Crookhill Primary School

As part of our research into WW2 we made this German Bomber.  It is amazing what you can make with materials found around school.                                                                                                                                                                                

After a long wait they're finally here......

See the Gallery for more photos of the social event of the year!

Class 5 and 6 ended the year with a trip to the Discovery Museum.  In the morning we looked at objects from World War Two and had to work out what they were used for.

After lunch we explored the Museum.  We loved the Science Maze!

The Music Exhibition was very popular - Do you recognise these Eighties Pop Stars?

Some real life dragons from Ryton Comprehensive visited Class 5 recently to judge some of our ideas for a new logo.  Class 5 had the task of designing a logo for the Ryton Cluster of schools and then presenting to the 'dragons' in true 'Dragons Den' style.  The dragons were quite nice really - not as scary as the ones on TV!!

Working in groups to create a stunning logo - some dragons were quite helpful.

Concentration was required, not a sound in Y2.

Applying paint a required skill, even more concentration.

Our designs were based on a Kenyan Village scene.

What do you think of it so far? 

A fine selection was created. 

The tiles were fired, glazed and now we can feel proud of all our hard work.

The Ceramic Experience was excellent and great fun.  Why don't you try it?

Today class 1 went to the blue reef aquarium.  Thankfully todays weather was much better than last week so we had a fantastic time.

On the bus someone swapped Adele's head for a packed lunch box!!!!

When we arrived we went straight to watch the seals getting their breakfast.  They were very clever performing different tricks.  They were even giving each other kisses.

Then we went around the aquarium and looked at all the different species of fish.

In the workshop we looked at a starfish, a sea urchin and a crab.  We even got to touch them!!!  Only afterwards Craig told us that it was actually the bum of the starfish and sea urchin.  Urgh!!!  Take a look in the gallery to see the rest of our pictures and feel free to leave a comment.

Here Jennie and Jordan rub their wool fibres with soap and water until it lathers up, going in a circular motion.

Stephen and Alex have a bash at rubbing their wool with soap and water. It's very hard work and takes a while until its felted and ready to rinse.

This picture shows Jennie and Jordans piece of felt before it gets washed.

Stephen and Alex have fun washing their felt and take time to make sure all the soap has gone out of the wool.

The group are really pleased with their finished piece of felt and think it was fun and exciting.

The finished article.

FELT

Hi Year 6

You will have to wait until Monday for the rest of the photos in the gallery. There is a problem with the size of the files. I'll try and fix it on Monday and get them uploaded.

Thanks

Miss Brown.

Last night Year 6 went to Gibside straight after school. We had an action packed night planned.

When we got there we had time to unpack, make our beds and of course, have caterpillar races across the dorms in our sleeping bags. Well, what else would we do?

Our first activity was low ropes. It was sooooo much fun. Even Mrs Willoughby enjoyed this one. We had to have very good balance and upper body strength to get across the course.

We went back to the stables to have our tea. Some of us weren't too keen on the cheesy chops and chips so it was a good job they had lots of sweets, crisps and chocolate to eat to keep their strength up.

Our next activity was shelter building in a wooded area of Gibside. This was a really fun activity. We were in 4 teams and we had to design and build the strongest, safest and most luxurious shelter we could.

Some of us were a little adventurous with the matierals we found!

Interior design was a very impotant feature for our shelters.

Our shelters were surprisingly roomy.

Our last activity of the night was a bat walk. We saw quite a few bats. We used bat detectors and we could hear them flying in the trees around us. The bats make a different noise when they are feeing.

We were very tired after all our activities but it didn't stop us from staying up well into the night.

On Saturday morning, we had a delicious breakfast and went off orienteering. Most of us managed to find our way to all the landmarks and work out the clues. The badgers group took the more scenic route which missed out all of the landmarks. We took the woodland route to the top of the hill and back again. Oooopps!!! Never mind.

We thought our trip to Gibside was fab. We all got tickets for 2 for 1 entry so we can bring our parents along to show them just how much fun we had.

Take a look in the gallery for some more trip photos.

Class 1 have been doing lots of work on looking at different playground equipment and designing their own. This is helping us to decide what equipment we would like when we get our new outdoor area at school.

Ryton park has just had lots of new equipment so we went to see what things we really liked.

We walked there and thankfully did not get wet today. Take a look at the pictures to see us playing on the new equipment.

James has really big muscles. He used the lever to pump water down the hill.

It was so much fun digging in the sand. It was just like being at the beach. We would love to have sand like this at school.

Miss Brown loved playing on the swing.

And by the looks of it, so did Mrs Kappen.

Before we walked back home, Mrs Grant bought us cookies from the shop. They were delicious. I think some of us were wearing more cookie than we ate.

