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.

Water fun and TimbaDash

24th June 2022June Ball

Some of us were lucky enough to go and see a special interactive and sensory outdoor production of Grubbin’s Wood by TimbaDash. We had lots of fun interacting with the team and exploring different materials as well as using our sense of smell.

Well you can imagine the fun we had on Wednesday afternoon when we got the inflatables and paddling pools out! We all got into our swimming costumes and splashed, poured, sprayed and sunbathed out on our balcony. We got wet from head to toe and had the best time it certainly linked in with our seaside topic.

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!

Free course available on Introduction to Makaton

16th June 2022Elaine Quinn

Gain skills and confidence to communicate with children and adults with Special Education Needs Be able to use makaton sign and symbols to communicate. Be able to sign a nursery rhyme such as the family song.

This course is for beginners, by the end of the course you should be able to sign makaton stage 1.

Course dates 30/06/2022

14/07/2022

3 sessions for 2 hrs per session
Thu 18:00

Hearing Loss and Communication Support: Introduction to Makaton (C2527953) (wea.org.uk)

Please use the link to read more or sign up, or call 0300 303 3464 quoting the course number C2527953

 

 

 

 

A new Sensory Story – Jaspers Beanstalk

27th May 2022Coralie Forbes

We are really enjoying our new story. Jasper the cat and his best friend bird decide to plant a tiny bean. The best bit is that we all  have an important part to play e.g watering, raking, and  planting. We couldn’t believe our eyes when the tiny bean grew, grew and GREW into an enormous beanstalk. It inspired us so much we became busy little gardeners ourselves, so we decided to plant our very own sunflower seeds. We have even learnt a new sunflower song to help them grow. Watch this space to see what happens !!!!

Hadrian hair shop

19th May 2022Elaine Quinn

It was amazing to have the hair shop back up and running!

The children were so happy, they enjoyed a soak in the foot spa, nails filed and polished, hand or foot massage, haircut or styled and had a practice styling the girls world heads themselves.

The next hair shop will be running Tuesday 5th July 2022.

 

Hello Everyone!

13th May 2022Rachael Budden

As always we’ve had such a busy week. With the new term we have started new topics and even had a trip! In English this week, we started learning about the different features of a poster. We were so impressed with everyone’s contribution to our discussion. We continued the day with PSHE, were we read the book ‘The Smeds and the Smoods’ which conveys the message that although we may be different, we can still be friends. We completed a worksheet discussing the differences between the Smeds and the Smoods and touched upon how this subject relates to all of us.
This week in Maths, we have been learning all about halves. We demonstrated halving on fruit and asked the children to identify which pieces of fruit had been halved correctly. They were able to identify the halved fruit and explain how being cut down the middle ensured both sides of the fruit were equal. Following Maths, we enjoyed a free swimming at Sir Charles Parsons which is always a huge hit!
As our topic last term was space, we had a very exciting trip to the Centre For Life. We learnt so much from the exhibit, exploring the Space Zone and Planetarium. The children got to enter a reconstruction of the International Space Station, learning all about life as an astronaut. We launched rockets, presented weather forecasts and took control at the command centre. While at the Centre For Life, we also had time to visit the Brain Zone, were children were amazed by the illusions, saw a real human brain and even drank out of a toilet fountain.
Our current topic is all about South America and the Brazilian Carnival. In the carnival spirit, we joined Ellen’s class for a Samba lesson in PE. We learnt some traditional samba dance moves and even had the confidence to get in the middle of the dance circle to show them off!
Today, we had the second half of our Half Term Achievers assembly. As always it was lovely to see the achievements of our friends and come together as a school to celebrate them. Friday Clubs were a huge hit again, everyone is loving being able to interact with friends from across the school. We finished the day with half an hour choice time, a firm favourite in this class!
Hope you all have a lovely weekend!

 

Fun At The Fair

28th April 2022Antonia White

Welcome back to the last school term of this year! We hope you all had a lovely Easter break.

In Antonia’s Class we have been straight back into our learning by starting our new topic of Rainforests. It is going to be such an interesting topic. The children started the topic this week by learning about some of the rainforest animals and painting beautiful pictures of them. They painted lots of wonderful animals they had never heard of before such as a Toucan.

Of course we have been continuing our learning in Maths and English as usual. This week at breakfast the children made their own beans on toast for a special welcome back breakfast. Then they sequenced the instructions and tried to recall what they had done. Some children wrote their instructions and we have some lovely writing in books now.

This week the children returned to the school hall with their friends for dinner. It was lovely to be able to go up to the hatch and choose their own meals again. And of course see their friends!

The highlight of this week for the children has been our trip to the funfair! We have been so lucky to get to go and try all the rides. It was so much fun! Best day ever!

 

End of Act 1

8th April 2022Marc Teasdale

What an amazing time we’ve had here in Marc’s class over the last few weeks! We started the half term ‘cooler than cool’ and we are breaking up for Easter as true Shakespearean players! Our production of ‘King Lear’ has come a long long way since our first sessions all those weeks ago and we are confident that we have produced something truly special and unique. We can’t wait to share it with you all on Friday 29th April. Unfortunately we have sold out of our batch of tickets but there may still be some available from the Northern Stage Box Office.

Have a wonderful Easter everyone – we will see you in two weeks time!

Marc