Moshi Campus News – 23 Jan 2016

The Moshi Campus Parents’ Association will be holding a committee meeting this Monday. If you would like to meet with the committee to discuss any school issues with them, please meet them in Bob Horton’s office at 07:35 on Monday (25th January). The PA would also be pleased to now of any parent who might wish to join the committee. The PA can be contacted at . Minutes of previous PA committee meetings are available at www.uwcea.org/ism-parents/parent-documents using the password you have been given.

We have come to the end of the second week of the quarter. All is settled, with the D2 students writing their mock exams the whole of last week. A number of boarders left on Wednesday 20th to go for an OP trip to Ngorongoro/Natron and will be back on Sunday, 24th January. On Saturday afternoon, a group of boarding students are going to the movies in Arusha as a boarding activity. Other activities have been planned as well, for those who remain on campus.
At the start of this quarter, we have changed the evening arrangements for M1 to M3 boarders on weekdays. In order to better prepare them for bed and sleep, they are no longer be able to do highly active sports or other activities late in the evening after study hall. Instead they engage in indoor activities that prepare them to go to sleep, such as reading. The feedback from boarding council on this is positive. Rosemary Bango, Head of Boarding

All parents are welcome to join us on Tuesday, 2nd February from 10:30am to 2:30pm in Karibu Hall, when our M5 students will be presenting their Personal Projects. A great deal of work has gone into these various projects and this is a great opportunity to see what they have achieved. The Personal Project is the culminating project of the Middle Years Programme and showcases the IB Learner Profile attributes within our students. These projects reflect our students’ diverse interests and passions. Please come and join us as they present their products and learning to the ISM community.

This year ISM is delighted to be hosting the Inter-School Primary Sports Weekend. All events will take place on Saturday, Feb 6. The Opening Ceremony will be at 08.30 am at the tennis courts. We have six schools participating, three schools will arrive on Friday, 5 Feb and depart on Sunday morning. Our own teams are busy training towards this event which is focused on the U9 and U12 age groups, the participants will soon get a letter outlining the events of the day. Of course all our primary students and parents are welcome to come and support the Moshi campus teams on the day. The closing ceremony will be held at the pool at about 5pm. On the Saturday evening we will be hosting a disco for P3-6 and our visiting primary guests, 6.30 – 8.00pm, day students will be able to obtain a disco ticket from their class teacher for 5000Tsh; this covers a pizza, ice cream and a drink.

Coach Charles will again be running group tennis coaching for all ages at the school on Saturdays, beginning next Saturday 30th January. Lessons will be run in blocks of four, at a cost of Tsh 60,000 for 4 lessons. Payment in full should be made either in advance at the school office or directly to Charles at the first lesson. If you have any questions or wish to arrange individual lessons then please contact Charles on 0757606766.

D2 students greatly benefited from two revision sessions before the mock exams. They practised grammatical structures in a variety of ways and had good opportunities to review some tenses and expressions. After their mock exams, they will focus on their individual orals for which they will have a mock exam early February. In the meantime, we need to finish studying vocabulary from themes around discrimination, racism, stereotypes and scientific researches. No doubt that they’ll be busy for that last quarter! I wish them well for their mock exams.
This quarter, D1 students will continue their progression in acquiring new vocabulary and expressions around themes like cultural heritage, advertising, internet and online communications. We’ll finish the study of Le Petit Prince and we’ll watch the movie adaptation which came out last year. Students will also start working on individual oral and will conduct some practice at the end of this quarter in preparation for their end of D1 oral exams. Students are strongly encouraged to watch, listen or read anything in French in their free time.

