Crookhill Primary School

Class 2 and 3/4 were in for a spooky surprise when we paid a visit to Ryton Towers Residential home. They had organised a story teller to tell us some spooky stories.

Our children at Crookhill are very brave and weren't scared.

The staff at Ryton Towers had kindly prepared some delicious treats for us all.

They were delicious.

Have you heard strange noises coming from the open windows of class 2/3 on Friday mornings?  Well, it's probably the sound of our African Drumming rhythms that we have been practising with Mr Wilson from the Gateshead music service.  Children have enjoyed playing rhythmic patterns on the Djembe drums and singing African songs.  Take a look at our photographs to see how much fun we had!  

This term our topic is Africa. We have been using a lot of resources from a charity website, where we found instructions and kits to make African sack gardens. They are very simple to make and just by Mrs Bianbridge buying them, we have helped the charity.

We read the instructions on the website and then everyone chose a role to help create a group sack garden. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and we chose to put the gardens on the decking, where they would get plenty of rain and sunshine.

We created a column of stones in the middle surrounded by compost. Then we planted rocket, bean and beetroot seeds. We have to use our knowledge from Science to help us grow a healthy plant and we make sure the seeds have everything they need to grow into some vegetables for us.

Today we got excited because we have started to see green shoots appear!

Class 2/3 went to the CLC this morning to record their very own Physikids dance using the green screen.

While each group recorded their dance the rest of the class investigating the laptops.

Some of us were very giggly and some of us loved seeing ourselves on the TV!

We have had a fantastic day today in Class 2/3, kicking off our Creativity fortnight!

We started with a great story telling assembly where a certain member of our class shone and made fantastic sound effects!

We created story maps of our favourite story, we retold our favourite story and then we made 'freeze frames' of scenes from the story.

See if you can guess which part of 'George and the Dragon' these scenes are from!

Class 2/3 have discovered the magicians' secret and now are proud owners of their very own magical wand.

Some wands were so powerful they attracted 7, yes 7, pairs of scissors!

We then had great fun having wand battles where we found out who had the strongest wand.

Crookhill were in for a treat this morning as they were transported to the Magic Kingdom to listen to the Music Workshop perform music from some of the greatest Disney movies. We were given clues about the movies ranging from Snow White which was the 1st feature length film to come out of Disney Studios to a finale of Toy Story.

In true Crookhill spirit we joined in and even got to sing into the microphone.

Some of us were dressed as characters from the film. Can you tell which Disney Movie we are from?

If you look closely you will see Bashful, Sleepy, Happy and Grumpy. Can you tell who is who??? We played our parts well.

The whole school (especially the teachers) thoroughly enjoyed being whisked away into the magical world of Walt Disney. We can't wait for the music workshop to come back again!  

You saw our bubble blowing paintings just the other week. Now take a look at how we

 used them!

On Friday Class 2/3 were racing against the clock during their maths lesson.  To help them learn about different units of time some children were timing each other to see how long it took them to complete an activity.  They used stop watches and timed each other in minutes and seconds.  Other children were finding out what you can do in 1 minute.  They had to count how many times they could complete an activity, for example 'how many times can you write your name?'.  It was lots of fun and children worked really well in their groups sharing the equipment and taking turns to time each other. 

What a fantastic literacy lesson this morning! Class 2/3 got to 'act out' the final scenes from our class stories.

Some children were 'robbers' stealling from the school. Some children were police officers who arrested the robbers.

Our story character, Kate, had an adventure through Crookhill Primary School. When we have our final draft Mrs Bainbridge will publish some on here! So keep checking!

What a bubbly time in Class 2/3 today! For our art work we were making bright backgrounds to look like planets.

We mixed fairy liquid with paint and water. Then we blew bubbles until they reached the top of the cup. Next, we pressed the paper onto the bubbles.

We will use these prints to make our planet backgrounds.

Today Reception class, class 1 and 2/3 were visited by 'Team C'. They have been to see us lots of times but today they brought two friends with them - 'Mel' and 'Dee'.

Today we were taught how to make musical melodies. We got the opportunity to play lots of instruments...

and dance to songs with some interesting actions.

You'll be excused if you think a class of monkeys invaded the hall this afternoon! Class 2/3 were practising their gymnastic skills on the apparatus.

Class 2/3 have had a busy time in Science today! We have exploring magnets and their 'powers.'

We found out that magnets have forces, one end pushes and the other one pulls.

We learnt new words: attract and repel.

We also had a chance to use our magnets to find magnetic objects and materials.

You've seen the film 'Night at the Museum' well today Class 2/3 spent a day in the Great North Museum!

We had so much fun and found out so much information about Ancient Egypt! We even saw a real mummy!

Our workshop was really interesting! We found out about a mummy that noone has seen and we impressed our guide by knowing lots of Egyptian facts.

On Monday we had such good fun in Class 2/3!

Our topic this term is Ancient Egypt and we've been working on instructions too! So we read instructions on how to make a mummy and Mrs Smith kindly 'died' for us!

We yanked out her brain with a hook! Then took out her guts and wrapped her in linen bandages.

Class 2/3 have been measuring length in their numeracy lessons.  Here you can see some children learning how to record measurments in metres by measuring each other. 

What a fabulous trip Class 2/3 had this morning! We braved the rain and went to Adventureland, not quite knowing what to expect! When we got there we were amazed to find giant three storey play frames.

We split into 3 groups and had 10 minute challenges which included hopscotch, egg and spoon racing and finding EVERY activity in the play frame!

Then after all that hard work we had a healthy eating class with the chef and we made mini jacket potatoes!

Because we had been really well behaved we were allowed extra time of free play! We loved the big slide. Even the teacher's had a go!

This trip was part of the 'Play 4 Life' government initiative and we were given medals to show that we had taken part.

This terms music workshop was all about mini-beasts. The music team helped us to find patterns in music. We used our eyes to look for mini-beasts and then sang songs about each one. Each mini-beasts had a different beat. Look at the size of this spi-der.

We used lots of different instruments that sound like the mini-beasts we looked at. 

We had lots of fun making musical patterns. Take a look in the gallery for more pictures.