM. You are welcome to invite any families you can to these on:

• Wednesday, 30th October: 6pm at Mount Meru Hotel
• Saturday, 2nd November: 10am at Gymkhana Club
• Wednesday, 6th November: 9am at ISM Arusha Campus

The Leopards are looking forward to springing back into action after a much needed holiday break. We are looking forward the the House Athletics Day on Thursday October 31st. Go Meru, Mawenzi and Kibo!

The current sports teams will continue from Quarter 1 through Quarter 2, so that we are ready to compete in the upcoming Annual ISM Sports Weekend in the last weekend in November. We already have over 100 other students from across Tanzania confirmed!

Go Leopards!
Marika Farrell

A number of different Outdoor Pursuits trips are taking place this quarter, with the first trip due to Mandara this coming Saturday, 2nd November. Whilst some trips are now fully subscribed, others may still have a few spaces available. Students wishing to explore a late sign-up should speak with Isaac Foya.

• Sat-Sun, 2-3 November: Mandara Hut, Kilimanjaro
• Thu-Sun, 7-10 November: Rongai Route, Kilimanjaro
• Thu-Sun, 21-24 November: Mawenzi Hut, Kilimanjaro

The Hindu community will be celebrating Diwali, the Festival of Light, on Sunday, 3rd November. We wish all a very happy Diwali.

We will be hosting a Hallowe’en party for primary children in the evening of Saturday, November 2nd from 4:00-7:00. It would be great if any parents would be able and willing to either host trick-or-treating at their homes or provide transport for some of the students or both during the trick-or-treating time frame. Please let Miss Pinky know if you can do this. If your child is attending you will need to buy a meal ticket from the main office.

There will also be prizes for the best costume!
For more information please contact Miss Pinky on .

SAT tests (for US university admissions) will be held in school on Saturday, 2nd November. Students have already completed registration for these tests.

Registration is still open for the ACT tests to be held in school on Saturday, 14th December. Students should register for the ACT tests before 6th November and this will be the last opportunity to do so in 2013.

Many of our students’ work is currently being exhibited at the Museum of Children’s Art in Berlin. To see some of their work, go to www.kkm-berlin.de and click on News at the top. Then click on Images Preview | Africa | Tanzania.

Primary afternoon clubs will start for this quarter on Tuesday, 29th October.

Secondary CAS and Sports activities will start on the first day of the quarter: Monday, 28th October.

DP students return this weekend to the challenges and rigors of ISM’s holistic world-class DP education.

Given our success with implementing an effective Diploma Programme on the Moshi Campus, ISM will initiate a DP at the Arusha campus starting in August 2013. This coming Wednesday October 30th at 6:00 PM in the Mount Meru Hotel we will provide an overview of our plans for the Arusha IB DP. Please spread the word of our new ISB DP in Arusha (day programme only) and join us at this session if you wish. Of course, we will also continue offering the IB DP on the Moshi campus but we foresee a real market for the IB DP in Arusha and hence the school has taken this step.

The second quarter of the D2 school year typically challenges students immensely. Innumerable coursework deadlines, university application work, regular assessments and preparation for the January 16-27, 2014 D2 mock exams all combine to make this October 28th to December 20th period particularly trying for students. Very regular parent contact is recommended.

D1 students face a more challenging diploma retention policy benchmark for the second quarter. They must attain 21 points total for their six classes and ten points in their higher-level classes. If either of these is not attained, then a ‘Diploma Course’ (formerly called ‘Certificate’) level academic program must be arranged. Two D1 students were moved to ‘Diploma Course’ level after the first quarter grades and they did not attain the 19/9 benchmark. A reminder that the end of school year benchmark will be 24/12 so students who achieved well below this in quarter one must really improve to continue at full diploma level.

An ISM DP class of 1981 graduate visited ISM this week and highlighted what a great experience he had and how it set a tremendous foundation for his life. We hear this regularly.

Nine D2 students will be applying for ‘early decision’ to top universities in the USA on October 31st – the deadline. A combination of our outstanding DP faculty combined with the fact that the class of 2014 has some of the most academically successful students in the school’s history means that we expect to have a series acceptances into the very top US universities by mid-December.

By mid-November we expect to have arranged a DP faculty mentor program for those D1 and D2 students whose academic performance has been, in our view, underachieving in the ISM DP as determined by the quarter one grades.

D1s will start work on their Extended Essay in late-January 2013 and should start these weeks seriously pondering potential subjects and topics.

Parents would be wise to mark December 20th on your calendar. That Friday is the day we finish the second quarter and so that will be the date of our next parent-teacher meeting. Many parents who did not make the meeting earlier this month should organize your schedule to attend that one please. A reminder – do not remove DP students early.

You may be interested to know that the IB has an informative webpage specifically designed for parents of IB students at www.ibo.org/informationfor/parents.

