World Langauges Week in Review

During World Languages Week, a number of parents took time from their busy day to come visit IST to share books, stories, pictures, songs, games and much more about their home language and culture.

“During World Languages Week at IST, my mom came to visit our class and read the book After Dark written in Urdu (a language of Pakistan) to us. She read the words in Urdu first and then she translated the words into English so everyone could understand the story. It is about two sisters. One sister is scared of the dark and she will not sleep in her bedroom by herself. My classmates and I really liked the book. It was exciting to have my mom come in and read the book to us.” – Yusra

Insiyah and Yusra also read a book written in Urdu to the class. “We read the book Come and Take a Shower aloud to the class. It was a fun book to read to the class. The class seemed to enjoy the book when we asked questions. If students answered our questions correctly, they received a chocolate from us. In the story, the boy was fussy about eating some kinds of food. People enjoyed the part where the boy said, ‘the chicken flew out the window’. The boy did not want to eat the cooked chicken so he threw it out the window. The message from the book was that you should not be fussy about food. You should always eat what parents give you so that you can keep your body healthy.” – Insiyah and Yusra

During World Languages Week IST ES Campus was bustling with activity. Here is a short video of one of the performances during recess.

“My dad came to visit us at IST during World Languages Week. He told us a story about a young warrior named Wule. He sang the song “Ulegmanatende” which comes from Iramba (where my dad and I are from) in Tanzania. I danced while my dad sang and eventually the rest of the Kung Fu Praying Mantids joined in. We all had a lot of fun. At the end, my dad and I taught the class a fun game.” - Bertha

Thank you Mr. Jairo and Ms. Rasool for coming to visit us at IST. We had a super fantastic time learning from you!

The Kung Fu Praying Mantids

Tanzania’s Ethnic Groups – A Visit with IST Graham Mercer

As part of our ongoing investigation of different cultures, Grade 2 invited Mr. Graham Mercer to give a slide presentation on the different ethnic groups of Tanzania.

The Maasai, because of their colourful and interesting culture and the fact that their traditional lands often coincide with major tourist routes, are perhaps, the best-known of Tanzania’s various peoples. Yet they are far from typical, in numbers or in lifestyle. They represent only about 1% of the country’s 120 or so ethnic groups.

The great majority of Tanzanians are Bantu-speaking tribes that moved into what is now Tanzania from the south-west, some hundreds of years ago, whereas the relatively few pastoralists, such as the Maasai and Datoga, came from the north. Bantu tribes include the Sukuma (Tanzania’s largest tribe), the Chagga, the Makonde, the He-He, the Go-Go, the Haya and the Nyamwezi.

Among the other ethnic groups are the Swahili, descendants of Arab settlers from the Gulf who intermarried with African women. Swahili means “coast” and most Swahili still live by the sea, on the mainland and in Zanzibar. They are not a distinct tribe but they have much in common, not least their first language, which of course bears the same name.

Another non-Bantu, non-pastoralist tribe is the Iraqw, who live and farm on the plateau between the Rift Valley and the Crater Highlands. They originated from the Horn of Africa or maybe even the Yemen.

Pastoralists include not only the Maasai but the Datoga (a cluster of clans and former enemies of the Maasai). Until fairly recently the young Datoga men would sometimes prove their manhood by killing a neighbouring tribesman and cutting off his hands or fingers etc as trophies, with which to impress their girl-friends. This habit was of course frowned upon and stopped by the government, though the Datoga “warriors” still kill lions occasionally, as the Maasai do, using only spears.

Like the Maasai they live mainly on milk – cattle are at the very centre of their lifestyle – though their family settlements and huts are very different from those of their former enemies. They live south of Ngorongoro around Mount Hanang.

The real indigenous people of Tanzania are the hunter-gathering Hadzabe, who live, as some Datoga do, along the southern shores of Lake Eyasi, south of Ngorongoro. Small in number, they are one of Tanzania’s most fascinating peoples. Hunting with immensely strong longbows and poisoned arrows, they can kill animals up to and including the size of elephants. They don’t build huts, have no chiefs, and their favourite food is baboon meat, which they say is “sweeter than chicken”. They sleep in the open or even in trees and caves, and have little time for the trappings of civilisation as we see it “We have our bows and arrows and the bush – everything else is taka-taka [rubbish]“. They speak a click language and have a disconcerting habit of changing their names when they feel like it.

Mr. Graham Mercer has been teaching at IST since 1977. He has long been fascinated by Africa’s wildlife and wild places. Born in Lancashire UK, Mr. Mercer first visited East Africa as a sailor in Britain’s Royal Navy. Mr. Mercer spends his leisure time traveling with his wife Anjum through Africa and the Indian subcontinent.

Please feel free to leave comments and questions for Mr. Mercer. He is more than happy to answer questions you may have about Tanzania’s ethnic groups.

