Have a look at some of the fun activities we get up to in Team Cherry
Making S’mores
A lovely afternoon around the fire toasting marshmallows and making s’mores!
We were so excited when we all chanted a magic spell and turned the flames blue 😀💕
Tie Dye Fun
A lovely morning outside in the sunshine tie dyeing our t-shirts 😀
Over the moon with our colourful creations 🌈😀
History – First Moon Landing
We’ve loved learning about Neil Armstrong and the first moon landing in History. We really enjoyed watching original clips of the launch, landing & control room and have done some excellent fact files about this.
We enjoyed drawing pictures of Neil Armstrong standing on the moon – how brilliant are they?!
Visit to Seaham Beach
What a brilliant day we’ve had at Seaham beach! We loved exploring and hunting for sea glass. We had lots of fun playing beach ball games, enjoyed a stone stacking competition and went rockpooling.
To end the day we went for a sneaky ice cream! 🍦
Team Cherry have been absolute superstars today making us so proud with good listening and safe & sensible choices around the water. Well done, Team Cherry! 🌟
D.T. – Making a Puppet
Wow! Weeks of hard work & practising running stitches has paid off in Team Cherry.
Look at our amazing hand puppets! 😀
English – Claude in the City, Character Profiles
Team Cherry have had so much fun in a virtual ‘How to draw’ session with Alex T. Smith, author & illustrator of our core text ‘Claude in the City’. We enjoyed drawing Claude and writing descriptive character profiles.
How amazing are our drawings of Claude?! 😀
Water Safety/Drowning Prevention
Water Safety Superstars!
We explored how to enjoy water safely from pools to beaches. The children shared great ideas and practised making safe choices. We created some colourful Water Safety Posters.
English – The Secret of Black Rock
We’ve been working hard in English to describe the character Erin. We loved ‘being the teacher’ and reading our work out loud for our friends to hear!
Maths – Adding Equal Groups
Hard at work in Maths adding equal groups!
Learning Outside the Classroom – Beamish Museum
What a fantastic day we had exploring Beamish in the sunshine!
We started with our Toys workshop where we enjoyed investigating a range of different toys from 1800s – now. We then enjoyed a picnic lunch, play in the park & a sneaky trip to the chippy for some chip cones!
After that, we had a wander around the 1950s town looking at the shops and exploring Norman Cornish’s house. We took a vintage bus to the 1900s pit village to meet the pit ponies, play with some more toys in the school and explore the church before hopping on the top deck to bring us back to our coach.
The children made us so proud with their excellent behaviour, lovely manners and consideration of others using the museum. They have been wonderful ambassadors for our school with a member of the public commenting on how kind & well behaved they are – well done, Team Cherry! 🌟
Art – Flora & Fauna
Our children have been busy creating stunning pieces inspired by this term’s topic. Their creativity, imagination, and attention to detail shine through every drawing, collage and painting. We are incredibly proud of their hard work and hope you enjoy viewing their artwork as much as they enjoyed making it.
Music with Dr Renwick
What a great Music lesson today with Dr Renwick! We had so much fun exploring timbre and long and short sounds 😀
Wellbeing Wednesday
We had some cuddles with our three special visitors Sausage, Mouse and Twinkle to boost our wellbeing 😀💕
World Book Day
Visit to Durham Cathedral – Saint Cuthbert
We has a fantastic day exploring the different areas of the cathedral including the shrine of St Cuthbert. We had fun designing our own stained glass windows based on St Cuthbert’s life!
English – Poems to Perform
We’ve been working really hard in groups in English to add actions and expression to our performance of ‘Hand on the Bridge’ by Michael Rosen. Top teamwork, Team Cherry! 😀
As we reach the end of this busy and joyful term, Team Cherry would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. The children have worked so hard and we are so proud of everything they have achieved. Thank you for your continued support, encouragement and kindness, it makes such a difference to our school community. We hope your holidays are filled with laughter, love, and plenty of festive cheer. We look forward to welcoming the children back in January (6th), ready for another exciting term together.
