Welcome to Team Soundar Activities
Cricket
We had a great time during our cricket workshop today, developing our throwing, catching and batting skills.
Art
Making monotypes in art. We were inspired by the poem ‘Richmond Park’ and used carbon copy paper to add details.
World Book Day
As part of World Book Day and fitting with our new class text, Shackleton’s Journey, we have completed a training session to be part of Shackleton’s crew. Recruitment training involved:
– a balance test to see if they could handle being at sea
– tyre pulls to practise pulling the sleds full of resources
– water carries
– step stones for practising careful walking on ice
– teamwork and communication practise
– testing their endurance and stamina to see if they could complete the long expedition
They were very enthusiastic candidates and I’m sure Shackleton would jump at the opportunity to make them part of his crew!
DT
In DT this half term, we have been researching and designing our own bread. Today was finally the day to bake it. In groups, we made a dough before adding our own individual ingredients to flavour. We then formed our dough into our desired shape, according to our designs. The breads were a success and were thoroughly enjoyed by all!
English – The Tin Forest
In English, we are reading The Tin Forest. We had a go at making our own tin forest – creating trees, plants, toucans, tigers are more using cardboard and tin foil.
Chartwells Workshop (School Catering)
We enjoyed a workshop with Chartwells making energy bites. We discussed what foods give our body energy and what foods we should try to limit in our diets. The energy balls had some mixed reviews but many loved them and asked for the recipe.
Art
Today we had a go at sketching bird nests. We used a variety of mediums including charcoal and pastels to add texture, shadows and highlights.
Music
Today our dining hall was filled with the vibrant sounds of West African drumming! Year 5 and 6 took part in an exciting djembe drumming workshop, learning rhythms, beats and the joy of making music together.
It was a fantastic hands-on experience that got everyone moving, listening, and working as a team. Well done Year 5 and 6!
Science
We are exploring states of matter in science this half term and began by investigating solids, liquids and gases. We have found that some things can fit into multiple categories at the same time, such as ooblek! We had fun making ooblek out of cornflour and water and then playing with it to see how it changed it’s state of matter depending on if we squeezed it or let it go.
History
In today’s History lesson, we learnt about Anglo-Saxon settlements. We found out that they made their homes using wattle and daub. We had a go at making our own walls out of wattle and daub (with varying success)!
Reading
We had the Book Fair in school for all of the children to have the opportunity to read and browse the books. They could then ask parental permission to order and pay for the book. This is an excellent opportunity for all children to have access to books and encourage to engage with books that interest them.
History
We had a great time today at Binchester Roman Fort. We did lots of activities including dressing up as Romans, making mosaics, cleaning artefacts and making clay pots. We also had a tour around the site, visiting the Commander’s room, the baths and the vaults.
Flat Stanley First Aid
Team Soundar have learned some very helpful information today about what first aid is and how we can use it to help others. We learned about choking, bleeding, burns, bumps and bruises. We learned about vital first aid to help save lives.
Safer Internet Day
Yesterday was Safer Internet Day. We participated in BBC’s live lesson all about how we can stay safe online. We looked at how to spot a scam using the acronym SCAM and designed our own super safe passwords.
Police Visitor
Yesterday we had a visitor come into school from Durham Police. He gave the children a great insight into all the different jobs the police do and how much they can help us. He explained to the children the requirements and expectations of joining the police force for those of the children who may wish to do so. We then got shown his police car and some of the equipment they use.
NSPCC
Today Team Soundar were visited by the NSPCC (including their mascot Buddy!). We took part in a workshop with them looking at different types of abuse and who our trusted adults are. We learnt about Childline and how to contact them. Then we thought about our own safe places, people and things before making fortune tellers to test our friends on what they had learnt.
Geography
In Geography we have identified what human and physical features we could see in an image of a region of Greece. We then thought about what you would see, hear, feel, smell or taste in that region. We identified the use of the region and the landscape descriptions of it.
PE
In PE we have been learning Gymnastics. We have learned different ways to travel and now we are looking at different ways to balance.
Energy Workshop
Today we enjoyed an energy workshop. We looked at the different climate zones and thought about how climate change was affecting the Earth. Then we calculated our own global footprint and made footprint posters suggesting how we could cut down our energy use.
Author/Illustrator Visitor
Today, we did a workshop with author and illustrator, Liz Million. Sticking with our English theme of rainforests, we had a go at drawing jaguars!
Maths
In Fluency we have been learning the 3 times tables. Today we took the lesson outside for the children to make 3 times table flowers, from chalk, on the playground.
Halloween
To celebrate Halloween we had a disco for the children where they also had hot dogs, pizza and sweets.
Celebrating 150 Years
To celebrate our school being 150 years old we all came to school dressed as Victorians. We had visitors from Beamish Museum deliver a workshop to the children and the photographer came to take pictures of the day. We’ve enjoyed a fantastic afternoon with Hannah and Bill from Beamish! We discussed what school would have been like in the Victorian period, the lives of miners and enjoyed some pit songs.
English
For our core text book we have started to read the book The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry. We have thought about the sights and sounds found in a rainforest. We then worked in small groups to all construct a poem about our thoughts on the sights and sounds of the rainforests.
History
In History we have been looking at the Stone Age. We have looked at what life was like and what tools and equipment they used. We then looked at the changes to the Iron Age and the Bronze Age. We had a visitor who came in and led a workshop on fire making and den building.
