Moshi Campus News – 27 Feb 2016

The Kilimanjaro Marathon takes place tomorrow on Sunday, 28th February.
We are providing bus transport from the school campus to the stadium from 6am on Sunday morning and this will be available to any ISM community members who are taking part. Buses to the stadium (or as close as we can get) will leave half-hourly from 6am. Buses returning to school will leave half-hourly from 8:30am from the YMCA roundabout (askari roundabout). Many of our students will also be supporting the event by operating a water point to sustain the runners near the 13km mark (half-marathon) or 34km mark (full marathon).
More details are available at www.kilimanjaromarathon.com.

Three elephants will be joining the 5km Fun Run tomorrow, two of which have been constructed by ISM students. They will be travelling with the runners and finishing in the stadium to raise awareness of the crisis facing Tanzania’s elephant population.

We did not yet receive any emailed questions or issues from parents for discussion at the Parent Open Meeting secheduled for 6:30pm on Wednesday, 2nd March and as a result will not have any specific responses to hand. However parents are still welcome to join us at that time to meet Bob Horton (Director), Totty Aris (Deputy Head of Campus) or myself, Keiron White (Head of Campus).

Book-week assembly is at 07.40 am on Monday in Karibu Hall. We look forward to all our children dressing up as a book character of their choice. Lots of book doors have gone up and the students are getting excited about surprise readers. If you would like to come and read to a primary class as a surprise reader please email . We will be Dropping Everything And Reading every day at 10.35 am.

We had a wonderful swim gala this week. A chance for all the students to participate and enjoy the races. We purposely took away the emphasis from the race team so that every race would have a winner and all the chidlren had a good experience. This year’s trophy went to Meru.

All are invited to our Diploma Art exhibition at Kishari House which will be open from Monday, 14th to Wednesday, 16th March.

Several weekend activities have been planned for this weekend. These include Moshi town trips. The M4 boarders now have a supervised town trip. Only M5 to D2 students are allowed to go for unsupervised town trips.
A reminder to parents that school closes on Friday 18th March, and boarders return to school on Sunday 10th April. Those who need to book plane tickets will probably benefit from booking early. Kindly let us know the arrangements you have for your child in good time.

The M3 Science Fair will be taking place on Tuesday, 8th March and the class is now well into the preparation for their presentation.

Our M5 students will be taking practice on screen MYP assessments from 9th to 15th March.

The proximity of the IB exams – now only two months away – has captured the attention of D2 students. It is an intensive time for D2s. Completion of the ToK essay is one priority. Language oral exams are taking place. Visual Arts studio art pieces and related documentation for the show are being wrapped up. Science portfolios are complete. ITGS, Economics, History and Geography submissions by students are nearly finished. All coursework will finish by the time we start our vacation on March 18th. Reminder: please do not remove your DP child early [they need to be present on March 18 – as every lesson counts!] D2 students are nearly finished their CAS requirement. Many D2 students have started the process of revising for exams. If it were not for CAS, (that helps balance out the pressure of these innumerable deadlines) D2 stress levels would be much higher! Parental support and encouragement of D2s at this time is an imperative.
The ISM DP team continues to do all we can and stress the motto, “Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance.” We also want to drive home the message that the mock exam results experience means that D2s must move into full scale effort level in order to learn from and improve upon those late-January assessments. We will also highlight AGAIN the importance of a healthy lifestyle [sleep, exercise, proper nutrition and avoiding bad choices such as smoking] in the coming months. This week one DP teacher found that on school night this week most students got under six hours of sleep. Parental discussion around sleep patterns would also be smart given that research shows adolescents require eight hours of rest to be successful academically though naps are useful, it is likely better in one chunk at night.
This week plans moved along further for the Saturday May 21st ISM Diploma Program graduation ceremony. Parents will receive the formal invitation in the second half of April but please note that as is customary there will be a dinner (parents and D2 graduating student only) on Friday evening May 20th at a restaurant in Moshi – so reserve the date! We are planning for a wonderful set of events. Nearly every Wednesday afternoon these weeks D2 students gather briefly and plan for the music, speakers, theme, decorations for the graduation so it will be a grand celebration I assure you. As many D2 parents on that Friday morning May 20th will be needed for help with decorating Karibu Hall and this part of the weekend is also a great tradition and fun for all.
D2 parents are being sent an email regarding the mock results of their son or daughter. Regular parent contact support, encouragement and a gentle nudging to work harder should serve to bolster our efforts at ISM to do the same.
Most D1 students continue to remain on track and as a class collectively their academic results are pleasing. The steady progress for many on the major 4,000-word Extended Essay is an example of this. Next week these students will have to submit their draft research question and so parental encouragement and questioning on this piece would be ideal. Learn more about the Extended Essay at www.ibo.org/programmes/diploma-programme/curriculum/extended-essay.
Diploma students would do well to learn and follow the ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Restoring the Character Ethic’ – the name of an exceptional book written in 1979 by Steven R. Covey and whose recent obituary provides a superb overview of his phenomenally successful approach wisdom. Read it at – www.nytimes.com/2012/07/17/business/stephen-r-covey-herald-of-good-habits-dies-at-79.html.
As usual feel free to email or call with any questions/concerns. Rick Fitzpatrick, DP Coordinator

