Moshi Campus News – 7 Feb 2016

We shall once again be presenting on International School Moshi to prospective families in Dar es Salaam at 10am next Saturday, 13th February. If you know of any families who might consider enrolling their child in ISM next school year, please forward this invitation to them to join usn at the Sea Cliff Hotel. If anyone would prefer an individual appointment with Keiron White, Head of Moshi Campus, Phil Bowen, Head of Arusha Campus, or Rosemary Bango, Head of Boarding, please let me know on and we can try to arrange this.

During this week and next 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.

PLEASE READ THIS SECTION! The regional immigration authorities have required that all non-Tanzanian students enrolled in ISM MUST have their own Student Residence Permit class C. It is not sufficient for students to be only included as dependants on their parents’ permits.

If you already have your child’s own student permit, please scan and email it to me immediately on (if you have not already done so).

If you have applied for your child’s permit and it has not yet been issued, please scan and email me the receipt of application that was given when it was submitted. We already have this document for any applications submitted through ISM.

If you have not yet applied for your child’s permit and you are resident in Tanzania, please do so. Rosie Premsingh can advise and assist with required documentation.

If you have not yet applied for your child’s permit and you are not resident in Tanzania, please contact Rosie Premsingh , so that she can help to prepare the application.
Any fines or sanctions imposed by the immigration authorities resulting from students not having permits, will need to be passed on to parents.

I apologise if these photos make this newsletter harder to download, but they do give a flavour of the weekend:
Our own students excelled by winning both the Under-9 and the U12 swimming tournaments, and also both the boys’ U9 and boys’ U12 football competitions.  

 

On this Tuesday, 9th February, our secondary school will be competing in the inter-house swimming gala. All secondary students will be expected to participate either as a swimmer, assistant or spectator. There will be no regular classes or Guidance Hour for secondary students this coming Tuesday as all will be at the swimming pool.

Our M5 students presented their Personal Projects in Karibu Hall last week:    
   

A number of activities have been planned for this weekend, with the major highlight being the Primary sports weekend. About 300 visiting students will stay in the school from Friday 5th to Sunday 7th February. These are from IST, MIS, SCIS, Kennedy House, ISMAC and DIA.
Monday the 22nd of February will be an ISM holiday, and there will be no classes on that day. A boarding trip has been planned for that weekend. The boarders will leave for Pangani on the morning of Saturday 20th, and return on Monday 22nd. The trip is compulsory for Primary boarders, and M1 to M3 students. M4 to D2 boarders are free to join the trip. Boarding will meet all expenses for the trip. We appreciate that some parents may want their children to travel home that weekend. If this is the case, then please let us know the arrangements in good time. Please note that all regular classes will take place on Friday, 19th February and students may not leave school before 12:35 that day. Rosemary Bango, Head of Boarding

Coach Charles has announced that he is now able to offer a reduced price for Saturday group tennis coaching. Cost will now be Tsh 10,000 per person. Lessons should be paid in advance in blocks of four, so the price for 4 weeks will be Tsh 40,000. Please register at the school office or directly with Charles.

The M2 class is working on an MYP unit about collaboration and environments. We have been looking at the public sculptures by artist Claes Oldenburg, who is also known for his involvement in the Pop Art movement. Claes Oldenburg is an American sculptor, best known for his public art installations typically featuring very large replicas of everyday objects. Another theme in his work is soft sculpture versions of everyday objects.
The students have enjoyed researching his work and are now creating their own large replicas of their shoes as their subject and everyday object. They are learning about cardboard sculpting techniques, which requires understanding how a variety of adhesives work and demands that students collaborate to help each other. M2 students are still working on their sculptures and they will be displayed when they have completed them.

On Tuesday, 9th February, the Intermediate Swimming will be cancelled due to the Secondary Swim Gala. Instead we will run a Board Games club or students can remain at home.

Well done to ISM Brownies for their ‘Big give’ as part of a world-wide Brownie initiative to give service to others. On Wednesday afternoon just over a week ago they held a party for 36 children from the Daycare Centre. This event was carefully planned by the Brownies themselves from the food to the games and crafts. It took many months to plan and we are very proud of their achievement.
The daycare children had a wonderful time with their favourite game being ‘musical chairs’! They left happily with a party bag full of goodies! Many thanks to the Brownie parents and anyone who helped by donating food and presents or by lending a hand on the day!
Ms Annalee, Ms Alley, Felicity Aris  

This presentation by Jane Goodall will be given on Saturday, 13th February at 4pm at ISM Arusha Campus. The entry fee is TSh 20,000/- and drinks and snacks will be available for sale. All procees from entry fees and profits from sales will go to conservation projects in Tanzania. All are welcome, but please do not bring unsupervised children.
This event is presented by The Jane Goodall Institute and TZCRC Interpretive Guides Society.

