Today, we were very pleased to discover a second hummingbird egg in the nest in our playground.

By our calculations, the mother hummingbird must have laid it 3 – 5 days after the first.  We knew that the Bahama Woodstar usually lays 2 eggs so we have been looking out, and hoping for a second egg to appear.

There had been much discussion by the children, parents and teachers alike as to whether we thought she would lay 2 eggs in succession, on the same day, or if there would be a gap between lays.  Our close observations have answered our theories.

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We are eggs-tremely egg-cited to see that our little hummingbird has laid an egg!

Having finished her nest a couple of days ago, we have since been waiting patiently, and checking the nest every time she has flown off for food, to see if she had laid an egg or two.  To our delight we saw one this afternoon.

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We have continued to record the hummingbird’s progress as she builds her nest in our playground. Take a look at the video highlights from day 2 and 3 and see some of the amazing behaviours we have observed as she creates her home.

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On Tuesday morning we had a special visit from some musicians down on island for the Amanyara Music Festival.  The children from Year 3-7 were involved in a mini workshop conducted (pardon the pun!) by 6 professional musicians.  The instruments we heard and learnt more about were the basoon, clarinet, double bass, cello, viola, and violins.  The theme of the workshop was “An Introduction to Cuban Music” and we learnt about different styles of Cuban music, how it sounds, where it comes from and how it has influenced other styles of music.  We also learnt about the Cuban sound “SON”, “RUMBA” and the “CLAVE” rhythm which holds the rhthym together in Afro-Cuban music.

At the end the musicians also played Michael Jackson music for us.  Read on to watch a movie clip of this and see if you can recognise which song it is.

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What an amazing little hummingbird!  While we were busy doing our school work today, she was hard at work building her nest.  By sundown a distinct nest was taking shape and off she flew for a well deserved night’s rest.  I’m sure she’ll be up at the crack of dawn and back to continue her efforts tomorrow.  Be sure to arrive early to school in the morning to see further footage on the computer screen in the walkway.  
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Provo Primary’s 2010 yearbook was released yesterday, much to the joy of the children, parents and staff of Provo Primary School. Krys Mann is the amazing person responsible for producing this truly incredible 6th edition yearbook. We would like to take this opportunity to thank her for all her hard work, her wonderful creativity and for the endless hours she has spent choosing from thousands of photos and producing the pages. She has certainly captured wonderful memories for us to enjoy today and to reminisce over in the future.

Our yearbooks provide a great insight into the many and varied educational opportunities that our children at Provo Primary School have experienced over the years.

Read on and see a sneak preview of some of the amazing pages…
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Provo Primary School will be hosting a play morning on June 12^th between 9.30 and 11.30 am for prospective Preschool families. Come along with your child and experience for yourself the unique qualities of our school and what we can offer your family.

Please contact the Principal, Sian Jones, at 941 5638 or principal@provolearning.com to reserve your play day place or to schedule an individual appointment to view the school.

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Swimming lessons set off to a great start this week and, with the weather heating up at this time of year, this is a welcome, refreshing experience for all involved.

Living in an island environment, we feel that confidence in water – and ultimately the ability to swim – is an essential life skill.  We therefore endeavour to impart the necessary water and swimming skills in a positive and fun way, while at the same time, furthering, recording and assessing the progress of each individual.

We would like to thank KH Capital and the homeowners of our neighbouring Flamingo Park residences who have very kindly agreed to us using their pools.  Their community support with this programme is invaluable and much appreciated.

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Our tomato plants are thriving in the school garden and excitement is in the air as our first tomatoes are spotted.  Our radishes, lemon grass, rosemary, basil, mint  and peppers are also doing well and some banana and papaya trees have also been recently planted.  Our squash was doing fantastically, but unfortunately some bugs discovered them and enjoyed a weekend of munching them all up!  Birds, butterflies, frogs, crickets, lizards and a baby preying mantis have all been seen enjoying our new garden environment.  Don’t eat the tomatoes though guys!

We often see and hear Cuban Tree Frogs at the school – they like to find their way into our water tank and croak away!  So it was a treat to observe some different frogs in the school garden last week.   We think they were Greenhouse Frogs.

These frogs are tiny, typically under an inch long.  They are similar in appearance to tree frogs in that they have a compact body, strong limbs, and sticky toe-pads to help stick them to most surfaces. They are typically subtle shades of brown and tan for camouflage, and they move quickly in long, fast leaps.   Most frogs require fresh water in which to lay their eggs so their tadpoles may grow. However, Greenhouse frogs have adapted from their original state, with the tadpoles remaining in the egg until they hatch as frogs! [Read more…]

Our teachers received a nice surprise when they arrived for work on Friday. Parents and children celebrated Teacher Appreciation Week by laying on a delicious big breakfast for them. On the menu were delights such as bacon rolls, muffins, fruit, yoghurt and coffee. All the teachers were amazed by the generosity and care that had gone into arranging this and were very grateful for their morning treat.