We teach tolerance at ISM and it is a central element of the IB learner profile. This stunning article underscores how critical it is that in today’s world we teach tolerance – www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/they-called-me-a-chink-and-spat-at-me-no-one-helped-1.1413335

“The Gap Between Schooling and Education” is highlighted in this informative article https://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/18/the-gap-between-schooling-and-education/

Brain research informs our teaching as IB educators as this article entitled “A New Map of How We Think: Top Brain/Bottom Brain” will undoubtedly show: https://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB100014240527023044102045791394 23079198270

Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns regarding your son/daughter studying in our DP program.
Sincerely,
Rick Fitzpatrick
Diploma Programme Coordinator

Welcome back to school. I hope you had a wonderful October break. We were very sad to say goodbye to Rohaise before the holiday and hope she has a smooth transition back to Scotland. We are delighted to welcome James Hood from the USA and hope he will settle quickly into the class and be very happy at ISM.

Unit of Inquiry
Our new central idea is: We use our senses to explore and discover the world around us.
This week I will pre- assess the children by asking the question, “What are senses?” As we brainstorm what the children already know we will begin a power point to keep a record of our learning throughout the unit. We will also start interactive displays of the different senses. We will use photographs, books, (both fiction and non-fiction) and youtube clips to help the children tune into this unit.

Language
Discussions about the holidays. Drawing and writing about favourite holiday moments.
Letterland. This week the sounds introduced will be f made by Fire fighter Fred and l made by Lucy Lamp lady. Those children that know most of their sounds already will make CVC words using all 5 short vowel sounds.

Numeracy
Children will inquire into pattern through a variety of learning engagements. They will get a chance to identify patterns in their environment as well as copy and create patterns using manipulatives.

Other reminders
Swimming is on Monday as usual.
Our big focus this week will be preparing for Sports Day on Thursday. We will be practising our races every day so please ensure that your child comes to school in Sports shoes every day this week. We hope you will join us on Thursday to cheer on your child as they race!

Information for Parents
I hope you all had a wonderful holiday. Let’s look forward to an exciting and productive 2nd Quarter.

Three Way Conferences
The three way conferences were a huge success. Now that we have identified specific learning goals, I look forward to working together to help your children achieve them.

Inter-House Athletics tournament (Sports Day)
Thursday 31st October
This is a whole school event. Please see the main notice in this newsletter to find out more details. Children must wear their house coloured T shirt and their usual PE kit on this day. Can I remind children, they must have a sunhat and a water bottle to take onto the school pitch? Parents are welcome to attend and watch their children participate.

Homework Packs and Reading Books
New reading books will be issued on Monday.
There will be no other homework this week. The first homework pack will go out on Monday 4th November.

Unit of Inquiry – Seeds and Plants
Central Idea: There are certain conditions that are necessary for plants to grow.
We will use non-fiction books and the internet to find out more about unusual plants and also plants we eat. We will record some of the information we find out by drawing illustrations and labelling them. We will continue to look at the second line of inquiry and observe how plants change over time.

Swimming: Don’t forget we have a class swimming lesson on TUESDAY.

Art: We will continue to study the artist Georgia O’Keefe who was famous for beautiful close up paintings of flowers. We will look at some of her paintings then draw and paint some flowers close up.
We will also create some leaf rubbings.

Language focus for the week
Write a recount of your holiday.
Storywriting: Retell a well known story, The Little Red Hen.
Handwriting: Patterns, own name, numerals and Zig Zag Monster letters. (V, W, X, Z)
Phonics: Group 1 – Continue sh, ch and th. Group 2 – Learn about words with the spelling pattern ai as in rain and ay as in play.

Maths focus for the week
Mental skills will include counting forwards and back from 20 and beyond. We will also focus on finding 1 more, 1 less and 2 more and 2 less.
All children will continue to learn about 3D(solid) shape. They will name and describe shapes.
3D Shape: cube, cuboid, sphere, cone, cylinder and pyramid.
Children will also learn about time. They will begin to read o’clock. Some children will read time to the half an hour on clocks.

What to bring to school:
Everyday: A hat for playtime, a healthy snack, water bottle and reading folder.

Timetable:
Monday

New reading books will be issued. No other homework. PE (wear trainers and a house T shirt)
Tuesday

Swimming (swimming costume, towel, flip flops/crocs, swim aids such as floaters if necessary. Goggles and sun cream are optional.)
Thursday

SPORTS DAY!! Don’t forget to wear your house T Shirt.

Library (Most children have returned books, some children need to remember to bring their library books)

New reading books will be issued.

I hope everyone has had a terrific October break! I’m looking forward to the term ahead and hope each P2/3 student will be eager to return on Monday. Our Mystery Reader sign-up sheet has a considerable number of blanks. It would be wonderful to have more volunteers sign up to surprise our class with a book. The best times for our class this term are Wednesday or Thursday morning or Thursday afternoon but we would gladly work with the schedule of anyone willing to come join the fun! (Repeat Readers are welcome!)

