A unique Primary School, offering a British based, child centred education in the Turks and Caicos Islands
Amongst much work done last term, the class had the opportunity to prepare independent projects at home on any chosen aspect of Ancient Roman life.
The results were fabulous, everything from home cooked food, PowerPoint presentations, costumes, quizzes and even Lego models were brought in!
The children all rose to the challenge wonderfully in their own unique ways and we enjoyed sharing and learning from each other’s work.
View a snapshot of our week’s learning about our endemic TCI Rock Iguana. Enjoy photos of our toddlers to Year 6 as you listen to the vibes of Correy Forbes and the Rakooneers. A special thank you to ‘Rocky the Iguana’ and Dr. Higgs from The National Trust and Amy Avenant from DECR for visiting us.
Year 4 visited the hospital as part of our ‘Moving and Growing’ topic. They really treated us like royalty; when we arrived, we had a delicious lunch – served to us! Then we were given a very grown up talk and slide show by one of the orthopaedic surgeons there.
I must say I was so proud of the class, not only of the knowledge they showed but also of the way they behaved and represented our school. They were wonderful.
This mid-term we have been incredibly lucky to have had the chance to try out a sport that is completely new to most of us here in the T.C.I-Gaelic football Irish: Peil Ghaelach; short name Peil or Caid), commonly referred to as football or Gaelic! It is an Irish team sport, played between two teams of 15 players on a rectangular grass pitch. The objective of the sport is to score by kicking or punching the ball into the other team’s goals (3 points) or between two upright posts above the goals and over a crossbar 2.5 metres (8.2 ft) above the ground (1 point). The range of skills this game tests and improves is fantastic and has been a real eye-opener for Key Stage Two!
Years 1-6 present…
Friday 8th and Saturday 9th December
6pm @ Provo Primary School.
Tickets $10 (Children 12 and under free)
Food and drink on sale.
Buy your tickets in the school office or on IsleHelp from Monday 27th onwards.
Email info@provolearning.com or call 333 5638 for details or to make a reservation.
Synopsis: It’s an adventure like no other as Peter Pan whisks the intrepid Darling children off to the fantastical world of Neverland. It’s a world of Lost Boys and villainous pirates, fearsome natives and enchanting fairies. And boy do they fight!
When Wendy and Tiger Lily are kidnapped by the pirates, can the ever-youthful Peter find a way to rally the Lost Boys, appease the angry Natives and defeat the pirates once and for all? Or will Captain Hook play his final hand!
World Exploration was amongst the many topics Year 4 and I learned about last half term. The subject is fascinating enough, but we were lucky enough to have a visit from Sir Francis Drake himself!
The children had prepared questions for him in advance and had the chance to interview him for about half an hour. He talked to us about many things including his circumnavigation of the globe, what it’s like working for the Queen of England and described Tudor London for us. We had a very rare insight in to life approximately 500 years ago.
I asked the class to add to this blog with some of their thoughts about the visit; here are some of their comments:
Provo Primary School and Bay Bistro celebrated their 6th Annual Bonfire Night together on the 5th November. This year turned out to be one of the noisiest nights yet!
Thanks to our wonderful friends at Bay Bistro, families were treated to a Grace Bay beach barbecue and drinks – the perfect way to end our mid-term holidays and get us all ready for heading back to school.
Perhaps being so well rested added to the energy in the crowd! After joining in chorus for the traditional Remember, Remember the Fifth of November rhyme,families gathered close to watch the lighting of the bonfire. As an extra surprise, the Bay Bistro Guy Fawkes was filled with firecrackers and went up in a fizz of pops and crackles.
Last week, Flamingo Class were lucky to receive an invitation from our friends at Amanyara’s Nature Discovery Center – to contribute towards a Reef Conservation project!
Over the past few years, over 450 reef balls have been placed in the ocean by Amanyara. This new reef is situated in the Northwest Point National Park. More recently, coral has been added to these reef balls in order to preserve the delicate habitats of the area.
Children were treated to a guided snorkeling tour of the new reef by Discovery Center manager, Jackie Walker. We saw a wide range of coral that is now successfully living and growing in its new habitat. We learned to observe and identify Elk Horn, Mustard Hill and Finger coral.
Finally, Jackie took us to the Center’s underwater ocean coral nursery. We watched her identify and prepare a piece of Finger coral to plant on behalf of Providenciales Primary School. Thanks to a piece of special purple ‘putty,’ our little Finger coral is now held in place on a reef ball off the shore of Amanyara Resort. Not a bad place to spend its days!
Our food chains and habitats project took a gruesome turn this week in Flamingo Class. Having learned about the complex links between animals, insects and plants within a habitat, Year 4 undertook an Owl Pellet dissection to discover exactly what lay inside the stomach of a master predator.
The results were quite surprising. Horrible and amazing at the same time.
Owl pellets are formed when an owl eats its prey (normally small rodents, shrews, moles or birds). The animal passes through the owls stomach into its gizzard (a tough, muscly second stomach. This stomach acts like a filter to stop indigestible bones and fur passing through. This collection of waste is then packed together and regurgitated. They can be found in forests where owls live, normally under nests.
