Friday 11th April
What a lovely final week we have had here in South America! The children have been working so hard and enjoying the lovely weather we have had. This week, we have finished and evaluated our light-up Easter cards, and I'm sure you'll agree they look amazing! Much like our sock monkeys, this DT projects had it's fair share of tricky parts; however, the children showed great resilience and determination and we all got our cards working. It was lovely to see the children working together to help each other overcome any obstacles they faced, The designs were brilliant and I hope you all enjoy displaying them over the holidays.
I hope you all have a restful break, and I'll see you all very soon.
Friday 4th April
Another brilliant week here in South America! We have been busy enjoying the many activities we have had planned during our STEM themed enrichment week: STEMmaville!
We have been lucky enough to take part in lots of different things this week. On Tuesday, we collaborated in teams on a newspaper tower challenge. In teams of 3, we had to build the tallest tower, but also consider the strength of them too. We measured each one, and then used a hairdryer to test how strong each one was. If they passed all 3 levels of the dryer, we moved closer until they tumbled. We also did an experiment to check the density of liquids. Many of us were surprised to find that oil was less dense than water, and so floated on top of it during our test.
On Wednesday, we had a visit from Kielder observatory and got to go into their inflatable planetarium. This let us zoom into the stars and see constellations like never before. We also created some space themed art using oil pastels and the results were fantastic!
Thursday was a jam-packed day for us! We had a visit from STEM teacher at Thorp Academy Mr Runciman, who brought a 3D printer along with him and showed us how they work. We then used foam to recreate our own 3D objects, and there were prizes for the most original designs (and tidiest desk).
After this, we had a visit from Mercedes Benz on Scotswood road. Some of their staff members, including 17 year old apprentice Daisy, came to visit us and talk about their jobs and the cars they work on. The children absolutely loved this and got to have a go in the driving seat of a beautiful car (apologies for the finger in some of the photos). We ended the day by having a live chat with scientists that worked within the health sector, and found out about their jobs and how they became scientists.
On Friday afternoon, we ended the week with another team challenge. We worked together to create a design to save an egg when it is dropped from a height. The children had to work together to design and build their creation, and we tested these at the end of the day.
A fabulous week for all, I hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Friday 28th March
We have had another busy but wonderful week here in South America! The children have been so fantastic in the run up to the Gateshead schools dance festival on Wednesday night. They have been practising for weeks to perfect their performance and I couldn't be prouder of what they have achieved. All of the comments from other pupils, members of staff, parents and other schools that watched us have been so complimentary. The children really did put on a stand-out, spectacular performance and I hope they all feel so proud of themselves.
Also this week, we had visitors in to hold prayer space for us in the dance studio. The children really enjoyed their time to reflect and focus on what they were grateful for, and spreading love across the world to everyone that needs it. They showed real maturity in this session, and it was very enjoyable for us all.
Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!
Friday 21st March
Another wonderful week here in South America. I am so proud of the children and their resilience this week, as we have been doing a little more revision work in preparation for their SAT's and they have been working so hard, they really are all amazing!
In PE this half term, we have been separating so that the children participating in the dance festival can have time to practice together during PE. In the other skill, we have been looking at outdoor adventurous activities which focus on teamwork and communication. The children have been brilliant at this, and I have loved seeing them have fun and working together to overcome the various challenges set.
Hope you all have a lovely weekend!
Friday 14th March
Another wonderful week here in South America! We have been busy all week continuing on with our electricals unit in science. Last week, we re-visited our knowledge of electricity, and built simple circuits using a variety of components. This week, building on from this, we explored the role of a switch within a circuit. Everyone made their own switch and then added these into a circuit to test how they control the electrical energy that is transferred. We made predictions first, and then tested these out. Using some of the equipment was quite tricky, but everyone helped each other and in the end the majority of testing was successful. We have also been using the electrical equipment alongside science in our DT unit, but I'll keep that a surprise until we have completed our project over the coming weeks.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend.
Friday 7th March
A fabulous start back after half term for us in South America. We have had a busy but wonderful week. In English, we began looking at our new text which is a poem called 'The Highwayman'. Some of the language is a little old fashioned, but we spent time analysing this and making sure we understood the poem fully.
We have also been looking at ration in maths. Ratio allows you to compare a part with another part in a whole and use this knowledge to solve problems. We spent time using cubes to build our own patterns and look at the ratio of one coloured block to another. This helped us practice the language we need to use when talking about ratio.
On Thursday, we also celebrated World Book Day and it was so much fun being dressed up and spending time to look at books and complete activities around them, as well as designing our own idea for next year's voucher.
I hope you all have a brilliant weekend!
Friday 21st February
Another lovely week here in South America, and the end of another half term; can you believe it? The weeks are flying in, and the children continue to impress me. This week, we have been looking at The Battle of Britain in our history lesson, and we learnt lots of new vocabulary: Luftwaffe, Messerschmitt, fighter ace and dog-fight, I'm sure the children can explain what all of these mean for you. We learnt that Britain were almost at the point of defeat, but then with a stroke of luck, Germany changed their tactics which gave Britain the chance to re-cover slightly, and then ultimately come back and win the battle.
We also produced some wonderful art to compliment this, which depicted a city skyline during The Blitz, the awful bombing attacks that followed The Battle of Britain.
This week was also our annual poetry competition and I must say, I was so impressed with everyone's efforts. All of the children had practiced their poem very well and all of them gave their performance their best shot. I have uploaded the poetry videos to a separate page on the website, but there is a link below to access these.
I hope you all have a wonderful half term!
Friday 14h February
Well, Happy Valentine's Day everyone, another amazing week here in South America! We have had a very busy week, but I am so proud of all of the children - they really have been wonderful!
