Friday 25th April
No time to blink this week, with lessons on fractions in Maths, action stories in English, the life cycle of birds in Science and our future careers in PSHE.
We also spent the whole of Tuesday immersed in the Shang Dynasty, during our visit to the Oriental Museum in Durham. There, we took part in an interactive quiz in the newly-refurbished main gallery (the first school group to use it, actually), investigated some Shang artefacts, created foil-embossed taotie (hidden face) pots, and used drama to re-tell the story of the last Shang king, Di Xin. Our tour guide, John, was really helpful and full of interesting facts, and he was very impressed with our knowledge of Ancient China.
We also made some fruit kebabs in DT; following some simple instructions, using a knife safely to cut portions and choosing a range of different fruit to skewer into a colourful kebab. Many of us discovered that we had a taste for fruits that we'd never tried before, like kiwi fruit and pineapple. Tasting the (healthy) rainbow was a lot of fun!
Friday 19th April
Back with a busy week, that's included the start of our 'BikeAbility' lessons, which began with some basic assessments on the playground. Our instructors, Mark and Zara, were looking for enough confidence on the bicycles to ride in a straight line, turn, signal and stop safely. The good news is that everyone who has ridden this week is through to the next round, as it were - we'll be going out in small groups to practise skills on the roads from next week.
We also enjoyed another session from the Music Workshop team, who delivered a lively lesson on patterns and rhythms using instruments form around the World. Counting aloud is the key to keeping a steady pulse, and it was fun to try this on a variety of instruments, such as Agogo bells, Surdos and Ganzás.