Wow! What a fabulous ‘behind the scenes’ look the Year 2 students had when they visited the IGA on a field trip. As part of our DT (Design & Technology) project this term, the children have been exploring and creating different cereal box covers. We’ve investigated why we think certain cereals appeal to children – like, maybe there is a fun character on the cover, maybe the box is very colourful, maybe the cereal box uses popular movie characters or even perhaps it offers a free gift inside! We used our trip to the IGA to get more inspiration for our next draft of our cereal box cover. Now, we need to think: How can we add more detail and what improvements can we make?

When we returned, I asked the children to write a retell in their journals. Below is one of the journal entries that was written by a Year 2 student:

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Over the past few weeks in Year 2, the children have been exploring measurement. We have looked at measuring cups, rulers, weighing scales and thermometers to figure out how to accurately find out the length/ height, capacity, weight and temperature (how hot or cold) of various objects found around our school. We also thought about where we have seen different examples of the those kinds of measuring tools, such as the scales in the fruit and vegetable area at IGA and the scales at the doctor’s office.

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Wow! Year 2 completed their first home learning project of the year and they did a fantastic job! As part of our Science in school, we have been investigating all about animals.  Through our reading comprehension sheets, non-fiction books and videos we’ve learned a lot about animals, including humans!  The children were allowed to choose an animal and investigate it, while answering a few specific questions such as where the animal lives, what it looks like, what it eats, how it grows from baby to adult and any other interesting facts they found out and wanted to share.

I was very impressed by their work during this term in Science and was very happy to see that the children’s enthusiasm was shared at home!  The children did a great job sharing their knowledge with their classmates and answering questions posed by them.

I can’t wait to see what our next home learning project looks like! Based on our first one, it will be awesome! [Read more…]

In Year 2, we have been learning about colour mixing. Did you know that when you mix yellow and red, you make orange? Or that when you mix blue and red, you get purple? The children had such a fun time exploring the primary colours and then mixing those primary colours to make secondary colours. Some children even decided to challenge themselves to make turquoise!

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In Year 2, we have been reading and exploring the book, Nate the Great by Marjorie Weinman Sharmat. We have really enjoyed learning how to be a detective like Nate and discovering what tools he uses in his investigations.

Read on to see how the children invented mysteries for Nate to solve and wrote letters to Nate!  Watch the videos to hear some of the children reading their letters.

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Our BIG Design Technology project this term was designing and making 3D papier-mâché animals. The children worked very patiently and hard to complete their animals.

First, they had to plan how to make their animal and bring in different ‘junk’ material to create it. Next, they worked with duct tape to attach the different parts of the body together and then, they covered their animals with newspaper that was coated with a special mixture to strengthen their animal and keep it from molding. Finally, the children painted their animals and added all the special features to make them stand out.

I was so impressed by the good attitude shown by the Year 1 children. It took them over a month, over various sessions, to complete their animals.  We showcased all of the children’s animals, their habitats and non-fiction animal books, at our Education Week Open House Showcase.  If you have not had a chance to see then yet – pop into our classroom this week!

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As part of our current topic ‘The Carnival of Animals’, Year 1 have been fully immersed into the world of animals. We have been exploring different animals, learning new information facts, writing information sentences and creating some beautiful Eric Carle inspired art.

During our Spanish sessions, our latest focus was on learning about the special features of different animals, like tusks on elephants and manes on lions.

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Over the last six weeks, Year 1 has been exploring MindUP, as part of our PSHCE (Personal, Social, Health and Citizenship Education) programme. MindUP teaches children the link between their brain and their behaviour and learning.

We’ve had a lot of fun exploring the three different parts of our brain. One helps us make good choices (Prefrontal Cortex). One helps protect us from danger (Amygdala). One saves our memories and learning (Hippocampus). Click on the poster to learn more about these.

The children, in particular, have liked learning about the ‘police dog’ that lives in our Amygdala and protects us when we are feeling super mad, frustrated, sad or scared. The children acted out the three choices (Fight, Flee or Freeze) we can make when our brain isn’t able to make mindful choices.

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The school is buzzing over the new swings that were installed over our mid-term break.  The children in Year 1 and Kindergarten had a blast swinging high on their new swings this morning.  With 6 swings in all, lots of children were able to take turns during playtime and have lots of time to swing!

When I asked what they liked about the new swings, some children said: “It feels like I am flying!” and “I can’t believe how many swings there are!” The children are pretty impressed! It was also really sweet to see the Year 1 children decide, on their own, to push the Kindergarten children. They were also teaching the Kindergarten children how to push themselves on the swings for next time.

Thank you for the new swings. We love them! Our verdict is a BIG THUMBS UP!

“A joint-funded project by PTA and School, we would very much like to thank our friends at Projectech for helping with the installation of the swings.  Also everyone who has supported our PTA fundraising events and our school.  It’s wonderful to see the children enjoying the new swings together.” Miss Sian

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This year, Years 1 and 2 have been getting together for a weekly assembly. Our assemblies this term have focused on highlighting all the lovely National Holidays and other special days such as World Kindness Day, that occur during our school year. We have enjoyed getting together to share our learning with each other. Please read on to see their hard work creating posters for National Heritage Day!

