Special Subjects

 Please sign up for the clubs in the school office. Some clubs have limited numbers so sign up today!

  KARATE CLUB: Tuesdays 4-5pm with Sensi Stacy in the gym. Grades K-6. Boys and girls. Runs from 7th September for 6 weeks until 12th October 2010. Normal PE kit to be worn please.

  NETBALL CLUB: Wednesdays 2:45-3:45pm with Coach Claire and Miss Hurst in the gym. Grades 2-6 boys and girls. Starts 8th September for 7 weeks, ends 20th October2010. Normal PE kit to be worn please.

 SOCCER CLUB: Thursdays 2:45 - 4pm with Coach Claire and Mr Brent on the field. Grades K-6 boys and girls. Starts 9th September and runs until 27th January 2011. Please ensure your child has cleats, shin pads and brings a hat and water bottle. Be prepared for some muddy children so please send spare clothes as we approach the wetter months. Teams for the Under 9 and Under 11’s CUC Primary Football Leauge team will be chosen and asked to come to an addtional practice on Saturday mornings. Letters will be sent home and watch this space for more information.

We all love Fridays, the start of the weekend, that Friday feeling, fruity Friday….now that has a ring to it.

On Friday afternoons when our students finish class they get very excited because it’s bake sale time. Children are hungry! Teachers are hungry! They line up with their money for a much needed snack. Up until now though the snacks on offer have followed the tradition of baked goods; often high in sugar and low in nutrients. Up until now that is…..

Mandi Ponce (member of our School Board and Wellness Committee) is passionate about heathy eating.  She knows the benefits of giving children a snack that will give them a boost and keep them going until tea time. She is so passioante about bringing healthy snacks to our children that she is providing them for free (for 2 Fridays) to our students in place of the bake sale.

Children had a choice of oranges, red grapes, green grapes, pickle, popcorn, pretzel sticks and 100% juice cartons. The result? See for yourself -

We even had feedback from parents saying that their children thought it was and I quote “the BEST ‘bake sale’ ever!!!”

The new school year will be bringing a new look and new name to bake sale. Watch this space and the school newsletter for more information.

Have a great summer vacation, remember to Be Active and Eat Smart!

Coach Claire

For the last month of school, here’s what we’ll be doing in computer classes:

Kindergarten - We’ve spent nine months working on the basics of using a computer.  It’s time to have some fun!

Grade 1 - We’re getting to be experts at touch typing.  We should all know by now exactly where to place our fingers on the keyboard, even though it’s a long stretch for some of us.  We’ve also just learned how to save our work into a folder, and open it again later.

Grade 2 - We’re learning how to organize our files and folders.  We know how to navigate through folders to find specific files.  Next up, creating our own folders.

Grade 3 - We’re focusing now on typing without looking down at our hands.  It’s often hard and frustrating, but we’re improving with practice, and will be even better if we always type properly at home, too!

Grade 4-6 - We know what it means to “Photoshop” a picture, now we’re learning how to manipulate digital images.  We’re learning the same skills and concepts you need to use Adobe Photoshop (layers, cropping, transparency, selections, and color adjustments) but doing it with software you can use at home too.  Just download Paint.NET from here!

Here’s what we’ve been doing in computer class lately!

Kindergarten - We’ve been learning how to log in, start a program (like Tux Paint), create a drawing, save it, close the program, and shut down our computer.  We know what it means to double-click on something, and we’ve just learned how to navigate the globe in Google Earth.

Grade 1 - We’ve spent a lot of time this year with Microsoft Word. By now, we are able to start the program, choose a font and color for our text, and type sentences in proper case using the Shift key.  We know how to fix our mistakes, and move the cursor with our keyboard or our mouse.  We’re just now starting to learn our home keys on the keyboard.

Grade 2 - We know how to sit properly when typing at a computer, we’re starting to memorize our home keys, and we’re getting to know Paws in Typing Town very well! Earlier in the year, we spent a lot of time learning the proper names for things on our screen: windows, title bars, tool bars, the taskbar, the Start menu, the desktop, icons and more! We know how to maximize, minimize, restore, move and resize windows.

Grade 3 - We are now experts in Microsoft PowerPoint! We can create presentations, choose designs and transitions for our slides, add bullet points and graphics, and give presentations to the class.  We’ve worked on summarizing information for our slides, and practised giving presentations to the class.  We use PowerPoint to enhance oral presentations, not replace them!  We know we need to face our audience, speak confidently and fluently without just reading bullet points from our slides, and make sure that our slides don’t distract from what we have to say.  Now we’re developing our touch typing speed along with Paws in Typing Town, and starting to look up while we type, trusting our fingers to find the keys on their own!

Grade 4 - We’ve continued working on our touch typing prowess, looking up as much as possible, moving on to Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing as we graduate from Paws. We have also been getting started on creating spreadsheets with Microsoft Excel. We’ve learned the terminology of rows, columns and cells, and added data to spreadsheets.  We used AutoSum to add a column of numbers, and learned the basics of formulas using cell references.  We recently used Excel to create column and pie charts representing the fat content of fast food, helping illustrate what Coach Claire has been telling us all along!