St. Constantine’s Swim Gala March 12 Looking ahead on the calendar, the next swim gala in Arusha will be in March. We cannot take all our students to this event as their are limited races. Letters to the students picked for the swim squad will go out at the beginning of the month.
Primary Clubs Q4 We have now finalised our programme for Q4. An email will come out this week for you to submit your child’s one, two or three choices for Q4.
Student Led Conferences March 17 – save the date Please try to keep Thursday, March 17th free so that you can attend our Student Led Conferences. Every primary child will have an allotted time to show you their learning journey in their classroom. The children prepare for this in advance and are very excited about sharing their portfolios with their parents. An email will go out with a link for you to submit a time-frame for your visit. The class-teacher will then send home a slip with your precise time for you to come to school with your child. There are no formal classes for primary on that day, just the Student-Led Conference.

Unit of inquiry We have found out about the life cycle of a frog this week. Next week the children will help to create a display to show what they have found out. We had our initial chat about the summative assessment and I have asked the children to think about plants and animals that they are interested in researching. We will brainstorm ideas on Monday and then get the children into small groups depending on their interests. It would be very helpful if you could talk with your child this weekend so that they have some ideas to share.
Literacy Writing will focus on our frog life cycle and summative assessments as children talk or write about what they have found out. We will also be preparing some portfolio pieces and carrying out some portfolio assessments in preparation for our two- way conferences coming up in March. EC2 will continue to find out about the long vowel sounds made by Mr O and Mr U. Younger children in EC1 will find out about the sound s made by Sammy Snake and the other EC1 children will continue to work on consolidating their recognition of letter sounds through language games such as sound lotto and bingo.
Numeracy The children are having fun buying and selling flowers in the flower shop we have set up in our classroom. Children will work on the concept of addition through their shopping and we will work on a portfolio piece too. As usual we will continue to work on number at children’s individual levels through hands on activities. We will also do some portfolio assessments in preparation for the student led conferences.
Book Week We are really looking forward to seeing the children dressed up as their favourite book character on Monday for the parade. We are going to drop everything and read everyday! If you would like to be a mystery reader in our class next week please let me know. You are very welcome to bring your own book or choose one from the classroom.

Information for Parents Our camp will be the highlight for this week. Please remember that we will have a normal school day on Thursday. Then you should bring your child back to our classroom at 5:00 p.m. with all of their camping equipment. One thing that I think might have been left off the list is a flashlight. It would be good to send one with them. Otherwise, please refer to the list that we sent out before. The camp will end at 12:35 on Friday.
Language focus for the week This week the Group 1 children will work with reading long vowel words. The Group 2 children will be working with compound words. We will also continue to read every day in small groups.
Maths focus for the week Both groups will focus on telling time this week. Group 1 children will focus on telling time to the hour and half hour. Group 2 children will tell time to the quarter hour as well.
Unit of Inquiry We will spend some time showing our power point projects to other classes this week. We will also reflect on what we have learned during our busy unit.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Monday: Wear proper clothes and shoes for P.E. Tuesday: Bring your library bag. Thursday: Pack your bag for camp (water bottle, flashlight, swim costume, towel, toothbrush, toothpaste, change of clothes, everything else that I forgot to mention…)