Take a look at all of this amazing art work created by each of our classes from Toddlers to Year 6! I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s absolutely beautiful.
Bidding has already started at half day pick up today and will be open again after school. Final bidding will take place at our 25th Anniversary PTA Event at the Shore Club on Saturday evening. All proceeds from the art auction will go to our PTA Funds.
We are so proud of all the children for working together with these under the talented, creative direction of Mrs. Yorka and the teachers.
Did you know – flamingoes’ legs can sometimes be longer than their entire body? Flamingoes can also live up to 30 years old, and sometimes even 50 if they live in a protected place away from predators. To attract a female flamingo, the male flamingoes perform a synchronized dance whereby they stand together stretching their necks upwards, uttering calls while waving their heads and flapping their wings? We all had fun trying to imitate this dance in Year 3. We wondered if the flamingoes laughed and had as much fun as we did…what beautiful happy birds they are!
Each year, we dedicate a week to learn in-depth about the local wildlife in our environment here in the Turks and Caicos. This year we are exploring the world of Flamingoes. In previous years we have studied ospreys, sharks and turtles. These are all extra special to us here at Provo Primary as our classes are named after these local animals. Each year, we invite local experts in to talk to us and share their knowledge of the animals, their habitats here in the TCI and about why it is important for us to protect them.
Since the start of the Summer Term, Year 4 have been learning about how unique and delicate our local habitats are here in the Turks and Caicos Islands. In fact, we have been learning that the same is true for habitats all around the world!
Children have been learning about the different elements that make a habitat and how all life-forms compete with each other other for food, light, shelter and space. To demonstrate this relationship, we created food chains that showed the interdependence of all life forms.
Children then turned their food chains into hanging mobiles. Children learned how light from the sun is converted into energy by plant matter (through photosynthesis) and that all insect and animal life somehow rely on this growth for survival. Even huge animals, for example:
Killer whale (eats…) – Seals – Squid – Small Crabs – Algae
A simple science lesson led to the manufacturing of Rocket Fuel in Year 4 this week!
As part of our science topic on Electrical Circuits, Year 4 were asked to test whether water acts as a conductor or insulator of electricity. With the very small charge (3 batteries) that we were using, it appeared that the water was an insulator. However, when children returned from breaktime to discover that bubbles had formed on one of the connecting wires, they began to think that the water actually was conducting a small amount of electricity.
We learned that salt water (and other impure water solutions) will conduct electricity. As soon as we added salt to the water, each connecting wire began to fizz.
Children immediately wanted to know what was happening. Instead of finding out right away, we enlisted the help of Year 6 (and all their experimenting experience) to capture the gasses that were being created.
By working together in small groups, we managed to manufacture 6 test-tubes of rocket fuel!
Watch our video to find out how we did it. And, more importantly, how we proved that we really did have rocket fuel… [Read more…]
A proud moment for Provo Primary when our Science Team were announced 1st place winners in the FortisTCI Annual National Science and Technology Fair Science Project competition.
Congratulations to all our amazing students involved and to our incredible team leader, Mr. Jason (our Year 6 teacher and Science Fair / Quiz Coordinator this year). We were particularly proud of the students knowledge of the experiment, their use of scientific language and advanced level of understanding during their presentation before the judges. Well done everyone for all your hard work and effort and thank you to all who have supported them along the way.
Have you ever wondered what the times tables would look like in 3D?No, of course not!
Erm…
These were the crucial questions that Year Four explored this week in our maths sessions! As part of our ongoing mission to learn our times tables facts, we tried to create a 3D model of the 10 x 10 times tables grid.
Using our Cuisenaire number sticks, children created each times table from x1 to x10. Once all of the times tables were built, we constructed the entire grid, with all times tables laid on top of each other. The results were quite surprising, I think you’ll agree!
We are excited to announce our Year 3 & 4 Spring PE Showcase, scheduled to take place at the TCIFA fields on Thursday 23rd Feb, 8:45 – 9:45am.
The children have been learning to play Handball this term and we are looking forward to demonstrating new skills and game play for you. This year, the showcase will consist of two exhibition games, starting after a warm-up at 8:45am, and a parents ‘taster’ game. Year 5 & 6 will also be joining us as spectators, ahead of their own Handball lessons.
We will be providing information on the sport of Handball (or, rather, the version of Junior Handball that we are learning). Miss Mani and I have been thrilled by the progress and improvement in all children and we hope that this will be evident in the exhibition games.
We would also like to invite parents to participate in a short ‘taster’ game. Many children found learning this new sport challenging and we know that they would be excited to see you try it too! So, we encourage parents to attend in work-out clothing and ready to play!
Many thanks for your support!
