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Our 1st Newsletter of 2011!
The new year has got off to a cracking start at Grangetown! The
children have all made their School Resolutions, and they’ve got
their Learning Targets too (read about those opposite). We’ve just
had International Week, which included an Italian Carnival and a
French Feast! Our main Learning Themes for this term are now well
underway, and include London’s Burning, Castles and Dragons and Toro
Toro! We’ve got SAFC in doing Family Learning with 15 families, all
of our After School Clubs are up and running and soon our Drama Club
children will spend a day making an instructional movie for schools
in South Tyneside! It’s all go at Grangetown, and we’re determined
to make 2011 a very special year. We look forward to working with
you as a parent/carer, so that we can provide the best possible
learning experience for your child during the year ahead. Happy New
Year! |
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Saris and Sequins
This term the children in Year 3 are learning all about India. They
are going to learn about life in an Indian village as well as all
about the colourful culture of India. The children are learning
Bollywood dancing every Monday with Danielle from Sunderland Dance.
They have visited Café Spice to taste Indian food. They will be
leaning about life in the Indian village of Chembakoli and comparing
it with life in Sunderland. The children will be writing diaries,
recounts and descriptions about India. They will also produce
artwork using images and patterns from India. The children also
learned about the symbols of India which include a peacock, Bengal
tiger and the lotus flower. It looks as though it will be another
colourful and interesting term in Year 3. |
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Our Learning
Targets!
For the past few months, all of our pupils have had Learning
Targets, in writing and numeracy. These are stuck into the inside
front cover of their exercise books, which mans the children can
refer to them as they work. The targets are reviewed regularly by
the children, with their teachers. Having targets means that the
children are very aware of what their ‘next steps’ in learning are.
As a parent/carer, you will get the chance to discuss your child’s
targets with his/her teacher, at our Open Afternoons next month. |
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Castles and Dragons
In Foundation Stage, we have been learning about castles and
dragons. We read the traditional tale Jack and the Beanstalk
to introduce our topic and we decided who the giant clothes belonged
to. We have explored the different parts of castles and we created
our own castle in our outdoor environment, so we could re-enact
living like royalty. We are also hosting a medieval banquet where we
will be drinking mead and singing for our supper. Miss Holt, Miss
Booth and Miss Hough. |
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Walk Wise
In year 1 we have been looking at safety in the environment. We
started our work with Mrs Leadbitter on the 6th January
and will be having one session a week until the 8th
February. During this time we are learning about the dangers we may
find within the environment and the ways in which we can keep safe.
Everybody in our class knows we need to ‘Stop, look and listen
before we cross the road.’ We have had lots of fun going on walks
around school, playing safety games and designing florescent
t-shirts to keep us safe. |
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Wishing Tree!
On Friday 28th January our mums - Tracy, Cath and
Belinder (Miya’s mum) - came in to give Y5 a lesson on wishing
trees. First we learned a bit about trees, - we learned that trees
are wildlife habitats, landmarks and they make our environment more
beautiful. Trees produce oxygen and absorb air pollution. We also
harvest wood from trees, for furniture and other products. Y5 didn’t
just learn about any old tree, - we learned about wishing trees
aswell. A wishing tree is a tree that is chosen because it is
special and believed to help wishes come true. We learned how some
people tie their shoes to trees in other countries but traditionally
we tie bits of paper with our wishes on. We now have a wishing tree
in the classroom and have tied ribbons onto our special trees
outside so we could have a private wish as well as a wish that
everyone can see. After doing the indoor wishing tree we went to the
outdoor classroom and tied all of our private wishes onto a long
ribbon and did a class wish then separated them and did our private
wish. We enjoyed it and I’m sure everybody else did! By Arianwen and
Eva |
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Year 2s Italian
Carnival!