Our students have been invited to a production of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew” on Friday 5th February 2016 at Braeburn’s Kisongo Amphitheatre. The show will start at 7pm but there will be a live band and snacks available from 6:30pm. The bus will leave from Moshi for Arusha at 4:00 pm and we expect to be back in campus by 10:30pm. Non-boarding students who intend to go on this trip should make separate arrangements of dropping and picking. The cost of transport and ticket is TSh 26,000. The Taming of the Shrew is a study text and would give the students an opportunity to extend their appreciation of live theatre; essential for their drama/theatre review. Besides it will broaden the students’ understanding of Shakespeare, especially the M3s who are currently studying Romeo and Juliet in English and drama. The themes explored may also be useful to students of Individuals and Societies and Literature. The play has been adapted to a modern audience and has experimented with music, dance and physical theatre.
The play is open to M3-D2 on a first come, first served basis. The trip will be chaperoned by two teachers. Mr Juma will issue permission slips to all students who are interested in the trip. There are only 20 seats on the bus. In case you have any questions, contact Mr George Juma through his email: .

The department would like to welcome two student teachers who will be visiting this semester. One for the USA will be visiting M1 Integrated Humanities and M5 History this quarter. The other from Norway will be visiting D1 Geography and M2 Integrated Humanities as well as some history classes.
The M1 class is studying Plate tectonics and will also learn about Early Humans. This will be in preparation for a transdisciplinary trip later this quarter in February (17th – 19th). Parents and guardians will receive further information on the field trip soon.
M2s are enjoying the Medieval (Middle) Ages topic, and started the week with a Medieval game “Tabula Lusoria” similar to tic-tac-toe based on facts they had earlier studied. They had to respond to questions differentiating events that happened in the Ancient, Medieval and Modern times. They have also been working on building consensus by working in groups effectively as one of their learning approaches.

We are delighted to announce the sale of our ISM Primary IB Learner Profile Tea Towel. These tea-towels were created by our own primary children. In early December each child drew their own face which was placed on the print, including some faces of the teachers.
The Tea towels cost TSh 10,000 each, or three for TSh 25,000. TSh 3000 from each tea towel sold will go towards a charity project to be voted by the Upper Primary classes in March.
The tea towels are available from reception or from Mrs Aris’ office.

Over the next few weeks our P4, P5, P6, M1 and M3 students will be participating in a range of online standardised tests. These tests are a way of informing the teachers of the students’ standard compared to students across the world, as many international schools participate in these tests. They are also an alternative indicator for teachers and parents on the level of each child in Mathematic, English writing and reading and, new this year for M3 only, Science. We take these tests annually and have found it very helpful to use this data in our teaching & learning. The results are analysed thoroughly for us and we look at patterns of improvement across the years. The results will not come out until late March and parents will be sent a softcopy of their child’s report. We do not teach to this test; it is meant to be a snapshot of their skills. However we do prepare the students so that they are ready and understand how to answer the types of questions presented. All the tests will take place online in our IT centre. We are fortunate also to participate in the trials Feb 1-3, which allow the students a practice run. The real ISA tests will take place between 8-16 Feb.

Later this week, ISM will submit the IB Diploma self-study and we look forward to the April visit of the IB team. Many hours of faculty collaborative work have been invested over the past calendar year in what has been a very constructive evaluation/critique of what we do and the formulation of a solid action plan to further enhance our program.
D2s complete on Monday the seventh day of mock examinations (see photo) and then by 4 February their DP subject teachers will provide feedback on their results.
On the first D1 Life Skills class last week week students completed the Jackson Vocational Inventory Survey (www.jvis.com). It is essential that D1s dialogue with their parents about the results and what this indicates in terms of career direction and university options.
D2 students will hold their first Graduation Planning meeting this coming week. A reminder to parents of D2 students to reserve on your calendar Friday May 20th (Graduation Friday evening dinner) and Saturday May 21st (Graduation Ceremony).
As we look to the end of this academic quarter and the last day of this quarter on Friday March 18th, parents of DP students are encouraged to make plans to attend the parent-teacher conference on that day. As usual, please ensure that your child in the DP does not leave early and schedule his/her return to Moshi for the start of classes on Monday, April 11th.
As we look forward to the 2016-2017 academic year we would appreciate your forwarding to potential new ISM DP students your views on our program and the link – www.uwcea.org/about-us/publications which includes our DP Handbook for the incoming class of 2018.
As usual, feel free to email or call with any questions/concerns. Rick Fitzpatrick, DP Coordinator

