Moshi Campus News – 30 Oct 2015

We are expecting two separate visits from Canadian universities over the next couple of weeks and this will provide D2 and D1 students with excellent opportunities to learn more about the applications process and quality of universities in Canada.
Alberta Uniersity will be visiting on Thursday, 5th November, closely followed by University of British Columbia (UBC) on Monday, 9th November.

Friday, November 6th: 3.30- 6.30pm Our Primary Hallowe’en Costume Party will be held on campus this year in the form of a ‘Trunk or treat’ and games. This will involve the children visiting car boots/trunks and various games for treats and fun! Following this there will be a Fancy dress parade, BBQ and movie.
DAY STUDENTS SHOULD PURCHASE A DINING HALL LUNCH TICKET IN ORDER TO ATTEND THE BBQ (please purchase by Wednesday 4th November to help us cater appropriately)
If you can help in any of the following ways please contact Annalee Horton by Wednesday 4th November in the EC classroom or email

• Decorate your car boot/trunk and provide tricks or treats for the children (prizes for the most creative car boot)
• Donate candy or baked goods for party treats
• Organise and run a game

Friday, November 6th: from 6.30pm For the secondary students (boarders and day-students) and very brave primary day-students there is a Hallowe’en event on Friday evening, 6th of November, starting at 6.30 pm. at the ISM parking lot. There are five houses in Shanty Town the students will visit, a few of them are haunted houses and a few places they will go for trick or treating. Boarders can sign-up on a list to go on the bus or by truck, the sign-up sheet will be hanging in the breezeway. Day-students have to be taken around by a parent/guardian as there may not be enough space in the school vehicles. A sign-up sheet for day-students will be handed out at school, please fill it out and return it to the tutor. On the Friday evening a map and route will be provided on arrival at the ISM parking lot. Please wear a costume.
After the trick or treating there will be a Hallowe’en disco in the dining hall for secondary students only, finishing at 10.30 pm.
If you want to contribute to this event, please donate sweets for the trick or treating – these can be left at the main office between 7.30 am. and 5.00 pm. this week.

There are a large number of Outdoor Pursuits trips this quarter. Students have already signed up for the various trips and paid the fees. Now we wish them much success:

• 7 – 8 Nov: Mandara Hut (Level 1). First hut on Kilimanjaro
• 14-15 Nov: Pare Mountains (Level 1b). A weekend’s trek and camping in the Pares.
• 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.

Friday 16th October marked the end of quarter 1 this year. The boarding team is grateful for the support parents and guardians have given to us throughout the first quarter.
Boarders had a special lunch on Wednesday 14th to mark the end of the quarter. Different students received awards to mark the end of the quarter, based on respect, organizational skills, and the most improved in the dorm. Students with the highest number of poas were also recognized.
We thank you all for informing us of the boarders’ transport details in good time last quarter. This made the exit process very smooth, and by 19.00 hours, the last group of students left for KIA. We also appreciate the parents who came for end of quarter conferences, and later left with their children.
Boarders return on Sunday 1st November. In the same manner, we request that you let the boarding team know about their arrival on that day, particularly if they will need transport from the airport. This information can be sent to the Head of Boarding through email, or by phone on +255 689 772346. Rosemary Bango, Head of Boarding

Before the ISM Inter-House Athletics Day, some of our students signed up to compete in an extra challenge for Athletics Day. Students could choose to compete in 7 events (Heptathlon), 10 events (Decathlon) or all events (Decathlon +). Students also had to place in the top 8 in each event to qualify.
Congratulations to the following students: Heptathletes: Silipa, Adiana, Pauline J., Kyle, Nikoli, Vanessa, Ida, Michael, Freddy, Sanne, Kimali, Lulu K, and Roos Decathletes: Christopher, and Sally Decathlete +: Aselya, Emilia, Willem, and Ricky
Well done!