We could wear our own clothes. Miss. Grainger said we should try to
wear green, white and red, the Italian flag colours because we were
going to have an Italian Carnival. After that we made our masks and
they were amazing. We could use feathers, glitter, sequins and
paint. Then we made our food. We had bruschetta with tomatoes on,
pizza, pasta and ice-cream. Next we made a brilliant dance. We even
had a song after we ate our Italian food. Finally we showed Miss
Grainger, Mrs Cole and Mrs Napier our Italian song and dance. We had
a fantastic day. By Kaitlin Goodwin Year 2 |
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Reptiles Rock!
The children of Foundation Stage were surprised last week when we
had some unusual visitors turned up for school! Amy very kindly
brought Jub Jub, a bearded dragon and Yoshi, a bosc monitor to spend
the afternoon with us. The children enjoyed holding the reptiles
but most of all they enjoyed feeding them. Amy brought bugs and
worms, which the children fed to Jub Jub and Yoshi, the children,
held the bugs in their hands and looked at them closely through
magnifying glasses. They were much braver than their teacher! The
children drew pictures of the reptiles, wrote about them and found
out interesting facts about them. Our photos and work are on display
in Foundation Stage. Miss Booth |
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The Italian Job
This half-term in Year 2 we have been learning all about Italy. The
children are thoroughly enjoyed the theme and have responded
enthusiastically to the cross-curricular links. We started the topic
through research and used this to help us compile our own fact file
and poster to attract visitors to Italy. We then moved onto looking
at the Pizza Princess by Miram Simon and we produced our own
character profiles and recounts of the story. During our curriculum
lessons we have made our own model Leaning Tower of Pisa and we have
designed and created some fantastic carnival masks. In PE the
children have learnt a traditional Italian dance and an accompanying
Italian song- Year 2 have voices of angels! We ended our topic with
an Italian Carnival which encompassed all of our learning. We had a
great time. |
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We love Friendship Tokens!
Every month we have a special ‘value word’, and we learn about that
value in assemblies and in class. The value word for January is
Friendship. In assemblies, we have been enjoying a story about
Friendship Tokens, and how using them helped to transform a school
playground from a sad to a very happy place. We ran a competition
for the children – the challenge being to design a Freindship Token
– and from the many brilliant entries received the winner was Elise
Hitchman. Well done Elise! |
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SAFC
Family Learning!
This term we have welcomed Sunderland Football Club into school, to
lead a series of Family Learning sessions. Fifteen of our families
have signed up and are enjoying learning about fitness and health,
while at the same time improving the writing skills of the children. |
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Bonjour!
For the past 2 weeks the children in year 1 have been learning all
about France. During this time we looked at the Eiffel Tower and
worked in pairs to create a 3D model of the structure. We also acted
out visiting France and created postcards thinking about the time we
had spent in the country. We turned our classroom into France for a
day and we each made our own croque-monsieur, which is a ham and
cheese toastie. In the afternoon, we tasted a variety of different
French foods including brie, baguette, pan au chocolat, crepes and
many more. Let’s just say we were all full by the time we went home.
Au revoir. |
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Viva España!
In Year 4 our topic this term will be ‘Toro! Toro! España’. We
started this topic during international week in which we researched
Spain, its culture, food, schools and traditions. We found this very
interesting and in groups each made a project board displaying our
new knowledge. Our topic will continue throughout the spring term
and we are looking forward to reading Toro! Toro! By Michael
Morpurgo, trying some Spanish food and hopefully learning a Spanish
dance. Year 4 are also lucky enough to be working with Miss Davies,
the school drama teacher, in which we will be looking at a
traditional Spanish tale and turning this into our very own play
script. We are also aiming to be able to speak a little Spanish by
the end of the term! By Miss Heddle. |
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Toy day with a visitor from Beamish
Alex from Beamish took us back 100 years! We started the day by
looking a variety of household objects and Kayleigh got the chance
to sit in a small metal bath. Afterwards we explored a variety of
toys, including a stick game, dominoes, diablos and many more. We
even tried on clothes from the olden days. ‘Cobbler cobbler, where’s
my shoe’, was an interesting old family circle game, we were able to
become detectives. After lunch, we all had the chance to make our
own peg doll. We choose a selection of material and designed the
clothes they would wear, as well as giving the doll. Come into our
class to look at the photographs of our dolls, they were fantastic.
