A unique Primary School, offering a British based, child centred education in the Turks and Caicos Islands
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?
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!
What an exciting start to our summer term’s PE sessions! After a term in autumn with Coach Niall from Turks and Caicos Islands Rugby Football Union Y1 & 2 are now lucky enough to have the Turks and Caicos Islands Cricket Association coming in to teach us some early cricket skills! After just one session, it is already clear that we might have some cricket stars in the making! Watch out, Alastair Cook, you’ve got some TCI competition!
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!
Today was Sports Day for all the children from 2 through to 7 years old. Many families came along to support the children and the event was a healthy success with beating hearts, puffed cheeks and smiles all round!
Watching all of the events was amazing opportunity to see first hand the growth and development of children’s motor skills during these short years. Gross motor skills are physical abilities or capacities such as running, jumping, hopping, turning, skipping, throwing, balancing and dancing that involve the use of large bodily movements.
The event allowed the children to demonstrate developmentally appropriate skills that they have been learning and practising during their PE (Physical Education) activities. Teachers and children explained to the audience the techniques involved in the various activities before the children showcased their skills in team and individual activities.
I hope you enjoy looking back at the photos – the concentration, determination and enjoyment on the children’s faces and through their body action is a delight to see!
For the last two weeks in Year 1, we have been learning all about growing plants. Our class was lucky enough to visit Sunshine Nursery & Garden Centre for our field trip. I would like to pass along a massive “Thank you” to Nadine for showing us such a wonderful time! Not only did we have fun but we also learned lots!
During our trip, we took a tour and learned what a nursery is, about how some plants grow from seeds and how with some plants, you can snip off a bit of the plant and re-plant it to grow another new plant. We also learned where Turks Head Cactus keep their seeds and how important it is to show lots of patience because they take a long time to grow! After, our tour, we got a chance to plant a cutting of a bougainvillea and also two seeds straight from Africa—the Baobab seed and the Ceiba Pentendra seed.
Thank you to everyone at the Leicestershire & Rutland Wildlife Trust for organising this wonderful WOW celebration and encouraging us to learn more about the ospreys that live here in our islands. The week has been a great success and the interest of the children and the support community has been amazing. A true example of learning at its best!
Click on the image left to see some photos of the week’s events and fantastic art work and continue reading all about our different osprey activities below…
‘Maths Calculations’ was the focus of our 2014 Education Week Theme Week. Throughout the week we aimed to explore, share and celebrate the amazing range of Maths skills that students have in our school. Many parents and visitors came along to our Open House and Showcases. Take a look at all the Maths going on in at these events in our two movies.
We sure do love numbers in Year 1! One of our super fun number games is to use a deck of cards and play higher or lower. Here’s how we play :
1) First, with your partner, split the deck in two.
2) Then, make sure all your cards are facing the right way.
3) Next, at the count of three, put one card down.
4) The person with the higher or lower (depending on our target) card gets to keep the pair and then you keep on going until you run out of cards.
It’s such a fun game that really lets the children have fun AND focus in on the numbers.
The New Year has brought a burst of eagerness to read and write in Year 1. It’s been amazing to see how enthusiastic the children in Year 1 are. I love it!
Right after lunch, the children get their reading books and go to a quiet space and read once to themselves then quietly find a partner and read to each other. As a special treat, a child is chosen to read in front of the whole class. The children have really picked up on the need to read in a loud voice, show the pictures in the book slowly to the audience and they are even staring to read with expression!
Just before the Christmas holidays Year 6 joined up with Year 1 to share with them some of the stories that they had created based upon the holiday season. Year 6 authors were presented with the task of drafting a full Christmas story that would be suitable for a young audience. They were required to word process the final draft, add in relevant illustrations, design a front cover and include a blurb. The final result was undoubtedly professional!
More fun was to be had when we entered the Year 1 classroom and shared the finished pieces with the younger children. Year 1 were extremely impressed with the Year 6 storytellers as they listened with concentration, asked questions about the stories and most importantly enjoyed the content on offer. [Read more…]
As part of our Journeys topic this half term, Year 1 has been learning all about different ways of travelling. During our “taking flight” week, we learned all about different animals that fly, both at night and during the day. We also brainstormed all different sorts of objects that travel in the sky. One of those objects was an airplane!
One super fun activity the children did was learn how to make a paper airplane and then they got to take their planes outside and watch them take flight! It was great to see how interested the children were in learning to fold their airplane (remember lots of straight edges!) and also really enjoyed decorating them. Please read on to see the amazing paper airplanes flying by Year 1!
During the last few weeks in Year 1, we have been having fun exploring numbers. We have been using Cuisenaire rods to help us understand and explore numbers. We have been looking at pairs of numbers that total up to ten and relating addition to counting on. It has been great to see the children really starting to use the rods to make beginning addition number sentences. We also enjoyed making number sentences using Cuisenaire rods on the IWB.
Each Dress Down Day a class will have the opportunity to hold an activity for the whole school to enjoy. This may be a fundraising initiative for a project in their class or simply a time to share or celebrate something special.
This month the kindergarteners are having a bake sale as part of their emergent curriculum topic “School is Cool: Building a community in our classroom and at Provo Primary”. The class has been working together to improve the outside house area (they have named it ‘The village’). They have decided that they need more outdoor materials for this play space. They made a shopping list and presented it to Ms Alison and Miss Sian. It includes cups, plates, pots, food, a tea party set with a teapot, a table for the kitchen and shovel and buckets to make sand castles.
