A unique Primary School, offering a British based, child centred education in the Turks and Caicos Islands
The Preschool children have been investigating different types of weather through their topic, ‘Does the Sun Always Shine?’ This week we have been exploring cold weather. Not an easy concept to grasp when you live on an island that is predominantly warm year round! However, to experience this cold phenomenon, we visited IGA Supermarket’s freezer room!
This theme was evident in all the Early Years classes last week as they prepared class festivities to celebrate the loving moms we have in our lives.
The Toddler class was everything purple from the decorations to the flowers, outfits and handmade cards. Moms were treated to songs by the children and yummy snacks. The Preschool focussed on the Dr. Seuss book, Are You My Mother? They did activities all week related to the book and shared some of them with their moms, such as, making a bird puppet, play dough nests and retelling the story with props.
“I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees….. UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”The children have been enjoying books by Dr. Seuss as part of their topic, Think and Wonder, Wonder and Think. Last week we looked at the book, The Lorax. It is a perfect introduction to Earth Day and our local wildlife environmental week about turtles. We discussed several ways we can help take care of our Earth. The children may be little but it is never too early to make them aware of ways in which they can help take care of our environment. [Read more…]
“Little pig, little pig, let me come in! Or I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in!” You would have heard this phrase a lot in the Toddlers classroom last week as they explored the story The Three Little Pigs. They worked together to make textured houses, pigs and wolves to create a display board. There was lots of role play using the display board and puppets. Ms. Andrea told the story in Spanish and the children interacted with her using props. In addition, the Toddlers went on a ‘mini field trip’ to Year 2 where they listened to them retell the story in Spanish, too. They pretended to be wolves huffing and puffing, blowing items using a straw. They also learned the song, Straw, Sticks and Bricks and then finished the week with an edible rice cake piggy!
Mat Man has been introduced to the children through a song and with a picture of him. We have been looking at the different lines that make up Mat Man’s body, putting him together as we sing the song, taking him apart and putting him back together again. Mat Man is part of the Handwriting Without Tears programme. Mat Man does an important job in helping children learn about body awareness, taking turns, counting and eventually starting to draw a person correctly!
The Preschool’s Topic, ‘It’s All About the Shapes’, has involved far more than learning just about the basic shapes, but rather exploring the world of ‘shape’.
First we went on a shape hunt around school as an introduction to the topic. Then we have investigated size, patterns, holes and tubes. The children have thoroughly enjoyed going outdoors to explore these concepts in further detail.
Take a journey of shape exploration through the eyes of our Preschool class…
Language development is a very exciting time for toddlers. It accelerates rapidly and toddlers’ ways of communicating expand from simple smiles and gestures to using words and phrases to express their needs.
Our Toddler programme is designed to provide many opportunities to encourage toddlers to communicate with the adults and children around them. We talk to them continuously so that they are exposed to as many new words as possible. Through everyday activities, we help them make connections between actions/things and the words that correspond to them.
The Preschool class participated in an activity called ‘the gathering drum’ this week. This exciting event involved tapping out simple repeated rhythms with finger tips, flat hands and thumbs. They explored loud and quiet sounds and fast and slow rhythms. The activity involved listening carefully and following directions. Before playing their rhythms on the drum they practiced on their knees. They tried two types of rhythms, counting 1, 2; 1, 2 and then 1, 2 ,3; 1, 2, 3. The children listened to I Wan’na Be Like You from the Jungle Book, feeling the ‘swing-type’ rhythm and then playing a faster rhythm.
Thursday, 15th October was GLOBAL HANDWASHING DAY. The Preschool class had a fun-packed morning with a variety of activities emphasising the importance of ‘hand washing’.
We began our morning making bubbles outdoors using whisks and blowing through straws to make bubbles on our hand prints. We listened to the story ‘Germs Are Not for Sharing’ and did a ‘germs away’ experiment. For this experiment, we sprinkled black pepper in a bowl of water (the pepper represented germs). The pepper floated on top. In the centre of the bowl we added a few drops of dish washing soap and watched the soap ‘scare the germs away’
A couple of weeks ago the Preschoolers came into the classroom after morning play outdoors. Sitting on a chair was a poorly looking little bear! He was covered in dirt, was holding a crumpled tissue and his leg was torn. The children immediately expressed concern for our new friend.
Mrs. Rachel picked him up gently and started asking the children a few questions. What happened to him? “He’s dirty,” said one child. “Look at his leg. It’s broken,” noticed another. Why does he have a tissue? “Oh, no! He’s crying” – sighed one girl sadly. How is he feeling? He’s sad” – thought one boy. [Read more…]
We are very excited to announce that Provo Primary’s Flamingos and Chicks is back in session tomorrow and will continue throughout the summer on Tuesdays, 8.30 to 10am.
These free sessions invite new families (parents and toddlers from birth to 2 years) to join us in our soft play room for some fun activities. We have lots of great toys and exploratory activity centres available for your young chicks to enjoy.
