A unique Primary School, offering a British based, child centred education in the Turks and Caicos Islands
Mrs. Shara presented a creative challenge in Gym class as part of our Thinking Skills Theme Week. The children were given a famous quote and were asked to imaginatively interpret the essence and meaning of these through movement. Forming small groups of 3, they discussed their ideas and began exploring the concepts. At the end, they performed their creative pieces to their classmates, who tried to guess what the quote was about.
Today’s Theme Week challenge for our mixed aged teams was to create the best hat they could out of newspaper. Within a time limit of 20 minutes, a frenzy of designing, cutting, taping and decorating took place, with teams working together, listening and talking with each other, adapting ideas and overcoming challenges. The children really enjoyed the activity and there were lots of smiles as they completed the task and shared their team creations. What really struck us all was the complete diversity in the finished hats. No hats were the same, with each group creating them for different characters, occasions and climates. From crowns to caps, business hats to beach sombreros, helmets to sailor hats – what amazing creativity! Which one would you wear? See a slideshow of the children busily making the hats and see the final products being modelled.
The Early Years began their Theme Week of “Creative Minds at Work” by collaborating to create a story together. The Preschool, Junior Kindergarten, and Kindergarten all sat in a circle in the Preschool Room and together made up a wonderful tale. They decided to add illustrations to it and also to retell the story in their individual classrooms, revising it if desired. What a wonderful way to celebrate Literacy, the creative imagination of a child and the wonder of storytelling. The stories can be found displayed in the walkways or in the classes. Do come and enjoy them.
Our Thinking Week theme week started off with great success today, with ‘guess the character’ posters, daily class challenges, mixed-age team challenges and lots of classroom activities to keep them thinking all day long! See a slideshow of some of today’s activities. A big thank you to all the teachers who have worked hard to plan and organise activities both for their own classes and the whole school.
Thinking skills are becoming essential tools in our rapidly changing global information age. We want our children to be able to analyze information, make decisions and come up with creative ideas on how to solve problems. Over this week, we strive to ask questions and provide fun activities that will deepen the children’s thinking, encourage them to think logically and critically, to work together with others and celebrate their individuality and amazing creativity.
Suzie, an adult female green turtle and first turtle in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI) to be fitted with a satellite transmitter tag, arrived back in the TCIs’ coastal waters on Sunday after an amazing 6,000 kilometre migration around the eastern Caribbean.
Earlier in the year, Brian and Natasha from the Department of Environment and Coastal Resources (DECR) came to visit our Year 3/4 class to talk about sea turtles (See our previous blog post). The children created some turtle art work and this is currently displayed at the Environmental Centre opposite the Children’s Park in the Bight. Click on to learn more about Suzie and her travels.
With reports going out this week, it is common to see learning a particular set of multiplication tables written as one of a child’s targets for improvement. We often hear “How can I help my children memorise their multiplication tables at home?” Well it’s basically all down to practise, practise and even more practise, so here are a couple of website links that will help you support this practice at home with a variety of fun interactive online games to keep you all from boredom and frustration. Let me know your favourite games and let’s hope they help your child achieve those targets by the end of term! Of course in my day, I recall just reading and reading them over and over from my no-nonsense, pink “The Old Fashioned Multiplication Table Book.” No fun computer games in my day! Click on to find the game links…
There was a distinct feel of autumn/fall time in the playground yesterday. Over our half term break, the leathery leaves of our almond tree have started to turn red and brown and many have fallen to the ground. There are very few deciduous trees here in the Turks and Caicos and so this was an exciting rare experience to enjoy on our return back to school. Read on and see photos of the children enjoying the leaves.
Hello Provo Primary! Since leaving Providenciales in 2004, I have never forgotten our friends and colleagues at Provo Primary School. My family (Husband Brent and son Russell) and I hold many great memories of living on the island and meeting so many wonderful people. I frequently peruse the Provo Primary website and blog and really enjoy reading the current events and looking at photos of so many familiar faces.
I now work at an ESL school, in Toronto. I continue to have a passion for fundraising and when the Haiti disaster occurred, I wanted to help. My thoughts and prayers were with our many friends on Provo, from the Haitian community. Our school, ILSC-Toronto held a week long fundraising event. [Read more…]
Children grow up so quickly and every parent wants to remember each step of their child’s life.
