Welcome to IST’s Grade 1 Information Site

Welcome to the International School of Tanganyika’s Grade 1 Team Website. You can come here to get a general idea of what your child is doing in Grade 1 at IST. Please note that the teachers do differentiate the work in order to challenge each child individually so your child may not be working specifically on what is posted here.

End of Year Photos!!!

IST Elementary Campus
End of Year Photos!!!

Dear Parents,

Many of our classroom teachers have collected a number of photos for students to remember their 2011-2012 school year at IST. These pictures are now available for you to download.

These files can be only be downloaded from our IST Network.

The Photo File Link:
students.istafrica.com

The IST Elementary Open Lab will be accessible first period (7.15-8.00am) next week (28 May – 1 June), Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday AND the following week (4 June – 8 June) Monday, Thursday and Friday. One of the ICT staff will be available during these times to assist you if needed. Please bring an external device with you (USB hard drive or USB flash drive with at least 1Gb of space available).

Some teachers have made alternative plans for end of year photos. Directions from these teachers will be forthcoming.

Poems!

View this document on Scribd

World Languages Week!

Next week (14th to 18th May 2012) is World Languages Week at IST! We have lots of fun activities planned during the week to celebrate the rich diversity of languages and cultures in our community.

For more information about World Languages Week go to the IST Elementary Languages Blog.

Robert Munsch

The Grade 1 classes have been exploring the work of various authors this year. A firm favourite is Robert Munsch, and the children in Ms Ashleigh’s and Ms Sam’s classes took the opportunity to showcase his work in their recent Grade 1 assembly. We read several of his books and began to notice some features of his stories:

• Robert Munsch has weird and creative ideas for stories
• each story usually has a part that repeats several times
• sometimes the writing looks different on the page – especially for the repeating parts
• there is often a surprise ending
• His stories make us laugh

We also learned about the man behind the books:

• Robert Munsch lives in Canada
• When he was at school he couldn’t spell
• His brother used to bully him
• He still acts like he is 6 years old!

We wrote letters to him, and are eagerly awaiting a reply! Find out more about this amazing author at www.robertmunsch.com 

We chose the books “Mortimer!” and “More Pies!” to bring to life for our assembly.

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Grade 5 PYP Final Exhibition News

The Final Exhibition projects are in full swing and there is a general buzz of excitement in the air as students plan each of the components that comprise their exhibition projects. Some of the groups are aiming to raise money in order to fund various causes related to their projects. In previous years, students have sold these items at the exhibition. In order to maintain a spirit of raising awareness rather than raising money, students will not sell anything during the Final Exhibition on May 10th and 11th.

Instead, students will have an opportunity to raise money for their causes during first break on Friday 4th May and Monday 7th May. Some students will have a bake sale, but other items related to their inquiries may also be for sale. Since students are still in the planning stages, the details remain a mystery! Grade 5 students are not obligated to participate. In fact, some students are focusing more on personal action. If you are interested in supporting the Grade 5 causes, please bring money to school on Friday May 4th and Monday May 7th.

To learn more about this year’s Grade 5 PYP Final Exhibition Projects go to the IST Grade 5 Blog.

Parent Workshop: Anger Management

Helping Children Manage Anger
May 14th, 7:15-8:30, Elementary Staff Room, Counseling Team presentation and discussion.

For more information, go to the Counseling Blog or see this week’s EE.

Counseling Parent Workshop: Moving

A workshop for families moving away from Dar es Salaam and IST.

Monday, April 23rd
7:15 in the Elementary Staff Room

Go to the IST Elementary Counseling Blog for more information.

May Musical Mornings

Please join us as the students share their creativity and enthusiasm.  The programs will run approximately 45 minutes each morning. This is a wonderful way to celebrate a musical school year at IST.

IST’s New Website Introduction

WWW.ISTAFRICA.COM and Optimizing Access to Information
IST’s website has a new look and some new functionality to help ease access to information about the school and events.

Do you want to know more?

Please join us on Tuesday, 10 April at 7:20am in the ICT Teaching Lab to learn more about:
– subscribing to news and calendar alerts
– logging into the Parent Portal to update your contacts and health information about your child

Hope to see you there!

Debra Backlund, Business Communications Manager and
Mikey McKillip, Elementary Campus ICT Coordinator
International School of Tanganyika

Process or Product?

Students in Grade 1 have been inquiring into how humans build shelters that reflect their location and background. As part of this unit, they discovered that the materials used to build houses in different parts of the world are chosen for many different reasons, including availability, climate, and strength.

Each student selected a house to research in more detail before having a go at constructing their own model of such a house. This was a very challenging task, and the focus was to explore the PYP attitudes of creativity and commitment.  We discussed whether it would matter most if the final house collapsed, or if we kept trying when faced with a challenge and tried out different ideas.

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Students kept a reflection journal about what they achieved during each building session, how they felt about it, and what they needed to do next. While many were proud of their final models, most have shown pride in their attitude during this project.

Some quotes from reflection journals:

“I built a bush house today, it was very fun and I didn’t give up.”

” I made my house with clay and sticks. I felt frustrated but I relaxed and then I felt happy.”

” I felt angry because of my roof and my walls: they were not straight, they were falling down.”

“I felt like I was a really good builder – I had a good experience.”

“I felt nervous.”

“I felt tired and my hand was aching a lot!”

“I felt proud because I built a neat house. I also felt nervous because I thought I would not make a good house.”

“Worried because it might fall down or I might run out of mud.”