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In the last few weeks, we have been investigating healthy eating and our senses, as well as exploring instructional writing. We have investigate the steps needed to wash our hands, how to grow a sunflower and lastly, how to make a fruit salad.

During one of our Spanish Immersion sessions, we explored and investigated different fruits such as bananas, melons, mangos, oranges and apples with our senses. We had such a fun time looking and sorting the seeds of the different fruits! As a culminating task, we made a healthy fruit salad, which was delicious, and then together wrote the instructions for how to make it.

Please enjoy the pictures of the children enjoying their fruit salad. It was a very yummy treat, indeed!

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As part of our Tuesday and Thursday Spanish Immersion mornings, Mrs. Yorka has been exploring our new topic, Growing and Changes. The children have learned all about girasoles (sunflowers) and the different parts of the plant, as well as planting and exploring our school garden.

Recently, Mrs. Yorka has started to explore parts of the body. During our Open House next week, please look out for the video taken of the children labeling the parts of the body in Spanish.

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In the past few weeks in Year 1, we have been learning about different famous painters and then trying our hand at painting in the same vein as that painter. So far, we’ve looked at Paul Klee and Vincent Van Gogh.

Last half term, we looked at Paul Klee while studying the topic, Homes. We learned that Paul Klee liked to work with familiar shapes, like rectangles, triangles and squares and also that he liked to use a lot of bright colours in his painting.

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Year 1’s new historical topic is Homes; how we live in homes, creature homes and homes of the past. We’ve delved right into it! Using That Pesky Rat by Lauren Child, we designed and created a city scape for our furry friends. Afterwards, we wrote “Wanted” posters to help get our rats adopted by kind owners. Would you like to adopt one of our rats?

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As a culmination of our learning about Journeys, Year 1 took a field trip to a local farm!

It was such a neat experience for the children to see what a working farm looked and yes, even smelt like! We got to see piglets (a mother pig had just given birth a few days prior), some humungous mud-covered pigs, goats, chickens, ducks and bunnies.

As a treat, the children got to feed some carrots to the bunnies and chickens. The children and myself were able to get some VERY close-up encounters with the animals. We got to see some growing plants at the farm too!

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We made our first Halloween art project in Year 1—Jack O’Lanterns! After a quick demo, the children set off to work with a partner, as some of the cutting and pasting bits were a bit tricky to manage on their own. First, the children cut their orange paper into strips. Then they had to create a web-like design, pasting each strip into its spot. After that, they had to do the same to the top to create a pumpkin shape. Boy, was it ever tricky! That’s when teamwork was really needed. Lastly, the super fun bit—detailing their Jack O’Lanterns!

Read on to see how they turned out. We’re getting into the spooky Halloween spirit, are you?

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Our beginning topic, Journeys, has allowed us to explore the different ways that people take journeys or trips by air, sea, space and land. Our first week back at school, we looked into journeys by land and the inventions of the wheel.

Did you know that a long time ago people rode bicycles that had a humongous wheel in the front and one small wheel in the back? They were called ‘high-wheelers’ or the ‘penny farthing’.

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Year 1 had such an exciting morning visiting Caicos Conch Farm and Bay Bistro as part of our learning about our current topic, My Country: TCI. When we arrived at the Conch Farm, we got a brief lesson of the history of the farm and also got to learn lots of information facts. Did you know that the conch is as small as a pin when it’s created? Or did you know that conch can float like a butterfly in the ocean before it gets a shell?

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This term’s, big DT and Science project was to design and make a boat. First, we investigated different materials, looking closely at materials that were waterproof and would float. Then, the children drew up a plan using the materials we had collected. After that, we started building!

All the rafts and boats were so original and well-built. During our investigation, we learned that all the boats but one, floated and stayed afloat when different quantities of marbles (10, 20 and 30) were placed on them. We also saw how some of the boats tilted, depending on where the marbles were placed.

Read on for pictures of boat building extravaganza!

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We’ve had such a great time with our latest topic, Growing and Changes. We’ve investigated the weather and seasons, growing plants, life cycles and we’ve just finished spending  two weeks learning about ourselves.

For our art project on ourselves, we did some investigative drawing with a mirror. We carefully sketched out our eyes, mouth, nose and hair. Then, we did our first self- portrait using mirrors, crayons and pencil crayons.

The next day, we used pastels and mirrors to do another self -portrait. Our focus was on smudging or blending colours to try to get real life colours. We also really worked on adding details, like freckles and the black circle in the middle of our eyes.

Finally, we learned about Pablo Picasso and used his abstract portraits as our inspiration. The children chose a partner and drew two portraits of their partner. Then, we cut them up into pieces to make a jigsaw or abstract portrait.

Please read on to take a look at their lovely work!

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