A Traditional Maasai Visit

On Tuesday March 23, 2010 a traditional Maasai came to our class. His name was Mr. Mayuwe Samarie. He comes from a village in Arusha called Kiteto.

We got to ask him lots of questions. He didn’t speak English so Mr. Elliot translated for us. We learned that Maasai drink cow’s blood to get energy. Sometimes they mix it with milk.

Did you know… Maasai men can have more than one wife? But Mr. Mayuwe only has one! Mr. Mayuwe has 60 cows but the richest man in the village has over 700 cows!

After our visit in the classroom we joined the other grade 2 classes in the field to watch and learn how to dance and jump like the Maasai. They jumped very high and chanted. We enjoyed jumping and singing with them.

written by:
The G2 Kung Fu Praying Mantids

A note to our Global Friends:
Please feel free to leave comments asking us questions about the Maasai people of Tanzania. We will do our best to answer your questions or find someone to help us find the answer.

Vote For Us – PBS Innovation Award

IST Grade 2 is in the running for the 2010 PBS Innovation in Teaching Award for our Simple Machine – Rube Goldberg Project and our attempts at connecting others to our little corner of the world at IST in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Click here to give us your vote:
http://www.pbs.org/teachers/innovators/gallery/entries/306/

Asante!

Blog Buddies! Inquiry Learning

Blog Buddies – Making Global Connections!

IST Grade 2 has been fortunate enough to make friends with Ms. Teri Gragg and her students at Brigantine Public Elementary School, New Jersey, USA. Ms. Gragg is an Art teacher and Technology enthusiast. She had a wonderful idea to set up a blog for her students to post pictures and ask questions to share information about their school and find out more about other schools around the world. Her students have connected with countries such as Switzerland, Spain, England, New Zealand, Canada and of course Tanzania!

We will continue answering the many questions Brigantine Elementary students have for us living here in Tanzania and we will post a few questions for them as well to find out what it is like to live in New Jersey, USA.

Celebrate World Maths Day!

Congratulations on a new World Record!
1,133,246 students and 56,082 schools from 235 countries have united to set a new world record by correctly answering 479,732,613 questions.

Wow! Students are exhausted after 48 hours of pure Maths driven determination to succeed. After competing in World Maths Day 2010 students received certificates of participation and a feeling of satisfaction that they participated in a very cool world wide event.

IST Grade 2m World Maths Day 2010 results:

After reviewing our result, students reflected upon their experience:

World Maths Day was so much fun! We enjoyed competing against other students from other countries and sometimes we even competed against other students from our own class. We felt that we all learned more Maths and became a little better at solving Maths problems. We enjoyed playing the games both at school and at home. We worked together, we did our very best and even though we did not reach our goal of 20,000 correct answers, we came very close AND we had fun! We can’t wait until next year and until then we are going to continue practicing in order to get better at our Maths.

“World Maths Day was so much fun! We almost reached our goal, we were so close. I tried my best to help my class reach our goal.” – Said

“You can dress yourself up (your avatar) and play with other students from other countries. Our teacher was even playing with other teachers! In the beginning it sounded kind of boring but it was so so fun!” – Aliyah

“I want to do World Maths Day again because people can learn more and get better at Maths. I think the whole world should do World Maths Day!” – Koby

“World Maths Day was by far the best Maths I have done in my life! I am going to keep playing and practicing. I am so glad that we got to play and learn at school and at home. I can’t wait until next year!” – Talin

Thank you World Maths Day – for helping us learn!

Current Events

Find out what Current Events are happening this week from IST Grade 2…

What is a Current Event? A Current Event is something that is happening somewhere in the world NOW! Current Events are news stories that include a title, author, and date of publication. Grade 2 students are doing more than just looking up information, they are asking, “What is happening in our world TODAY?”

Each week two students choose an article to present from newspapers, magazines and Internet sites. Students read the article and then use our Current Events Note Taking Form to answer questions like Who, What, When, Where and Why. Students include their opinion about the article and then present their information to the rest of the class.

This week Lucca shared with us an article titled Une Nouvelle Espèce de Léopard (A New Species of Leopard) from lesclesjunior online. Lucca explained to the class that this article is about a new species of leopard that has recently been discovered in Borneo.

Lucca said, “I think this article is important because it is rare to find new species of plants and animals. It is very important for our planet to discover new species.”

At home, Lucca spent time creating colorful posters to share information and pictures with the class during his presentation. Lucca also shared the following video as well.

__________

Aidan shared with the class an article titled, Triple Fossil Find Puts Australia Back On The Dinosaur Map from Science Daily online.

Aidan explained to the class, “Scientists have found three new dinosaur fossils in Queensland, Australia.” Aidan continued by saying, “I think this article is important because lots of people have worked hard to find these fossils and it is cool to know that there are new species of dinosaurs being discovered.”

Thank you Lucca and Aidan for presenting your articles to the class. Both students answered questions and accepted constructive feedback from their audience at the conclusion of their presentation.