School photos have a special place in every families’ hearts. Each year, for as long as I can remember, an amazing team from ‘Brilliant by Tropical Imaging’ have come to take ours, capturing the vibrancy and diversity that is the beauty of our school. They seem to have the natural ability to connect with each child, to capture their unique personalities and the magic in their smiles. Thank you Anita, David, Kellie and Krys for your wonderful work, tremendous patience and boundless energy. You really make this day a fun day for all.
School photos allow every child to cherish a keepsake of themselves and their fellow classmates, so don’t forget to order yours, today.
Please visit the Brilliant by Tropical Imaging’s blog to see some of this year’s amazing photos.
We deeply admire the out-pour of care and support from our school community when others are in times of need.
Last term, our Christmas Drive resulted in an amazing response of donations of toys, household and toiletry items, clothing and food for the new Provo Children’s Home. The children there are now settled in their new home and all of the items have been gratefully received and are being used. A heartfelt thank you again, everyone.
In our ‘Celebration Assembly’ on Friday, Miss Beki, who volunteers at the home, told us that these donations were also being appreciated by some Haitian orphans who are staying there this week. This is a touching story of how our children are directly helping other children in our community.
Support in our school community was once again generous for our neighbouring Haitian community who experienced a devastating earthquake a few weeks ago. [Read more…]
Donna Seim, author of ‘Where’s Simon, Sandy?’ came once again to visit us and share with us her wonderful story about a local, Grand Turk, donkey that wouldn’t quit. Children in JK through to Year 1 thoroughly enjoyed the story and took the opportunity to ask Donna lots of interesting questions about it and about being an author. David Bowen, our Director of Culture, accompanied her, bringing his trusty blow-horn conch shell with him. What a noisy shell it is!
Donna’s book won a ‘Mum’s Choice Award’ last year and certainly got the thumbs up from our children. Thank you again, Donna.
Donna has also worked hard to connect our school with a school back in her home town in Newburyport, Massachusetts. Children there wrote penpal letters to our Years 2, 3 and 4 children and they have written back to them. Unfortunately, our letters are still travelling in the post. Fingers crossed they won’t take too much longer to arrive. We look forward to our next letters and seeing Donna again the next time she comes down to visit.
One of the many highlights of my job as principal is when there’s a knock at my door, and some smiley faces appear, eager to share with me the outstanding work they’ve been doing in class.
Today, it was these two boys who had worked really well together in their Year 2 Numeracy class. They excitedly shared how they had created their own two-digit addition sentences by playing a card game and showed me the strategy they used to find their answers. They then went on to check their answers on a calculator and were pleased to announce that their brains were quicker than it!
At the end, I got the opportunity to share a new strategy for them to take back to share with their class and off they went.
I wonder who will be knocking on my door tomorrow, allowing me to share in their learning and celebrating their successes?
Santa arrives on the Fire Truck from Provo Primary School on Vimeo.
Santa came to visit the school today, arriving on a shiny fire truck. This is a special Christmas tradition at the school that the children always look forward to on the last day of term. Everyone gathers in the car park and awaits the sound, not of sleigh bells, but of the fire engine siren, announcing Santa’s arrival.
Excitement builds as the truck draws nearer and the welcoming smiles, claps and cheers reach fever pitch as he parks and climbs out of the truck with his bulging present sack on his back. He is then eagerly followed into the school by the ecstatic crowd. He sits himself down on our outside stage and the classes comes out in turn to visit him, each child receiving a gift from his sack. He always brings everyone a book, for he is a clever Santa who knows that learning to read and enjoying reading is very important.
All the children also got the chance to go on the fire truck – a big thank you to the members of the Turks and Caicos Fire Department for letting everyone take a closer look at the truck and for helping transport Santa to us. “Why does he come on the fire truck?” asked one of our five year olds. I wonder what Santa said…perhaps you’ll leave us a comment and say what you think he replied!
See you next year, Santa and thank you for stopping by!
It was lovely to gather together as a school today to enjoy our annual traditional Turkey Lunch. The children made special decorated place mats and listened to Christmas music as they munched away. A special thank you to Robin and his staff for cooking the lunch and all of the school lunches this term.
Watch a slideshow showing some of the highlights our fantastic Christmas Extravaganza. Our Preschool children flew on to the stage as beautiful Christmas birds, flapping their wings and dancing and singing to some Christmas action songs. Junior Kindergarten were dressed as red-nosed reindeer and thoroughly entertained the audience with their jingling bell ringing, action songs and rhymes.
