Moshi Campus News – 14 May 2016

The Parent Association committee will be meeting in Bob Horton’s office this Monday morning, 16th May. If you would like to discuss any issues with them, please do come from 7:30am to 8am.

The P6 Pollution Group have been inquiring into the causes and effects of air pollution as part of their Exhibition unit. They would like to make the following announcement.
On Thursday, 19th May, we want to encourage everyone to try to get to school in the morning in a more environmentally friendly way. Please try to either share a car with someone else, ride a bike or walk. We will survey the traffic coming into school that morning.

Daryl Rustad, the University and College Counsellor, will be on campus this week from Thursday to Saturday, and diploma students have been asked to make appointments as necessary.

D1 Exams: The D1 students will be starting their formal school written exams on Monday, 23rd May.

D1 TOEFL: Many D1 students will be taking the Test of English as a Foreign Language on Saturday, 28th May. A small number of places are still available for late registrants – please contact Keiron White for late registration.

M5 Work Experience: Our M5 students will be out of classes from 23rd to 27th May, whilst they undertake work experience in a business or profession that they have selected.

We are hoping to organise a careers workshop on Thursday,2 June for our M5 and D1 students: The objective behind this workshop is to give our students an opportunity to hear from guest speakers about their career journey. Our students aren’t all aware of the many opportunities and types of jobs available to them in the future and it would be helpful for them to hear how the speakers progressed through their own career paths, including studying at university, applying for jobs, changing jobs etc. If you would be willing to give up some time between 7.35-10.00 on Thursday, 2 June we would be delighted to welcome you to join the panel. We are hoping for a wide range of careers. Please email: if you would be willing to talk to our students and answer their questions.

Graduation Dinner: Additional tickets are on sale at Reception for D2 family members who wish to attend the 6:30pm Fri May 20th graduation dinner. Deadline for purchase – Monday May 16th.

Graduation: An ISM photographer will take photos of all graduates during the May 21st graduation ceremony and these photos will be available. ISM requests that all family-hired videographers/photographers maintain a respectful and unobtrusive approach during the ceremony.

Karibu Hall Decoration: D2 parents/family are needed to help with the annual Karibu Hall Graduation decorating work on Thursday afternoon and as from 8am ’til noon on Friday May 20th. Please participate in this great tradition and enjoyable D2 family/community event

D2 students must complete a ‘Leavers’ Form’ after returning all ISM books. Please remind your son/daughter in the DP to do so.

The second of the three-week IB official May exam period is now completed.

DP parents are encouraged to use ManageBac as all now have access to this.

D1 students this week did wonderful short personal speeches in their Life Skills class this week with a primary class audience (see photos).

Key dates:

Thursday May 19th – Karibu Hall Decorating (afternoon)

Friday May 20th – D2 exams end/ Karibu Hall Decorating (morning) for all D2 family / Grad Dinner at AMEG Lodge in Moshi (PLEASE bring a ticket to this event – family guests will be charged Tsh 30,000 if without a yellow ticket)

Saturday May 21st – Graduation (2:00 arrival for 2:30pm) followed by a reception with music/snacks/Graduation Cake in the Director’s Garden

Monday, May 23rd through Tuesday, May 31st – End of D1 Year Exams

Saturday, May 28th – TOEFL tests for D1

Sunday, June 5 – Thursday, June 9: D1 ESS trip to Pangani

Tuesday, June 7 – Thursday, June 9: D1 Physics/Chemistry/Biology Field Study

Saturday, June 11th – ACT tests for D1

Monday June 13th – Wed June 15th – Theory of Knowledge/Extended Essay Days for D1 students

Thursday June 16th – Final D1 reports published

Friday June 17th Last day of school, whole school assembly & Parent-Teacher conferences

Tuesday August 9th – First day of school for the 2016-2017 Academic Year
Rick Fitzpatrick, DP Coordinator