We had a very exciting trip to Moshi Airport on Thursday. This began with the short ride in the ISM lorry as most of the students had never been in it before.
Once we arrived at the airport Aat van der Wel met us and took us past several aeroplanes to his own 2 seater plane. He built it himself from a kit bought from the USA. He explained the construction of the aircraft and how it flies. He also taught us about the safety aspects to do with owning a plane; including keeping careful records.
The students asked good questions and listened carefully to the answers. They all behaved well and enjoyed themselves. It was a very worthwhile field trip which relates well to our unit on transport.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Aat for sharing his knowledge with us and welcoming us to his hangar at Moshi Airport.
Unit of Inquiry: Transdisciplinary Theme: How we organise ourselves Central Idea: Transportation systems are directly related to the needs of a community. Our current unit will finish on Wednesday. The students will carry out their summative assessment task on Tuesday, i.e. together with their group they will present information to another class about an aspect of road safety. Our next unit is all about the imagination and how we can express ourselves.
Mathematics Focus: Perimeter
English Focus: words with silent letters, e.g. write, wrong, knife, know, bomb.
What to bring to school every day: A hat, water bottle, a pair of indoor shoes and a healthy snack.
The Week Ahead: This week is Book Week at ISM Monday: Swimming session | Homework will be set | Students can dress up as a character from a book Tuesday: Library session Thursday: Homework due in from P2 students | PE lesson | Camp for P2 students starts at 5pm Friday: Homework due in from P3 students | Camp for P2 students ends at 12.35 Kate Schermbrucker – P2/3 Teacher and PYP Coordinator

The week has been quite eventful and the P4 students put in their best as they represented their houses during the Swim Gala, did some art for the book- cover door display and also worked towards their Summative Assessment.
The P4 gathering is also scheduled for Friday, March 4th, 2016. All P4 parents you are welcome.

Maths We will continue with the unit on fractions where some students will continue to inquire on equivalent fractions and other students will learn to convert fractions to decimals up to the tenths.
Language Arts This week the students will focus on prefixes. These words will also make up their vocabulary work for the week. Our writing focus for the next few weeks will be creating tools that can help raise awareness. We will start with brochures this week.
Unit of Inquiry During the week the students will finalize the unit by carrying out their summative assessment and doing unit reflections. Our new Central Idea is “People around the world are engaged in helping others in need.” Lines of Inquiry:

identifying people in need

the motivation to help others

empowering people to help themselves

structure and function of a humanitarian organization

Information for Parents We had wonderful weather and a great time at our primary swim gala. I am sure the kids will sleep well after all that time in the pool! We are down to the last few weeks in the quarter, the time is flying by! Next week is Book Week and we will have a dress as your favorite book character on Monday. I can’t wait to see all the costumes.
Language focus for the week We will be working on planning some performances and presentations this week to teach other classes about digital citizenship. Our class is going to be hosting a digital citizenship week March 7 – 11th because they feel it is such an important topic. They will also be writing emails to teachers to set up a time to speak to their class.
Maths focus for the week We are going to be learning about negative numbers this week. We will brain-storm ways that negative numbers are used in everyday life, explore them on number lines, and then work on adding and subtracting.
Unit of Inquiry The summative assessments are coming along! I am really excited for you to see the final product at the student-led conferences. Some of the games that the kids are coding are quite sophisticated and are coming together nicely. Our time this week will be split between working on the summative assessments and planning our digital citizenship week.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Thursday: Swimming (bring swim kit) Friday: Library (bring library books)

We have had quite the week of events! Since we didn’t have school on Monday we resumed and started our new Beliefs unit of Tuesday. The students were able to think about beliefs and what that means to them. I would like to ask for any parent volunteers to come in to the classroom and discuss beliefs to the students and what that means for you growing up as a child and now to a grown up. Please e-mail me ASAP so that we can set up a time for you to come in to class during our Unit of Inquiry. The students have been using the wonder box in class to further their questioning and understanding of what they would like to learn for this short unit on beliefs.
The primary swim gala was a success and I would like to congratulate all of the students on their hard work and dedication to swimming and showing great sportsmanship! The P6s never cease to amaze me with how respectful and caring they are with showing others kindness.
This Week: Unit of Inquiry: We are going to be researching a belief that the students are interested in and how it affects them as a person and what behaviors they are learning or growing from. We now have many books in our classroom about different beliefs and religions; we will look more into these as we proceed to the end of our unit.
Language Arts: The students have started writing and typing in IT their “rights” as children and what they believe they have the right to do and be. We will be looking at different symbols of religion and guessing/writing what we think.
Maths: We are going to be designing types of patterns with using algebra and how ratios can be used to enlarge and reduce certain types of shapes.
Notices: HAPPY BOOK WEEK! Please be sure to bring a book to read every day and also don’t forget to dress up for our Spirit/Book Character Day on Monday!
Alley Weston (e-mail: )

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