Grade 5/6 - We are learning all about operating systems.  We’ve learned that operating systems are responsible for communicating with computer hardware, and know some of the differences between Microsoft Windows, Mac OS and Linux.  We have enjoyed learning how to install and use Ubuntu Linux on the computers in the lab.  Earlier this year we learned the fundamentals of computer programming, including loops, conditional statements and variables, using the easy and fun Scratch environment.  We’ve talked about the history of the internet, and learned a little bit of HTML.

Many of these programs are available for use at home.  Tux Paint, Scratch, and Ubuntu Linux are available for free!  While Paws in Typing Town is relatively expensive, the far more affordable Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing works very well, too.  And practising correct typing posture and using home keys can be done in any program, for free!

I am so proud of my band students this year!   They are a great group of students who are hard working, and we have loads of fun every class.   They are playing really well, and moving quickly through the band curriculum!    You can tell from their expressions in these photos how much we all enjoy class together!

Students in Grades 3 & 4 have just completed a term learning to play the recorder.   The recorder is a great beginning instrument as it teaches students foundational skills for music such as note and rhythm reading, breathing, tonguing and producing good tone, as well as introducing fingering that will help them in the future should they study a band instrument.   We had a lot of fun learning to play familiar children’s songs, and the challenge piece for higher level students  “Here I Am to Worship” one of our favorite chapel songs!   The highlight at the end of the unit was introducing other instruments to add rhythm, and chords.   Students were also given the opportunity to play the alto and tenor recorders.   Here are some photos to document the good times!  (looks like i only captured the grade 4’s - sorry!)

What a team! Well done to everyone.

As a school we walked/ran 509 miles in less than 3 weeks. We joined thousands of other children from around the world all folllowing ultra endurance athlete Paul Staso on his solo run around Germany. He is the founder of P.A.C.E. Trek which stands for Promoting Active Children Everywhere. Find out more by clicking here.

Last year we logged 508 miles whilst Paul ran around Alaska. Paul has an online classroom so we can learn as we go along about the country he is in, about the adventures he gets up to and all about health and fitness too. Paul posts pictures and videos and we can leave him messages in his guestbook.

Here are some pictures of this years P.A.C.E. Trek. We ran laps in the gym and for every 25 laps (1 mile) our students recieved a footprint which was then put up on the wall.  We also did 2 whole school run/walks on the field. It was great to see so many active children (and parents) out there, great job!!

Grade 1 get us underway with 22 miles!

Juwan and Johanan showing Grand Cayman and Germany on the world map.

Grades 4-6 after adding another 29 miles to our total.

Kindergarten use “Speedy Snake” to help them keep track of the laps. They ran 10 miles!

Grade 2 boys getting ready to race.

Grade 2 pacing around the gym.

Grade 3 after doing 14 miles as a class. They don’t even look tired!

Our FBCS Team  - 75 students aged 5-12

Out on the field, we ran 92 miles one week and 72 the week after!

Collecting tabs to keeo track of the laps.

Keep on running…..

and running….

and running….

and if you get tired, just hitch a ride!

 I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13)

Once again we are joining endurance athlete Paul Staso and as a school we are going to run/walk 500 miles in the next 3 weeks. Last year we virtually trekked around Alaska with him, completing 508 miles.

FBCS P.A.C.E. Trek 2009

This year Paul is running around Germany and we can follow him online and learn about Germany and health and fitness too. We will logging miles in PE classes and as a whole school on:

Friday March 12th 2pm

Friday March 19th 2pm

Friday March 26th 11am

See the press release and web link for more details about P.A.C.E. Trek.

Paul Staso, Founder and President of The P.A.C.E. Fitness Foundation (P.A.C.E. being ‘Promoting Active Children Everywhere’), has run solo across the United States in 2006, solo across Montana in 2008, and solo through Alaska in 2009. Now, the 44-year-old husband, father of four and ultra-endurance athlete will push a jogging stroller of gear and virtually trek with thousands of children worldwide over a 500-mile course through Germany between March 8 and March 30, 2010.

“The Germany challenge, called P.A.C.E. Trek 2010, is my way of trying to make an impact in the decline of youth health and fitness,” Staso says. “The trek through Germany will require me to average nearly a marathon per day for 21 days. I’ll be virtually traveling with teams of school children from across the U.S.A. as well as many other countries as they access my “online classroom”, www.pacetrek.com/germany, and learn about the locations we’re trekking through via my writings, pictures and media files.” Free school team registration is now open. For the most recent P.A.C.E. Trek (Alaska in May 2009), Staso had 22,515 school children from 10 countries participate – logging a cumulative distance of 118,002 miles during the three-week endeavor

Let the games begin

Grade 1 Curling

The Luge

Skiing as part of the Biathlon

Ski jumping!

Figure skating

Torch relay

Torch relay

Ice (table) hockey

Speed skating

Cross Country Skiing

The photos below are courtesy of the Caymanian Compass. They did an article about our winter olympic week, click here to read it.