A unique Primary School, offering a British based, child centred education in the Turks and Caicos Islands
Look out! The school telephone bill will be very high this month!
During this Literacy lesson the children were asked to express a ‘point of view’ while having a conversation on the phone. As well as putting their thoughts across they had to also listen carefully to what their partner was saying; beginning to learn the essential elements in the art of conversation, thinking and taking account of what others say. Well done Year 2 – this sure looked like a fun lesson!
Over the course of last week, the Kindergarten class read Hugh Lofting’s Travels of Doctor Dolittle as part of a shared reading/critical thinking skills workshop in Literacy. As well as answering questions, they also acted out several parts of the book. Here they are creating a bridge across the mountain.
Monkey came to us from the Amazon rainforest. He has been with the Grade 3 children for two years and is a much loved and cherished member of the class. Last year in Grade 2, he learnt to read and to do multiplication and this year in Grade 3, he has learnt lots about writing stories and fractions. He completed all his end of year SATs – scoring well above average for monkeys his age! He had a glowing report, although he sometimes ‘monkeys around‘ in class and will need to work on this! He has successfully graduated Grade 3 and will be moving on up with the class into Grade 4 in September. Congratulations Monkey! He is especially looking forward to learning the steel drums with his new teacher, Miss Helen. Monkey works very hard during the school day, but after school and at the weekends when we are not about, he swings in the trees, eats bananas and plays with all the toys! See a slideshow of photos, taken mainly by some of the Grade 3s, of all the things that he gets up to when we’re not at school. Maybe next year he will have a new friend to play with. Miss Mani has thoroughly enjoyed having Monkey in her class and there is a rumor going around that there may be a new animal joining the Grade 3 class next year! I wonder what it will be?
Our Junior and Senior Band entertained the crowd at the Fool’s Regatta with the caribbean sounds of the steel drums. This was the first public performance for the Junior Band, who have only just started playing together this term. As always, we were very happy to play at this annual community event and have been doing so for over 13 years.
On Monday June 22nd, the children in the Grade 1 class participated in a Spelling Bee. It definitely was a nail biter! The children were tested on a total of eighty words that had been taught in school and practiced at home.
All the children tried their best and did an amazing job! We definitely have a class of fantastic spellers. I was so proud, as their teacher, to see their pride in knowledge, confidence and enthusiasm. It’s not easy to stand up and spell words in front of a crowd but they all seemed like pros. The spelling bee finally came down to two children and the word “satisfy”.
Thank you to all the children and their parents for their hard work in practicing. The children were so proud and happy to show their spelling skills in front of their parents. Congrats to Grade 1; you are all spelling champions!
Miss Tracy
In Design and Technology Grade 3 explored how to make things move by using ‘pneumatics’ – a force that makes things move by using air.
They decided to design and make monsters with “pneumatic jaws”. Watch out they may come and bite YOU!
Welcome to the Dinosaur Dig! A celebration for father’s day honoring all the important men in a child’s life. We began our gathering by giving these special men a “dinosaur dig hat” and their own large toy dinosaur. The children then sang and acted out “The Dinosaur March” song. They also performed their friend’s song in English, Spanish and silently to incorporate sign language. We then had a dinosaur hunt where the fathers and their child went looking for hidden dinosaurs in the playground. We concluded our party by giving a handmade bookmark with sentiments of love written on it! Oh yes and of course a pizza to share! Miss Evieann
Grade 4 visited the Environmental Centre as part of their Social Studies topic on the Turks and Caicos Islands. They enjoyed finding out about the different types of habitats and animals that live in the TCI. They also had fun using their saved up Golden Time playing in the Children’s Play Park. See a slideshow of photos from the day.
I want to pass on a big thank you to Shelley, our web hoster, for helping with a recent emergency maintenance update. We have been unable to access the blog for a couple of weeks and thanks to Shelley, we are back online and will be posting again this week. Shelley has been a fantastic support over the years, ever since her two children attended the school way back about 9 years ago. Thanks for all your support and help Shelley – it is very much appreciated.
RED
Red is a beautiful rose
Red is the colour of a juicy tomato
Red is the colour of a beating heart
Red is wrapping paper that keeps my feelings in
Red is a juicy cherry
Red is the background of my life.
YELLOW
Yellow is the colour of a sweet banana
Yellow is a dandelion
Yellow is stars in the night sky
Yellow makes me shine.
