A selection of the 1,700 photographs from this year’s Thurston trip can be found here.
With most of the year six children away at Thurston, a small group of would be authors created something amazing this week!
Their only instruction was ‘make a book for your reception buddies.’ From here the children researched picture books, counted pages and words and wrote the story themselves. Next comes the clever part. I fully expected them to use paper and felt tips, perhaps using word processing for the text, but no, these are the children of a modern Bede Burn!
Out came the iPads and Book creator was swiftly opened! With no help from any adult, the children organised themselves into task forces, took photographs of the reception children to go into the book, recorded sounds and created a front cover.
After assembly this morning they read their finished book to the reception class. As you can see from the photographs, everyone had an amazing time and the youngest children in our school thought that the oldest ones were very clever indeed.
A brilliant effort from the year six children, well done!
As you may be aware, we have signed up every child in key stage two for this initiative. There are around 150 million free books on line from some of the most famous and popular children’s authors, all available to read on line or to download! Each child will have their own log in which will allow them to access the books. The website monitors how much and how frequently the children read, and there are puzzles and quizzes to test their understanding of what they have read. There are prizes available nationally but as a school we have decided to provide some very desirable and high quality prizes for the children that make a great effort to read regularly through this site.
Don’t worry if your child does not have access to the Internet at home. Each class will be timetabled some time each week to access the site and read using the iPads in school.
For more information, and to access the books please visit http://www.readformyschool.co.
A new year, a new topic…we’re raring to go. This term we are studying China. Our children thoroughly enjoyed spending time with our Chinese visitors in December and they are very motivated to find out more about the country that our ‘sister-school’ pupils live in. We will learn all about the geography of China, the people, the culture, and the rich history of the country, comparing each of these aspects to those of our own country. This will be a fascinating look at the lives of others and will expand the children’s knowledge of the world around them! As always, our topic work will be cross-curricular, including interesting and relevant art, design, music and ICT links as well as developing history, geography and English skills. Our class are being encouraged to enhance their learning at home by playing games played in China, such as Mahjong, Jacks and Chess. Some other games can be found here: http://www.primarygames.com/holidays/chinese/games.htm It also sounds like an excellent excuse to try a selection of delicious Chinese dishes! During half-term, Chinese New Year celebrations will be held in Stowell Street, including dancing and fireworks… and it’s free!
Other interesting events planned for this term include samba drumming tuition and trips to both Nissan and the Tyneside Cinema. It promises to be a fantastic term!
Mrs Faulkner
We are fast approaching the festive season, and preparations are in full swing! Our Key Stage 2 Christmas Production this year is called ‘Peace Child’. Set in Mambica, it tells the tale of two tribes who struggle to get along until the arrival of a newborn child brings peace. Auditions have been held, costumes and props are underway… we have all of the ingredients for another successful show and can’t wait to get rehearsing!
Mrs N Faulkner
Today Mrs Todd hosted Bede Burn’s very first ‘Sibling Story Time’ session. Any children who have pre school brothers or sisters invited them in for a delightful story session. Mrs Todd entertained the younger children (and the grown ups) with two stories and a selection of songs.
This event was a brilliant way to share our school’s love of reading with the youngest members of our community and everyone involved agreed that it was a lovely idea.
Well done Mrs Todd!
As part of their English curriculum, year six have been studying some classic poetry. Beginning with Robert Burns and culminating with Shakespeare, the class surprised themselves at how much they enjoyed reading, performing and analysing the poems. Finally the class used Shakespeare’s famous Sonnet 18 (Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day…) as an inspiration for their own sonnets. You may even find that some are written in iambic pentameter!
Click here to read our poems
Year 6 recently enjoyed a trip to Washington Old Hall where we experienced life as a Tudor for the day. Having donned our Tudor clothes, we began with a tour of the impressive building and gardens. As we looked around each area, we found out about the jobs that would have been done in Tudor times and we were each allocated our own job…poor Mrs Todd became the ‘pot girl’… eugh!
After that, Charlie and Niamph were declared Lord and Lady of the manor and led the way to the banquet hall for a Tudor feast fit for a king! Flagons of ale (well, apple juice), doorstop-pieces of bread, ye olde ham, cheese and fruit were devoured with much enthusiasm before we enjoyed the chance to play with a range of Tudor toys.
In the afternoon, we busied ourselves with making pomanders containing lavender and miniature portraits. A great time was had by all and we thoroughly enjoyed the chance to bring our studies of the Tudors to life!
