Friday 22nd December 2023
We’ve had a lovely ‘Christmassy’ final week in North America class. Congratulations to Sam C, Jack, Charlotte, Ophelia, Ellie, Lydia M, Scarlett and Oscar W who all were on the ‘Rewards Sheet’ three times this term and consequently received certificates from Miss Armstrong.
Congratulations to all our class for their fantastic work in art and DT these last few weeks producing some beautiful Christmas cards for their families and their super pompom snowmen which they made with Mrs Sanderson. I feel the photo below doesn’t quite show the hard work that went into them.
Thank you to you all for working so hard, being so kind to one another and making life in North America class so wonderful.
I hope you all have a lovely Christmas and New Year and look forward to hearing all about it when we return in January.
Mrs McK and Mrs Evans
Friday 15th December 2023
What a wonderful enrichment week we have had in North America class. The focus of our enrichment week has been reading and I feel that the various challenges and tasks of the week have all played a part in reigniting the children’s love of reading. The children have spent lots of time discussing what they enjoy reading and making recommendations to their friends about books that they have loved.
Homework this week was all about logging every bit of reading that the children did in a 24-hour period whether it be reading the back of a cereal box or their current reading book. The children then illustrated this in a reading river recognising what an essential skill reading is.
Our year 6 readers have also really enjoyed paired reading with the younger readers in our school this week and having a ‘guest reader’ in class. We have also performed our very own version of the Mary Poppins classic, A Cover is not a Book, which I will post on here once I have reduced the file size.
Our week ended wonderfully too when our local MP – Liz Twist -joined our class to present Theo with his printed card and a prize for winning her Christmas card competition. We were all thrilled. Liz and her team were so impressed with Theo’s winning entry and explained that the card had been signed by the Speaker in the House of Commons.
Well done to you all. Hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Mrs McK
Friday 1st December 2023
We had a special visitor in year 6 this week: Dan Smith the famous local author of books such as Boy X and Nisha’s War. It was lovely to hear about Dan’s colourful life and how he had been so determined to become an author despite having setbacks. Having such resilience is something that we discuss with our children at Emmaville when we look at growth mindsets at the start of (and throughout) our school year. It was great to hear this message relayed by Dan who is now reaping the rewards for never giving up. Our budding authors were hooked on Dan’s stories and insights into what inspires him when he writes.
On the theme of resilience and growth mindsets, we saw a wonderful example of this this week when the children were in their art lesson. They have been practicing their painting skills whilst making Christmas cards. The first attempts were excellent; however, Mrs Sanderson asked them to repeat the process and consider where they could improve their technique and observation skills to ensure that their final painting of a robin was the best that it could be. I have photographed them all (attached) for you to look at. I think that you will agree that the quality of them is absolutely superb.
Well done North America. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Mrs McK
Friday 24th November 2023
Well done North America for another week of wonderful work. I was particularly impressed this week by the enthusiastic debate we had in PSHE on our topic of celebrating differences, and by your work in science when we were classifying plants (not as easy as it sounds). I have also been thrilled by the quality of your writing whilst innovating a ‘flash back’ story this week.
I imagine your parents will have some very tired children this weekend: on top of a packed week working through our curriculum, the children spent Thursday evening at the Newcastle Vertu Arena performing with other schools at the Decades Concert whilst raising money for local charities. We could not have been more proud of you all. You had learnt your part of the medley so well and sounded phenomenal at the event. You really were a credit to us.
Hope you have plenty of rest and fun this weekend.
Mrs McK
Friday 17th November 2023
Well done Year 6 for such a wonderful class assembly this week. It was so lovely to see so many parents supporting you; I’m sure that they will have been super proud of you.
The theme of the assembly was about helping others and the children, as well as explaining what they have been up to in Year 6, they also talked about their fundraising efforts for Children in Need, and how fortunate they feel to live the lives they live.
They have raised over £600 this week for Children in Need by selling raffle tickets and merchandise. A special thanks needs to go out to Charlotte and Oscar our School Council members who have collected every morning and helped with the raffle.
Another highlight of the week, and the assembly, has to be the grand unveiling of the sock monkeys that the children have been diligently making all of last term as part of our WWII history topic – make do and mend. They were desperate to show them off in assembly and then take them home. I think the photos below go some way to showing what a wonderful job they did.
I hope you all have a lovely, restful weekend.
Mrs McK
Friday 10th November 2023
Wow! We have had a ‘full-on’ first week back in North America Class. We began our new unit on ‘Classification’ in science and found out how living organisms can be classified using a key. The children quickly became experts at finding which particular organism belonged to which class according to their observable features.
We also began a new unit in PE this week: hockey. There are some tricky skills to master in hockey and I was really impressed by the children’s resilience while trying to ensure that they could control the ball.