Although the school organises celebrations for the D2 graduation, the students have usually additionally opted to arrange their own private parties off-campus. These are likely to be on 21st May after the official ceremony. These student-organised parties are not school events and we cannot, as a school, take responsibility for them. Invariably, there is alcohol available at these parties and minimal, if any, adult supervision. We are concerned about the inevitable, and potentially serious risks that arise from these situations, particularly for many of the younger students who frequently receive invitations to attend and we have endeavoured to deal with such issues from an educational point of view in our Life Skills lessons. We also need to be especially confident that parents are aware of the nature of these events, and are happy with their own children’s involvement. We would therefore offer the following requests and guidelines.
For parents of boarders: Boarders staying in school that weekend will NOT be allowed to attend any unsupervised parties. If boarders do want to attend, they can only do so if their parents agree and they have been taken out of the school’s care by staying with another family for the weekend. Even if you have already indicated on the Parental Consent form that your child may sign out to friends at weekends, we would like to further confirm that it is acceptable on this particular weekend. If you have children intending to sign out for this weekend, could you please contact us with that confirmation? You may contact either the boarding parent or Mrs Bango on by whatever means is most convenient (telephone, letter, or email).
Boarders will be expected to remain in school for the weekend if we have not heard from you before MONDAY, MAY 16th.
We would also suggest on this occasion, that you contact the host family directly to discuss what you feel would be appropriate arrangements, curfew etc for your children on the evening of the party.
For parents offering to host boarders: Boarders signing out on these weekends will need to sign out for the whole weekend from the Friday afternoon until midday on the Sunday, although they may of course attend the Graduation Ceremony if invited. We would suggest that before you take on the responsibility for the guest students over this period, you are confident of their own parent’s expectations in terms of curfew, supervision etc.
We do not in any way wish to curtail the students’ opportunity for well-deserved celebration on these occasions, but we are concerned for their safety and their parents’ full consent and understanding.

It is another busy time of the year for the boarders. D2 boarders have been writing final exams the whole week. Some have finished and are preparing for graduation next week. Please read separate piece above about signing out on graduation weekend.
M5 boarders are also doing their e-assessments, and are looking forward to work experience from 23rd May.
This weekend, various weekend activities have been planned or have taken place in boarding. We had the usual Moshi town trip on Friday afternoon, a trip to the movies in Arusha on Saturday afternoon, indoor football and bicycle riding among others.
We remind parents that school closes on Friday 17th June, and that they need to make transport arrangements early. The end of term plans can be shared with boarding parents or Head of Boarding on email

At the end of this semester in June, all our students’ reports (both primary and secondary) will be published on ManageBac for you to view or download in pdf format from there. We will not be issuing reports on paper this semester, except by special request. All parents should have received their login details for how to access ManageBac. If you have not received these or are having any difficulties with access, please contact Grace on .
I would encourage you to log in and become familiar with the site, so that you have no difficulties later when reports are issued.

  We held a successful MYP drama showcasing yesterday evening where the M3-M5 drama students displayed great talent in performing arts. Our M3s displayed skills in staging stage fighting techniques in both armed and unarmed combat. The M4 and M5 drama students had a chance to perform to an audience, some for the first time. The audience was treated to a variety of drama techniques ranging from duologues to small group ensembles. It was interesting to see the progress the students have made in personal and social skills in drama classes showing confidence, collaboration and creative engagement on stage.
We take the opportunity to thank all parents and guardians who turned up yesterday to support the students. We still have the M1s and M2s who will be performing in the Art assembly on 23rd May. The M1 students are working on a musical rendition of the Greek myth, Pandora’s Box, while the M2s are doing two ensembles on magic in drama. I hope to see you on this day. George Juma

These photos are from last weekend’s rugby tournament in Moshi.

ISM Brownies busy taking badges!
Our ISM Brownies work hard all year round towards a range of individual badges that then take pride of place on their sash. Here are Paulyne and Anita offering a wonderful breakfast to a few selected guests as part of their cooking badge. All badges have a list of tasks that contribute to the wide range of useful Girl Scout skills. Their final task will be to bake some tasty muffins! Hopefully on sale at the Brownie Garage sale on June 4.
See attached notice for details of the Brownie Garage Sale on June 4th.

As the temperature is dropping the pool is less appealing to our younger swimmers, therefore EC-P3 class teachers are no longer running swimming lessons during PE time. P4-6 however will continue as they tend to swim faster and stay warmer. If on any particular day the weather is particularly chilly then the teacher may decide to opt for PE instead of swimming.
Primary Clubs, i.e. tadpole swimming, intermediate swim training and Swim Squad will continue; however it is the parents’ decision if they wish their child to swim. Please ensure you communicate with the class teacher if you feel it is too cold for your child to swim, either permanently or on a particular day.

A reminder that all primary clubs will end on Thursday 9 June.