From the cheers to the shouts the crowd released that clouded the atmosphere, one could indeed tell that there was a netball tournament held on the morning of the 10th of October. The tournament that was personally organized by Lisa and I, Valencia (as a CAS Project) with the help of Ms. Farrell, Coach Maria, Ms. Chavez, Ms. Grace, Mr. Sabini and Mr. Patrick was a success.
Organizing such a big event was not an easy task as we had to contact different schools, have a timetable for the day, book transport, find referees, ask students to help out with keeping scores, etc. I contacted the local schools multiple times, but at the end sadly some schools dropped out of the tournament because of changes in their school timetable. Additionally some transport issues arose on the day of the tournament but eventually everything fell into place.
Mji Mpya, WATU School and Kiusa participated in the tournament alongside the host school: ISM Moshi. The tournament was from 10:30am to 1:40pm. After the friendly matches between each team, the finals were played between Mji Mpya and ISM Moshi team A. And I am happy to say that ISM Moshi team A was the ultimate winner of the tournament.This netball tournament was intended to mark the end of the WATU netball CAS, however after the performance of the WATU team, we felt the urge to continue training the team. The team has so many different skill levels, but we aim to increase the players’ skill levels to their fullest potential by the end of D2. Hopefully, our fellow students will take the initiative to run the CAS when we finally graduate in May because the WATU netball team A has the potential of becoming a very competitive team.
All in all, it was a hot but fun and energetic day.
Valencia (D2)

DP students return this weekend to the challenges and rigors of ISM’s holistic world-class DP education.
D2s will submit their final version of the Extended Essay on Wednesday. Ten D2s will take the Swahili B final IB exams on November 9th and 10th. The 2nd quarter typically challenges D2 students immensely. Innumerable coursework deadlines, university application work, regular assessments and preparation for the late-January 2016 D2 mock exams combine to make it a particularly trying period. Frequent parent contact is recommended.
All 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.
A number of ISM graduates have recently been in touch and all highlighted how our DP holistic education has been a tremendous foundation for their life.
Parents would be wise to mark Friday, December 18th on your calendar. That is the date of the end of second quarter and we welcome you to the parent-teacher meetings.
Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns regarding the studies of your son/daughter in ISM’s DP. Best regards, Rick Fitzpatrick – Diploma Coordinator

M3 students from both campuses will be on a field trip from 9th to 11th November – the main focus of study on this trip will be the arts. More details will be given in next week’s newsletter.

On October 6th, the M3 class ran a bilingual treasure hunt for P6 students at the Kidichini school. This class project took place on the ISM campus to help the Kidichini kids learn English and build relationships with the M3 students. The children were divided into four groups, each with six Kidichini students and two M3 students. The M3 students were guides and translators for the Kidichini students. After everyone had finished the scavenger hunt, they gathered back in the M3 form classroom to colour elephants to support the Sparkling Elephant CAS.
According to Sally, the project was extremely successful. “Everyone had fun, and all of the students were happy with the way this event turned out.” “Everyone had such a good time! I can really see something like this happening again,” says Ida. Philemon says, “All of the kids had a really fun time, and all of the M3 students were glad to be part of such a great project.”
The M3 students felt it was a great project, since everyone had fun and worked together. The M3 class has really enjoyed working and playing with the Kidichini kids, and the M3s would like to do another event like this. Olivia (M3)

From the beginning of November we are planning to run a Science club for students in M1-M3 This will happen on Wednesday afternoons 3-4 pm in one of the Science labs. There will be a selection of unusual or interesting experiments for you to investigate. We will also need a small number of diploma students to help supervise. Places will be limited – please sign up on the google doc when it is sent out.

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 Thursday, November 19th.

In the spirit of our elaborate CAS program on Moshi Campus, two D1 students gathered a group of passionate photographers and authors to form a Journalism Club. In their efforts, they have created a page inspired by Humans of New York. Their aim is to create a platform that will embrace the diversity at our school.
Please support them by liking their page on Facebook, (Humans of International School Moshi) and follow their page on Instagram, (HO_ISM). Sarah K & Zan-Lydine (D1)

Many thanks to Mzungu Kichaa, his band and Mension for the great concert that we enjoyed in the last week of last quarter.
A few photos of the event are available to view at www.uwcea.org/kichaa.