Our Global Friends – Thanks for the Comments

One of the many positive things about having a blog is that Grade 2 students get to connect with other students and classes all over the world! Here are a few of our new Global Friends that we have started to communicate with by viewing each others blogs and leaving comments. We welcome you take a look at what is going on in classrooms elsewhere in the world and even take a moment to say hello by leaving them a comment.

__________

Our Global Friends: Mrs. Yollis’ Class, Grade 3 students from California, USA.

Here is a comment they left for us on our post, Learning About Grammar – CONJUNCTIONS!.

Dear IST Grade 2,

This morning we read your post AND watched your video, AND now we have a greater understanding of conjunctions. We like your level of enthusiasm when it comes to conjunctions, BUT be sure to always use them correctly.

It is important to proofread for run-on sentences, BUT sometimes we make mistakes.

Are there really zebras in Tanzania, OR did you just put the zebra header there because you liked it?

From,
Mrs. Yollis’ Class

P.S. We tried to use conjunctions in our sentences. How did we do?

__________

Our Global Friends: The Smarties!, Grade 2 students from Western Australia.

Here is a comment they left us recently from our post Acrostic Poems – The Knight And The Dragon.

S tupendous
A mazing
G reat
E xceptional

D azzling
A uspicious
N ice
N ifty
I nspiring

Love,
Mrs N and the Smarties!

Here is another comment they left for us from one of our weekly posts on Current Events.

Hello IST Grade 2,

We’re The Smarties, from Western Australia. Your Current Affair reports look very interesting. You must be learning a lot about the world.

Love from The Smarties

__________

Our Global Friends: Room 8 at Melville Intermediate School, Hamilton, Waikato in New Zealand.

Students in room 8 have been writing IST Grade 2 students comments of support and encouragement. We appreciate the many nice things they have to say to us about our learning.

From our blog post, Reduce, Reuse and Make 3D Objects.

Hi it’s great that you guy are learning about 3D and 2D shapes.

Elecia
Room 8, Melville Intermediate

Another comment from our post, How Is A Wedge Used?

Extremely good predictions grade 2!
I liked it how you discovered that a wedge has more than 1 use.
I hope you enjoy your future experiments, GOOD LUCK!!!!

Bradley,
Room 8, Melville Intermediate

__________

Thank you to our growing number of Global Friends. Your comments are read and appreciated. Keep them coming!!!

Maasai and I – an Introduction

An IST Grade 2 tradition, the ever popular and exciting Maasai and I Unit of Inquiry has arrived! Students will be learning about and helping to define “culture” during this unit of study.

As modern day anthropologists, students will investigate and document the IST Elementary campus culture to preserve it for future generations in order to understand what life was like in the year 2010. Students will also study about traditional and modern day Maasai and other local cultures of Tanzania. We will compare and contrast the information we gather about cultures and report our findings.

Our PYP Theme:
Who We Are – An inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends, communities, and cultures; rights and responsibilities; what it means to be human.

Our Central Idea:
We can find similarities and differences among cultures.

Our Key Concepts:
Form – What does culture look like, what does it involve/include?
Causation – Why are certain cultures the way they are?
Connection – What connects all cultures and what are these commonalities as well as differences?

Parents
We invite you to participate in this unit of inquiry. As students learn more about the culture of IST, students will also do some self-exploration into their own personal/family culture. We will also be looking at what it means to be a “Third-Culture Kid” – to say you are from a certain country or area of the world but possibly never having been there or knowing little to nothing of your ‘home culture’. We invite you to take an active role in learning with us about our own culture(s) and exploring the diverse cultures of Tanzania. We welcome any artifacts of Tanzanian culture that could be displayed in our room during this 6 week unit. Please attach your name to the back of the item. It will be treated with the utmost respect, but please do not send anything in that is irreplaceable. Contact your homeroom teacher if you would like to contribute to this unit in any other way. Asante Sana!!!

Maasai image by S. Zabury from www.tingatingastudio.com

World Maths Day – 3 March!

Students in Mr. McKillip’s class will be competing in this year’s World Maths Day Challenge!

What is World Maths Day?

“Students play at home and at school against other students around the world in live games of mental arithmetic. Each game lasts for 60 seconds and students can play up to 500 games, earning points for each correct answer. The students who answer the most questions appear in the Hall of Fame. Students cannot select their level but will move up as they progress.”

“This is a truly unique world event and a fantastic way to promote numeracy. Past results show that students will make significant improvements in their mental arithmetic skills and have fun in the process.”

Today during Maths students logged in to the official World Maths Day website to test out their login, password and do a bit of practice. Students are welcome to log in and practice solving Maths problems from home. Be sure to check your child’s Link Book for their individual login and password.

The World Maths Day Challenge will take place on 3 March, 2010. Learn more about World Maths Day at www.worldmathsday.com