On Wenesday afternoon Class Six were visited by 'The Mighty Mercs', who are a fitness organisation based arount the idea of army games. Our field was turned into a mini battle zone for the afternoon - there was even a helipad!

We all made sure we had the correct gear on...

We were all assigned different job roles such as medic, engineer, armoured and sniper. These roles came with certain responsibilities. We had to all work together to save our General! 

As well as tactical thinking and teamwork, an important part of the afternoon was fitness. At the beginning of the session we all given pedometers to measure how far we walked (or ran, or commando rolled!). The person who went the furthest was awarded a prize. Well done to you Private Crosbie! 

To find out more about the Mighty Mercs and events they run, visit their website:

http://www.mightymercs.co.uk/ 

This term, classes five and six have really enjoyed learning about World War Two. On Monday, we all came to school dressed as evacuees!!

                                                                                                                                      

CAB planted flowers on Butterfly Bank.

But, what we really wanted to see were Elliot's and Ellie's  4 new baby swans.  Young swans are called signets.

Ahhhhh.........h!

We gave them bits of bread.  Sandra our friend from Shasun was there  to tell us more about the signets.  They are about 4 weeks old.  They will grow up to be as big and white as their parents.  Then they will fly off to another lake and begin their own families. 

Class 1 set off to the coast today so play on the beach, get some sun, build sand castles and plodge in the sea. However, the sun went in, the sand castles got wet and our plodge in the sea turned into a full swim for some of our children.

And some of us got a bit carried away and fell into holes. Zoe had great fun burying Ellie.

We had a picnic on the beach in true seaside style and had sand sandwiches.

This was when the fun really started. The clouds got grey and the heavens opened. We would have been drier if we had gone for a swim in the sea.

Our trip ended early because we were so wet. We missed out on going to the Blue Reef Aquarium.

BUT .... We are booked to go again next Tuesday morning. Lets hope it doesn't rain!!!!

On Tuesday Year 3 visited Bede's World in Jarrow. Bede was a Monk in Anglo Saxon times and was around when the Vikings were up to their tricks.

We began the day by finding out what every day life was like for ordinary Anglo Saxons.

This is inside an Anglo Saxon house. The floor is made of earth and the walls are made of mud, reeds and little presents left behind by animals...

Bede's World is also a working farm. It looks just as it would 1,300 years ago. These pigs aren't quite that old....

Meet Githa and Offa. Githa is spinning wool ready to make clothes. You can tell Offa is rich and important because his clothes are decorated and he has his own knife.

This Anglo Saxon garden grows only the plants you would find 1,300 years ago. Did you know, Anglo Saxons didn't eat chips because potatoes hadn't been discovered yet? And carrots were white, red or purple, but never orange!

After lunch we put on habits to find out what it was like to be a monk. Bede was sent away to a monastery when he was only 7, the same age as some of us!

In the museum we learned about all the jobs the monks had to do, like building, fishing and making beer! All work and no pray...

What's this? Working? On a trip? Surely not? Not really, just drawing some of the jobs the monks got up to.

We had a great day at Bede's World and the weather was fantastic. Oh, and in case you were wondering....

Yes, there was a giftshop...

Our art topic this term is weaving. We have looked at differnt kind of weaving and made some lovely patterns of our own. Last week we made small scales weaves but they weren't big enough for us. We went to the cimbing frame and thought we could make the fence look prettier by weaving different materials through the bars. I think it's going to take us a very long time. We had so much fun we didn't want to stop.

This week in art club we have been weaving coloured paper to make interesting pictures and patterns. We put our patterns into a frame to finish them off. We decorated our frames. Take a look at our fab designs!

As part of our World War Two topic, we visited the CLC to find out about the bombing of The Wilkinson's Lemonade Factory in North Shields in 1940.  We had to make our own Photo Story about World War Two.  The Wilkinson Lemonade Factory was used as an air raid shelter and 107 people were killed in a direct hit on the factory. 

There were lots of real World War Two objects for us to look at also.

We tried out lots of the objects!

A Class 5 Air Raid Warden

The gas masks were a bit smelly!!

We made models of our equipment, based on our designs, with some fabulous results.

Have a look at our designers in action!!        

 As all great designers do, we shall be evaluating our designs and seeing if we can think of ways to make them strong, safe and even more fun!

For the next few weeks Class 1 are going to be lokoing at different materials. Today we have been exploring magnetic and non-magnetic materials.

We looked inside and outside the classroom to see what we thought would be magnetic and then used magnets to test out our theories.

No! The glass was not magnetic.

Nope! The wood isn't magnetic either.

On Wednesday our year 6 children took part in the Kwik Cricket tournament. We took along our Ace A team and our Brill B team, as well as some fantastic supporters!

