At Provo Primary we always encourage healthy eating as an important part of children’s education and we are grateful to Temika Handfield for coming into the school to highlight and inform us on a variety of  healthy eating topics.  Temika is a former parent of the school who is now studying food and nutrition at the Florida International University in Miami.  As a part of her studies, she is researching parent’s perceptions of obesity in the Turks and Caicos Islands.  I’d like to thank everyone who supported her today by taking the time to complete her questionnaire.  We wish Temika all the best with her studies and future success.

A topic often raised by parents is… ‘Where can we find ideas for exciting and easy-to-prepare healthy snacks and lunches?’  Our Preschool class is addressing this question by compiling a cook book of healthy recipes that they enjoy. We look forward to the publication of this in the near future and hope that their favourite healthy choices become yours, too.

In the meantime, a couple of great websites on healthy eating I can recommend are:  Kids health by Nemours, one of the largest nonprofit organizations devoted to children’s health and Children’s Lunchboxes, a great BBC site with lots of ideas to try.  Finally here are a few interactive games about healthy eating that your children might enjoy playing from the UK  Food Standards Agency.   Happy healthy eating!

Today we were honored and delighted to listen to the sounds of Hayden and Gershwin, performed to us by a group of six classical musicians visiting from New York and Boston.  The ensemble included two violins, a viola and a cello from the string family and  a clarinet and a bassoon from the woodwind family.  Each musician talked to us about their instrument and how it makes its sound. They then went on to play a variety of solos, duets and ensembles.   To help explain the layers of music, they likened it to the layers of a pizza.  The bassoon was the crust, the viola the tomato sauce  and two violins were the pepperoni and the cheese!   So next time you order pizza don’t be alarmed if your children mention classical music and start playing an air violin!  We would like to thank all the talented musicians and also Tani Rydon and Amanyara Resorts for kindly bringing them to the school to share their wonderful sounds.

This morning, the whole school joined together to watch an amazing performance of Cinderella, told in a  ballet. Pages to Pirouettes is a dance group from Pennsylvania that the TCFAF (Turks and Caicos Friends of the Arts Foundation) have brought to the island.  Their mission is to enrich cultural awareness and appreciation in the community by bringing the art of story ballet to young audiences.  They certainly achieved their goal here today – the children thoroughly enjoyed the show!  Click below to watch a clip of the performance and see the children having a go at some ballet positions!

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This week is our National Education Week and each year at Provo Primary we mark this time with a special ‘theme week’ of fun activities. The theme for the Early Years classes is ‘The Creative Mind of a Child’ and for the Grades 1 -7 ‘Time Travellers’. Some activities will be class based and some whole school. The Grades 1 -7 kick-started their Time Travellers theme, with an opportunity to dress up as character from History. Click on the news report movie below to find out more…

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There are lots more movies of the children who dressed up – too many to post I’m afraid, so we hope to share these in school over the week.

Armed with gloves and bags, a group of our children from JK through to Grade 7 supported National Clean-up Day today by helping to clean up one of our popular beaches, Sapodilla Bay. We often visit this beach as an end of the year treat so this was a good beach for us to choose.  A big thank you to all the children and parents who came to support this event.

All the children from Grade 1 to Grade 7 also cleaned up our school grounds on Friday afternoon in recognition of the campaign.

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Today, we had a visit from author Donna Seim.  She has written a book called ‘Where is Simon, Sandy?’ which retells a Caribbean folktale about a donkey that wouldn’t quit.  Donna took the scene of our capital island of Grand Turk for the setting of her story.  All the children in Grades 1, 2 and 3 enjoyed listening to Donna read the story and they had plenty of comments and questions to ask her.  At the end, the children sang the TCI cultural song, ‘Dry Conch’ to Donna as a thank you.  Donna was accompanied by Mr. David Bowen, our Director of Culture.  She kindly donated a copy of the book for our library, but if you want your own copy, you can buy it at the Unicorn Bookstore.  All proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit the Turks and Caicos National Museum’s children’s programme. Learn more about Donna,  see a slideshow on the making of the book and learn some fun facts about donkeys at her website http://www.donnaseim.com/

When we wear a poppy, it helps us remember and be thankful for the many people who gave their lives in war for our freedom.   On Remembrance Day we were able to make a donation to the Turks and Caicos ex-Serviceman’s Legion and wear a poppy.

Representatives from the National Trust are making sure that everyone is aware of the importance of maintaining the TCI’s ecosystem…and they are starting with the little ones. A group from the National Trust visited Provo Primary School yesterday…

See more photos at the TC Sporting Club website.

A well known ancient African proverb states that ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ and it is so true. In order to raise children successfully, we can’t do it alone.  Here at Provo Primary School we have a strong sense of community, with families and friends all striving to work together for the same cause. The success of our school today is based upon this community spirit that we feel so strongly. Everyone in our school works together towards the same goals and we reap the rewards of working as a team.

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Our Grade 6/7 took time out from their studies to offer some help pupils from Iris Stubbs Primary on South Caicos that were affected by Hurricane Ike.