The culmination of our recent topic on Moving and Growing involved a trip to the Cheshire Hall Medical Centre to find out about how a patient with injured bones or muscles would be treated. Children were given an all-access tour of the facilities relating to patient care – starting at the phlebotomy department, through the micro biology labs, into the physiotherapy treatment rooms and finally to the x-ray department. In each area, children were taught about how broken bones are tested, treated and rehabilitated.
We were fortunate to have the expertise of Nurse Moira to lead us through each area and a host of other hospital workers who shared their knowledge with us.
Earlier in the year, children in Year 4 explored language and poetry techniques in their literacy lessons. Inspired by Conservation International’s Nature is Speaking campaign, pupils attempted to use powerful and evocative language to personify the ocean and its feelings. We then also created acrostic poems that tried to describe the movement of the ocean. I think you’ll agree, the ideas and language that came out of these poetry sessions were really dramatic!
Flamingo Class then set about publishing videos of these spoken poems by editing voice recordings, still images and video clips in MovieMaker. We hope we enjoy our two compilations.
As part of our TCI Heritage Month learning, Y4 were asked which area of the Island’s history and culture they would like to know more about. After learning about traditional bush medicines and the history of navigating the country’s 40 islands and cays, the children were very excited for their final session – we were going to learn to “Ripsaw!”
We were fortunate to have David Bowen and friends join us for an afternoon of traditional music and dance. Children were taught the history of “Ripsaw” and “Rake ‘n’ Scrape” in the Caribbean and how this music has its origins in African percussion music. Children had the chance to see and play a range of percussion instruments that demonstrated how people had used everyday household objects to create rhythm and beats.
Years 1-6 present…
Friday 9th and Saturday 10th December
6pm @ Provo Primary School.
Tickets $10 (Children 12 and under free)
Refreshments on sale.
Buy your tickets directly on the IsleHelp or in the school office.
Email info@provolearning.com or call 441 5638 for details.
Flamingo Class shared some amazing home learning projects this week, the culmination of their first half-term’s learning on The Age of Discoveries.
Our class knew it all! Children had produced all kinds of projects, including: maps of their routes from between 800-500 years ago, models of the ships used to circumnavigate the globe, a sailor’s diet on board an explorer’s ship, clothing from the period and tales of bravery and treachery!
We spent a lovely morning sharing our new knowledge with each other, our parents and children from other classes. Every new visitor shared in our excitement for this exciting topic and posed even more questions that need an answer.
Another small tradition of Bonfire Night is having the Year 4 class prepare a Guy Fawkes for the school’s event at Bay Bistro. As part of their Let’s Celebrate! topic, our Flamingo Class went all-out to make a full-size Guy. The class put so much into their project that many felt a little sad to see him sitting on top of the burning fire!
The class were challenged to make a Guy using only materials that would have been available 400 years ago, when Guy Fawkes and his conspirators planned to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London. Not only that, but the children had to ensure that he was dressed in the correct fashion of the period. Well, our Guy needed to look good for such a big party!
After sessions of designing, planning and finding the right materials the class set about building the Guy. Many, many stitches later (!) the class were rightly proud of their creation!
On Sunday 6th November, the Provo Primary community gathered for our 5th annual Bonfire Night celebrations at Bay Bistro. It was especially exciting to see that new experiences have slowly given way to yearly traditions in this very British event.
Families gathered around the large bonfire for food and drinks, much like in communities all over the UK. However, our Provo Bonfire Night has slowly adopted its own unique traditions that we all enjoy! A pre-bonfire swim is now essential, as is the chorus of the Remember, Remember the 5th November rhyme. In addition, we were treated to a bright and noisy firework display above us. We also always enjoy seeing familiar friends of the Provo Primary community who come out to join us for this special evening.
We thank all families for their support and, of course, Bay Bistro for hosting another fantastic evening for us all!
Year 4 were lucky to have Mr Handfield, The TCI Conch Man, visit them last week as part of their Age of Discovery topic. Mr Handfield is a local artist who works purely with conch shells to create all kinds of art and everyday items. He explained to the class how he had been inspired to develop his skill of cutting, decorating and joining conch shells as a whole new art form. He how has a repertoire of over 25 designs that he produces for sale and his items have been sold and dispatched to countries all around the world!
Mr Handfield has kindly offered to help Flamingo Class with their Design and Technology project this term, as the children embark on the process of designing and making their own piece of jewelry using locally inspired materials and traditions.
It has already been a busy few weeks in Flamingo Class this year. From starting new topics and making new friends, greeting classmates after a long summer apart or just trying to remember not to walk into the wrong classroom…Year Four have had their brains full from the start.
The class were set some early cooperation challenges to get the whole class working together on some shared projects. The first was to make a mural for our big display board – an entire world map for our Age of Discovery class topic. This task required everyone to work together to make a realistic world map our of torn paper and glue. The continents were made on the tables, but the ocean had to be glued directly into the wall! As you can see from the pictures, we ended up with pretty ‘gluey’ fingers and lots of paper to pick up.
It all required a great deal of patience, tenacity and teamwork. Perfect! These are all essential skills for finding success in Year 4!