They have planned the bake sale to raise money for these extra toys that they believe are important for the village play area. I am sure donations of these toy items will also be gratefully received. The Year 1 class has also joined in with the bake sale as they share the play areas with the Kindergarten class.
So when you come to pick up your child today, come ready for your senses to be enchanted by the wonderful array of baked goodies to tempt you and know that as you enjoy these, the Kindergarteners and Year 1s will be most thankful for your support.
In Year 1 we have been learning to describe an event in detail through poetry writing, in the form of an acrostic poem.
“What is an acrostic poem?” we hear you say.
Well, an acrostic poem is a poem which begins with your title, which you write down the side of your page, or in a margin. Each line of your poem begins with a letter of the title.We use these letters to create words about the subject.
Our task was to create an acrostic poem about Summer, using our best descriptions and vocabulary to ‘set the scene’. “What does ‘set the scene’ mean?” This means describing an event and/or place in great detail, so that the reader can picture the scene clearly in their mind, as if they were there themselves. We hope you enjoy reading some of our fantastic acrostic poems about Summer.
Last week, the Year Ones were very excited to go on a field trip to the dentist. We learnt all about why it is important to keep our teeth healthy and clean. One of the highlights of our visit was when we were able to dress up as the different people who work at a dental clinic.
Do you know why our teeth are important? They help us to bite and chew our food so that we can swallow it easily. They also help us to talk clearly and they are important for our appearance. We would look very strange without teeth!
This term in Year One, the children are learning about castles. For a home-learning project this week, they were asked to design and make their very own castle. The final results were absolutely amazing. Every castle was unique with the children using different materials and styles! Click on ‘Read more…” below to see some photos of our wonderful castles.
Can you identify the different features of a castle? Need some help? Then click on to find out more about castles and to have a go at a couple of interactive castle activities on the Internet.
Friday morning saw the launch of our first Science Fair. Throughout our Early Years’ classes, a multitude of hands-on learning activities were being explored. It was lovely to see parents, visitors and children together observing, problem solving, predicting, thinking, making decisions and most importantly talking about what they were doing. A big thank you to all our teachers for their hard work and to all the parents and visitors who came to enjoy and share the science learning with the children. If sadly you weren’t able to make it, we hope you gain a feel for our Science Fair through the short movie above.
In Year 1, we have been learning that some of the food that we eat comes from plants. In fact, many of the fruits and vegetables that come from the supermarket have grown from plants.
We were very lucky to be able to visit one our classmates’ garden to see some of these different types of fruits and vegetables. We tasted fresh tomatoes and sugar cane from the garden and we even got to plant our very own cucumber! We looked very closely at the different plants we could see. This helped us when we carefully drew and labelled them.
We had such a lovely time and would like to thank our special family for allowing us to come and visit them.
This term, in Osprey class, the Year 1s have been learning how to recognise whether a book or story we read is fiction or non-fiction. We are remembering that fiction is an entertaining, make-believe story that is not real and non-fiction is true information that gives us facts to explain something.
A non-fiction or information book also has a few other features we have learned about, such as:
This term in Osprey Class we are learning about ‘growing’ which means that we get to plant our very own sunflower seeds! We have been learning that before they can grow, seeds need to germinate. This mean that a seed will produce its first shoot and root using its stored food. Most plants need moisture and warmth to germinate and water, warmth and light to grow. This means that in order for a plant to stay healthy and grow it needs to be watered and have access to sunlight. We have been wondering what would happen to a plant if it was left without water or sunlight. We have decided to carry out an investigation to find out. We will let you know what we find out…
This week in Year 1, we have been learning about reindeer. We have discovered that reindeer are part of the deer family. They are strong runners and good swimmers. Reindeer have white tails and necks. Their coats are brown and white. The fur of the reindeer turns a light colour in the winter and a darker colour in the summer. Reindeers are herbivores. This means they eat plants. Reindeer live in very cold places such as Canada, Russia, Alaska and Scandinavia. We have been writing our very own fact sheets about Reindeer. We have been remembering to use capital letters, full stops and finger spaces. We are hoping to catch a glimpse of Rudolph on Christmas Eve…
In our Year 1 Osprey Class, we have been designing our very own superheroes. We created a checklist of the qualities we expect to see in a superhero as well as a villain. We talked about what makes a superhero and a villain different. We filled in our superhero’s details, including special powers and known associates. Then we drew a photo of our superhero thinking very carefully about what he or she looks like. We imagined our superheroes in different scenarios and thought about how they would react and what they do. We have created our very own superhero story, thinking very carefully about the beginning, middle and end. We are now beginning to sketch our scenes as a storyboard and then we will add our speech bubbles for our different characters at the end. We are looking forward to sharing our finished comic strips with you!
In Year One, we have been exploring throwing and catching in PE.
This week, we practiced catching our ball using only one hand. We remembered to use our ‘big hands’ stretching up towards the ball to catch it. To make it even harder, we tried clapping our hands together before catching the ball. We counted how many times we could clap our hands before catching the ball. After that, we attempted to throw the ball, spin around once completely and then catch the ball again. To finish our PE lesson, we perfected our throwing and catching skills with a partner. We remembered to aim for our partner’s hands as we were throwing.
We are looking forward to showing you all that we can do on Friday 9th November at our ‘Year 1 and 2 Gym and Court Sports Showcase’ at the Graceway Sports Centre – starting promptly at 9:10 AM.