All parents are invited to a meeting with members of the school and campus leadership to discuss current affairs within the school. The meeting will take place at 6:30pm on Thursday, 25th February. The issues discussed at this meeting will be generated from your questions. We think the productivity of the meeting will be maximised if questions/issues are sent to the Head of Campus beforehand. To that end, if you have a question that you would like answered, please send the question or subject to before 17th February, and we will prepare the necessary information and material to adequately address the issue. If we receive too many different questions for discussion, we will select the most frequently requested topics and discuss others at a subsequent meeting.

With three months until the May IB exams, D2 students have demonstrated a higher level of focus and interest in their academic work – this is a great sign. Brain psychology informs us that studying in intensive small chunks is more effective. D2 students would be wise to commence gradual efforts to review their subject content from the six exam subjects that have been studied.

Exercise remains a critical piece in DP students’ lives – particularly as we approach exam time. It would be ideal if you remind your son or daughter about this.
D1 students are starting the process of meeting with Extended Essay supervisors following their recent discussion with the DP Coordinator on the 9-month EE production process. At this point D1s are determining the topic and subject for their EE. Listening to the topics under consideration, one is impressed with the intellectual vitality of this group. Given that there are 45-full diploma D1 students, the ISM Moshi team will all chip in and ensure that each student gets the expertise, advice, guidance and support to do as best he/she can on their EE. Parents would do a great service by encouraging D1s to not procrastinate on the EE but rather to start now with interviews, research and notetaking. ISM’s DP EE guidance provides considerable attention to academic honesty and proper referencing. Imminently ISM’s librarian will speak to all D1s about academic referencing, academic honesty and the issue of plagiarism which continues to be an issue at ISM.
The regular ISM DP ‘Pastoral’ meeting this week focused on concerns that the faculty have about a dozen students who are facing challenges for one reason or another. The DPC or the mentor for that student will imminently meet with them to discuss this matter and strategies to overcome the hurdles.
D2 mock exam grades were completed and DP teachers provided an analysis of the results in lessons this week.
The 23 members of our D2 graduating class D2 students held their first planning meeting regarding the events of the ISM DP graduation on Friday May 20th and Saturday May 21st. D2 parents should reserve these dates so you can join in the wonderful celebration! More details to follow in this space in the coming months.
Nearly all of ISM’s DP students proceed to higher education and a considerable number of these must take standardized exams such as the SATs, ACTs or TOEFL exams. This “most e-mailed article” in today’s NY Times provides an interesting take on ‘Why Can Some Kids Handle Pressure While Others Fall Apart?’ – particularly relevant as we move towards the May 2016 exams. Go to www.nytimes.com/2013/02/10/magazine/why-can-some-kids-handle-pressure-while-others-fall-apart.html.
“Why the IB is different” is an informative page on the IB website that I recommend – www.ibo.org/benefits/why-the-ib-is-different/.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns about your child’s DP study program. Rick Fitzpatrick, DP Coordinator

Unit of inquiry In your child’s folder is a letter about our field trip on Thursday to Janieck’s House in Machame. The children will be able to see a variety of living things which will help us find out more about life cycles of plants and animals. The children will record what they find out and have a chance to reflect on the trip the next day.
Our beans have started to grow and the children are recording what is happening in their bean diaries. We decided to leave the sunflower seeds until this week so planting will take place on Monday. Through the story of the Hungry Caterpillar the children have learnt about the life cycle of a butterfly and so we will continue to find out more about the stages of this life cycle.
Literacy The children are doing an excellent job of retelling the story of the Hungry Caterpillar in their own story books, but this of course takes time and will be ongoing for this week too! We will make a non-fiction class book about the life cycle of a butterfly. Younger EC1s will focus on the letter sounds d and h. Older EC2s will review the letter sounds b, e, f and g. EC2s will concentrate on the long vowel sounds made by Mr A and Mr E
We will continue to read fiction and non-fiction books about life cycles and living things.
Numeracy We will be using ordinal numbers (1st, 2nd, 3rd)to order pictures for the different stages of a butterfly/bean/sunflower life cycle. Measurement naturally comes into our discussions about life cycles as we talk about things getting taller as they grow. We will measure the beans with cubes and record the information in our diaries. We will also work on weight this week as this is also a factor to think about as living things grow and change. Number work will focus on addition stories, but counting and number recognition are a part of everyday activities through puzzles, games and songs.

