A visit from the police!

On Thursday we had a visit from some police officers from the local community. They came to talk to the children about their jobs and what they do on a day to day basis as well as giving the children some advice on pressing issues such as “stranger danger”, road safety and bullying.

They explained to us that police officers are here to help us and that we shouldn’t be scared of them. They told us some of the things they do such as; helping us to find their parents when we are lost and keeping everyone safe at all times. They also explained to us why it is important to tell a police officer when something is wrong.

After that, they showed us some of their equipment and demonstrated how to use it. TJ got to hand-cuff one officer whilst Bradley and Kelsie got to hold his baton. We also got to try on some police helmets and jackets.

Everyone really enjoyed the visit and found it very interesting and informative.

 

Alnwick Gardens

On Monday we went on a trip to Alnwick gardens. Firstly, we went to look at the water fountains. We walked up the stairway and saw all of the waterfalls, some of us even got slightly splashed!

After that, we went to explore the maze. We walked through the maze trying to find our way to the other end, luckily we managed it without getting lost.

Finally, we went for a walk right the way around the gardens. We saw lots of lovely flowers and got to play on the swings before having a quick play on the field.

Also this week, we have started our new Numeracy topic which is all about positional language. We practiced our different directions such as left, right, up and down then, we used these instructions to guide our friend around an obstacle course and in Science we made our very own rockets as part of our “Earth, Sun and Moon” topic, they were so cool!

The summer term begins!

We have had a super busy first week back!

On Monday we continued with our Jiu Jitsu coaching in PE then, we had our weekly rebound session. In the afternoon we finished our “Life cycles” topic in our science lesson by going around school on a nature hunt to find different types of flowers and plants, recording what we found. Some children read a nature poem and were able to make rhymes to add to the ends!

On Tuesday we went on a visit to Gosforth Nature Reserve where we learnt all about nature. We went pond dipping to look for wildlife as well as learning about some of the creatures and insects that we found. Everyone had a great day and really enjoyed themselves.

On Wednesday we did some Literacy. We did some speaking and listening work where we talked about our holidays, what we did, where we went etc, then we  wrote about our half-term. On Wednesday afternoon we did some food technology; we made banana cake and chocolate fairy cakes, they were delicious!

We went for our fortnightly swimming session at Byker Pool on Thursday morning then we had a special outdoor PE lesson in the sun.

On Friday we had assembly then we did our Numeracy work on Friday afternoon where we learnt about money. We looked at all of the different types of coins; learning about their values.

Jui Jitsu!

On Monday, we had a visit from a Jiu Jitsu coach who taught us lots of cool things. Firstly, we played some warm up games such as “flies and spiders”, then we learnt how to stand and move correctly, everyone was really good at it!

Next we got to try on some boxing gloves and try out our new moves with our friends. We also learnt some special hold moves which we practiced on each other.

We had lots of fun learning our new moves and developing some cool skills whilst also remembering not to try this at home! We are looking forward to our next session next half-term.

We hope you all enjoy your half-term holiday and look forward to seeing everyone back in school on Monday 4th of June.

 

Rising Sun Country Park

This week we have been on a trip to The Rising Sun Country Park in Benton, as part of our Science topic “life cycles”. We had lovely weather for our visit and we certainly made the most of it and had a brilliant time.

Firstly, we took a walk around the park, following one of the nature trails. We saw lots of greenery and got to see some ducks at the pond. After that, we took our fishing nets to the pond to do some “pond dipping”.

After lunch we had time for a quick play in the park which everyone thoroughly enjoyed. The children played on the climbing frame; crossing over the bridge and climbing up through the tunnels.

Then, it was time to go for another walk, (this time we took the blue trail) where we saw some horses and some more ducks. We also saw a yellow-backed turtle which resides in the lake. Overall, we had a lovely day getting close to nature and making the most of the glorious weather!

 

Outdoor learning in the sun!

This week we have made the most of our lovely weather and taken lots of opportunities to get outdoors and do lots of outdoor learning.

On Tuesday we continued to learn about the life cycles of plants in our science lesson by going out in the sun and planting our own grass around the playground. We started off by raking the soil to get rid of all of the rocks and lumps. Next we scattered the grass seeds and spread them all around in the soil. Lastly, we watered our grass with the hose and sprinklers. We can’t wait for it to grow! We have also been continuing to look after our sunflowers very carefully, ensuring they have lots of water and sunlight. We have been recording their progress in our sunflower booklets.

On Tuesday afternoon we went out in the sun again to do some water play activities to cool down after our busy morning of gardening. We played in the padding pools and water trays and had lots of fun.

