Here Comes The Sun..doo doo doo doo…

By Mr G Mcintosh11th April 2016

Summer term is here!

Welcome back! I can’t believe we’ve already arrived at the final term of year five. I have loved teaching this class so far and I’m confident that this term they’ll continue to work with oodles of enthusiasm to grow and improve further. With year six looming, this is a very important term and we have a lot to get through…as always I am here to help so if anyone needs extra guidance or has any queries, please feel free to ask. May I kindly remind everyone of the sheet I handed out at parent’s evening with numerous links to English and maths websites as well as pupils’ login details for our school accounts…they’ll be needed in the upcoming weeks for homework.

Homework

Just a reminder…Homework will usually be provided on a Wednesday, to be completed by the following Monday. If specific homework is not provided, it would still be a good idea to practise times tables (this could be through the aforementioned websites) and/ or brush up on those reading comprehension skills through some questioning about reading books. It is expected that your child will read for at least 15 minutes every night.

English

The effort in reading at home last term was absolutely brilliant… many of the pupils have found a new level of enthusiasm for literature that is a joy to behold. May I remind you that children are responsible for bringing their reading record to school every day and for changing books when necessary.

In class, we will be extending our skills of reading comprehension, grammar, spelling, drama, punctuation and writing composition. Our first text type this term is creation myths, which ties in nicely with our topic and gives the children an excuse to watch the cbeebies favourite, Tinga Tinga tales! We will follow this with writing inspired by film then a focus on reading, using the excellent book ‘Holes’.

Maths

This term we will begin with area and perimeter before moving on to roman numerals, negative numbers, time, geometry and measures. Phew! We will also continue our focus on mental maths skills and choosing efficient methods, as well as increasing our application of maths skills into complex problem-solving.

Topic

Our term will be a tale of two topics. The first is called ‘The Ancient Kingdom of Benin’, focussing on the little-known but fascinating civilisation based where modern-day Nigeria is located (not, in fact, the modern country of Benin, confusingly!) After studying their artwork, trade success (including the slave trade), rise and fall, we will move on to our geography-based topic, ‘River deep, Mountain high’. This will include a study of our very own River Tyne before switching focus to the more distant Mount Everest! From geographical features to human interest stories, this promises to be a great topic.

Science

We will be studying space before moving on to living things and evolution. These topics are very interesting and I’m sure the children will enjoy them immensely.

Other subjects

Music this term will be closely linked to our topic, from spiritual songs to African chants and djembe drumming! We will also have time for some singing games just for fun! ICT, French, RE and PSHE will continue as usual.

French

We will be continuing our studies of French with Mrs Richardson; the current topic is food.

PE

Our PE lessons for this term will take place on a Thursday and a Friday. We aim to be outside a lot this term so pupils should bring trainers as part of their PE kit, along with our red school PE t-shirt, black shorts and a water bottle.

Thank you for your continued support,

Mrs N Faulkner

Easter fun, sports relief and goodbye Paul

By Mr G Mcintosh11th April 2016

What a lovely last week Year 2 have had! We particularly enjoyed our Easter crafts and eating chocolate crispy cakes 🙂

We did say goodbye to our friend Paul Angus who we will all miss! we wish him the bet of luck for his new adventure.

 

World Book Day – Extreme Reading Competition Winners!

By Mr G Mcintosh22nd March 2016

Thank you to everyone who sent in entries to our extreme reading competition for World Book Day. We had loads of entries that ranged from the extreme, to the unusual to the downright crazy. There were children perched on cliffs, standing in front of the palace at Disneyland, swimmers doing the backstroke, contortionists and lots more.

Thank you to all parents who encouraged their children to take park, who took the pictures and had them developed – your help and support made the competition the success it was.

I found it very hard to judge the winners but finally decided on these children:

Danny , Lucy, Jack, Sophie, Ronni, Paige, Fletcher, Gracie, Sydney, Lexi and Jake. They were all asked to choose a book of their choice which we bought for them to enjoy. Well done everyone who took part!
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House Easter Egg Contest!

21st March 2016Mr G Mcintosh

Once again, a massive thank you to all the children and their adults who entered this year’s competition.  I can not believe the time, effort and skill that go into every design and I am so pleased that the competition is so well supported!

 

This year Durham emerged victorious, winning their first trophy of the year and a whopping 49 house points!  Well done everyone!

More pictures can be found here

 

 

 

Africa

By Mr G Mcintosh11th March 2016

Through our all around the world topic we have been learning about Africa. We found lots of African tribes wear African necklaces so we decided to make our own. We used lots of bright colours and patterns to make them look like real African necklaces. They turned out fantastic!

We also read that some African tribes may rank themselves by who can jump the highest, so the most important person in the tribe maybe the person who could jump the highest. We had to try this to see who would be the most important person in our Year 2 tribe.. it was Esme!

 

Science Club

By Mr G Mcintosh11th March 2016

We had our last KS2 science club on Tuesday. We enjoyed eating biscuits, drinking juice and sharing our favourite session. The children received a well-deserved certificate for all of their enthusiasm and hard work!

 

Year Five trip to Las Iguanas

By Mr G Mcintosh4th March 2016

On Wednesday 2nd March, Year Five went on an exciting visit to Las Iguanas, a South American restaurant in Newcastle. Our Spring term topic in based on this beautiful continent, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to allow the children to immerse themselves more fully in the culture by sampling some delicious South American cuisine. We had ten taster dishes, each one more delicious than the last. We also made our own delicious drinks using fruit grown in South America. The chocolate brownies and churros were very popular, as were the cassava chips! The children were an asset to the school and a great day was had by all. Well done, Year Five!

Mrs N Faulkner

Year Five’s choctastic project!

By Mr G Mcintosh4th March 2016

Over the past weeks, year 5 have been focussing on chocolate as part of our South America topic.  We investigated the countries cacao beans grow in and the processes they then undergo to reach our shelves. We tasted types of chocolate and surveyed our ‘target market’ to aide our design process before coming up with novel names for our bars. After that we designed and made our boxes, then finally this week we have made our chocolate! We had a chance to taste other people’s recipes and also our own – what a great lesson! Here are some quotes from year 5…

“lush!”

“this lesson left a great taste in our mouths!”

“very nutty!”

“Yes! I feel like I’ve accomplished something…”

“This was the World’s best lesson!”

“This shows how creative we all are.”

“It was like being in a real chocolate factory.”

“It shows you can do fun things and still learn!”

Well said, Year Five!

World Book Day

By Mr G Mcintosh4th March 2016

We have loved World Book Day 2016 and all the costumes looked fantastic!

We had a great afternoon of reading, each class moved around the school to listen to a new story being read by the teachers of Bede Burn.

 

 

Breaking the code

By Mr G Mcintosh4th March 2016

We made our own Ceaser wheels and used them to break the codes, then wrote our own secret messages for our friends. Parents be warned children may use their Ceaser Ciphers at home!!