In our guided reading sessions this week, we have been studying texts linked to Remembrance Day and finding out about people whose lives have been affected by war.
On Wednesday we were invited to Thorp Academy for an inter-schools orienteering competition. The children thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon outside in the sunshine, and covered so much distance whilst trying to find the clues – I bet they slept well that evening!
Hope you all have a well-earned rest this weekend.
Mrs McK
Friday 27th October 2023
It’s been a fun-packed final week of the half term in North America class. We have finished our unit on light in science; written some beautiful non-chronological reports in English; learnt all about the mean average in maths; celebrated Black History Month in our guided reading sessions; begun our topic on Ancient Greece in History and bought some fantastic new books at our book fair.
However, our most fun-packed day has to be Tuesday when we visited the Victoria Tunnel in Ouseburn, Newcastle which links perfectly with one of our history topics: Word War II. The children have been finding out all about the Victoria Tunnel in preparation for our visit and their knowledge shone on the actual day. Our guides were super impressed by the breadth of the children’s knowledge, not only of the Victoria Tunnel, but also of their knowledge of what life was like for children during WWII. Their guides commented that their answers and questions were so insightful that they ‘could not believe that they were primary school children’.
As teachers, it is always a pleasure to take children on educational visits; however, I don’t think I’ve ever been more proud of a class as I was on Tuesday. Not only were the guides so complementary of the children, but I was also stopped on two more occasions by the staff at Stepney Bank Stables (where we had lunch) to tell me how impressed they were by the children’s behaviour and good manners. I have since received an email from the staff at the Victoria Tunnel stating:
Thank you for bringing your students on an educational visit to the Victoria Tunnel and Ouseburn Valley this week.
The guides asked me to email you and say what a pleasure it was to take your children on a tour, they were well behaved, interested and enthusiastic and a credit to you and your school.
Well done North America!
Hope you all have a lovely, restful half-term holiday.
Mrs McK
Friday 20th October 2023
We were treated to a visit from our Chair of Governors (Mr Purvis) this week. He had heard that one of our history topics was the Victorians and decided to pop in to show us his stamp collection which included some very rare Penny Black stamps. As ever, the children were full of questions about the stamps and were challenged by Mr Purvis to make comparisons between stamps of today and those in Victorian times. We also learnt that Britain is the only country that does not put the name of the country on the stamp because Britain (during Queen Victoria’s reign) invented the stamp.
Geography this week was all about the great lakes of North America. The children learnt an acronym to help them remember the five lakes and then went on to write an information text about them. I’ve attached some photos for you to see how amazing they are.
Hope you all have a lovely (not too soggy) weekend.
Mrs McK
Friday 13th October
We’ve had a really productive and enjoyable week in North America class. This week it was time to vote for our School Council representatives. Our 12 candidates gave really emotive (and well researched) speeches to the class stating what qualities they felt that they had which would make them a good school councillor. I was really impressed by the confidence of the children when they were giving their speeches and by their drive to want to do something good for our school community.
Science this week was all about refraction. We carried out an experiment (see pictures below) using a glass of water and a pencil; from this our young scientists were challenge to explain what was happening to the light. I was so pleased that so many of the children had gone home and replicated the experiment and explained refraction to their grown up.
In maths this week we have been looking at place value and determining the value of digits in numbers up to tens of millions. The children were challenged to try to make a number, using a place value chart and 6 counters, which was closest to a given number. It’s not as easy as you might think – especially when our lovely mathematicians have the ‘never say die’ approach to their maths, and they just won’t give up until they have the number as close as it could possibly be!
Hope you all have a lovely restful weekend.
Mrs McK and Mrs Evans
Friday 6th October 2023
I feel that we have so much to be proud of in North America this week! Let’s begin with our fantastic sporting achievements. Our girls’ football team have performed like true lionesses in two separate competitions this week. Mr Elliott has been so proud of the girls’ attitude and effort that he stated – and I quote – ‘they are an absolute joy to be with and a credit to our school.’ Congratulations to Ellie, Kaysha, Orla and Holly who represent North America in the team.
We were equally proud of Samuel L, Ella, Sam C, Ophelia, Oscar W, Lydia M, Noah, Finley and Logan this week who represented us at the Gateshead Schools Cross Country on Wednesday. All of the children ran amazingly well; however, I must give a special mention to ‘Our Ellie’ who won gold at the event despite being full of cold.
I also feel I need to mention how proud I am of all of the children for the effort that they are giving to their homework. I have been so impressed by the children bringing in research on the various topics that we are studying this half term. Their work is often packed with new and interesting facts that are educating both their friends and me!