Dear Parents and Athletes,
Two weekends ago, several members of the swim team traveled to Mwanza to compete in the ISAMILO Invitational, on Saturday and Sunday. This was the largest group of combined swimmers traveling to an away meet since I have been at ISM, with many parents also along to assist with the numerous tasks required at an away meet.
Every swimmer who competed achieved a personal best time in the pool, the term used to describe a fastest ever swim. After the morning session on Saturday, we had 47 personal best times out of 62 swim, an incredible number considering the number of athletes representing ISM. This is a reflection of many things coming together: parent support, coaching preparation, athlete commitment, and certainly the efforts of ISAMILO school to host a wonderful competition. Each of these groups and our athletes deserve praise for the year-round work they have put into the program.
It is hard in these newsletter articles to speak to all of the results, but you can peruse all the results at www.uwcea.org/misc/isamilo_swim_2016.pdf. ISM ended up second over all in team points, despite having to miss the 50 Free and relay events in order to catch our early flight back to Moshi. As a combined force, Moshi campus and Arusha campus together would have faired even better. The pool was very much awash with purple and green!
Pool records were in jeopardy each time our swimmers started a race. Pool records are the fastest times ever swum in a particular competition. As you look at the results, look closely at the final time for an ‘R’, which indicates a record has fallen. In some cases, more than one swimmer will have eclipsed the previous meet record, which is an indication of the strength of the field.
The team is working on our final competition to be hosted at Moshi Campus, and have confirmed an afternoon meet on Sunday 29 May 2016 (2-5pm) with a team banquet later in the evening at AMEG Lodge. Please try to keep that date clear, as we will need parent support for timing, officials, and general organisation. This meet will be open to all ISM swimmers, but the swimming banquet will be open only to invited swimming families.
Events include:

• l8-under – 25BA, 25BR, 25BF, 25FR, 50FR
• Open – 25BA, 25BR, 25BF, 25FR, 50FR (for beginner swimmers or those trying an event for the first time)
• Open – 50BA, 50BR, 50FR, 50BF, 100FR, 100IM Relays:
• 8-under – 4x25m Free Relay + 4x25m Medley Relay
• Open – 4x50m Free Relay + 4x50m Medley Relay

Congratulations to all the ISM Primary School participants at the tennis tournament in Arusha last weekend. Everybody gave her/his best and we even won three medals: Fedia, Silver in ‘Boys under 8’, Mary and Swantje, Gold in ‘Girls under 8’ and ‘Girls under 6’, respectively. Apologies for the error in dates in last week’s newsletter
There is another tournament taking place in Arusha this weekend and we wish all ISM players the very best for this.

Head lice remain a challenge in our primary school. Please ensure you take all measures necessary if your child gets head lice. Please don’t leave it and think they will go away, they won’t, they will multiply! Take Action! Although these are unpleasant and itchy, they are not a sign of poor hygiene and do not generally cause disease. Unfortunately they can spread quite easily in a school setting. Advice for how to deal with head lice is given here: www.uwcea.org/wp-content/docs/archive_documents/headlice.pdf. Many thanks to Dr Anna Maze for this advice.

The Teaching Assistants (TAs) ended their week by learning about mindfulness in a workshop led by Ms Cathy (P4 teacher). We looked at its benefits in the classroom and to our general well-being. We were able to reflect on triggers that create challenging behaviors in us and in students alike. We shared some experiences and did a couple of activities both fun and relaxing that could be well adopted in the classroom with children of all ages.

Try them at home with your families as well! www.mindfulteachers.org/p/benefits-of-mindfulness.html www.clayton.edu/Portals/541/wp-content/docs/Five Senses Mindfulness Exercise.pdf

Unit of Inquiry We are looking forward to our trip to the Cultural Heritage Centre on Tuesday. This will be a ‘first experience’ for many of the children and will help them to understand the way artists use a variety of art media in Africa. We will prepare for the trip on Monday by looking at some photos of art pieces that they will see in the gallery. On Wednesday the children will do a reflection on the trip.
Last week we used clay, junk, sand and coloured salt to make art. The children also used bubble wrap on their feet to print with! This was great fun for all!! Next week they will be using chalk, pastels and wool/yarn to make art. The focus is always on the process, not the end result. The children are encouraged to create in their own style. Please appreciate anything that comes home as a true masterpiece. If you are unsure of what the art is please try to remember to say “Tell me about your art” rather than “What is it?”
Literacy It is report writing time again so I will spend some time with each child on reading and writing assessments (EC2) and pre-reading and pre-writing assessments (EC1) and also just spend some time observing them at play. We are in the middle of making a class book based on ‘A colour of his own’ by Leo Lionni.
Numeracy The children will continue to sing number songs and rhymes to help them understand ‘subtraction.’ The older children are doing some problem solving involving this operation. 3D shapes will also be a focus this week. The children will hunt for 3D shapes in the environment. Check out the wonderful 2D shape posters on our classroom wall next week.
   

Information for Parents Wednesday, May 25 will be a very special day in P1/2. All parents are invited to join us for our Author’s Tea at 9:30 in our classroom. The children have been working hard writing, illustrating, and publishing books. Each child will share his or her book at the Author’s Tea; and coffee, tea, juice, and cake will be served. Please plan on taking the time to share in this special event with your child.
Language focus for the week We will focus on improving our writing this week by learning about adjectives. We will practice choosing more interesting words to make our writing even better. We will also continue to read in our groups each day.

