2010 ISM Swim Gala

The end of term one ended Friday with a whole-school swimming event. Students ages 4-15 participated in individual and group swimming events. All ISM students are placed into a 'house' which is either blue, yellow, or green. Throughout their time at ISM students participate in whole school events within these houses. Students in Secondary take responsibility for ensuring all students

are looked after and are having fun. 

A brilliant way to establish a sense of community and learn values of sportsmanship, end of term culminating activities like this event, stir great excitement!

P 1/2 Students from the Blue House cheering

Patiently waiting for their chance to swim

EC preparing for their Swim Gala debut

P1/2 Kickboard Swim!

Noodle Swim!

Interactive websites to support student learning

Dear P1 Parents,

Please find below a list of activities and ideas to support your child’s learning over the mid-year holiday.

Literacy:

-Read independently at least 10 minutes a day.

-Do a shared reading with a parent or sibling whenever possible

PBS

 http://pbskids.org/games/index.html

http://pbskids.org/superwhy/#game/alphapigbingo

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/words/dgi.shtml

Kindersite: (reading activities)

http://www.kindersite.org/Directory/DirectoryFrame.htm

Star Fall
             http://www.starfall.com/

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-c/fiction-nonfiction/load.htm?f

http://www.starfall.com/n/level-c/index/load.htm?f

BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/menu.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/story/sbi.shtml (Storybear)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/magickey/ (Kipper and his friends)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/literacy/ (River Rhyming, Wild West Phonics)

Math: 

-Have your child teach you to play Compare or “Make 10” using our compare cards

-Have your child teach you to play “How many are hiding?”

IXL    

 http://www.ixl.com/math/grade/kindergarten/

Johnnie’s Math Page

            http://jmathpage.com/JIMSNumbercounting.html (Number knowledge)

            http://jmathpage.com/JIMSNumberaddsubtract.html (Addition and Subtraction)

Primary Games

 http://www.primarygames.com/math.htm

PBS

http://pbskids.org/games/index.html

http://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/games/bring_it/bring_it.html

Count Your Chickens http://pbskids.org/curiousgeorge/games/count_your_chickens/index.html)

            Count Hoot http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/laac/numbers/ch1.shtml

Fun Brain

 http://www.funbrain.com/brain/MathBrain/MathBrain.html

BBC

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks1bitesize/numeracy/

(Addition and subtraction, Number sentences)

Princess Math

http://www.primarygames.com/math/princessmath/start.htm

Dates to Note:

★ WEDNESDAY 8TH DECEMBER
Primary School Reports and student
Portfolios will be sent home.

★ THURSDAY 9TH DECEMBER
School Closed- Tanzanian Independence Day

★ FRIDAY 10TH DECEMBER
The final Share Time for this Quarter will be hosted by EC, P1 and P1/2 students.

★ TUESDAY 14TH DECEMBER
Parent, Teacher, Student Conferences EC to P6.
No classes held.

★ 17TH DECEMBER
A whole school event, centered around our swimming program.
Further details will follow.
Noon dismissal.

Bird of the Week (29/11-03/12)

Bird of the Week:
Wire Tailed Swallow


The top of the bird’s head is red and it has two thin
extensions on its tail that look like little wires.
Usually found in pairs that mate for life, this swallow
builds its nest on the side of buildings. It catches its food
whilst flying and likes grassy areas and woodlands
common and is found all over sub-saharan Africa
and Asia. They’re easy to spot around campus... just
look up!

A Class of Ornithologists...

We had no idea "Bird of the Week"

would be such a hit!

By Tuesday morning students in P1 had taken it upon themselves to create a chart, set up a recording area and quickly began recording how many of birds they saw... 

From quiet bird walks to and from lunch
and a special Hoopoe hunt

we were incredibly excited about all

the birds we saw and can hardly

wait to know which birds will be the next  

BIRDS OF THE WEEK

This weeks Birds of The Week:

cubes, cuboids and pyramids!

Our P 5/6 buddies came to visit us during Math this week.

As we built cubes, cuboids and pyramids our buddies helped us count and record the number of faces, corners, and edges.

SWIMMING UPDATE!

Beginning Tuesday, 23^rd November P1C students will be swimming twice a week! We will have Swimming lessons on Tuesdays (9:20-10) and on Wednesdays (1:10-1:50) until the end of term.

Please send your child dressed in their PE kit in addition to having their swimming gear (suit/costume, towel and sun cream) on both Tuesdays and Wednesdays.  If the weather does not permit us to swim, we will use lesson time to continue developing ball handling skills.  

parent letter 11/19

19 November, 2010

Dear P1 Parents,

We’ve had a busy few weeks in P1!

Two weeks ago we began a new Unit of Inquiry titled “A Great Place to Live”. We have been inquiring into how people make homes in different places and in different ways. We have been reflecting on what a home is, why people need homes and why homes are different (specifically talking about environment and availability of materials). Our class trip to Olasiti this week left us with not only incredibly muddy feet and grateful to parent volunteers (thank you Lisa, Vasudha and Ilan!) but, with a greater understanding of differences in houses here in Tanzania.

Shape, number facts to 5 and 10 and patterning continue to be our focus in Maths. In Literacy we continue looking at the reasons people write and read. We began talking about elements of stories (plot, characters) and have read a number of non-fiction and fiction text related to homes. Our writing focus has been putting space between our words, using capital and lower case letters properly, and including “what” and “who” in our Weekend News recounts. Our high frequency words of the past few weeks have been: I, a, the, you, and; and we’ll look at: or, in, as next week.

If you are interested in seeing photos from our field trip or our visit with our  P 5/6 buddies, I have posted pictures here:  http://chekechea1k.blogspot.com/

Have a lovely weekend,

Chelsea

P1/2 Field Trip to Olasiti

Imagine…
12 hours of rain
32 Kindergarten and First grade students
5 Land Rovers
3 extraordinary parent helpers (and drivers and tire changers)
2 ISM drivers (well versed in navigating Tanzanian roads) 
2 brilliant Teaching Assistants
and 2 teachers with big boots and great expectations 

Imagine…
A winding road
deep mud-ruts
and a punctured tire
We did see houses, just not quite in the order we anticipated
and perhaps,the connections between classroom discussions
and this field trip were
a bit more murky than anticipated.
But, with mud-covered socks and shoes and ankles
We grew as thinkers and puddle jumpers.
And returned to school
to draw and think and share
comparisons between the houses
we saw during our muddy trip
and the homes we would return to
at the end of the day
to bathe and eat and sleep...

Imagine. 

New Unit of Inquiry: A Great Place to Live

Writing Prompts:

"A great place to live..."

"A great place to live...in a house on the horizon."
We had just been talking about horizon lines...

"This is Israel. I live in a rocket. There this is...pool, toilet, kitchen. We're going up to Israel."

"A great place to live...in Arusha. I moved out of this house and into the yellow house."




"England, just a normal house with a garden. It is hot there."


"A house is..."

"A house is where you have nice flowers, nice trees, nice sky and rainbow hearts and me and my mum."

"A house is where you can play and do anything you like as long as you don't use balls in it."

"...like you live inside and you open the door and you go outside and play."

"A house is made of glass, wood, metal and cloth."

"A house is for living your live and eating!"



" A house is somewhere you live and that's the place you can sleep and eat and play with your toys and watch television."



"A house is...that you can sleep in and have food and when you go to your room you can have racing cars."

"A house is somewhere you live in and eat in with your family."

"A house is a place where you live, eat, and if you buy something you get it in your house."