100th Day of School

North Side Primary students celebrated the 100th day of school in style! They started the day with an assembly where they heard about people who have achieved great things for the Cayman Islands and also those who have achieved greatness around the world. A 100 people mural gave examples of students in school who have begun the journey to greatness as well as those who have already achieved greatness...the first NSPS swimming team; the Year 1 and 2 students who are studying art; great inventors - including Year 3 who are working on their own inventions as part of their latest IB unit; great architects - with examples of Year 4 work for their IB unit and so on. Within the classrooms, there were many cross-curricular activities going on with a 100 theme...placing numbers on a blank 100 square; counting 100 cents; making $100 from different values of notes; reading the first 100 words; reading stories about 100 like "100th Day Worries" and "Coming Ready or Not!"; bouncing 100 times on a spacehopper; throwing the ball 100 times; working out questions that match "the answer is100..."; how far is 100 steps? and so on. The day finished with a 100 balloon release. It was great fun!

A Parent's Night with a Difference

This evening's HSA meeting saw parents and their children working together on a Technology Challenge. The family groups were challenged to make a tree out of 4 sheets of papers - with only a pair of scissors as a tool...see how inventive, creative and ingenious they were! Good fun was had by all!

Fish Fry Fundraiser

Many thanks to all who supported our fundraising Fish Fry this evening (Fri 30th Jan 2009). Students, parents and staff worked together to make this event a resounding success! Particular thanks to Ms Wendy Quinland and Mr Nick Rivers who manned the fryers...they were fantastic!! Once we have had a chance to balance income against expenses we will let you know how much this event raised! We are trying to ensure that our students in Year 6 raise enough to confirm their trip to a herpetology camp in St Petersburg, Florida in April. We are aiming to raise in excess of $12,500...this event has taken us ever closer to our target. The effort continues...!

Dress Down in Pink for the Cancer Society

Today we dressed down - in pink - and took part in a Stride for Cancer walk. The Cayman Island Cancer Society have the support of schools, businesses and the community, island-wide, for their annual fund-raising effort. We all paid to take part and raised $90 for the cause. We began the morning with an assembly at which we talked about what cancer is and how scientists and doctors around the world depend on the support of charities, like this one, to fund their research. At North Side this month we have been considering the IB attitude "curiosity" and today we were able to see how the curiosity of these people, the questions they ask and the experiments they try may soon lead them to find a cure for this disease.

Hosanna Rock!

Here we are practicing very hard for our Christmas Show - Hosanna Rock. Year 6 were also singing 2 carols in Spanish - one of them was Feliz Navidad. Have a look at our videos here.

Reading Day

Today is Reading Day and we are celebrating in style and in orange!

We started with an assembly to launch the island-wide Whistling Duck Book Award which is in its inaugural year. A selection of children's books have been chosen by a committee which incudes members from the CI Department of Education; Maples and Calder, the award sponsors and a consultatnt from Books & Books. There are three age catgories and our school will participate in two of those - 4-8 years of age and 9-12 years of age. There are five books per category and students are asked to read all five and write a book report. For our youngest They will receive a different wristband for each book read - and there is a special t-shirt for all students who read all five books. Schools will then let the organisers know the winning book in each category as selected by the children in that school. The results across the island will be collated and the award winners will be announced in April 2009. We are excited to be able to promote reading in this exciting way - and for our children to have an active part in deciding the winners. Please see the list of books being read on our Literacy blog.

Throughout the day children undertook a range of reading activities from buddy reading between classes to reading games to book reviews. Books fall open - we fall in!

Netball Season

Netball season starts in the Cayman Islands with the annual opening parade. Prizes are awarded for the best dressed teams. We won 2nd prize in our age group. Aren't we looking smart?