Throughout the week teachers had also received an array of flowers, cards and gifts. The homemade ones are always the most treasured.  All the teachers work very hard during the school year and so it was lovely for them to be appreciated in this way by children and parents. On behalf of the staff, I’d like to say thank you to all the children and parents for a lovely event.

All the classes enjoyed making tasty fruit snacks to celebrate Fruity Friday today.  There were fruit kebabs, frozen bananas dipped in coconut, dried fruit mixes, mango sorbets and baked apples, to name a few.  All were delicious and eagerly shared.  The children were also invited to come to school dressed in fruity colours; some classes are wearing yellow and ‘Going Bananas’.

Fruity Friday is an annual awareness and fundraising campaign for the World Cancer Research Fund. Its long-term goal is to encourage children to lead a healthy lifestyle.  Fruity Friday campaign is a great way to get across this message in a fun way.   All the donations from our Fruity Friday Dress Down will be given to the local Turks and Caicos Cancer Society.

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Happy Mother’s Day to all our Mums throughout the school.

Spring is in the air and thanks to the combination of hard work and donations from community members, Provo Primary has a wonderful new garden area. The garden was officially opened on Earth Day.  A ribbon was cut by our oldest and youngest child at the ceremony.  The children were excited to get started, digging in the soil and planting a variety of herbs, fruits and vegetables.

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On Wednesday 24th March the children from Miss Steph’s journalist club tested their interviewing and questioning skills during a tour of the new hospital on Providenciales. First, the children met with Kathleen Bree and Roger Cheesman the CEO of Interhealth Canada Turks and Caicos Islands. They asked a range of questions to find out the history of the hospital, what facilities would be on offer and information about their new staff. The children were then given a tour of the hospital, where they were able to take photographs. Miss Steph was impressed by the children’s enthusiasm and their genuine interest shown by the range of original and thoughtful questions asked. The newspaper report will be printed in the our first edition of the Provo News later next month. We would like to say a HUGE thanks to the hospital for giving us this amazing opportunity!

The children and teachers throughout the school were very excited to meet a real life Canadian Mountie, Mr. Mark Larkin. The first thing the Year 1 and 2 children noticed were his big shiny brown boots!  Dressed in his full uniform, he talked to the children about where he was from in Canada and then he read the book ‘M is for Mountie’ (which he kindly donated to our school library).

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Congratulations to all our teams who played well in the Inter-School Soccer Tournament.

Our under 11 boys played really well and were commended for their team spirit and tremendous efforts.

Both of our under 13 girl and boy teams successfully reached the finals and came second place.  The boys team was praised for their amazing come back from 3-nil down at half time to 3-2 by the end of the match, almost equalising at the end.  They played really well as a team, with players ranging from 9 – 12 years old competing against a team with mainly 12 year olds.  One of our nine year olds received the ‘Most Valuable Player’ trophy.

Well done, everyone.

Year 5 have been using their observational skill to look closely at the different elements of still life paintings from the contemporary artists Jereme, Vicini Genevivien, Hundertwasser and the impressionist, Matisse.

Click below to see all of the beautiful, colourful and vibrant pictures.  Fantastic artwork, Year 5!

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On Friday afternoon Year 1 and 2 invited parents in to join in with their final theme week activities.  Year 1 worked in groups to create the tallest newspaper tower they could build and Year 2 designed chairs for Barnaby Bear.  They also shared some of their work that they had done over the week.  It was also an opportunity for Year 2 to play the board games with their parents, which they had made about famous great thinkers    I played the Florence Nightingale game and learned lots of new facts about her life.  See a slideshow of photos of the afternoon.

We ended our theme week with an opportunity for the children to come to school dressed up as a great thinker.   We saw a wide variety of characters and everyone was able to express why they thought their chosen character was a great thinker.  The teachers all dressed as Provo Primary Students to celebrate the fact that we all think that our students are great thinkers!

Early Years opened an Art Gallery to display and sell the fantastic creative art work that the children have produced during this week’s theme week.  Pieces went from 25 cents to $2 with families pleased to take home their child’s masterpieces.  All the classes in the school also enjoyed seeing what the younger children in the school had been working on during their theme week activities.  What a wonderful way to end this enjoyable week.

In keeping with our ‘Great Thinkers’ Theme Week, we hosted a fun, family quiz night.  It was a great night, with eleven teams made up of international members, young and old.  Well done to everyone who came along and participated and thank you to all the members of staff who helped out.

I couldn’t resist putting up these great photos of Year 2 thinking about ‘who or what made the tracks?’, today’s daily challenge thinking question. After much deliberation, the class decided that it was elephants that made the tracks.  They chose to work together in groups to create the elephants as junk models.

Click bleow to take a look at the elephants and to see the children in further thought…  I wonder where the elephant was going?  Where in the world were tracks were found?  What were the tracks found in… mud, sand, chocolate, butter?  Shall we follow them?  I love the deep in thought expressions on the children’s faces as perhaps they ponder these questions.

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