With warmest wishes,
Team Cherry xxx
Christmas Performance – That’s a Wrap!
That’s a wrap! Team Cherry have recorded our DVD of The Nativity 😊
Copies can be purchased via Arbor!
🎄 Sammy the Elf Returns! 🎄
Our festive visitors are getting out of control! 🤣
Team Cherry were very excited to find Sammy the Elf waiting with some VERY special post .😀🎅🏼
Lots of drama in Team Cherry as when we arrived in class, there was no sign of Sammy the elf! The children have been very busy making Wanted posters and investigating where he could be!
English – Commands
We had fun in English using commands to help us make Bonfire Apples. We’ll be sequencing the steps to write our own instructions! 🙂
Art – Patterns With Nature
In art we went outside to explore and collect things that caught our eye around our school environment. We gathered the objects and took them back to class and explored composition and arrangements on paper and table tops. The children played around with the objects to create shapes, patterns using things like twigs, & leaves
Once happy with their composition the children took a photo for their sketchbooks.
Halloween Disco
We had a spook-tacular time at our Halloween Disco! 👻 🎃
Kurling & Bocchia Festival
What a fun time at the Kurling & Bocchia festival! Children have enjoyed a carousel of activities in their teams 😀
English – The Last Wolf, Wanted Posters
Team Cherry worked hard to write WANTED posters based on our new core text, ‘The Last Wolf’.
We’re very excited to see what’s going to happen next in the story!
Computing – Digital Paintings
We’ve been hard at work in Team Cherry creating digital paintings in Computing.
The children have loved this activity! If they’d like to practise more at home, we’ve been using https://paintz.app
Meet our School Councillors
Following a very exciting election, say hello to our new School Councillors as voted for by their classmates.
Rocksteady Music
Team Cherry enjoyed a fantastic, fun workshop with Rock Steady Music! We loved creating our class band ‘The Rockstars’ and had so much fun singing & clapping along and playing the instruments.
Forest School
Fun in our Forest School garden working as a team to build an obstacle course and enjoying campfire chants & songs in our circle! 😀
Team Cherry 2025/2026
We are super proud of Y1 and Y2 who have settled in brilliantly with their friends.
Well done, everyone! 🌟
Art Topic – Making Birds
Team Cherry have really enjoyed this art topic continuing to develop their understanding of sculpture and observational drawing.
P.E. – Running Relay
Lots of fun in P.E practising running a relay!
Visiting Auckland Castle
Team Cherry enjoyed a great day out at Auckland Palace!
We started the day by visiting the Faith Museum, hearing the Buddhist story of The Bodhi Tree and investigating & handling religious artefacts.
We enjoyed a picnic lunch in the sunshine before spending the afternoon exploring the castle on a scavenger hunt, identifying different Bishops from the past.
We ended the day with some Knight training.
What a super day! 😊
Visit to Beamish Museum
Team Cherry enjoyed a fantastic day at Beamish Museum in the sunshine! ☀️
We started with a lesson in the Victorian school, practising our reading, writing & arithmetic with a very strict teacher!
We enjoyed exploring the 1900s Pit Village before taking the open top vintage bus to the 1950s town. We loved trying a choc ice from the Milk Bar and looking at the toys from the past.
We couldn’t resist sneaking into the traditional fish shop to share a few cones of chips! 😋
We ended our day playing in the 1950s play area before another vintage bus brought us to our coach.
Team Cherry have been an absolute credit to our school with outstanding behaviour and lovely manners throughout the day.
What a wonderful day we had! 😊
Art – Making Birds
This term our new art topic is Making Birds.
We looked carefully at photos and films of birds to take in details and shapes, and then made drawings of we noticed. 😁✏️
D & T – Fruity Desserts
We have had a great afternoon in Team Cherry making (and eating!) our fruit desserts.
