CUBS

Dukesbridge has created an environment which invites responses from babies for example touching, smiling, smelling, feeling, listening, exploring, describing and sharing. The little ones are stimulated and encouraged to check out the world around them through experimenting with a range of media and sensory exploration: banging two objects together, placing objects into containers, a ball for rolling or throwing, a toy car for pushing. During their time in the Cubs section, the babies will learn how to sit and lean forward to pick up small toys, pull to standing, holding on to furniture or person for support, crawl, bottom shuffle or roll continuously to move around. They will develop their gross motor skills, getting prepared to walk. To promote communication and language, our Cubs’ carers use stories, songs and rhymes. When we use carefully selected nursery rhymes (both in French and English), we help children understand the words by using actions as well and encourage them to join in. First words maybe?

BUBS TERM 2

Games such as sorting, matching, large piece puzzles, web baskets, pipe cleaner tangle, shape sorters help to pique curiosity and assist with cognitive development. Sensory play is an important way for children to naturally use scientific processes while they play. Sensory activities are anything that uses the senses (movement, balance, smell, touch, taste, sight and sound) so some of our favourites are edible finger painting, newspaper floor (auditory learning as they crawl across it and hear the crackling), water play, sand play (e.g. hidden toys in a tray of sand for the children to find), sensory bin- different texture/sized objects lentils, red beans, macaroni are placed into a large container and the child is given a large spoon/ scoop/ cup to scoop and pour. Water is added to this once they get a bit bored with it to add another dimension to the sensory element, seeing which objects sink and float, and the list goes on.

TOTS TERM 2

Before a child is able to write, he or she needs to be able to hold a pencil properly (the grip). This requires a certain degree of strength in the finger muscles as well as the ability for the child to synchronise hand and fingers with the eye. As the children get more and more into their language development lessons which carry on throughout the term, the theme-based activities are purposefully designed to give ample opportunity to the children to develop their fine motor skills. For instance, shoes are part of the items of clothing category; on the day the class focuses on shoes, children use their tiny fingers to thread laces through a make-shift carton shoe with holes. These methods stimulate the toddlers to explore in a carefully-prepared learning environment which meets them at their level and exposes them to materials and experiences that stimulate cognitive, language and physical development all at once.

ELY TERM 1

The first term is all about My Family as the children learn more about their immediate environment and build their vocabulary by role-playing with props and each other. Within the first couple of weeks of term, parents provide labelled photos of the grandparents, parents and siblings for the family tree. Phonics is introduced with beginning sounds of images and objects children are familiar with. Children are encouraged to use directional fingering for the letters as they sound them, but also start working on their pencil grip to draw straight lines and curves depending on their fine motor development. They begin to recognise some numbers and identify the basic colours and shapes in a fun and exploratory way. For instance, we have single colour corners and for the first month, each week is focused on one colour whereby the child is encouraged to independently find items which are of that colour and bring them to the colour corner. This activity is done both at home and at school to help the child grow in confidence. ELY classes usually go on an outing with the parents a couple of weeks before the break-up party when the children come dressed up as an elder member of the family: mum, dad or a grandparent.

ELY TERM 3

Third term is all about Health & Nutrition. Children discover the world of fruits, vegetables, meat, eggs and milk, and the importance of a balanced diet, oral care and dental hygiene. Parents are encouraged via the OASIS portal to send various items of food (that they have in their pantry at home) as and when the class explores those particular items. Lots of cooking classes and food touching, feeling and tasting make for a fun exploratory term. Children are encouraged to express their feelings and views, and they are prompted to engage in class discussions through these activities. During the phonics lessons, some initial blends are introduced such as “oo”, “sh” and “ch”. They are encouraged to count up to 10 both in ascending and descending orders and to broaden their logical thinking by spotting the odd one out. By now, their fine motor skills are usually well developed, and they start combining the four basic shapes to make simple drawings. French lessons are introduced in the afternoon this term. Children also work on a choreographed dance item for the end-of-year musical production which is attended by parents. For the final party, they come dressed up as a food item and parents tend to be very creative with the costumes.

YORK TERM 2

Our second term in York is themed Wonders of the Sea. Just like in the first term for animals, children are introduced this time to marine creatures every week, including different species of fish, corals, etc. Most lessons in the core subjects revolve around the theme. For example, silver and orange are new colours that are introduced this term by identifying the shiny salmon skin colour and the orange flesh underneath the skin. Similarly, the starfish helps to introduce the star shape to the class. Children engage extensively in arts and crafts activities to creatively demonstrate the knowledge acquired and new colours. The whole class works on a step-by-step construction of a clown fish (Nemo) using papier-maché, gluing and painting techniques over a number of days. For English comprehension, they use phonics to start deciphering words which go with the term’s theme like ‘anemone’. In Maths, children begin to explore the concept of picture addition with illustrations of two fish + one fish = 3 fish. The theme helps make learning fun. Alongside the class activities, students in York prepare for the Dukesbridge Games during their daily Physical Education lessons this term. The term ends with a fancy-dress party where the children come dressed as sea creatures and little mermaids!

WINDSOR TERM 1

The Windsor theme for the first term is Water, H2O. They explore the 3 states of water, the water cycle, water collection, the filtering process and conduct various experiments: the salt experiment, float vs sink, soluble vs insoluble, evaporation, etc. In Maths, children learn the concepts of full vs empty and the use of scale to measure liquids. A few more shapes are introduced this term, namely pentagon, hexagon and octagon. Children begin to sort and can add up to 20. This term, students are introduced to upper case letters of the alphabet. In addition to phonics which continues with word blends, children now learn sight words which are the high frequency words in the English language. Every week, they are given a handful new words which we recommend for parents to practise with them at home – both writing them out and recognising them in storybooks. Children also start writing out words in French. As in the previous years, kids attend the break-up party dressed up in the Water theme which can be quite tricky for parents!