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Konnichiwa!
Year 6 we have been learning all about Japan. We’ve looked at the
geography and the culture. We each wrote cartoon strips, to tell the
story of the festival of Setsubun, we made masks for ‘the demons’
and acted out freeze frames in a drama lesson. We are going to
continue to look at Japanese customs, food, clothing and the
language throughout the Spring term, as it is linked to the book we
are reading – Kensuke’s Kingdom. Mrs Millican. |
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Toy story in Year
1!
For our main topic this term we are going to be focusing on Toys,
thinking about how the toys we play with nowadays are different to
the toys our parents and grandparents played with when they were
young.Recently we held a toy day, looking at all of the toys we like
to play with in year 1. A visitor from Beamish then came into our
class to introduce toys from the past. During this topic we are
going to be visiting a playground and then designing and making our
own 3D model. As you may have noticed Buzz Light-year has landed in
our classroom in his space rocket, providing us with a fantastic
toyshop to further explore a variety of toys. |
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Pots of Evidence!
This term Y5 are reading an exciting book called ’Percy Jackson and
the Lightening Thief’. As we read we are discovering lots of
interesting facts and information about life in Ancient Greece and
having lots of fun training to become Greek athletes. We have
discovered that to understand the past we need evidence, and an
important kind of evidence is artefacts. We have researched the gods
and goddesses mentioned in the book, and are preparing power points
to share with each other. We have also read some of the myths and
legends told by the Ancient Greeks but have many still to discover.
During our ‘International Week’ we looked at Greece as it is today,
we located it in the wider world using an Atlas and learned lots
about its lifestyle and culture. We produced leaflets and fact
sheets to inform and still have lots to learn about the influence of
the Ancient Greek civilisation on the world today. We will learn
more about the famous landmarks still standing today but built more
than 2000 years ago! By Mrs Collins |
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Southmoor Cinders!
Year 5 and 6 visited Southmoor school today to watch the dress
rehearsal of their performance – Cindy Berella. It was a modern take
on the traditional story of Cinderella, where Cindy wanted to
audition for Britain’s Got Talent, but she had to be back in her
taxi before the price got to £12.00. It was a fabulous show and the
year 5 and 6 children were a credit to the school. Back in school
the children wrote reviews, letters and will use the performance as
a stimulus for writing their own play script. L Millican
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Year 3 Visit to Café Spice
On Thursday 20th January year 3 visited Café Spice to
learn about and taste Indian food. We had a great time; the
children were all given a plate of food which included a vegetable
samosa, palok pokora (fried spinach and onion), chicken tikka and a
sweet pastry of coconut and molasses. The children loved tasting
the different flavours some of which were hot and spicy. They also
enjoyed being in a restaurant and being served by the waiters. Alex
Achufusi said the food was delicious and enjoyed tasting everything.
Ryan Taggart enjoyed trying the food as he had never had Indian food
before. |
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Taking control!
On Wednesday 26th January, the children in year 6 went to
the CLC centre at Southmoor School. They learned how to control a
device and use input/output devices to control a process. The day
began by the children being introduced to a program called ‘Flowol’;
this enabled the children to
develop their logical
reasoning and problem solving skills by producing flowcharts to
command certain devices.
Secondly, the
children were given the task of commanding ‘lego robots’ to move
around and perform certain actions. This was a very difficult task
that involved knowledge of rotation, direction and angles.
Year 6 thoroughly
enjoyed their trip to the CLC centre and were a credit to Grangetown
Primary School. By Miss Johnson |
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This
month’s Quote:
“Whether
you think you can, or you think you can't - you're probably right."
Henry Ford |
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