We were super sensible using the bridge technique to ensure we cut up our fruits safely.
What wonderful fruity creations!
Mental Health Awareness
Looking gorgeous in green to raise awareness for mental health 💚
VE Day Celebrations
Workshop with Esh Construction
We enjoyed a great workshop from ‘Esh Construction’ showcasing links between the curriculum and careers in construction. 👷🏽👷🏽♀️🏗️
P.E.
Lovely to get out into the sunshine for P.E at last! 😊
Maths Café
A big thank you for your continued support at our Maths Café – the children loved it and it was great to see so many happy faces!
Science – Microhabitats
In science we have been exploring microhabitats in the forest school garden.
We observed the microhabitats closely. The children were very excited to find a variety of minibeasts.🐞🐛🕷️
Reading Cafe
What a fun morning at the Team Cherry Reading Cafe!
Thank you to parents/carers who were able to join us 😊
Big Walk & Wheel
A super start to the Big Walk & Wheel in Team Cherry! 😀
The competition is running for the next two weeks and the more children who bike, scoot, walk or wheel to school, the better chance we have of topping the leader board. Well done, Team Cherry! ⭐️
P.E. – Handball
We had lots of fun in Dance to trying out different styles of dance to music. We enjoyed practising our dance moves and putting three or moves together to start a sequence.
Our P.E homework is to listen to lots of music and help us choose a song for this year’s Team Cherry Dance! 😀
Fun in P.E practising skills needed to play Handball 😀
Book in a Box – World Book Day
Phenomenal effort in Team Cherry to create books in a box. A huge well done to everyone! 😀⭐️
World Book Day
Looking amazing in Team Cherry for World Book Day 😀📚
World Book Day – Stories by the Campfire
Having a great time having s’mores and listening to stories by the campfire🔥
Science – Habitats
We had a great time exploring our school grounds to look for plants and animals that live there. 🐜🌾🌿🌳
Look at Our Fabulous Homework
Look at our fantastic display to show off all of the wonderful homework Team Cherry have completed recently 😀⭐️
P.E. – Gymnastics Showcase
Team Cherry have enjoyed showcasing their gymnastics routines after working really hard to develop their sequences throughout the term. Top teamwork and outstanding examples of tucks, rolls & balances!
Well done, Team Cherry! Be proud! 😀⭐️
My Happy Mind
Team Cherry have loved starting the My Happy Mind programme this term. We’ve learned all about our brains and what the different parts (hippocampus, amygdala & prefrontal cortex) are in charge of.
We found out that when we are feeling sad or upset, our amygdala takes over and can make us feel big emotions like anger and sadness. We’ve learned ways to help to wake up the other parts of our brain to help us cope when we feel this way. We especially loved Happy Breathing!
Valentine’s Celebrations!
Very excited to party the afternoon away 😀💕
Wow Homework!
WOW! Just a small selection of some of the outstanding homework projects completed all about Mary Anning.
Well done, Team Cherry! 😀⭐️
D & T – Freestanding Structures
In D&T we’ve been observing examples of freestanding structures to name the parts using correct vocabulary. Can you guess which iconic structure we have been sketching?
Top teamwork in Team Cherry as we work together to build freestanding structures using recycled materials 😀
Very proud of our final products and having lots of fun testing their strength & stability by seeing how many toy cars they can hold!
A super range of structures including beam, truss, arch & cantilever bridges 😀
English – Performing Poetry
Working in groups to create performances of dinosaur poems from our core text. Some very dramatic reading going on! 😀🦖
Vocabulary Skills
Working hard in English improving our vocabulary skills by making a glossary of key words from our core text, ‘A First Book of Dinosaur’ by Simon Mole.
There’s some very tricky vocabulary in the text so we are very pleased to have some dinosaur experts in class!
English – A First Book of Dinosaurs (Core Text)
We are really enjoying our new core text in English! We’ve started ‘A First Book of Dinosaurs’ which is non-fiction poetry anthology.
