Monster Market

Miss Jones is currently consulting with the children about the Monster Market.  As you know children receive Castle Points for their good behaviour and when they demonstrate the school values of: kindness, aiming high, resilience, respect and working together.  When children reach 100 castle points, they receive a Castle Cash voucher.  The plan has always been that children will have regular opportunities to spend their vouchers at the Monster Market, but it’s taken a while to get this moving. To achieve this, Miss Jones is asking the children for suggestions as to what they’d like to be able to spend their vouchers on so that we can ensure items are available before the end of the year and then on a half termly basis moving forward.

Unhealthy items such as sweets won’t be available. We already have pencils, pens, water bottles and pencil cases, but we’re looking for unusual, quirky suggestions to engage and enthuse the children with this project.   Ideas like vouchers to jump the dinner line, wear non-uniform for the day, sit on the teacher’s chair etc. would be great fun. We’re also keen to include book vouchers and sports equipment to link in with pupil interests.  Unfortunately, we can’t stretch to an iPhone as some children have suggested.

Please talk to your child about this, if you have any ideas or suggestions, please make sure they share them on your behalf.  The behaviour of children in school is wonderful, we’re really keen to make sure this is celebrated, and children are rewarded for their efforts and progress.

Class Two – Y1 and Y2

During our science lessons last half term, we were learning about animals and their growth. Mrs Jackson came in to teach us about the life cycle of chickens and we incubated our very own eggs. We found out what is inside and egg and discovered how it develops into a chick. We looked after our eggs, checking the water levels and temperature in the incubator daily. We were very excited when six chicks hatched!

Our English lessons were focused on writing a non-fiction report. We researched lots of different types of toys and toys from different eras. We got to play with a range of toys and even used the internet to help with our research. We then wrote our own reports about toys using the facts we had learnt. Some great writing techniques including onomatopoeia, alliteration and even paragraphs were used to make our writing fantastic! Look out for our poetry writing this half term!

In Maths lessons we have been focusing on shape and measurement. We have found out the names of 2D and 3D shapes and can sort them according to their properties. This half term we are focusing on measuring length, mass, capacity and temperature. We will also be learning about fractions and how to tell the time.

This half term we have lots of look forward to including weekly swimming and forest schools’ lessons. Mrs Redfern was very impressed with our behaviour and resilience during our first visit to the swimming pool at Wolsingham and cannot wait to see how we progress!

Class Four – Y5 and Y6

We kicked off March with a fabulous visit from the author, PG Bell who really had our imaginations going! On the following day (WBD), our room was awash with character costumes and we used our ideas from the previous day, to create our own mini books.

In the following week, we celebrated Science week and we were able to enjoy visitors from OASES and the Locomotion. Dyfen, from OASES ran a ‘Living soils’ project where our class learned all about soil through group work in class and some practical science on the field. Throughout our science topic of ‘properties of materials’ our class have loved the practical tasks and been so enthusiastic to roll up their sleeves and get stuck in! They particularly enjoyed our fizz rockets as well as our ‘Coke and Mentos’ finale!

Throughout March, our class composed and created pieces of art for the Cornish Lowry Open Art Exhibition being run by Durham Sixth Form. Our Y5/6 artists created a range of artworks in pastels and watercolours, around the themes:  family, play, friendship and community, all of which were themes inspired by late local artist, Norman Cornish.

In English, Year 5/6 were given the challenge of using the poem ‘If…’ by Rudyard Kipling, to build and create poems of their own. They rose to that challenge, producing mindful and thought-provoking pieces of work: each poem was unique and reflected our class’ dreams and ambitions.