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Save your plastics! When plastics are littered, burned or dumped, they poison the Earth, Air, and Water. When we save, segregate and pack plastics into bottles, we can make building blocks that can be reused over and over again.
For the Eco-Brick Primary Club we ask you to help us save your plastics. Instead of the plastic ending up in the environment, we stuff the plastic in plastic bottles, with which we can build, for example, a bench for the orchard, or a rim for a vegetable garden at ISM. We ask you to put your dry and clean plastic (pretty please?) in the two bins provided with an Eco-bricks poster on it once school is back in session. In the meantime please save your plastics in a plastic bag at home. What we need:

• Kilimanjaro water bottles and plastic soda bottles of 500 ml only. (this is a pilot project, all other bottles can be disposed of in the designated area in the school parking lot)
• Non-biodegradables only (candy wrappers, bags used for rice, pasta, bread, all types of plastic bags, cling foil (clean), plastic packaging, etc)
• No paper, no glass and no sharp metal

The first quarter of the year ended with 7 new brownies being enrolled into the 1st Moshi (Tanzania) Brownie unit. Welcome to Pippa, Camille, Imani, Isia, Lisa, Scarlet and Navo. All 15 brownies also completed their artist’s badge. Many thanks to Ms Anine for being the tester for this badge. Look out for the Brownie display of art work outside room 3.
Next quarter our main focus will be connected to a worldwide guiding initiative ‘The Big Give’ which aims to give something to others. This can be time, money, possessions, a gift, a skill or a performance. ISM Brownies will receive a special Big Give badge for taking part in this project. After lots of brainstorming, input from parents and a vote at our last meeting the Brownies have decided to organize a holiday party for a local school at the end of the quarter. A Horton (Brown Owl)

The Primary Swim Squad travelled to Braeburn School in Arusha on Tuesday 13th October for a Swimming Gala. Other International School also attended the event, which was designed to allow swimmers to swim against others in a non-competitive atmosphere and collect their times over 25m and 50m in various strokes. It was a well-run and fun morning. The students were able to do many events each and all felt happy and proud of their efforts. The team looks forward to the galas being organized for Q2!

Primary Clubs will start on Monday, November 2nd and continue until Tuesday, December 15th.
As usual they will run from 2-3pm. Please ensure you pick up your child promptly from school; students will go back to the playground area after clubs unless other arrangements are made. Please note that the playground is not directly supervised after 3pm.
Eco-brick club (see above): All students participating in the Eco-brick club are encouraged to bring a long as many plastic bottles as possible to recycle in the club. If anyone else has plastic bottles please deposit them in our metal grated containers in the carpark and the students will use them to make their eco-bricks. Thank you to Caroline Schraa for taking on this environmental initiative.
Primary Girls’ Football The Girls’ P4-6 Football team will continue training on Fridays 1.15-2.00pm on the field.
Primary Swim Squad Our primary swim team will continue training four times a week: Monday afternoon, Tues/Weds/Thurs lunchtime and a voluntary session on Saturday 10.30-11.30.
Our first swim meet is Tuesday, 11th November at Kennedy House; letters will go out soon.
Primary Staffing Teaching Assistants: We welcome Mr Tumaini who started before the break and is now well established in P6 supporting Ms Sarah and the students. Ms Duriyah, will be taking over from Ms Amen to support Mrs Anton and her students in P5. We will also be welcoming two new student teachers into primary for a short time, Mr Lukas will help out in P2/3 and Ms Kaira will be helping out in P6.
Field Trips this quarter P3 camp: 26th – 27th November P5 camp: 1st – 2nd December P6 Retreat: Dates to be confirmed

Last quarter I wrote about different aspects of the PYP in each edition of the newsletter. I hope this has helped parents to understand a little more about the programme. I will continue to write similar articles in quarter two because:

1) It important you know about the education of your child/ren. 2) You can support the teachers better when you understand more about what is happening in the classroom.