PINK
Pink is the colour of an amazing flower
Pink is the colour of my favourite T-shirt
Pink is the colour of a beautiful flamingo flying
Pink is a beautiful fish in the coral reef
Pink is the colour of my favourite book
Pink is my favourite cake icing
Pink is the colour of my favourite pencil
Pink is the colour of my moms lipstick
Pink is the colour inside me.
As part of Teacher Appreciation Week I asked the children to tell me words that best described their teachers. These were made into poems and presented to them in our end of week ‘Celebration Assembly’. The teachers were touched by all the lovely compliments.
Here is a collection of all their words represented in a ‘word cloud’. The bigger the words, the more children used them. Their appreciation truly speaks for itself!
Thank you everyone for making all the teachers feel appreciated this week. Provo Primary is certainly a very special place to be a part of.
All of our classes study aspects of the Turks and Caicos Islands (T.C.I) as part of their Social Studies Curriculum. The Grade 2 class did some research about our past and present leaders. They created portraits of each leader using recycled material. These are displayed in the classroom in chronological order. Take a closer look at our leaders on our slideshow. The music playing is our National Song – ‘This Land of Ours’ written and composed by Reverend Dr. Conrad Howell. Click on to read the words to this song.
The Grade 1 class has been learning about the different and unique features of the Turks and Caicos Islands. One thing that is very unique is that we have the only conch farms in the world. So off they went to visit on here on Provo. See a slideshow of photos from their tour.
At the Conch Farm, they were able to see live conch (pronounced ‘konk’) at different ages. They were even able to pick up some two year old conch! After walking by all the pools that contained conch of different ages, they came to the end of their tour. Here they got to pick up and touch Sally and Jerry, the wild (yet trained) adult conch. Some of the children used words like “slimy”, “gross”, “cool”, “wet” and “tough” to describe Sally and Jerry.
The trip to the Conch Farm was a great way for the children to get up close and touch live conch. They highly recommend your family takes a trip out to visit Sally, Jerry and all the other conch! Thank you to everyone who helped make this trip and tour possible.
Visit the Conch Farm website to learn more. You can also go to Conch World when you next visit the island of Grand Turk.
All the children in Grades 3 – 7 have enjoyed writing poetry with Miss Bonnie this week, using the ‘Private Eye Program’.
The Private Eye is a program about the drama and wonder of looking closely at the world, thinking by analogy, changing scale and theorizing. It’s based on a simple set of tools that produce “gifted†results. Hands-on and investigative, The Private Eye uses everyday objects, a jeweler’s loupe (magnifier), and simple questions to develop higher order thinking skills, creativity and scientific literacy: “What is that like?â€Â “What else does it remind me of?†“What else does it look like?†These analogies, written in the compressed form of metaphors and similes, become the bones-for-poems.
Each of the children in Grade 5 wrote a poem after looking closely, through a loupe, at a scallop shell. Here are a couple of them. Can you guess which shell they were looking at? Can you see how the shells inspired their poems?
War Shell
Barb wire getting boiled in molten lava
Bullet wounds in fallen soldiers
Blood on the white silver sand
Tears of loved ones on the lonely bed
Terrible cries of agony on the battlefield
True and noble soldiers put to the test.
My Shell
An early morning sun
Patterns like waves on the beach
A racing cheetah in the forest
Lines that are parallel,
A sandy beach from a distance,
Zig zag lightning strikes.
The Grade 3’s have been looking at patterns and how they are made. In art they designed their own patterns; then made a block print from it. They repeated and rotated their patterns. They also designed some patterns using their ICT skills; they found the computer much quicker and easier to produce a design.
They used their design pattern to dress their models. Take a closer look at their designs and patterns in a slideshow of their models. Would you buy their designs? Do you think they are trendy?
In order to develop their skills further, Mrs. Krys, a graphics designer, has volunteered to come in to help the children to create designs using Adobe Photoshop. We look forward to seeing how they get on.
Buddy Reading is a fun way to enjoy reading. Today, our 2nd Graders read together with our Kindergartners. Reading to the younger children gave the Grade 2s a real sense of pride as they modeled their good reading skills.
The Kindergartners liked being with the older children and enjoyed listening to the stories that they chose to share.
Our Grade 1 and 5 classes regularly buddy read together. The Grade 5s read to the Grade 1s and vice-versa. Over the year, they have become familiar with one another and this has helped nurture a mutual enjoyment of reading.  Buddy reading helps promote the development of reading skills, builds fluency and the children’s self esteem blossoms as they become more positive about their ability to read.