Unit of inquiry The children have more understanding of what is meant by living and not living. Thanks to Janieck and his Mum for taking action and bringing in a small tortoise. This really helped us examine what living things need to survive and grow. If you can bring in anything that is living for show and tell that would be very helpful. By the end of last week some children had come to realize that plants and trees are living and also need certain things to grow and change. The sorting activity for living/non-living is still in progress but we had a very successful walk round campus and found a variety of living things to observe. The change experiments are ongoing as we observe different things that change under different conditions; flour and water, salt and water, ice, chocolate and butter when melted. In order for the children to thoroughly explore the central idea, they need to have a good understanding of the concept of change. Next week we will think about what a life cycle is as we inquire into the second line of inquiry. The children will brainstorm how they have grown and changed before we explore other living things.
PLEASE COULD YOU SEND IN A BABY PHOTO OF YOUR CHILD NEXT WEEK. PLEASE FEEL FREE TO EMAIL ME A PHOTO IF THIS IS EASIER FOR YOU.
Literacy The children will draw/write about the changes they have gone through since birth. We will continue to read fiction and non-fiction books about life cycles. The children will retell the story of the hungry caterpillar using puppets. They will also sequence pictures of the story and retell in their own words. We will also focus on rhyming words this week. EC2 will make CVC words concentrating on all the short vowel sounds. EC1 will join in songs, rhymes and stories and help spot the rhyming words.
Numeracy Ordinal numbers naturally comes into our discussions about life cycles as we order pictures and stages of life (1st, 2nd, 3rd) This week we will measure the children and then again at the end of the unit to chart their growth. Emphasis will be on the vocabulary tall, taller, tallest, short, shorter, shortest.

Information for Parents Thanks for your attendance at our Primary Gathering. I thought the children did a great job sing-ing and showing what they had written. I am glad we have so many opportunities for them to speak and perform in front of a crowd. What a great skill they are developing.
Language focus for the week This week both groups of children will focus on reading comprehension. We will do this by focusing on following written directions. We will also continue to read in our groups and write every day.
Maths focus for the week Both of our groups will learn about linear measurement this week. We will measure with non standard units and with centimeters. The children will explore what can be measured and which different ways an item can be measured.
Unit of Inquiry We begin a new unit this week. We will start a study of communities. We will begin by focusing on our local community and how we relate to larger communities that we are a part of.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Monday: Wear PE clothes and shoes. Tuesday: Bring your library bag. Friday: Swimming
     

The students made me really proud this week when they carried out their summative assessment task in such a positive, mature and responsible manner. This was the culminating activity of their unit about relationships. To help forge strong relationships and improve well-being they were tasked with providing the primary children with fun activities to play at playtime. They collaborated in groups to come up with fun games, wrote action plans (which included a list of resources) and then set themselves up on different areas of the playground. We were surprised and delighted when almost the entire population of the primary school joined in with the games on the tennis courts and lower pitch. There was a real feeling of good will from both older and younger students as they all joined in with the running, rope and ball games which the P2/3s had set up. My young students felt really proud of their accomplishments and many remarked how much they had enjoyed setting up the games for others.
The P2/3s also helped out some children in another school this week. Some younger pupils from UNIS (United Nations International School) of New York sent us some recordings of questions they had about ISM. This is because they are learning about schools in different parts of the world. In response we recorded answers for them. Their questions included – why do we have so much grass? – why do we have horses? – do we have a peace globe? The P2/3s gave really thoughtful answers. The recordings were emailed to UNIS NY and their teacher was delighted to receive them. He will play them to his students next week and then send us a follow up message. We are looking forward to hearing what they thought of our replies.
This week we were supposed to have our final reading session with our EC buddies, but when we got back to class the P2/3 students voted to carry this on for the rest of the year, even though the relationships unit has now finished. Ms Annalee has agreed to this and so every fortnight we will read with them again and continue to build on these relationships with our youngest students.
New Unit: Transdisciplinary Theme: How we organise ourselves Central Idea: Transportation systems are directly related to the needs of a community. We have just started this unit. Last week we brainstormed some terrific vocabulary and got lots of good ideas for moving forward. This week our pre-assessments continue. We will complete some thinking routines, including See, Think, Wonder, as we consider different photographs of transport systems.
Mathematics Focus: measurement
English Focus: This week we will look at contractions such as can’t, didn’t, hasn’t, couldn’t, it’s and I’ll.
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: Library session Thursday: PE lesson Friday: Homework due in
Kate Schermbrucker – P2/3 Teacher and PYP Coordinator