Welcome back to school. I hope you had a wonderful holiday. This week we will start our new unit of inquiry. The details are as follows:

Central Idea: We use our senses to explore and discover the world around us. Lines of Inquiry: The five senses       How we use our senses       How our senses work together       How our senses help us understand the world This week we will tune into the unit with some exploration using all the senses. The children will also think about the meaning of the central idea.
Literacy This week we will explore non-fiction books and determine what the features of non-fiction are using our unit of inquiry books. Letter sounds introduced will be l made by Lucy Lamp Light and k made by Kicking King. The children will also draw and write about their holiday.
Numeracy Children will continue to inquire into pattern through a variety of learning engagements. We will go on a pattern walk around the campus to search for patterns in the environment to make the children aware that patterns are everywhere. If you have an interesting piece of material or an artifact that has a repeating pattern on it then please send into school. Maybe your child could share their pattern for show and tell?
Swimming for EC1 starts on Monday as usual. EC2 will be doing PE and should wear sports shoes and house T-shirts.

Information for Parents Welcome back. I trust you all had a good holiday. This week I will be going out for a training, so I will not be in class from November 5 to November 9. If you need to contact me, I will still be checking email. Otherwise, please feel free to talk to Ms. Cici about any urgent matters.
Language focus for the week Group 1 will be working on reading short vowel words this week, and Group 2 will be learning about word families. We will also read in our reading groups every day and continue to focus on writing.
Maths focus for the week Both groups will work on place value this week. Group 1 children will work with numbers to 50, and Group 2 children will work with numbers to 200.
Unit of Inquiry We will continue learning about the parts of a plant, and we will start to shift our focus to learning about the conditions that are necessary for plant growth.
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)

Before the holidays we had a varied and interesting week. On Monday, three P6 students came into class and carried out some research with the P2/3 students. They asked them questions about their ideas of peace and conflict, which is the unit they are studying at the moment.
The children also considered the meaning of one of our attitudes for this unit, i.e. independence. They examined how they are or can become independent learners. In groups they discussed the issue and created posters explaining what they had found out.
On Tuesday lots of the children were away representing the school at the Braeburn Swimming Gala. Those who remained in class added to their new knowledge about graphing by forming a series of human graphs. They also worked in small groups to create designs for imaginary machines. One team designed a Robocop which could fly, had ‘criminal detecting’ eyes and could stop bank robbers by throwing a net over them. The other two teams designed machines which could collect trash. All the machines included at least four of the six simple machines we have been learning about.
On Friday the children brainstormed ideas for unit related action. They knew that action meant finding a way to help the community or the environment. As they have become interested in machines they decided they wanted to ask the school to purchase a bio-gas digester. This type of machine uses gas from rotten food scraps to power cookers and lights in an environmentally friendly way.
It was a pleasure to meet so many parents at the Goal Setting Conference on the Thursday before the break. You will have received a copy of your child’s goal setting sheet in the homework packet. Thanks for all your ongoing commitment towards the P2/3 children with their learning.
As we are expecting more rain this quarter, please ensure you have supplied a pair of indoor shoes for your child to keep in the classroom. Thanks to all the parents who have already done this. When it is muddy the children will be able to change their shoes which will help keep our classroom clean.
We look forward to the short, but busy quarter ahead.
Unit Focus: Transdisciplinary Theme: How the world works Central Idea: We use simple machines to make work easier This week we will learn about how simple machines can be combined.
Mathematics Focus: angles
English Focus: ‘ed’ past tense
What to bring to school every day: A hat, water bottle and healthy snack.
The Week Ahead: Monday: Homework will be set | swimming lesson Tuesday: Library session Thursday: PE lesson Friday: Homework due in | 15.30 Halloween Party ‘Trunk or Treat’
Kate Schermbrucker – P2/3 Teacher and PYP Coordinator