Our theme throughout the summer will be ‘Under the Sea’, so let’s get our feathers wet in a variety of ‘swimmingly’ fun activities. See you tomorrow!
Remember to bring a small snack!
We look forward to seeing a whole flock of Flamingos at Provo Primary soon; so please spread the word via air-mail, email or word of beak!
Doughnuts for Dads….was all about celebrating our dads! We invited them in to spend the morning with the Toddler class to celebrate father’s day together.
All Dads (and one special grandpa) were greeted with a tie shaped card that was tied around their necks with a promise to wear it all day. Not sure how many did?!
Dads, daughters and sons played together outside for a while with the bikes, sand and water play. Inside there were several activities which were enjoyed by all, including eating doughnuts! They enjoyed making a trail mix with Goldfish, Cheerios, raisins and pretzels, shaving a toy ball with a popsicle stick and painting each other’s foot which was placed on a paper with the caption “Following in your footprints, Dad.”
We ended our morning with the song, ‘We love our Daddy, He’s the best. My Daddy is awesome! D-A-D-D-Y, D-A-D-D-Y, D-A-D-D-Y and Daddy is his name-o!’
The Toddler class have been doing lots of exploring over the last few weeks related to gardens! Take a look at all the photos of us in action.
All toddlers have had an opportunity to test their ‘green thumbs’ when we planted sunflower seeds, corn, avocado or beans. Most have survived the added sand and early pickings!
We also went on a ‘bug hunt’ around school and found several creatures, which we brought back to class in our specimen jars. Several children have brought in real creatures and toy ones, which are being enjoyed in our classroom garden. Our favourite seems to be the moth! It has been wonderful to see the children being risk takers and having the confidence to gentle touch many of the bugs.
Within this topic, as the children closely examine everything with all their senses, they are being introduced to, and are using, a variety of vocabulary such as petals, leaves, wings and antennae.
We encourage you to explore your garden at home – what will you find?
The toddler class embarked on their first field trip to Turner Farm. Farmer Liz greeted us and took us to see the rabbits. There we got to feed them carrots. Some of the rabbits were quite impatient and took the entire carrot from us! We opened the cage and found a surprise – bunnies! They were so cute and little.
“We’re going on a bear hunt. We’re going to catch a big one. What a beautiful day. We’re not scared! Oh no, what’s that? Two big, goggly eyes, two big, furry ears, one wet, shiny nose. It’s… a… bear! Aaaahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
The toddlers experienced their own bear hunt last week, acting out different parts of the story as we went along. Using picture clues and their binoculars, the children had to look for the bears that were hiding in five areas of the school. Following our pictorial maps, our hunt took us to the stage, dome, green field, chicken coop and our playground. On the way we discovered an animal that had two big, furry ears and one wet, shiny nose, but it wasn’t a bear, it was only Mishka the dog!
Miss Sian thought she heard a bear in her office so we went to search. We looked carefully through our binoculars, but all was okay; we did find lots of flamingos in her office though!
The toddlers have been very busy little spiders. This week we have been learning the nursery rhyme “Incy Wincy Spider” and ‘Incy Wincy’ has taken over our classroom!
The children arrived to school on Monday to find a humongous web taped across our carpets which they have enjoyed crawling all over. We have made spiders with our hand prints, with play dough, pipe cleaners and googly eyes. We have also painted paper plate spiders, made webs with black paint and balls, climbed the outdoor web (dome), threw objects to our sticky tape web outside and made rain using containers with different sized holes. Senora Yorka added weather pieces to our “Incy Wincy Spider” display with us, too.
We wish we had 8 legs to keep up! What a busy week!
There was truly much to celebrate when the toddler class concluded their topic, ‘All About Me’, with a celebration of their learning.
Parents were invited to spend the morning with their child. They were greeted with a ‘handy’ feathery hat, songs and movement. Then they participated in making a house craft, rolling scented play dough and feeling pasta at the sensory table. In addition, some toured the quails/chickens coop, hydroponic garden and had some fun on the green field.
There were lots of enthusiastic parents and children who celebrated a special morning together. Thank you for coming everyone!
Making a mess is lots of fun when you are a toddler! It may look like a mess but sensory exploration is an important part of a young child’s development. Every day in toddlers there is some activity that involves making a mess and getting our hands dirty. Recently, we put shaving foam in the water table and had loads of fun spreading it over objects (including our face), got sticky by gluing pasta to make Mr. Bones our skeleton, and poured and scooped pasta shapes and lentils with various objects (most of which ended on the floor!). See how much fun you can have at making a mess at home!
The toddler children have been ‘busy bodies’ over the last few weeks. In our topic, All About Me, we have been exploring ‘Me and My Body’ and this week we have been using our senses in a variety of activities – including tasting lemons and making lemonade. Hmm… tasting lemons. Do you think the toddlers liked the taste or not?