One of our parents, Haley, kindly put together this fantastic video that highlights some of the events that took place during our Keeping Healthy Week. Thank you Haley for coming in to film us and for taking the time to edit and create this memorable video.
Keeping Healthy Week Video Report
30 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
All Aboard! Next stop – Kindergarten!
30 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
This week, Kindergarten held its first open house of the school year! It was a great success and an absolute pleasure to see the children so enthusiastic, proud and independent while showing off their learning and their classroom to their parents.
Some of the highlights included showing off our turtle table, exploring the home corner, playing numeracy games on our interactive white board, sounding out our pocket chart rhyming words, explaining who’s who in our Letterland characters and looking at the Transport and Travel board displays.
I would like to thank all the parents who were able to come. It was lovely to see the big smiles and the pride and happiness from both children and parents. I look forward to our next one! Read on to see more photos.
Download a copy of our November Newsletter and find out more about what’s going on in our Kindergarten class this upcoming month.
Promoting Heathly Spines
21 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
Dr Craig Zavitz visited the school today as part of our Keeping Healthy Week. Encouraging a healthy spine, he introduced the ‘Pack it light, wear it right’ pack campaign, aimed at informing children, parents and teachers on the best way to adjust, pack, lift and safely carry your backpack.
The children were keen to learn about their spines and enjoyed doing all the exercises. Volunteers brought along their backpacks and Dr. Craig shared key information while weighing and adjusting them for each child.
Dr. Craig also shared his Straighten up Turks and Caicos programme with us. This is a three minute spinal health programme designed to help children feel and look their best.
At the end, Dr Craig gave out stickers, posters and leaflets for the children to take home. Click here for copies of these and for further information about the pack it light, wear it right initiative.
Morning Fitness Gives our Hearts an Aerobic Workout.
19 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
Fitness trainer Jo took us through our paces and got our hearts pumping on Wednesday morning during our Keeping Healthy Week. The children (and teachers) really enjoyed the short active routine and were keen to participate and get their bodies moving to the beat. Many thanks Jo – one of the best ways to encourage children to exercise is to lead by example.
Did you know that our heart is a muscle? It works hard, pumping blood every day of your life. You can help this important muscle get stronger by doing aerobic exercise. Aerobic means “with air,” so aerobic exercise is a kind of activity that requires lots of oxygen. When you breathe, you take in oxygen, and, if you’re doing aerobic exercise, you may notice you’re breathing faster than normal. Aerobic activity can get your heart pumping and also make you sweaty.
When you give your heart this kind of workout on a regular basis, your heart will get even better at its main job — delivering oxygen (in the form of oxygen-carrying blood cells) to all parts of your body. What a great start to our morning!
TCIFA Provide Extra Soccer Skills during Lunchtime
18 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
We would like to pass on a very big thank you to Matthew and Sarah from the TCIFA for giving up their lunchtimes to come and organise some soccer practices in ours during our Keeping Healthy Week.
Lots of children headed on to our field to join in and everyone had fun as their worked on developing their skills. Both Sarah and Matthew commented on the talented players that they saw, many of whom participate in the TCIFA soccer programmes here on island.
We also arranged for Matthew to come into school to do a soccer workshop with our KS2 teachers. It was a great success as this local newspaper write-up explains. Matthew was very impressed with the level of coaching knowledge of our teachers and looks forward to working more closely with the teachers as we commence our PE soccer unit this second half term.
Kindergarten Fruit Patterns
18 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
Kindergarten really enjoyed their Maths work today on patterns – they got to eat them! Using healthy fruits that had been donated to the class for ‘Keeping Healthy Week’, they created patterns by carefully sliding on pieces of watermelon and pineapple onto a kebab stick. Yum, Yum!
Keeping Healthy Week, October 2011
17 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
This week is ‘Keeping Healthy Week’ and we have organised a variety of activities and events to help raise awareness for the importance of keeping healthy. Click here further details: Keeping Healthy Week Event Information.
Kindergarten Letters and Sounds
17 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
As part of the Literacy programme this year, our class has been combining the best parts of the phonics schemes, Letterland and Jolly Phonics. This allows the children to learn all the sounds and letters in a multi-sensory way. In class, we learn about sounds and letters using the Letterland characters and stories, and then we combine them with the Jolly Phonics actions. The children are coming along really well and I am really proud of their efforts! See our Kindergarten Letters and Sounds Newsletter for further information on how you can support and help your child at home with these early reading and writing skills.
Get into ‘Shape’ with the Dolphin Class!
17 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
Quadrilaterals? Vertices? Parallel lines? Lines of symmetry and how many sides? These were all facts that were being discovered while the Year 3 Dolphins were painting irregular shapes… ‘Kandinsky style’.
During a paper folding shape-making activity, they not only used their new shape vocabulary to describe the shape they made, but also showed how well they could work together – researching, listening, sticking, creating – producing one whole new shape, by placing their shapes together…confused? Best read on and check out the photos to appreciate their newly created polygons. Fabulous work Dolphins what a colourful and creative week we have had!
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Life aboard a Tudor Ship…it’s not all Fame and Fortune!