The morning commenced with 3 rounds of games against other local schools, including Rowlands Gill, St Agnes and Winlaton.

Our A team did really well, winning 2 out of their 3 games. Have a look at some of the action below!

 The Ace A team!!

The Brill B team!! 

Unfortunately we did not win, however we managed a respectable 5th, which was not bad as the winners, St Agnes, proved formidable rivals!!

We all had a fabulous time and enjoyed the experience of playing against other schools some of which could be our new friends when we leave Crookhill and join Ryton!

There was a great deal of precipitation.

Lots of interesting things to see in the wood.

 It was even too wet for the fish.  lol

We deserve our Party Cake.  It said WELL DONE Y2.

Playing 'Pass The Parcel'

In an orderly line for the buffet. Yum!Yum! Mrs Kirkland did us proud.

The nice weather has seen Year 3 burning off lots of energy on the field in PE. We have been improving our throwing and catching skills in a variety of activities and games.

We like to warm up with a game of Freezeball.

We started by throwing to a partner.

Then we threw to each other in groups, getting further apart.

"I bet I can hit Mr Swan from here!"

Today Class 1 have been feeling the heat so Rachel made fruit kebabs and fresh fruit jelly with the children. We worked very hard to make sure the pieces of fruit were all the same size.

As part of a tournament organised by the learning mentors at Ryton Comprehensive, Crookhill's Football Team played against Ryton Juniors FC this week. Our team looked very smart as they headed out from school (thanks to Mrs Willoughby!)

Lots of mums and dads headed down to cheer the team on and they were all very impressed.

Unfortunately the score line wasn't in Crookhill's favour but the whole team played their socks off! Fingers crossed for our next fixture in a couple of weeks time! 

We have had great fun writing and acting scripts for television documentaries.  'Cheeky Chimps' and 'Elephant Diaries' were some of the exciting 'programmes' created by Class 5.  All of the scripts included an advert break  - the most popular advert was for the Dog's Trust.  Everyone really enjoyed acting out the parts and pretending to be televsion presenters, zoo keepers and interviewers -  there was also one or two 'wild' animals on the loose in Class 5.

A future in television?!

Look out - what's hiding in the undergrowth?!?

Some children from Class 5 had a brilliant time at Heworth Comprehensive CLC, creating programs for a robot.  The children had to work as a team to work out programs for six difficult challenges.  Miss McCormack was really impressed with how well the children worked together and how quickly they managed to set the programs. 

After working very hard towards their SATs, Class Six were working hard in a different way; making all sorts of things to sell at our annual Enterprise Fair!

They had to enter 'The Dragon's Den' (Mrs Easton's office!) and persuade her that their ideas were a sound investment.They were then given a 'start-up fund'  and had to use this to buy materials to create goods to sell at a profit.

They made all sorts of goods! Necklaces, bracelets, cakes, bookmarks and Go-Go pouches, to name a few items. 'Beat the Goalie', 'Rugby King' and 'Splat the Celebrity' were also popular activities!

Watch this space to find out our overall profit!!

Today Class 1 went to Bill Quay Farm. Our topic this term has been looking at different animals and how we look after them. We went to the farm to see how they look after the animals there. We saw lots of different animals. Suzanne showed us around the farm and told us about the rare animals they have there like the rare type of hen and goat.

We went to see Bella the pig and we got to feed her. She was very hungry and wanted to eat lots and lots of food.

We were so pleased that the sun shone all day and the rain stayed away. Have a look in the gallery for the rest of our photos. Make sure to take a look at the videos of our trip too. You'll find them in the multimedia section of the website.

What a magical morning we have had today! 4 musical wizards appeared in our community room today and we helped them make lots of musical, magical spells. We found lots of ingredients to put into the magic pot. Some of us were a little bit frightened of the spider.

We sang lots of magical songs and learned how to cast spells with our invisible magic wands. Have a look in the gallery to see us having lots of fun.

Some of our KS1 children have been taking a French club after school. We have looked at where France is and one of it's most famous landmarks. We have built our very own Eiffel Towers using multi-coloured artstraws. We think they look great.

Some of the girls though that they looked like hats.

What do you think?

When we had finished we tried some delicious pain du chocolat - Chocolate croissants. Yum.

 Class 5 had great fun putting up bird boxes around the school field.  Mr.Emerson from Gateshead Council talked to Class 5 about the different types of birds that might use the bird boxes and good places to put them. 

Who lives in a house like this?!

That looks like a good spot!

A newly built comfortable home available.  Spacious with great views. Suitable for a family. 

We are going to check the boxes regularly to see if they are being used.  It would be great to see the boxes used and to hear chicks!

Class 1 have been practicing their listening skills for our science topic. We have been learning about sounds around us and how we hear them.

