Special Subjects

I simply have the best job in the world! I get to play in the gym, on the field and in the computer lab (that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!). I call it ‘play’ to the students as we all much prefer to play than work!

 We play a lot of games in PE and have a wide curriculum the students cover in termly blocks of either 8 weeks or 4 weeks. It’s based on the British Curriculum even though FBCS is an American School. We cover softball and cricket for example in keeping with the fact that Cayman is still a British led territory. Basketball, netball, badminton, soccer, tag rugby are all taught as is gymnastics, dance and fitness.

All children do a block of swimming every year and we have amazing facilities here at FBCS. A full air-conditioned gym, pavement area, 2 play parks and large playing field with 2 football pitches.

Here is a look at our yearly schedule in PE and learning objectives for each grade.

pe-year-schedule-and-learning-objectives-2011-12

See you in PE! Healthy blessings - Coach Claire

Media is a big, no scratch that… a HUGE part of our lives and it can seem overwhelming at times with DVD’s Cd’s, the Internet, online games, iPads, iPods, Kindles and of course the old fashioned television. Whilst it is important to grow up with knowledge of computers and all the new technology, it’s also important to have time away from it too and to limit our children’s time.

We teach Internet safety to Grades 2 and above but media nowadays is creeping in at an alarmingly young age. There are savvy 2 year olds on iPods and iPads and 3 year olds that know how to select a video on YouTube!

www.commonsensemedia.org is a site dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing trustworthy information and education, in order for kids to thrive in a world of media and technology.

The Family Media Agreement is a checklist you can use to guide conversations with your child about media use. It’s designed to help you establish guidelines and expectations around media use.  You can use it as a checklist to guide conversations or as a signed agreement. Either way, it’s a great way to help you and your kids get on the same page about media and technology use.

click here for the agreement.

Hope this makes you chuckle -

Life before the computer

Memory was something you lost with age

An application was for employment

A program was a T.V. show

A keyboard was a piano

A web was a spiders house

A virus was the flu

A hard drive was a long trip on the road

A mouse was a small furry rodent and of course…

…a mouse pad was somewhere a mouse lived!

Today we had our school nurse talk to us in assembly about healthy eating and the good food choices we have to make. Its all about choice, choice at the supermarket, choice when out at the cinema or in a restaurant, the choice to be healthy. Our bodies need a balanced diet and we need vitamins to stay healthy. Come on FBCS kids - let’s make healthy choices and feel great!

What will you choose? Click here for the video we watched.

Healthy Blessings - Coach Claire

Thank you to all who participated and raised money to help this years rollathon be a huge success.

We had almost all FBCS participate and a lot of WEE Care children too! It was great to see everyone scooting, skating, triking, boarding and biking endless laps of the car park for 3 hours solid. I received some wonderful feedback from parents and the children did great. Lots of exercise + fun = healthy happy kids! Together both circuits blasted last years lap count of 2500 laps.

This year we raised over $2745 which will go towards new equipment for the PE department. Jade Robinson won our biggest sponsorship collection and recieved a gift certificate raising $502 and Bruce Murdoch raised the most from WEE Care - $108.  Our students together completed 3885 laps!!! Way to go FBCS and WEE Care!

The morning of the Roll-a-thon, lots of bikes, scooters, trikes and skateboards ready and waiting!

Grades 3-6 waiting for the Roll-a-thon

Grade 3 boys waiting waiting waiting

Coach Claire getting the cones ready.

If you have to wait you might as well eat!

Lots of parents waiting for the start...

And we are off.....

on big bikes...

small bikes...

trikes...

skates...

scooters...

running bikes....

and strange....

skateboard things (called a rip-stick apparently).

We had parents helping...

and watching...

and working...

and chatting...

and hugging...

and keeping kids safe...

and quenching their thirst...

and giving advice...

and joining in!

Kindergarten Topics:  SPANISH/ ESPANOL

Second Grading Period      

1.   Shapes/ numbers

2.   House/ school/ family

3.   Toys

First Grade Topics:

1.   Food

2.   Clothing

3.   The face

4.   Family/animals

Second Grade Topics:

1.   Clothing

2.   Food

3.   The body

4.   The family/ time clock

5.   Animals/ the house

Third Grade Topics:

1.   Food

2.   Community

3.   Gender

4.   The body/ face and emotions

5.   Animals

6.   The house

Fourth Grade Topics:

1.   Definite articles

2.   Using numbers

3.   Commands and expressions

4.   Colors

5.   Possessive adjectives

6.   The body

7.   The family

Fifth Grade Topics:

1.   Sports

2.   Numbers

3.   Sizes shapes and colors

4.   Prepositions/ tu and usted

5.   Subject pronouns

Sixth Grade Topics:

1.   Memorize- er verb infinitive meanings

2.   Memorize and apply regular- er verb conjugation

3.   Create your own sentences using regular- er verbs

4.   Memorize- ir verb infinitive meanings

5.   Memorize and apply regular- ir verb conjugation

6.   Create your own sentences using regular- ir verbs

7.   Review food and drinks vocabulary as you practice using er and ir verbs

8.   Create menus for projects

9.   Write and perform restaurant skits for possible filming.

Music Classes

Grade 6 - My grade 6 band class is awesome!   Students are working hard, and have raised the level of performance this year!    Students are improving their  tone, embouchure, and breathing as we learn a variety of repertoire.   A highlight was performing for the kindergarten class this week!   Please remind students to practice at least 15 minutes per day!