Welcome back to the second quarter and I hope you have enjoyed the break with your children. I am looking forward to the new quarter and the exciting endeavors it will offer.
Math – this week we are going to look at 2-D shapes and how they are represented in our everyday lives. We will also continue to focus on data collection and its presentation, which ties into our unit of inquiry.
Language Arts – as part of our unit summative assessment, students are going to use their explanatory writing skills to complete a piece of writing for their presentations. We will also begin to focus on weekly spelling activities and tests. Our weekly lists will consist of words from our Unit, Math and high frequency words. In grammar we are going to learn about synonyms, which is aimed towards increasing the students’ vocabulary.
Unit of Inquiry – with just 2 weeks left to the end of our unit, we will begin our summative assessments and also look at ways energy is used around us. We will learn how energy is transferred from one form to the other and how some forms of energy can be renewed.
Polite reminders to all families – kindly have your child’s hat cleaned and brought in on Monday. Also incase your child did not return their goal sheet on the last day of quarter 1, kindly send it back, signed and with feedback.
P4 News from last quarter The last week of teaching was filled with excitement as the children were winding up the quarter and looking forward to a well deserved break. The students have grown in confidence, gained more knowledge and have further developed in the various transdisciplinary skills.
In Units of Inquiry we did our formative assessment on the first line of inquiry. The students were very keen to get their hands on different experiments that we will be carrying out in the coming quarter.
In Language Arts, the students looked at vocabulary work, carried out some research and wrote facts about a chosen source of energy. We polished our understanding of how to write supporting details in explanatory texts.
In Math, the students did a review of different concepts taught and further practised the mental math strategy “Making tens” to simplify addition or subtraction. They also created tally charts and bar graphs related to the items that use different forms of energy in our school.
I would like to end on a high note and thank you all P4 parents for your support and a great first quarter. I hope you had a wonderful break and look forward to seeing all your children again on Monday.
 

Information for Parents I hope that you all had a refreshing and enjoyable break. I had a great time relaxing at home and having more power to get things done this week! I am look-ing forward to seeing everyone back on Monday!
Language focus for the week Students will continue working on their personal narratives. Everyone is currently writing their first drafts and we are pleased with the progress that they are making. Everyone has a writing goal for this project and we will be working with them to help them try to achieve it. We will be discussing our reading group books on Wednesday and Thursday. We are getting into the middle part of our chapter books and there is a lot of content to analyze and discuss.
Maths focus for the week We will be moving into data collection now. Students will be working on making and answering questions about bar graphs. We will be looking at and creating graphs about natural disasters that we have learned about in our unit of inquiry.
Unit of Inquiry Many of the students were interested in tornadoes and how they worked, so that will be a focus this week. They will also begin working on their summative assessment projects. Students will be creating a dodecahedron that informs people about a natural disaster of their choice.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Monday PE (wear PE shoes and a house T-shirt) Thursday Swimming (bring swim kit) Friday Library (bring books to return or renew)

It was a busy last week of the quarter in P6, and with a swimming gala, public holiday and three-way conferences, much of our time was spent outside of the classroom. We prepared our goals for next quarter, and started putting together our individual Portfolios which will steadily build-up as we progress through the year. In English we spent some time investigating how verbs change in our writing, while in Maths we completed our unit on 2D shapes by investigating symmetry in shape and pattern.
Next quarter continues with our unit on Peace and Conflict. We will be looking in more detail at the current conflicts going on around the world, focusing on causes and perspectives of people involved. In Maths we will be focusing on telling the time, using calendars and thinking about what time we do, and how long it takes us to do, everyday things. In English, we will be building on our learning from work done on the short animation “The Piano”. The P6 students will be planning their own short story based on feelings evoked from a piece of music, as well as their ideas gained from our Peace and Conflict unit.

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