WINDSOR TERM 3

Third term of Windsor is the last term of preschool at Dukesbridge! And we finish with the Travel the World theme – starting from studying the globe, looking at the continents and oceans, then we look at 3 specific countries and their cultures, we go back in time to visit the fascinating ancient Egyptian civilisation during which we introduce the 3D shape Pyramid and finally look at the seven wonders of the world. Maths is a recap of everything covered these last two years with lots of addition and subtraction practice. We also introduce counting up to 100 along with basic clock reading. For literacy, four common verbs are introduced both in English (be, have, do, see) and in French être, avoir, faire, aller) to help our children construct simple sentences. By now, the children should be attempting to read and understand simple storybooks at home and practise their penmanship. They become confident in trying out new words, in speaking up and articulating feelings. A big component of this final term at preschool is to create memories with their friends before they part ways, and so there are plenty of discussions, games, free play and lots of fun in the extended drama and choreography lessons preparing the Windsor class for their Musical stage performance. For the final preschool party, the children come dressed up in traditional clothes from countries they have visited.être

Our second term explores poetry and rhyming phrases. Phonics and sight words continue and extend into trickier words. Verbs and adjectives are introduced to help the children form interesting sentences independently. We begin to work on different formats of writing and expression, using ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ story to help children use a reporting format. Taking an existing story and reworking it helps them imagine and create their own version. In Maths, the students identify the coins we use in the country. They learn the value of money and begin to complete monetary addition and subtraction number problems – playing shops becomes a highlight, especially in French when we are learning about “Les aliments”! For French, the children also learn the use of prepositions and the rules about the plural of words. In Geography, we study the globe including its continents, oceans and the Equator. The children complete some fun experiments to help them understand the World and its formation. Our Science topic links in with our English theme ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ and we focus on plants building on what they had learnt in the previous year. The children investigate the way plants develop by growing their own beanstalks throughout the term. During these experiments, we record data and encourage the children to predict their thoughts on the outcomes. During this term, the children work on physical endurance and athletic disciplines ahead of the Dukesbridge Games.

First term starts with learning other languages around the World through visual posters and songs. The children have a recap of the English phonics sounds and sight words and begin to focus on phase 4 sounds. They learn about pronouns and compound sentences. Using some carefully selected books like ‘The Giant Jam Sandwich’ and ‘Polly Parrot picks a pirate’, the children look closely at rhyming words, syllables and shape poems. They eventually create and design their own shape poem. We also explore types of books this term, in particular fiction and non-fiction and their features. In our Maths lessons, the children learn to skip count in 3s and use rote counting in 2s, 5s and 10s as part of learning the multiplication table. Numbers 0-100 are categorised in units and tens so that the children learn how to complete column addition and subtraction. They also learn lines of symmetry and measure weight, length and volume. There is an introduction to the concept of surface area and using concrete cubes they calculate the area of shapes. Science looks at types of materials, their sources and properties; students get to conduct several experiments this term to investigate and record their results. Furthermore, we explore types of maps, symbols, cardinal directions and an awareness of the local history including Independence. In French the children work on the themes “Mes amis” and “Les fêtes” and learn how to express feelings and emotions. They continue learning about prepositions and the present tense. Art lessons focus on a project based on the French artist Claude Monet.

Our third term begins with formal and informal language as an introduction to using scripts in role plays. We explore contractions and work to perfect our handwriting and sentence writing. Using books like ‘Dear Deer’, the children learn about homophones, prefix and suffix. By the end of the term, they also work on persuasive talking and writing. For our Maths lessons, we work on Mauritian coins and notes and eventually complete monetary addition and subtraction through activities and shop role play. They are also introduced to thirds and use previous fraction knowledge ½ and ¼ to solve simple division word problems. We continue with cardinal directions and use our outdoor spaces to complete directional games and activities. The children also work on gathering information using tally charts and bar charts. In French, the use of subject pronouns and the agreement of adjectives are developed and students use these elements in sentence writing. In Art, we work on Haitian artist, Pierre Maxo, and eventually create a project using his techniques. In science, we investigate the life cycle of plants, humans and animals such as frogs and butterflies. In History and Geography, the children learn about famous explorers and their modes of transport. We also look at the differences and similarities between natural and man-made features in different areas around our school. The year ends with our Dukesbridge musical production which requires the children to practise a dance routine or acting parts.

GRADE THREE TERM 2

In the second term, children start using sophisticated vocabulary to convey information. Story writing is enhanced through the use of direct speech, prefixes, suffixes and adjective. In French, also, students are encouraged to write creatively as we continue to work on more complex sounds and verbs, adjectives and pronouns as well as the interrogative form. By role playing, the children understand the concept of intonations, for instance by varying their pitch, they can add emotions to passages. In Maths, children place value on numbers 1 to 1000. They learn how to add and subtract 2- and 3-digit numbers and start formulating mental arithmetic strategies. They continue to learn the multiplication table this term as well as learning about time 24hr clock- analogue and digital. A series of brain teasers become the fascination of our Maths lessons as they focus on finding the logic behind the complexity of word problems. In Geography, children recap what they have already learned about the role of water, the water cycle and causes and prevention of water pollution. They also acquire a general knowledge of the topographical features of the world.