Goodbye……. and Good Luck!

22nd July 2022Antonia White

So it’s here! It’s the last day! We have all had SUCH a lovely year in Antonia’s class. The children have all grown so much and we can’t believe how much progress they have all made! We’ve had so many good times so we just wanted to finish the year with a final blog to say good luck in your new classes next year everyone! It’s been a pleasure to have you all in our class and we have loved watching you grow into such caring and confident children.

We would also like to say a very reluctant goodbye to our lovely Antonia. We are all so sad to say goodbye as she is leaving for a fabulous new career helping us all from behind the scenes. We know she will be amazing at it! She has been such a kind and caring teacher and has really helped the children thrive this year. The adults will also miss such a lovely friend, we have all really enjoyed working with such a kind and nurturing leader. It’s been a hoot! Good luck Antonia, we are so sad you are leaving!

Have a lovely summer everyone and enjoy our montage of photos from some of the many highlights of our year below.

 

Nearly there!

15th July 2022Antonia White

This week in Antonia’s class we have been so busy getting ready for the end of year and finishing off work! There is so much to do in the last few weeks of term but we are happy to say ‘It’s done!’ and next week we can all relax and have a last week of fun with the children. Our class is splitting up in September so we wanted to spend as much time as possible together having a great time next week. We have some amazing activities planned to do as a class group. We are nearly at the end of the year and hope the sun will come back out for our last week together!

This week we were lucky enough to take part in the school carnival on Tuesday. As you know in previous weeks the children have made banners and masks and on Tuesday they paraded around carnival style with these to a fabulous steel band. There was music and dancing and everyone had an amazing time. With that and all our finishing work off we barely had time to make some delicious banana muffins! But we managed. Just!

Have a lovely weekend!

 

 

Sports and Soft Play

8th July 2022Antonia White

This week we have very busy and active in Antonia’s class as it has been Sports Week. The children have been taking part in lots of lovely sports activities they wouldn’t usually take part in like boxing, gymnastics, crazy golf, multi-skills and karate. They have thoroughly enjoyed the week and feel much healthier and fitter for it!

Crazy golf was in our school hall and the children went down with Shirley’s Class to play. They worked on their gross motor skills and found it really fun to take part in. It was challenging to get the ball in the hole on some of the holes but they persevered and were really determined to win! The children also enjoyed a lovely multi-skills event run by the girls from Westgate College. This was the first time in ages that they have visited our school to get involved in an event due to covid. They were amazing with our children and ran a very fun and successful event of relay races, javelin throwing and other fun games. Boxing and Karate was one of the highlights of the week with Chris. We didn’t know our children were so motivated to learn to fight! They really did enjoy these sports and got so much out of it! They were very sweaty after and it was a real workout.

On Tuesday this week we went to Adventurelands in Heaton as a very special end of year treat. We all had such a fun time and really enjoyed being out together as a class. We didn’t get out much over covid times so it was lovely to be able to spend some time together out of the classroom as a class group.

This morning we attended a very special assembly to say thanks to Rob Armstrong for raising over £230,000 towards our new hyrdotherapy pool!

Have a lovely weekend.

 

 

Exploration Nation!

30th June 2022Antonia White

The old unloved instruments in our music cupboard have been getting a good play this week in our class. As always we love exploring instruments and making music in Antonia’s class but this week the children got to go down to the Music Studio and explore some of the bigger instruments. They played the drums, violin, guitars and even an electric mandolin! We forgot we had that in the back of the dusty old cupboard! There were so many weird and wonderful sound to explore and the children really did enjoy it. We have some budding musicians in our class.

The children also took a trip out this week to visit Newcastle Central Mosque and meet Brother Kareem. The Mosque was so welcoming and our talk from Brother Kareem was so interesting. The children got to dress up and hear all about how Muslims pray. We were very interested to explore the traditional toothbrush or ‘Miswak’ made from the twigs of the Salvadora persica tree, also known as the arak tree or the peelu tree. It had a very strong smell and some of the children were brave enough to brush their teeth with it! They had a lovely time and we would like to thank Brother Kareem for such an interesting lesson while we were there!

This week the children made some lovely Thank You cards for some of the people that help us out on a regular basis. We are very lucky to have so much support from lots of kind people who give their money and time to us! The children explored using marbles and paint to create ‘Jackson Pollock’ style pieces to go on the front of the cards. It was lots of fun!

We have also been making some lovely carnival masks for our School Carnival in July. The children used some lovely colourful feathers and jewels to decorate them.

All in all another very busy and fun week in Antonia’s Class with lots of new things to explore!

See you next week for another exciting update – its only going to get busier coming up to the end of the school year!

Have a lovely weekend.

Arty Clarty

24th June 2022Antonia White

This week in Antonia’s class we have been doing lots of lovely learning and arty clarty things! As usual the children have been working on their PLP learning outcomes in Maths and English. Kian has been working on matching sets of objects to numerals to 10 and Grace has been identifying coins. Holly has been working really hard on identifying numbers too. Well done guys!

Aurora has really progressed in her speaking and signing the letters of her name. She can match the letters and identify her name too! Well done Aurora!

We have been very Zen in class this week learning about Buddhism. The children have made some lovely Lotus Flowers and some amazing pictures of Buddha using a cotton bud and white paint. They look soooooooooo good!

We have a school carnival coming up in July. It will be amazing! There will be parades and costumes as well as a steel band! So this week the children worked on making a lovely banner for our class to parade around the local streets. Please come out and see us if you live nearby!

