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Y6 – Summer Term

By Mr G Mcintosh18th April 2016

Year 6 Summer Term

Hello parents and children. Welcome back after the Easter holidays to the children’s last term at Bede Burn!

This will be a term of two halves … currently we are working towards the end of KS2 SAT’s so the next few weeks will be spent revising mathematical concepts and spelling and grammar rules. We will also be continuing to practice and hone reading skills – retrieval, inference, deduction, prediction and giving the meaning of words in context. Showcasing the excellent writing skills of all children will also take up a part of this half term starting with a retell of the chilling doll story, ‘Alma’!

After the SAT week (week beginning Monday 9th May – more information to follow), Y6 will continue to perfect their writing and science will become a little more of a focus – Light and Electricity – and topic – Brazil and the Olympics.

Y6 will benefit from a number of specialist coaches this term. We have already began our samba drumming tuition and next half term the children will be receiving Gaelic football coaching culminating in a tournament against our cluster schools.

There will be lots more fun activities to keep year 6 busy for the rest of the term – soon we will begin rehearsals for our end of year performance. All children will take part in this theatrical extravaganza from acting and singing as part of the chorus to back stage roles i.e. lighting, prop making etc.

We shall also be undertaking some enterprise activities to turn the money we raised in the Autumn Term through our ‘Name The Bear’ competition into more money to fund some exciting end of term products.

Another part of our summer term shall be to accompany the Y6 buddies in Reception on some trips – ‘Down At The Farm’ at Houghton-le-Spring and the beach to name two.

As you can see, our Summer Term is packed with fun, exciting activities designed to challenge the children until they prepare to leave us at the end of July. I hope it is a final term to remember for all of the right reasons.

Thank you for your continued support as ever. If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to catch me at the year 6 door from 8.30 every morning and at the end of the day,

Mrs M Todd

Summer Term for Year 4

By J Summers14th April 2016

11 April 2016

Dear Parent/Guardian

I hope you all had a lovely holiday – here is a quick update on the curriculum for the summer term.

English – We begin the term reading and developing a drama, and then our own writing, based on “Gregory Cool”, a book set in Tobago. Ancient Egyptian Myths and legends will be explored and used to progress our grammar and reading skills. We will also be writing an argument, here the children will develop the skills of expressing two points of view and read non-fiction texts. Spellings: The children will continue to learn a new spelling rule/pattern each week which they will practice daily at school. As last term, homework will be written their reading journal and will involve the children learning any spellings they found hard in class this week. Please check reading journals weekly and initial the spelling when your child has learnt them. Reading: Please continue to read at home with your child and record how they did or what they thought in their journal. It would be great if they could read for 15 minutes a day. Children can read their school or a home book.

P.E. – Year 4 are lucky to benefit from a gymnastics coach this term and we also hope to choreograph and perform an Egyptian dance. We will also be learning tennis skills and using our new nets. P.E. kits will be needed on Mondays and Wednesdays for the rest of the year.

Maths – I am delighted that most of Year 4 now know all of their times tables. Homework will continue to be weekly focusing on improving speed of recall in mixed tables. In lessons we will be developing the children’s reasoning and problem solving skills and that is currently being applied in a time context. Later children will use all four operations, selecting the best appropriate methods, to solve problems. We will also be developing our understanding of measurement; converting different units of measure and calculating area and perimeter.

Science – We will be exploring living things, their habitats and food chains. This will include a visitor bringing in many small creatures for the children to view, hold and discuss. The children should understand different classifications of animals e.g. mammal, vertebrates and that environments change and that this can sometimes pose dangers for animals and plants.

Topic – We are very excited to be studying the Ancient Egyptians this term. We will be using our history skills to investigate different sources to build a picture of events in Egyptian life focusing on Egyptian Gods, Pharaohs, mummification, tombs and inventions. We will also develop our geography skills locating Ancient Egypt on maps and in a timeline, as well as exploring how the natural landscape helped the success of the Ancient Egyptian civilisation.

Computing – We are all looking forward to our day trip where we will be programming using Wii Lego and robots. The children will also create a movie and develop a database on Egyptian Gods.

Music – The children will use the iPads to compose their own songs. We will also be exploring instruments used and the music made in Ancient Egyptian times.

D/T & art – Our artistic work will relate to our topic; we will make a papyrus picture which depicts ancient Egyptian life, write using hieroglyphs and design, make and evaluate an Egyptian shaduf.

I am really enjoying teaching this class and hope your child is making good progress and enjoying Year 4. If however you have any questions or issues feel free to catch me in the playground at home time or in the morning or leave a message at the main office. I look forward to sharing the years progress in your child’s report this term.

Kind Regards

Miss Summers

Year 4 Class Teacher

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.

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.

Sports Relief 2016 in Reception

By J Evans1st April 2016

We took full advantage of the sunshine to get active for Sports Relief.

Thank you for your kind donations.

An egg hunt with a difference.

By J Evans1st April 2016

On Monday we went into the garden for an Easter Egg hunt but it turned into a rescue mission! We discovered some strange pieces of metal, including a rocket booster, not dissimilar from the one QPootle5 had on his spaceship.

We undertook a thorough examination of the area and discovered a very small alien caught in the tree. On closer inspection (and a bit of research) we realised it was in fact an alien teddy!

This was very concerning, who did he belong to and how would we get him home? The children busied themselves designing and making space pods to try to get him home.

This morning however we discovered strange footsteps across the classroom floor, at first we thought it might have been the Easter Bunny leaving chocolate (ever hopeful!) but then we noticed teddy was gone! We are hoping he is safely back home with his owner, but now, somebody has to clean up this mess!

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

Sophie’s Story

By A Lenney19th March 2016

Year 3 had a very exciting time planning the story that Sophie told the Queen. We pretended to be Sophie and the Queen to help us to with our planning and writing.

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

Macbeth doth come!

By Mr G Mcintosh26th February 2016

Year five have been enjoying our first week studying Shakespeare’s spooky tale of Macbeth! So far we have done some whole-class drama, retold the tale and worked in groups to re-enact Act 1, Scene 1. You can see the results of this in the clips below!

We are going to develop this into a written narrative soon…I can’t wait to see the results!

Mrs Faulkner IMG_0315[1] IMG_0314[1] IMG_0313[1] IMG_0312[1] IMG_0306[1] IMG_0299[1] IMG_0297[1] IMG_0295[1] IMG_0302[1] IMG_0300[1]