Thursday’s Sports Day will be lots of fun. Please see above for details and don’t forget to send students in the House Shirts!

Unit of Inquiry – We only have two weeks left with our Unit on Friendship. We will consider the ways that we express our feelings this week and do some role play in class. We will also learn about the ‘Ladder of Feedback’ which is a communication tool for reflecting upon interactions during conflict. Journal writing about relationships will continue.

Math – Both P2 and P3 students will be studying shapes this week. We will be drawing, using tangram puzzles, and other manipulatives.

Language – We will focus on Adjectives this week and hopefully see an increase of descriptive words in our writing! The classroom mailbox will remain in class for the rest of our unit – students have been very excited to write one another. Reading groups will focus on breaking down the books read into a story board that describes the characters, plot, setting, problem, and solution. The Spelling chunk for the week is -ill.

Our Timetable:
Monday: Library, please bring your books and bag. New homework sent home
Wednesday: PE, remember to wear your sneakers and a hat and bring your water bottle.
Thursday: Sports Day! Wear your House t-shirt and sneakers. Bring a hat and your water bottle.
Thursday: Reading books swapped out, bring your Reading Log as well
Friday: Spelling test and return completed homework

Welcome back to Term 2. I trust you all had an enjoyable and restful break and are recharged and ready for all that the next quarter has to offer.

This term we welcome two new students to our class – Darby and Emiliana, who will both be in P4. I know that the rest of the students in P3/4 have been eagerly awaiting their arrival and will make every effort help them feel part of the ISM family.

This is what our learning in class will look like this week:
Unit Of Inquiry
Unit 2 – How the World Works – “Up ‘n Moving”.
Central Idea: There are a variety of energy sources which cause objects to move in a variety of ways.
Lines of inquiry – Forces and energy
          What energy can do
          How we use energy
          The Scientific Procedure
We will recap on push-pull forces and the effect of gravity and air resistance. The forces of friction and magnetism will be introduced. We will conduct experiments to help us understand the way these forces work and write up our findings according to the scientific method. We will also begin to look at what energy is, some of the sources of energy and what energy can do.

Maths – Miss Jann’s Group: Recap two dimensional geometry – identifying, comparing and describing 2D shapes, regular and irregular shapes and polygons and quadrilaterals. Three dimensional shapes -identifying, drawing, describing and recognising these shapes using the correct geometrical terminology.
Miss Debbie’s Group: Two dimensional geometry – identifying, comparing and describing 2D shapes. Three dimensional shapes.

Language – Procedural writing/instructions. We will write instructions on how to make a mono-print (one of the printing techniques we have learnt about in Art)
Spelling – group 1- words that end in -able or -ible e.g. suitable, terrible, group 2 words containing “soft c” – “ci” e.g. city, pencil, group 3 the long “i” vowel sound i-e e.g. kite, hide

Every day:
School t-shirts, hats, zip bags (reading book, reading log, spelling book).
A healthy snack.
Monday:
Only spelling and reading for homework this week.
Wednesday:
P.E.- wear suitable attire – house/school t- shirts, shorts and trainers. Final practice before Sports Day.
Thursday:
Inter-House Sports Day. All parents and supporters welcome to attend. Children must wear their HOUSE T-SHIRT – (Kibo – blue, Mawenzi – green and Meru – yellow) and TRAINERS. Please make sure you apply sun screen and bring a hat and a water bottle. The PA will have a variety of goodies on sale should you wish to make use of their stand and support their fund raising efforts.
Friday:
Spelling test
Swimming – remember towel, costume, goggles (if you use them), sun screen.

Looking forward to a great week together,
Miss Jann

I hope everyone enjoyed a revitalizing and experience filled October break. The second quarter is on us all too quickly and this week promises to be an exciting return.
UOI – ‘Peace and Conflict.’ Central Idea: Finding peaceful solutions to conflict leads to a better quality of human life The children will look at solutions to real conflicts and continue to develop their own role play scenarios which demonstrate examples of conflict and peaceful solutions to them.
Reading and Writing In language the children will act out role play situations concerning conflict and its effects. They will also look at play scripts, their key features and begin to use these skills to write their own short play scripts to accompany role plays. Reading groups will take place on Wednesday.
Maths This week will see our focus switch to multiplication. I will test the children on mental recall of times tables and challenge them to start learning those they cannot confidently recall. After assessing their recollection of multiplication strategies we will begin to explore written methods of multiplication.
P.E. – is on Wednesday. Thursday sees the ISM whole school sports day. We look forward to seeing as many of you here as possible to enjoy the events and support all the children.
Library – is on Monday. Please remind the children to bring back books for exchange/renewal.

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