11 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
Over the past few weeks, Flamingo Class have been researching what life was like for sailors on board a Tudor Explorer’s ship. We expected to hear stories of great discoveries and valuable treasure…we were in for a shock! Life on board a Tudor Ship could be awful! Tales of scrubbing the deck, sitting for hours in the Crow’s Nest, being locked up ‘In Irons’ and getting ill with scurvy was not what we had in mind!
We used all the evidence from our research to write a Ship’s Log from the point of view of an ordinary Tudor sailor. They tell the real story of life aboard a ship…battles with enemy ships, harsh punishments for drinking too much rum, eating mouldy fruit and being very, very tired! You’ll find them all in our accounts of life at sea!
When we had completed our Ship’s Log, we had a lot of fun ageing them. Anyone would think they really were 500 years old! Pop by our class to take a look and see some photos here: yr-4-ships-log-photos
Achieving Personal Bests in KS2 Athletics
8 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
In KS2 (Years 3 – 6), our Athletics P.E. programme aims to provide enjoyable and stimulating activities and challenges based on the core actions of walking, running, jumping and throwing.
Children are encouraged to set and achieve goals for the improvement of personal or team performances. Each session, the children record their results in their ‘Personal Best Record Booklet’. They enjoy seeing how they are improving and it adds a positive competitive element that encourages them to develop an interest in further developing their skills. These booklets have been a big hit and they are really helping to boost each child’s self-esteem. Ask your child to share their personal record with you and see how they are improving.
We would like to thank parent volunteers, Haley and Katrina, for capturing these athletics moments for us to share with you. Look out for future photos of our hurdles, triple jump, discus and relay sessions and we look forward to seeing you at our KS2 Sports Day on Friday 21st October – 9:15- 10:45am at the National Stadium Athletics Track.
2011 School Council’s First Week in Office!
8 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
Busy busy! With campaigns and elections over last week, the newly appointed School Council have met twice already this first week to discuss new ideas to help make our school and its environment an even better place to be!
Our first meeting involved lots of very interesting discussions and points of views about particular issues that the class representatives had already accumulated from their class members – WOW, how efficient! Well done to the new representatives. I have a feeling we will be having a very productive year ahead!
A super ‘well done’ to all of those pupils who placed themselves forward as representatives. The feedback from teachers was really positive. They were not only impressed by how well you all put yourselves forward, but also by how responsible and earnest you all were about your role as a school representative. We are very proud of YOU!
Find out more about our School Council and its achievements and look out for future news on the blog.
All about Me
8 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
In Jk we are learning all about ourselves and our families.
We made collage cut-outs of ourselves and decorated them. Read on to see photos of us creating them and pop into our classroom to see them on display.
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Hummingbird Class have been Learning about their Bodies
7 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
In our Science lessons Hummingbird class have been doing a variety of activities to help us to learn about our bodies. We have been taking our learning outside to draw around our friends and label the organs we have inside our bodies together. We are also learning about the functions of our main organs, starting with the lungs. We are looking forward to discovering more information about our muscles and our heart in the next few weeks!
We have also been looking at faces in our Art lessons. We used mirrors to look closely at our faces. We drew portraits in pencil and then used water-colours to paint them. We mixed the colours to create the tones and shades that matched our features. Read on to see photos of us at work.
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A Brilliant Start to the School Year!
7 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
Our Preschool Class has had a wonderful first few weeks at school. The children adore their new class room which is filled with lots of fun and educational activities. They love to dress up, play with cars, paint, glue, sing and do puzzles! Soft play is just the best for bouncing around and letting loose! Our new swing set is great fun and lots of water play has helped us to cool down in this HOT September weather. Nursery Rhymes is our first topic this term and as we learn them we are developing our vocabulary skills. Our class aim is to bake or cook once a week……Mmmm, we have already made sugar cookies and muffins. Last week the class also went on a mini school trip around every classroom delivering them. Read on to see lots and lots of photos of us in busy at school. [Read more…]
Sir Walter RATleigh visits Flamingo Class!
7 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
What an exciting morning in Year 4! A surprise visitor appeared out of the sewing resources at 8:30am, turning a morning of handwriting and reading exercises into a full-on mouse hunt! It was hard to tell who was more frightened, us or him! Fortunately, thanks to the quick and calm eyes of one of our student “Mouse Catchers” , we managed to capture our furry guest without harming a hair on his head! With thoughts of our Tudor topic swimming in our head, we decided to name him after one of the all-time greatest explorers. Arise Sir Walter RATleigh! The original Sir Walter was famous for being the first man to successfully sail around the world. It seemed rather fitting, since Sir Walter Ratleigh successfully scurried around our entire classroom before giving himself up! Never has a mouse been given such a fine name! Read on to watch a video of his release to freedom.
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Flamingo Class’ Tudor Science Experiment…
6 October, 2011 Leave a Comment
Mr Toby set us a rather odd challenge this week! He told us that, on his daring voyages around the world, the famous Tudor Explorer Sir Walter Raleigh insisted on drinking piping hot tea! The only problem was, he would never drink his tea right away…apparently he was too busy searching for new land, fighting with Spanish ships or just showing off his fine Tudor clothes! By the time he came to drink his tea, it would be cold!
We worked together to plan a fair test, so that we could compare how well different materials kept the tea hot over time. Read on to learn more about our experiment and to see more photos.