We have had great fun drawing & describing a stegosaurus 🦖
P.E. – Gymnastics
Working hard in P.E developing balance & co-ordination by practising a range of balance shapes such as star, dish, tuck & arch.
We had fun creating a short sequence linking together the gymnastic shapes we practised throughout the lesson. 😀
We are always BUSY BEES in Team Cherry
Busy bees in Team Cherry!
Merry Christmas from Team Cherry
We’ve had a magical time in Team Cherry with lots of festive fun. A little extra magic was sprinkled when Santa Claus came to visit us all the way from the North Pole!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
Merry Christmas!
That’s a Wrap!
That’s a wrap! We had so much fun filming the dvd of our nativity.
We can’t wait for you to see the first live show! 😀⭐️
Christmas Journey
Team Cherry enjoyed a lovely festive morning at St Andrew’s church for the Christmas Journey. We loved meeting all of the characters from the Christmas story, especially trying Mary’s freshly baked bread & exploring the posh palace of the wise men.
The children made us so proud with their brilliant listening skills and lovely manners – what super ambassadors for our school! ⭐️
The members of the church were very impressed when Team Cherry sang & signed Last Christmas for them.
Chartwell’s Workshop – Healthy Eating
We enjoyed a fun Friday morning with Sian from Chartwell’s who taught us all about healthy eating and why this is important for our bodies.
We loved making our own Very Hungry Caterpillars with fruit & veg – especially eating them! 😀
Dress Rehearsal
An exciting afternoon performing our nativity for our friends in Key Stage 2
Sneak Peek
Sneak peek of our KS1 nativity! 😀
English – Writing Fact Files
We started our new core text ‘One Day on our Blue Planet’ in English and have enjoyed researching lions and the African savannah.
We worked hard to put all of our research together to write lion fact files 😀
Children In Need
oking amazing in our spots & pyjamas to raise awareness for Children in Need 🙂 We also had a special visitor who came to visit!
Art – Watercolour Shells
Continuing our Spirals topic in art we created some watercolour shells 😀
Art – Spirals
Our topic in art this term is Spirals.
The children were introduced to the idea that making a drawing is a physical activity which uses the whole body and connects head, hand and heart.
We worked hard drawing snail spirals using a continuous line for a minute or two. The children used chalk, oil pastels and felt tips. We explored different qualities of line and colour blending. 🖌⭐️
Halloween Disco
Looking spook-tacular and ready to party 😀👻
Beamish Workshop
We enjoyed a fascinating workshop with Hannah & Bill from Beamish Museum all about the mining history of our village and what life would have been like for the miners who lived here in the past. We loved testing out the tin bath and singing the pit songs! 😊
Victorian Day
A fun day in Team Cherry celebrating 150 years of Stanley Crook Primary School 😀
Maths
Working hard in Maths using language such as fewer, greater, less, more & equal to compare amounts.
Music – Rocksteady
We enjoyed an amazing band session with Will from Rocksteady Partners.
This session amplified children’s self belief, support, wellbeing and helped to maximise potential back in the classroom.
The children learnt to play instruments and sing songs in a dynamic way. It was a fantastic experience for everyone. 🎶🎵🎸🎤🎹
P.E.
Having fun in P.E building fitness, balance, control & coordination.
English
Working hard in English writing descriptive poems based on our core text, ‘The Fox and the Star’ ⭐️
Have a look at some of our amazing writing! ⭐️
Maths
Year 2 have been working super hard in Mathematics to flexibly partition numbers to 100 ⭐️ Look at all the different ways we could answer our challenge question!
Phonics
We have been busy bees in phonics!
SCHOOL COUNCILLORS
Our School Councillors as elected by their peers during a very exciting, top secret vote.
Team Cherry
We enjoyed a fantastic, fun first day in our new team! A big well done to all children – they have settled in brilliantly.