We have also been very busy in our Humanities lesson this week, where  we continued to learn about the Vikings. We listened to a Viking saga story all about Odin and Loki. We learnt about how Odin made the world in just 5 minutes and all about the different lands that he made. We then retold the story in our own words after putting the story into the correct order.

As well as this, we started our new Numeracy topic which is “Money”. We looked at different coins such as 1ps, 2ps and 5ps and were able to sort them  into their different values. We then worked on making different amounts of money using the coins, i.e. making 11 pence with 1p and 5p coins.

Finally, in our PE lesson we have continued our gymnastics work. We used the apparatus such as beams, benches and stools to practice our travelling, balancing and jumping skills.

 

 

Fun at the farm

This week we went on our trip to Whitehouse Farm as part of our “Where food comes from” topic. There were lots of lovely things for us to do and we all had such a good time.

We started the day by petting lots of different animals such as guinea pigs, rabbits and even some rats. We then went around the farm to see all of the other animals. We saw some pigs and some cows as well as the lambs and sheep, who we later got to bottle feed. Everyone was so sensible, taking their turn to feed the tiny lambs – they were so cute!

In the afternoon we went on a tractor ride which was really fun and everyone really enjoyed it. Some of us were even invited to sit on the tractor and imagine that we were real farmers, driving the tractor! Next we got to play in the soft play and in the park and even got to have a go on the go-karts. An action packed day!

 

Pizza Express!

Today class 5a were very lucky and visited Pizza Express in the Metro Centre, as part of our ‘Where does food come from?’ topic. We met Tina and Craig, who taught us all about the different types of pizza toppings; where they come from, how they grow and what they smell and taste like.

We then got shown how to knead the dough to make our own pizza bases, the chef, Craig, even spun it in the air! Wow! We put our toppings on and waited for them to come out of the oven…

They looked amazing and tasted even more delicious! We got special certificates from Tina, showing that we are now Pizza Express Junior Pizzaiolos!

Thank you so much to everyone at Pizza Express today, we had a great time 🙂 Class 5a.

 

 

Egg-cellent Easter Fun!

Spring has been in the air in Class 5a this week and we have been doing lots of Easter and spring related activities.

As part of our Literacy lesson we looked at some spring poetry. We read “Daffodils” by William Wordsworth and practiced drawing our own daffodils before going outside in the sun to find some daffodils ourselves. We found lots of daffodils along with some other pretty flowers, we were even joined by Mr Rollings’ dog Alfie!

We have also been doing some Easter crafts in our Art lesson. We have made our own beautiful Easter egg wreaths. We designed some Easter eggs with lots of different patterns then we stuck them on some card to make a wreath. The children used lots of bright, spring colours to make theirs look fantastic.

As well as this, we made some Easter nest cakes in food technology. We melted some chocolate and mixed it with some shredded wheat before putting them in the fridge to make cakes. The children got to try their cakes at snack time and are looking forward to eating the rest at home!

Finally this week, we have held our very own Easter egg hunt. The children went around school looking for clues to find the little eggs which held clues that led to the next place. TJ and Javid said that “it was the best Easter egg hunt ever!” Eventually we made it to the end of the hunt and found the hidden chocolate which the children were very good at sharing!

 

Master Chefs!

This week we went on a trip to the Toby Carvery at Kingston Park as part of our “Where food comes from” topic. We learnt all about how the carvery operates and what kind of hard work goes into preparing all the delicious food.

We were looked after by our excellent host Steph, who taught us all about Toby Carvery. Firstly, we all made our own mashed potato. We worked in small groups to mash the potatoes with our forks and then we got to add different ingredients to our mashed potato such as milk, butter and even some mustard. We got to try each different type of potato and they all tasted great!

After that we did some taste testing. We tried some different fruits and vegetables such as oranges, lemons and onions. We then had to decide which ones were nice and which ones weren’t so nice. Everyone loved the orange however, were not so keen on the lemons!

Some of us then got to dress up in a Toby Carvery work uniform. We learnt what the chefs and waiters wear every day as part of their uniform then some of us got to dress up ourselves!

Finally, it was time for us to enjoy a delicious carvery dinner. We all went over to the serving area and chose our own meat and then picked which vegetables we wanted on our dinners. Everyone enjoyed their dinner and we had lots of clear plates!

We were also, very kindly, given a bag of vegetables to bring back to school from the Toby Carvery. On Tuesday we used those vegetables to make our own vegetable soup. The children helped to peel, chop and grate the carrots, onions, potatoes and leeks then we put them into the pan with the water and stock cube and left them to boil. We were left with delicious soup which we then ate at snack time. It was very  nice!