The Bounce-a-thon today was a great success with all of our Preschool, Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten children bouncing to help raise money for books, playground equipment and computers. Each child bounced for one minute by themselves and their total bounces were recorded. They then had five minutes with their friends to bounce together. The children had a blast. There were lots of smiles along with a wide variety of unique bouncing techniques.Â
There was also a healthy ‘Fruity Fun Bake Sale’ with delicious fruit kebabs, smoothies, lemonade and homemade baked goodies.
Again, we would like to extend a big thank you to all the families, friends, community supporters and other generous donators, together with the children themselves, for their enormous efforts.
Miss Sarah’s Kindergarten class have been learning about pets and have turned their role play area into a pet shop.  They wrote a list of all the animals they could think of that would make good pets. They brought in their own toys from home to fill the pet shop, and wrote name labels for the pets it sells. They wrote about their perfect pet, which animal it would be and why.
In Numeracy, the children have been identifying coins and counting pennies and they have been using real money when paying for pets in the pet shop. In Literacy, they have looked in non fiction books to find out facts about pets. They wrote some out and shared them with each other at circle time. They also painted pictures of their favourite pet, enjoyed do-to-dot and colouring activities and made paper plate rabbits which had lots of parts which needed cutting out and sticking together.
What a super example of how our topic based curriculum is carefully designed and implemented to allow children to plan their own learning through a variety of enjoyable first hand experiences that are meaningful. See a slideshow of them busy at work.
Click on below to read a couple of pieces of creative writing that were inspired by this drama re-enactment in their English lesson… [Read more…]
Can you identify this well known nursery rhyme that the Junior Kindergarten are playing? Let Mrs. Myrna know if your recognise the tune.
The Junior Kindergarten enjoyed playing the hand bells today. Wow, what talent! They carefully followed the colour-coded dots to create the music. They really had to concentrate and follow the score. Just think how this reflects and develops early reading skills in a fun and engaging way.
Click here to play ‘Handbell Hero’ a rhythm game where you play hand bells similar to Guitar Hero. Okay, so it’s Christmas jingles and it’s now May, but it’s still fun and quite a challenge!
The Grade 3’s have designed a Science experiment to see which surface material will make a plasticine ball ‘splat’ the most. After making their predictions, they set off in pairs to see if they could set up a ‘fair test’ using the equipment they were given. To insure that their experiment was a fair test, they knew that they must change only one factor at a time while keeping all other conditions the same.
Scientists call the changing factors in an experiment variables. The different surface materials needed to be the only changing variable, everything else needed to stay the same.
Click on to see the children working on their experiments…
Miss Rebecca’s Kindergarten class are enjoying their newly created ‘zoo’ role play area in their classroom. The children chose the idea of a zoo themselves to fit in with their current animal topic. They brainstormed ideas for what they might include and they created the maps, tickets, labels and craft animals that appear in the zoo. They are having great fun getting into role as different characters such as ‘receptionist’ or ‘zoo keeper’, developing their speaking and listening skills through play. Click below to see more photos…
In Grade 2 Science lessons this term, the children have been learning about variation of plants and animals. They have organised them in groups according to their similarities, differences and unique characteristics. The children have done a fantastic job in creating their own classification keys about different animals. They answered questions about each of their animals using their keys. The animals were made using paper art.
A great time was had by the preschool children and their mums at the “Smoochie Smoothie Mother’s Day” event! They started off their lovely celebration with the children singing two songs…”Friends, Friends 1,2,3, and “Way Up in the Sky”. Then Miss Evieann read the story “Oh Baby, My Little One” as each child nestled into their mother’s lap.
They continued their party offering strawberry and banana fruit smoothies that were shared with mother and child with two straws – delicious cookies were enjoyed as well!
After their tummies were full each child gave their mother a beach bag that they had decorated themselves as a gift for Mother’s Day.
A wonderful card was given to all the mums decorated with children’s “smooches” made with lipstick prints!
A very kissable and memorable time was had by all!
Have you ever heard the phrase ‘oil and water don’t mix’? Well, one of our Grade 1 students and his mum taught a Science lesson to his class this week that explored what would happen if you mixed honey, juice and oil. The children learned that these liquids don’t mix to make a solution.  They also explored if objects floated or sunk in the mixtures. The experiment was great fun, especially as the children got to work in partners and carry it out themselves. Pouring the liquids into the containers was a bit tricky and they discovered that they needed to pour it in very carefully. After shaking all the containers, it was amazing to see how the liquids had separated again at the end of the day. Click on to find out more about the science behind this phenomenon and to try out an online investigation.