Maths focus for the week This week we will focus on number patterns. We will look at increasing, decreasing, and repeating patterns. We will also take our end of the year assessment.
Unit of Inquiry This week we will finish up our focus on visual art, and we will turn to learning about drama. The children will practice acting out different situations, and they will create their own dramas as well.
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. Friday: Wear proper clothes and shoes for P.E.

The students have been working in groups to research information for the books they are creating. They have now completed an action plan whereby each group member has been allocated tasks to carry out, e.g. make the title page, make the contents page, make the back page and write the blurb. The issues they are researching are quite challenging (drought, deforestation and glaciers, global warming and the Rift Valley) but they all very excited to find out more about them.
Another exciting challenge took place this week when the class was invited to go and listen to the Diploma students speak about their passions. Each Diploma student spoke for 2 minutes. I was very proud of the way the P2/3 children listened and then politely commented on what they had heard. It is always interesting for the primary children to learn about where they are heading to in secondary school.
Unit of Inquiry: Transdisciplinary Theme: Sharing the planet
Central Idea: Human survival is connected to understanding the continual changing nature of the earth.
This week we will continue to work in groups to make our information books.

Mathematics Focus: How to read and understand statistics.
English Focus: Sentence structure and paragraphs.
What to bring to school every day: A hat, water bottle, a pair of indoor shoes and a healthy snack.
The Week Ahead: Monday: PE lesson | Homework will be set Tuesday: Library session Thursday: PE lesson Friday: Homework due in Kate Schermbrucker P2/3 Class Teacher and PYP Coordinator

Information for parents It is great to see the students being reflective learners and taking such a keen interest in their unit of inquiry on children’s rights. They are developing the language of persuasion and learning to look at issues through a number of perspectives.
Focus for the week: Language Arts – the students will continue with Persuasive writing and will get to create some short convincing speeches about something that is important to them.
Math – some groups will review the concept of sharing and others will continue with volume.
Unit of Inquiry – the students will be looking at how the rights of children are handled differently in different cultures.
Notices: Swimming – since it getting cooler students who opt not to swim are reminded to dress appropriately for P.E. as those not swimming will have P.E. instead.
P.E. – K-Hall is closed for graduation preparations; therefore PE lessons will take place on the pitch or Tennis courts.  

Information for Parents The children are very excited about our current unit. We haven’t really studied animals much in the past couple of years and they are fascinated by all that they are learning. It is fun to see so much curiosity and enthusiasm in the classroom, especially as we near the end of the school year!

Language focus for the week We will take a closer look at revising writing this week. We will look at a sample essay about animal adaptation and work together to make it more interesting. We will review concepts learned previously, such as having a strong introduction and making our details interesting for the reader.
Maths focus for the week Last week we explored the concept of cubic meters by building one in the classroom and estimating how many objects could fit inside of it. This really helped with their concepts of larger numbers. They were amazed to see that 1,000,000 cm cubes could fit inside! This week we will review area and perimeter and work on word problems. There is a homework assignment that is future planning for an elapsed time study, so please help your child complete it this week so that they are ready to start their timeline projects the following week.
Unit of Inquiry We will do some stations this week to find out more about animal adaptations. Students will also work in groups to read articles about different animal adapta-tions. They will become the class “experts” on that animal and share their findings with the rest of the class.
What to bring to school: A hat for playtime and a healthful snack.
Timetable: Monday: PE (please wear house T-shirt and trainers) Thursday: Swimming (Please bring swim kit) Friday: Library (please return library books)

This week there has been a great variety of activities going on in and around the P6 classroom as the PYP Exhibition continues.

Things I’ve seen going on include: Endangered Animal Group: have been making animal factcards and placing them on a world map. For their musical project, they have started downloading sounds, and they have all been quilling colour papers. Exercise Group: have played games with the students at the ISM Daycare and the Rafiki orphanage in Moshi. They have continued with their interviews and begun some creative 3D art involving papier-mache and 3D shapes. Pollution Group: have been on a walk down to the river in Moshi to collect water samples. They have also done some popart and built a model city. Trash Group: have planned a trip, sorted through rubbish in the classroom bins and made pretty pencil pots out of old tin cans and scrap paper with the P1/2 class.
On Friday we travelled to ISM Arusha to watch the P6 Arusha Campus students give their presentations, which was a worthwhile experience for us all. The Arusha students did an amazing job with the support of their teachers, and they gave our students lots to think about.
Next week we kick off with another assembly on the Monday morning, to which you are all invited. In this, the students will share their lines of inquiry and explain what they have been doing to inquire into each. During the rest of the week we will be finishing off various projects and starting to think about our final presentations. On the Wednesday we have two trips going out; to a recycling centre and Arusha National Park.
Reminders: Final presentation for parents is on Tuesday 31st May at 6pm. Formal Invitations to come out soon. A third display board is now up. Please do visit and leave your comments – they help to encourage the P6 students.

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