Events on Secondary Campus!

Just a heads up that next week there’s a lot going on at the Secondary Campus! 

Tues, Wed. and Thurs, the library is sponsoring a Scholastic Book Fair, from 7:30 – 3 on each of those days. Great books for reasonable prices for all ages.

Then on Thursday, join me at the Spring Carnival, from 4 – 6:30 where there will be games, food and a great raffle. Admission to the Carnival is 1,000, payable at the gate, and each booth activity will require between 1 – 4 booth tickets, which will be 500 shillings each.

The carnival will be followed by Twiga Idol where five student singers compete against each other for the title of the Twiga Idol! Tickets to Twiga Idol will NOT be available at the door and are on sale from me in the Secondary Campus Library for 3,000. All proceeds will be donated to charity.
I hope to see you and your children at one or more of these events! Pass the word! Thanks.

Read to Me

This past weekend, I came across a wonderful reading site called Read To Me. It is a project that was created, in Las Vegas, US to get fun reading into homes with the use of the talented celebrities living and working in the area. There is a large collection of videos that feature celebrities reading books to the audience. I watched the Duck Soup video and it was great! I really encourage everyone in my class to check it out at home. Enjoy!

Read-a-Thon

Last Friday we celebrated World Reading Day with a wonderful day of fun and exciting book and reading related activities. The whole day was packed to the brim with fun and exciting activities, and although I was extremely sick, the day went fairly well thanks to Irene, some parent volunteers and many very excited students.


Here is a photo timeline of our day:

7:20 Mr. Mercer shares Just William videos with us

7:40 Mr. Blair reads Oh The Places You'll Go

8:00-8:45 Read, Read, Read!

Tim's Mom comes in to help with Book Review Groups

9:50- Watching the Sneeches in the Computer Lab

Mr. Mikey sharing a book from his iPad

10:35- Library time with Ms. Stella

11:30- Zoey's Mom helps with Breakfast for Lunch

The kids love, love, love the food!

12:50- Reading buddies visit from kindergarten

Reading Dr. Seuss books with our buddies

We even had some Dr. Seuss books in Spanish!

Tristan does a great job sharing and reading to his partner!

1:15- Mr. Lorenzini closes the day with a read a-loud. Thank you for reading us The Dot!

 

Interhouse T-Ball Competition

Last week was an entire week of fun events. I really wanted to post about Dr. Jane Goodall's visit before anything else, but now that is done, I can focus on other cool activities we participated in. On Tuesday, grade 3 played in another grade-wide interhouse competition.  The teachers and students geared up in their brightly colored shirts and headed out to the T to hit and field the ball for their team. I was really proud of my entire class and although I was wearing yellow to support my team, The Tembos, I was really cheering on everyone!

Nice swing Evan!

Looking ready Ethan!

Way to keep your eye on the ball Elin!

Jane Goodall Visits Grade 3 at IST!

Our grade was lucky enough to get Dr. Jane Goodall to come visit for an hour, while visiting Dar es Salaam and her visit tied in nicely with our current PYP unit about heroes. About a month ago, we studied Dr. Jane during our environmental heroes week before we even knew she was coming to Tanzania for a visit. Once we saw that she would be speaking to the IST community during an evening in February, we sent out a huge wish to have her come. Our team leader, ms. McKillip emailed the woman organizing and asked if she had time to visit with grade 3. It was still not decided until the day before, but as Dr. Jane encourages students, we reached for the stars and it paid off.

The students were very impressed that a true, living, breathing hero was coming to visit. Dr. Jane started by teaching the audience how to greet and say hello in "chimp." The kids got a kick out of it and it was the favorite part of the presentation for many students. Each class composed and asked some terrific questions to ask Dr. Jane and listened to her speak about how to make the world a better place for future generations. Dr. Jane, also gave information about her environmental program called Roots and Shoots. It is a wonderful group that encourages children to make a difference in the world by organizing and participating in community service projects focusing on animals, the environment and people in need. She also shared with us some lovely childhood stories that we will remember forever. You should ask your children about her chicken story. It was really funny! After visiting with her, we now know more reasons why Dr. Jane Goodall is a true HERO!

Once we returned to class, we wrote thank-you letters to Dr. Jane. In the letter, the students shared with her their favorite parts of the presentation, what they learned and how they are going to take her message with them in the future. We compiled a book for her and when I went to see her that evening, my students that were also there, gave it to her. I really think she will love it! Great job 3R!

A huge thanks is necessary for Dr. Jane and her staff as well as Ilana, the secondary school librarian for helping to schedule the visit. Asante sana!

For more information please visit:

• http://www.rootsandshoots.org/
• http://www.janegoodall.org/