Information for Parents Thanks so much to Mama Kairi who came in this week to teach the class about a special Japanese day called Setsubun. The children got to wear a mask, and as far as I can tell, the highlight was throwing roasted soy beans at the teacher. We appreciate her coming to share, and as always all parents are encouraged to come share special things from your culture. Please just let me know what you’d like to do, and we will set it up.
This week we have special homework. Your child should make a valentine for each other child in the class. Then we can bring them to class on Friday and hand them out. Please look in your child’s folder on Monday for instructions and some supplies. Thanks for your help with this project.
Please remember we have two field trips this week. For Monday’s trip, you just need to remember that we will be back at 2:00pm and you don’t need to send a lunch since you have already paid for a lunch at AMEG. For Wednesday’s trip, please send a snack, lunch, water bottle, and hat. We will again be back at school at 2:00pm that day.
Language focus for the week This week both groups of children will focus on writing. We will write stories, and we will focus on sequencing. We will also continue to read in our groups every day.
Maths focus for the week We will celebrate the 100th day of school on Thursday. I am looking for a few parents to make some popcorn for us. Each child will get to eat 100 pieces of popcorn. If you are able to send some in, please contact me. Thank you.
Since we are having the 100th day of school, our Maths focus will be hundreds. The Group 1 children will work with the number 100, and the Group 2 children will work with numbers to 200.
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

This week we welcomed a new student, Aman, to our class. He has settled in nicely and the students have made him feel really welcome.
Together we explored the campus looking for different types of transport. The children worked in pairs to produce tally charts and then used that information to create bar graphs back in class.
We also brainstormed the advantages and disadvantages of different types of transport. The students considered how useful each type of transport is; if they could carry heavy loads, if they are fast, whether or not they cause pollution, whether they help to keep us fit etc. They each presented the information to the rest of the class.
The students enjoyed going to Karibu Hall to see the M5 Personal Projects. The children asked great questions about these varied and creative projects. Next week we are looking forward to M5 student Alex coming to class to tell us about his drone and what he uses it for.
New Unit: Transdisciplinary Theme: How we organise ourselves Central Idea: Transportation systems are directly related to the needs of a community. This week we are going to prepare for our assembly, which is taking place on Monday 15th February.
Mathematics Focus: We will to construct bar graphs using unit related data collected from home and school.
English Focus: words ending with -gue and -que, e.g. league, tongue, antique and unique.
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

P4 Camp News The students enjoyed their camp at Marangu Hotel. We had a chance to hike through coffee and banana plantations and went past the river connecting to Ndoro falls. We saw how living things depend on each other for survival within ecosystems and also saw how domestic farm animals were kept. We all learned about the food chain of monarch butterflies and how they protect themselves from predators, particularly birds. Among the highlights were swimming, the campfire and playing with their counterparts from Arusha campus.
Unit of Inquiry The students will work on map study. They will learn to read maps showing different biomes found and we will try and identify the different biome types within Tanzania and around the world.
Math We will look at data handling related to the unit of inquiry and try and find out how we can graph the data on coverage of different biomes on the map we will be studying. Students will also work on word problems related to time.
Language Arts We will continue with informative writing as students continue to use the writing process to improve their skills. They will also get a chance to spell words with ‘wr’ and ‘kn as well as other vocabulary related to our unit.
Art We have started our rock pet creation and students will complete them this week.

Information for Parents We had a great time finding out more about digital media this week. A big thank you to Thomas Veillon who came in on Friday to talk with the class about computer programming. Next week’s homework will be a bit different. Children will be making valentine cards for their classmates. We will have a small class party on Friday morning to pass out our cards and play a few games. Please let me know if you would like to send in juice or a snack for the children to eat.
Language focus for the week We will be reviewing fact and opinion this week. We will tie it into our unit by talking about the fact that not everything that you read on the internet is true. We will also learn how to write an opinion paragraph to best persuade others.
Maths focus for the week We have moved into our study of decimals. Many children are learning about the place value of numbers after the decimal point, while others are working on adding decimals. We will also go on a hunt in magazines and newspapers to find ex-amples of ways that decimals are used in real life situations.
Unit of Inquiry This week we will be focusing on digital citizenship. We will talk about online presence and brainstorm ways to stay safe when using the internet. We will also talk about what to do when you access information that is unwanted or inappropriate. Students will be making a list of advice for children or teenagers using digital media and we will brainstorm how we might be able to share this advice with others.
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)

I found this past week to be very hard working and knowledgeable for the students. We have made a lot of progress with our Brochure projects and began to deeply understand fractions in maths. We have said farewell to Alex Dubowitz and the class made him a nice card with a lot of love put into words. I am proud of P6 for their thoughtful contributions towards making Alex feel at home while being here at ISM. We visited the Personal Project fair this past week and got a taste of what is to come for their Exhibition projects. The students collaborated and thought of how weather can affect humans and what it does specifically to the environment.
This Week: Unit of Inquiry We will be preparing for our Summative Assessments and exploring more ideas on how to start and finish these experiments.
English Language Focus We will keep working towards finishing our brochures this week and then explore poetry with weather.
Maths Wild, Wild, Weather and Fractions is going to be our focus this week. We will continue to brainstorm different strategies about maths and fractions with using weather.
Notices I’m looking for a person to come in a speak to the students about the weather, whether they work in the airport or have experienced any type of weather storm. Feel free to e-mail me at .

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