Have a lovely weekend!

 

 

Ourrrrrrrrrr Weeeeeeeeek!

16th June 2022Antonia White

This week in Maths the children have been working on their PLP Outcomes and really coming along well with them. Noah has been doing fabulously identifying numbers to 12 and relating them to sets of objects, and Ruby has been adding numbers, to name a few bits of the fab work and learning in Maths! Everyone has been working really hard!

On Tuesday the children focused on some English PLP Outcomes. Aurora did especially well ordering the letters of her name and making attempts to copy a Capital ‘A’ to begin to write her name. Well done Aurora you are doing some great learning at the moment.

On Wednesday as part of our Jungle and Rainforests topic, the children went on a Safari! They used their binoculars they had made in Art and DT to hunt for some animals that live in the jungle and rainforest. They used their tick sheet to tick off what they found and the iPad to take photos of what they found. As proof of course!

This week the children were also very excited to share what they have been doing during their Arts Award Discover with Scott (our Arts Award Leader). Scott came around to look at the lovely books they have produced as part of the accreditation and said they have all passed and will receive their certificate from Trinity College London very soon! They are so proud of themselves!

 

The sun has been shining this week and the children were lucky enough to have been invited to spend some time in the lovely beach June’s Class had set up in their play area. They had fun playing in the sand, water and role play areas, as well as relaxing on the deck chairs and listening to music in the sun. Glorious! They even got to spend some time with their peers from John’s class. It’s so nice to be mixing again.

It has been another busy but fun week in Antonia’s class. Check in next week for more updates. Not long to go until the summer holidays! Hopefully the weather will stay as sunny as it has been this week!

Another Fun Week

10th June 2022Antonia White

This week in Antonia’s Class we have been so busy having fun and learning! On Monday this week the children celebrated the Queen’s Jubilee with a whole School Kings and Queens Day. They came to school dressed as Kings and Queens and some wore red, white and blue to celebrate. We had a procession and a treasure hunt in the adventure playground in the morning and in the afternoon we all celebrated together with a picnic and some music from the staff brass band. It was a lovely day!

The children enjoyed a fantastic sunny trip out to Washington Wetlands this week as well! On Thursday they visited the centre and were shown around by Joanne. They took part in a pond dip session where they explored all the wonderful wildlife that lives in the pond and they also fed the various birds around the grounds. They learned so much and thoroughly enjoyed the day. The sun was shining and life was gooooooooooooood!

As well as the lovely events that have taken place this week, the children have enjoyed Maths games and Junk Modelling as well as the usual school timetable of learning when we could manage it! An amazingly fun week!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

 

 

Happy Half Term!

27th May 2022Antonia White

This week in Antonia’s class we have been packing lots in to the last week of the half term. Only one to go before the summer holidays! This year is going so quickly!

The children have been preparing for our Kings and Queens Day, in honour of the Queen’s Jubilee, on the first Monday back, by making beautiful crowns to wear for our school celebrations. We will be having a royal procession and a party outside with a brass band in the afternoon. They have also been very crafty this week making some binoculars to use on their very own Jungle Safari. The children painted tubes in lovely bright colours to create their binoculars as part of their Rainforests and Jungles topic in class. As part of their Science linked to this topic the children have learned about Habitats this week. They have learned which animals live in the desert, the arctic, the woods and the ocean.

We have also been very energetic in Antonia’s class this week. The children have enjoyed football sessions with Graham and a special musical treat, a Ceilidh! The staff band played some lovely folk music and the whole school came to dance. Some of the dances were very complicated but it was so much fun!

Have a lovely half term holiday, see you on the other side!

 

Creepy, Crawly, Bouncing, Sports Stars

19th May 2022Antonia White

Well what a fantastic short week the children have had this week! They have had two lovely events and finished the week a day early as it is a training day tomorrow.

On Monday the children went to The Lakeside Centre at Killingworth for a Panathlon. All the activities were led by pupils from George Stephenson High School and they did a fantastic job of describing each activity and keeping track of the scores. There were six different activities for the children to complete, including curling, basketball and table tennis. They had an amazing time and everyone was incredibly well behaved! All the children who attended were awarded medals and certificates for their efforts!

Today was a special day for the children in Antonia’s class as they were able to attend a fabulous workshop by Zoolab. As part of our Rainforest and Jungles topic the children met some very weird and wonderful creatures which Rob brought all the way from his Rainforest journey for them to explore. they were able to hold and stroke some of the animals and they were super gentle. We are so proud of how kind and caring towards animals the children in our class are. They met Turbo the giant snail, Bellatrix the Tarantula, Maverick and Ice Man the Giant Millipedes, Matilda the giant Cockroach and William the Snake. We all learned some amazing facts about these special animals, even the adults! And all the children and adults were super brave. Antonia even overcame her fear of spiders and touched Bellatrix the Tarantula!

Have a lovely long weekend everyone!

Moving madness.

13th May 2022Antonia White

Hi everyone,

We have continued with our theme of rainforests and jungles, and this week we have looked at many different animals. Pythons deserve a notable mention, as they can grow up to 23 feet long! We played a guessing game where we could see a snapshot of an animal and had to guess what it was, and we’ve been making lion and elephant faces. We also had music with Fran as a special treat, and watched/listened to some of the songs in The Jungle Book.

In the middle of all of this, on Thursday we moved temporarily into our new classroom, while our regular class gets rewired. It is a big change all of a sudden, but the children have coped really well with it, and all seem to love their new surroundings!

Have a good weekend!