It has been a fruitful week and the new students are getting more settled into routines. I would like to commend the P4 students for being such Risk-takers and presenting to the parents during their end of unit celebration. Bravo! We thank the parents for making time to come and celebrate our achievements with us.
Unit of Inquiry Central Idea: There are a wide variety of environments on our planet made up of living and non-living elements. Lines of Inquiry:

Types and locations of different biomes

Interaction between living and non-living things

Human responsibility to share resources with other living things
We will tune into this unit by taking a nature walk and gathering information about the different living things and where they are found.
Language Arts Writing: students will organize information they gather into a topic and facts as they use informative writing in this unit. For our spelling practice we will work on unit related words. Students will be inquiring on different ways apostrophes are used and practice applying them in their daily writing.
Math – Students have been inquiring into the concept of time. They will continue to work on word problems related to this concept.
Art – Creating a collage using different materials found in nature.

Information for Parents We have begun tuning into our new unit on digital media and the children are very excited to learn more about this! There is a little more computer homework than usual this week. Primary children are welcome to use the IT lab for home-work after 3:00. The P5 students will be taking the ISA tests in February. The first week of February will be a trial test that will be taken on the computer. The actual tests will take place the following week.
Language focus for the week This week we will be looking at how computer coding works. We will go over examples of algorithms to see how to give directions to a computer. Students will then write their own computer algorithms, trying to be as specific as possible in their directions.
Maths focus for the week The students are well into their individual inquiries into fraction skills. Each student chose a fraction skill to learn more about last week. They have written their own maths homework to practise the skill that will be in their packets. They will choose one more fraction skill to investigate this week before moving on to learning about decimals.
Unit of Inquiry This week we will take a look at some important topics to consider when using digital media. We will discuss passwords, what information to share digitally, etc. We will begin to examine ways that we can use digital media to help our learning and evaluate the amount of time we spend on screens each week.
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)

We have had an amazing, exciting and thrilling week learning about the weather that surrounds us! We welcomed a new student, Alex, who will be joining us for a short time. The students have done such an amazing job making our new students feel very welcome. We have completed our Weather Report Projects and the students have displayed their knowledge about the topic they chose in the most creative way. I was very proud of the work they put in this week; they truly shined with their presentations. Our Weather journals are coming along great and the students have been including questions of inquiry and showing a lot of curiosity towards the weather each day. We have been doing a lot of measuring of the weather with our humidity meter, a rain gauge and the thermometer. Students have been becoming familiar with these examples of measurement. In Maths, we all became comfortable with mean, median, mode and range. We were able to move on to our new focus, which is, probability. We will continue to look up into the sky each week, depending on the day and record what we see, hear and feel. I encourage the parents to talk with your child about any weather related information that you may have and ask them what they’ve learned in class so far.
This Week: Unit of Inquiry: The students have been asking many questions about the weather. I would like to move into learning about the atmosphere. I would like to start by asking them questions about what types of elements make up our atmosphere and even discuss the types of layers that make up the earth. We will be doing thinking routines related to these topics.
English Language Focus: The students will continue to write in their journals each day. We had the chance to read the book, “Cloudy with a chance of meatballs,” last week. I would like for the students to create a piece of writing that will enhance their curiosity towards the book and to come up with a piece of writing that will use similes, metaphors and any part of speech that will show creative words in their writing.
Maths: We will continue with learning about probability and understanding how this relates to weather. We will also be doing fractions relating to probability and showing our understanding with activities in class through measurement with the weather.
Notices: Please feel free to e-mail me with any questions at .

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