Grade 5- This is another awesome band class!   These beginning students spur each other on to be better musicians!   We are learning beginning embouchure, fingerings, notes, and instrument care.   Please encourage students to practice for at least 15 minutes per day!  

Grade 4 -  Students have been exploring drum sounds, and percussion instruments this term.   Students also studied the Instruments of the Orchestra and created presentations using powerpoint.

Grade 3- Students have been learning about the Instruments of the Orchestra.   We also used a website called “Musical Mysteries” and worked through a range of activities about the orchestra.   During the Christmas Season, we studied the history of Christmas Carols, and sang many different traditional Christmas Songs!  We even learned one in German- Stille Nacht!

Grade 2- Students in grade two have also been learning about the instruments of the orchestra.   We have learned about the conductor, and the four families of instruments in the orchestra.   We also went on a sound scavenger hunt, and learned about which sounds have a steady beat! 

Grade 1-  Students in grade one have been learning a range of musical terms, and demonstrating their meanings.  We have studied “piano, forte, crescendo, and presto.”   We listened to the “Flight of the Bumblebee” to demonstrate presto.  We are currently learning songs of the Caribbean!   Ask your child to sing “Yellow Bird” or “River Come Down”, we will continue to add other songs to these in the next few weeks.   The music is bright and fun to sing!

Kindergarten - Students in kindergarten have been learning various children’s songs that go along with the theme that they are studying in class.   We also love to play along to music using  rhythm sticks!     Students are learning about loud and quiet music, and are involved in activities to show the various dynamic levels in music.   

Computer Classes Grade 4-6

Students in grades 4-6 have been focusing on two areas this term.  The first area that we have focused on is typing skills.  Typing (keyboarding) is an essential skill for students today!  Our students  have been working through a series of  lessons using a program called “Mavis Beacon”.   Several of our students are very close to finishing the advanced level!   We have about three weeks for them to work towards completing their typing goals this term.  Each grade level takes keyboarding skills every year!   

The second area that we have focused on this term is digital photography.   The objectives for this term were posted earlier.   Students have been taking a variety of photos and will be gathering photos for their digital portfolio, which is due at the end of January.  I have been very impressed with their creativity!  

Next term students will look at internet safety; how to use digital photos for a variety of projects; and using the internet effectively to conduct research, evaluate information, and use the information in projects.  

Our FBCS students love computers! It is a pleasure to teach to children who are so willing to learn and let’s face it, most children are facinated with our technology today. Having said that we need to know how to use a computer from a practical sense and also how to be safe when using it. Parents, click here for a great article on internet safety.

Kindergarten has come on in leaps and bounds recently. They are all confident turning on the computer, can all log on using thier username and password and can open and close programs and safely log off again. They are confident with mouse control and can double and single click with it, they also know how to use the scroll feature! We use a lot of educational based games to teach at this stage and are moving on to Microsoft Word to start to learn some keyboarding skills. All students know that an adult should be nearby and can ask if something unexpected occurs. This is a great skill to reinforce at home as well as no eating or drinking next to the computer. Also remember computer time counts as screen time and this should be limited at this age - here is a great article with some good advice.

Grade 1 are getting comfortable with Microsoft Word and can change font size and color. They can make capital letters and underline text too. Adding clip art and resizing it has been fun and we have been saving out work in our own folder. We continute to use educational games and are getting familar with where the keys are on our keyboard, so much that we are ready to start to learn our home keys and we use Tux Typing to play games to do this.

Grade 2are improving thier typing skills in PAWS TYPING and have been creating some fantastic work in Microsoft Word by underlining and aligning text and sentances. They can use bullet points and numbers and make it attractive with clipart. We have been continuing with Internet Safety and have been using Net Smartz Kids to learn all about how to stay safe, when to ask an adult and how to avoid spam mail too.

Grade 3have been producing some amazing work in Microsoft Word and have also learnt how to make a Power Point presentation. They excelled with this and presented their slideshow to the rest of the class. They have learnt to make bullet points, add pictures, sound clips, to make the transitions fun and to animate text too! We’ve also been adding to our online safety knowledge by learning all about the Wizziwigs on www.netsmartzkids.org 

Once again FBCS students have had a great time at the Cayman Islands Sailing Club. This is one of the best places in the world to learn to sail. The club offers fully qualified instructors, all students are required to wear lifejackets and a safety boat is with them at all times.

This is a fantastic learn to sail course for ages 5-12 and we have a new session starting Monday April 12th running for 6 weeks til May 28th. We provide transport to the sailing club and ask parents to pick up at 5:30pm from the sailing club.

Bookings now being taken for places for the April course - sign up in the school office now!

Just hanging around til its time to rig the boats!

Getting the boat ready

Checking the boom

The girls are ready to sail...

Picos are fun to sail.

Instructions being given from the safety boat