Kindergarten and Year 1 performed a play called ‘Christmas with the Aliens’. The traditional Christmas story was retold to some alien visitors whose spaceship had broken down on earth. With stunning costumes and wonderful singing and speaking voices, these confident performers amazed the audience with their talent.
What a show! Well done everyone – a splendid success and great fun to watch.
Years 2 to 7 put on a fantastic end of term show this week. Audiences were amazed and thoroughly entertained by the extremely talented dancers, singers, musicians and actors. Some say it was the best Provo Primary Christmas Show to date! See a slideshow of the main highlights.
Bob (the littlest elf) was rather disgruntled as she didn’t understand the true meaning of Christmas. So clever Santa decided to take her with him on his sleigh and show her all the wonderful things that happen around the world at this special time of year.
We’d like to thank all the children, staff and parents whose combined hard work and efforts have produced this wonderful show and a big thank you to Krys for these wonderful photos.
Once a month at Provo Primary School, we offer our children the chance to ‘dress down’ and have a non-uniform day in return for a donation of a dollar that goes towards a chosen charity. This November, we decided to ask our children to do something a bit different and donate a gift for the Provo Children’s Home. [Read more…]
Our Year 3 to 7 Sports’ Day was a huge success today with children demonstrating a range of athletic track and field skills, great sportsmanship and team work. From javelin and long jump to hurdles, sprints and relay races, all the children tried their individual best and had lots of fun. Thank you everyone who helped organize the event and to all of you who were able to attend.
This week we hosted our first ‘Be Active’ Week.
Our aim for the week was to raise awareness in school for the importance of being active. Children were encouraged to make an ‘Active Week Pledge’, promising to do or try something active during the week. Each class kept a record of all the fruit and vegetables that they have eaten for snack and lunch during the week. Most children live far away from the school but lots chose to stop on route and walk part of the way. Points were awarded for each class’ efforts and the class with the most points at the end of the week was recognised as ‘the most active’ class.
The week was a great success. It was great to see children, parents and teachers all making a special effort to challenge themselves to be more aware of their physical activity and to eat more fruit and vegetables.
Well done everyone!
Once again our Halloween Party was a haunting success and the costumes amazing. It was a great evening of fun. Here is a thank you message from our organisers, the Gypsy and Corps Bride:
A very big thank you to everyone, both parents and kids who helped to make this night a success.
We would like to thank you all for donating the fabulous prizes, candies, decorations, lights and much, much more for the Halloween party. We could not have done it without your help, in the day decorating the school beforehand, and on the night serving at the bar and the food stalls and with running the games. Thank you to Christal for the donation of the Pirates Rum and a special thank you to Chef Fritz for the delicious fried rice. Thank you to Juergen and Richard for helping with the Haunted House and the Friends of the Arts for lending us some of the decorations.
Thank you to Mrs. Stephanie for dealing with our emails and more and Miss Sian for letting us take over the school for the night. We appreciate the teachers for giving us their Saturday night to help with the games and also for making decorations with their classes – they were awesome! Thank you also to the Flamingo Park residents for making Trick-or-Treat possible.
And finally, a special thank to the Sunday morning clean up crew – you guys rock!
Hope you all had fun!
Greetings from the Gypsy and Corps Bride.
On the last Friday of every month we have a ‘Dress Down Day. Everyone get the opportunity to not wear school uniform for the day. Sometimes there is a theme, sometimes it’s free choice. Everyone is encouraged to donate a dollar to participate. We use the money to support a local or international charity. The School Council is currently deciding what to collect the money for this year. This month’s Dress Down theme was ‘Orange and Black’ as it was so close to Halloween. Thank you everyone for your continued support.
On 5th October 1994, the first World Teachers’ Day was observed. Today, fifteen years later, the world continues to commemorate the day, highlighting the very important role that teachers play in their respective countries, and elsewhere. Here is a message from our Permanent Secretary, Dr. Beatrice L. Fulford…
This week we had our School Council Elections and many children in Years 2-7 took the opportunity to run to be their class representative. Read on to find out more about the elections and what it takes to be a great School Councillor. [Read more…]
From Athletics to Yoga, children throughout the school have enjoyed their first couple of P.E. sessions of the year. See a slideshow of the children learning and practising their techniques. Read on to learn more details on what they are learning.
