There are over 100 Caribbean islands so where's a good place to start learning about them? We would suggest that you get to learn some of their names. Click here to print off a map of the Caribbean and then use an atlas to label your map.

Up until 1492 the islands were populated by small tribes such as the Caribs, from where the islands take their name. That was all to change with the arrival of Christopher Columbus. You could use 1492 as a starting point for a timeline as this will give you a good idea how the people of the islands have changed over the years.

It's not possible to study all the islands, as there are too many. We would suggest that you choose two of them and create a fact file for each. The fact files should include information on the geography of the islands. You could find out about the landscape, how the islands were formed, the type of weather they have, the size of population and main sources of employment and income. You could then write something about the history of the islands. You might start by looking at the impact of the slave trade, and think about how different the lifestyle is for those living on the islands now. Your fact file should also include a map, a picture of the flag and if possible pictures of the islands you have chosen.

One of our favourite activities is to try and write Caribbean Poetry. We start by looking at the story of the Thief in the Village by James Berry. We then listen to Reggae by Bob Marley and read poems by Valerie Bloom. Doing this makes you realise how different the lives of the islanders are to our own, and how different their  language is. We make up word banks of Caribbean words from which we write our own poems. If you would like to read some that Year 5 have written then click here.

The Caribbean has a dry season, a rainy season and a hurricane season!! Why not start by finding out how hurricanes are caused and how they used to have girls names. Then  pretend that you are journalist in the Caribbean and write a newspaper report describing what has happened after a hurricane has hit one of the islands. If you have Microsoft Word, its very easy to split your page into columns and use word art to give a newspaper style heading.

A lot of the jobs in the Caribbean are based around tourism, or agriculture. Bananas, the most popular fruit in the world are grown on islands. But how is the banana grown. A good activity is to a write a year in the life of a banana! Our Caribbean links page will take you to website that has information on the world's biggest herb.

Alas our school budget doesn't allow an annual field trip to the Caribbean but thanks to the excellent television programme Geography Junction we have a much better idea of what life is like for people living in Jamaica. Each time the children watch the programme they make notes on why they would like to live in Jamaica and reasons why they wouldn't. At the end of the series they are then asked summarise their reasons and to reach a conclusion on whether they would prefer to live in Weymouth or Jamaica! This year Elise and Maple made some brilliant observations. If you would like to know what they had to say then click on their names.

Bananas are also a good topic for holding a debate. You could ask your teacher if you could have two groups, one discussing why you should buy fair trade bananas and another group arguing against.

These are just a few ideas, the main thing is to have fun finding out about the Caribbean. If you have any better ideas why not email us at humanitiesclub@tiscali.co.uk  and we might add them to our site.

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