This week, we finished our second guided reading book of this half term which was a poem called 'The Lady of Shalott' by Alfred Tennyson. At first glance, we weren't sure if we were going to enjoy this poem, but despite the older language the children have engaged really well: drawing their own conclusions, having debates and coming up with their own ideas about what happened and why. This week, we had a challenge whereby I gave each group a scenario from the book (secretly) and the audience had to guess which one it was. The children were all brilliant, and gave great justifications for all of their answers; I'm sure they will be able to tell you all about the poem.
In PE this week, we came to the end of our Hockey unit, so we put all of the skills we have learnt and been practising together, and played a class hockey tournament. Although we were looking for good hockey skills, I wasn't keeping score of each match. Instead, each team chose a player from the team they had just played to award house points to, for things like perseverance, determination and honesty. It was lovely to hear all of the positive things the children had to say about each other after each game; they also shook hands and were really honest about free passes throughout the match. I am extremely proud of all of them!
I hope you all have a restful and relaxing weekend!
Friday 7th February
Another busy but brilliant week here in South America! In English, we have been letter writing. We chose to link in our history topic the Victorians, and write a letter to a member of parliament about the dreadful working conditions children faced at this time. Honestly, the letters were fantastic! They all had a fantastic structure and used lots of evidence to support their arguments - please ask the children to tell you what they wrote about as I'm sure you will be as equally outraged as us.
In computing, we have been working on creating a PowerPoint presentation. There were three options as a topic for these: computing heroes, first computers or Bletchley Park. The children have been working for a number of weeks on these, with a focus on using transitions between their slides. They have all done a wonderful job and their presentations look very professional. Some of the groups chose to present to the class and did an awesome job; I was very proud of all of their work.
A final mention to five members of our class who attended the Gateshead schools netball finals on Tuesday afternoon. We may not have won, but I was immensely proud of their sportsmanship, their improvement over the past few weeks and how much they enjoyed themselves when we were there. They did Emmaville extremely proud!
Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!
Friday 31st January
Another fabulous week here in South America! We have been so busy all week with lots to tell you about. On Monday, those that wanted to take part began their rehearsals for the dance festival in March. Miss Rochester told me how hard they worked and I can't wait to see the final thing when it all comes together.
In history, we spent some time looking at all of the wonderful inventions that were developed during the Victorian period, and comparing their technology to that of modern Britain. Many of the things we use today were initially created during the Victorian era, so we looked at how things have changed and just how many inventions were made during this time. I'm sure the children would like to tell you as many as they can remember.
In art, we made our final piece that we have been working on since the start of term. Our artwork this half term has been inspired by nature (specifically the ocean as it links to our geography work). We have had time to practice some initial ideas and on Tuesday, we created our final design. We used polystyrene tiles to carve into and creating a printing block. We used a roller and some blue paint to cover it and then print it onto paper. The final prints were really effective and look brilliant I'm sure you'll agree.
We have also been lucky enough to have another guest speaker in to talk about their career with us today. We would like to say a huge thank you to Mr Lancashire for inspiring us today, and showing us that we can choose if we work hard enough!
Have a fantastic weekend everyone!
Friday 24th January
Another lovely week in South America. We have been so busy this week and completed lots of fun tasks. In English, we have completed writing our story which was based on the novel 'Street Child'. We developed our own characters and tried to give lots of detail about them by showing the reader, not telling them. The children did this brilliantly and their stories have been so impressive. We even brought in some of our history lesson as the book is set in the Victorian era, we used what we have learnt about child labour and used that in our story.
In geography we had a practical lesson where we looked at the affects of overfishing. We used skittles to be fish and tried to catch what we could to feed our village. However, we soon realised what happens when too many fish are taken out without time to reproduce; some groups had no fish left after the first year!
Finally, in science we have been looking at evolution and inheritance. Following on from our workshop at the Hancock museum last week, we were looking at how different plants and animals have adapter over time to be successful in their environment. I'm sure the children would like to tell you more about how this happens, and even one way in which humans have adapted over time.
An honourable mention to some of our class for their amazing efforts in their netball tournament last week. They played so well, and ended up coming in second place which secured them a place at the finals in a couple of weeks time!
Have a fantastic weekend everyone!
Friday 17th January
A brilliant week here in South America. On Thursday, we had our school trip to the Great North museum and the day was excellent. The day had been organised for us by the museum, so we started the morning by exploring the ancient Greeks in The Shefton Gallery. We had to find and name certain artefacts, find out what material they were made out and some of us even had a go at designing our own mythical creature.
Next, we played the evolution game with one of the staff from the museum. This game linked to our current science topic and taught us how natural selection and evolution work over time. I'm sure the children will be able to tell you all about how the game worked and what science they learnt from it. As part of this, we also got to look close up and stroke at some taxidermy birds from the museum.
After lunch, we had time to explore the rest of the exhibits and go into the planetarium where we learnt so much about our amazing universe. The children represent Emmaville so well and I am really proud of them all.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!
Friday 10th January
What a lovely first week back we have had here in South America. We have started new topics in our subjects including fractions in maths; street child in English and evolution and inheritance in science. In preparation for our upcoming trip, this week we introduced our science topic looking at inheritance and how offspring inherit characteristics from their parents. The children had lots of knowledge about this already and I was so impressed with what they shared in class.
To try and show how characteristics were passed down within DNA to offspring, we tried to show this through designing our own Mr Men characters. Each child chose two, and then incorporated characteristics from both off these to decide what their offspring would look like. We had some brilliant results and I know the children really enjoyed this activity.
I hope you all have a lovely weekend!