And finally, and the following videos will back me up on this, how proud Mrs Evans and I are of our children’s beautiful poetry this week. Thursday was National Poetry Day; the theme of the poetry to celebrate the day was Refuge. We studied the poem: “On the Move Again” by Michael Rosen which focusses on the refugee experience. We also considered what life must be like for a refugee and how our lives compare to this by considering what refuge means to us.
I hope you enjoy the small selection of poems and that you have a lovely relaxing weekend.
Mrs McK
Friday 29th September 2023
We’ve had a wonderful week in North America.
In science, we have continued to research more about light, this week exploring how the eye sees objects. The children studied each other’s eyes, using a lens, observing not only the different parts that make up the eye, but also how our eyes react to light. We then went on to look at how light helps us to see things and why some eyes need glasses or lenses to help them see clearly.
In history, we began our topic on the Victorians by researching what life was like in Victorian times and making conclusions from pictures painted by famous artists of that era.
In English, we completed our warning stories. I have been truly amazed by the quality of our end of unit write and would like to share with you some snippets from them.
The wooden planks creaked and the ladder swayed from side to side in just the slightest breath of wind. Above them, the sky darkened: looming trees whispered to one another of icy secrets that only the deepest roots of the forest could understand; shadows crept into every corner of the forest waiting to pounce and a sheet of darkness enveloped the earth.
Orla C
Inside the theatre was majestic: beautiful scarlet curtains with gold trimmings draped on the warn wooden floor; rows of chairs appeared to excitedly whisper to each other as if they were people enthusiastically anticipating a new show about to begin; and the midnight-black stage lights (two of them) loomed over the stage ready to show off whoever was lucky enough to perform there.
Charlotte G
Dexter trudged along the street. The path was muddy. The rain was an endless siege of brutal drops in between forks of thunder stabbing at houses with their short life. Suddenly, a tiny ray of light started advancing towards him. “Too late, Lord,” he announced.
Sam C
Hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Mrs McK
Friday 22nd September 2023
Friday already! The weeks are whizzing past in North America class.
This week has been National Coding Week and the children have been focused on learning new digital skills through coding. Without wanting to sound too boastful, coding is something our children are really skilled at and an area of the curriculum which they absolutely love! The children have been working on the resources on the ‘Hour of Coding’ website. They have been learning about the skills of game development and fundamental programming concepts. I was amazed at how rapidly the children developed their games to include some really challenging content.
In a world where I imagine many of our children may have a career in STEM, and related areas of work, I feel this is an excellent grounding to fire up their enthusiasm.
In science this week, we have been carrying out a controlled experiment to find out how the size of a shadow changes when we alter the distance of an object from a light source. Our lovely scientists were superb at setting up their controlled experiment, recording their findings, drawing and labelling a diagram and making conclusions from the data that they had gathered. Apologies for the quality of the pictures – the ipad’s not good in the dark.
Congratulations to the boys’ football team for making it through to the next round of the Blaydon and District U11s cup, Mr Elliott was so impressed, not only by your skills, but also by your exemplary attitude to the game.
Hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Mrs McK
Friday 15th September 2023
We’ve had a wonderful week in North America class. Mrs Sanderson has put together all of our art, which the children completed during our PSHE session and which includes our knowledge on the rights of a child and what it means to be a good learner and a kind and thoughtful member of our class. I think that you will agree that it looks amazing hanging in our classroom.
Last week we studied Fairtrade and how this organisation can change people’s lives. This week some of our children gave a speech to their classmates explaining why they feel that they should represent them on the Fairtrade Committee. I was totally blown away by the amount of work and research that had gone into their pitches – we definitely have some future politicians in our midsts!
In PE this week we began our unit on Rugby which will prepare us for the upcoming tournament that we have entered. Our coach (Jake) was really impressed by the children’s skill and team work.
Well done North America and thank you for such a wonderful week.
Have a lovely weekend.
Mrs McK and Mrs Evans
Friday 8th September 2023
What a wonderful bunch of students we have in North America class this year! Mrs Evans and I have had such a lovely week with them, and are looking forward to the year ahead.
We began the week by doing some research about the continent of North America where we found out lots of amazing facts and had a competition to see who could remember the names of the 23 countries that make up the continent. We also drew some native American headdresses which are now looking fantastic up on the wall in our classroom.
We began our unit on equivalence in maths by looking at the part-part-whole model and using Cuisenaire rods to generate examples of additive and multiplicative relationships.
In PE, we began our unit on netball; we are also going to be covering rugby this term with a coach from the Falcons! (more to follow).
Fairtrade is something we feel passionate about at school so we found out all about what Fairtrade is and how important sustainability is to the Fairtrade movement. The children began thinking about whether they would like to ‘pitch’ to their class to represent them on the Fairtrade Committee.
Well done North America class for making our first week together so fantastic.
Hope you all enjoy the lovely weather over the weekend.
Mrs McK