Today we made 'telephones' using cups and string. We used different lengths of string to see if the length of the string made any difference. We decorated our cups with different pictures and patterns.

We took our telephones outside and tested them in pairs. We had lots of fun.

An egg-traordinary event took place at egg-actly 1:30pm in our Quiet Area.  It was reported to Mrs. Kirkland that a large rabbit had been seen hopping about our school field.  Class 2 went out to investigate. They were very egg-cited and egg-static when they found some spherical objects hidden in and around ther area.  'Look what we have found' egg-claimed Class 2.

Where's the rabbit?

Got to be here somewhere!

Have we found anything?

Is there anything here?

We would like to thank Mrs.Kirkland for organising our excellent Science Week.  We had laboratory technicians from Shasun in Dudley showing us lots of fascinating experiments - Dr. Mark making loud noises and squirting water - Nigel Wild telling us all about food and Zoo Lab brought in some fascinating creatures!

Dr. Mark spraying the pupils with water.

Nigel Wild (Chef) telling us all about the science of food.

Investigating a slippery customer.

Being charmed by a snake?  These brave girls were.

Watch this closely.

Wow!

CAB thought you might like to see our Easter cards. 

Charlotte put alot of effort into her feathers.  Not sure hens have green feathers !!

Class 1 had a lovely surprise this afternoon. Some little bunny in class 1 had hidden 52 chocolate eggs all over the quiet area. Mrs Adams took us all outside to see if we could find them all. Do you think we managed?

Yesterday Class 1 had a second visit from Mrs Hart and Billy Bear - The road safety team. We learned even more about how to stay safe than the last time they came. This time we learned how we should always be on a booster seat when we are in a car and how we should always wear our seatbelts. Billy Bear told us how we should behave when we are on a bus so we now know that we should always stay sitting down until the bus has completely stopped no matter how excited we are to get off.

All the Year 1 children have taken part in a reading scheme. The children had to read a new book to the teachers and their parents every single day. All the children have done exceptionally well and all made really good progress over the 6 weeks. We had a celebration in class 1 today where the parents were invited to share in their children's success. Miss McCormack presented all the children with a certificate.  

Class 1 have turned into Easter bunnies. We made made bunny ears and hopped around all afternoon. We went to the music room and made some delicious Easter nests. They were yummy.

We also had a competition. All the children designed an Easter egg. The prize was a yummy cream egg. Well done Adele - you won 1st prize.

Class 1 have been learning about stories from other cultures. We specifically looked at Pocahontas and how the Indians lived. We had an amazing tepee and made costumes to look like the Indians. Don't we look great in our feather head bands?

We made little tepees, long boats and totem poles. We had lots of fun learning about how they live.

On Wednesday 25th March, Class Six visited Nature's World in Middlesbrough! We all had a great day following the Eco Trail, hunting for mini-beasts and playing on the slides! Thankfully the weather stayed sunny so we could make the most of the outdoors.

All of Class SIx learned lots during the trip and it was an excellent way to round-off our Environment Topic. Make sure you take a look in the gallery to see more photographs of our day out.....

This half term our topic is red kites.  We have been finding out about these large birds of prey which were reintroduced to Gateshead 5 years ago.  We have discovered kites eat carrion (dead animals), worms and beetles.  On Friday we had a visit from Julie and Judy who work for Northern Kites.  We found out loads about kites and we went kite spotting and tracking.

Red kites make their nests from soft materials.  Here are some things which have been found in nests: a sock, a teddy, a flag and a pair of underpants!!!

We used special equipment and binoculars to spot red kites.  We spotted loads of kites!!

We got really excited when we saw a kite!!

We have been learning about the life cycle of plants as part of our Science topic. On Tuesday, we were looking at seed dispersal. We learned that there are lots of different ways in which a seed can disperse, including wind, water, animal and explosion!

We decided to mimic nature by copying the methods of seed dispersal. We made shakers with holes in like poppys; stuck seeds to feathers to mimic sycamore seed 'helicopters' and even put seeds into balloons, ready to explode! (which of course was the best bit!)

 Even some of class five volunteered to be animals and stuck seeds to themselves, as though they had brushed past a plant and got seeds stuck to their fur!  Finally, we decided to try out our inventions on the field.

Come and look at our pictures of the great fun we had!

 On Tuesday 3rd March we visited the C.L.C. near The Metro Centre.

We learned how to play the drums, we enjoyed singing African songs and we finished the afternoon by performing some African dance.

Miss Sandra Butler came to our Achievers Assembly and presented CAB with certificates.  CAB are now 'fully fledged members of SWWAN ( Shasun Wetlands and Wildlife Action Network).

We are going back during the Spring to help with 'Butterfly Bank' and to release CABBY the Koi Carp in the other logoon.

First attempts were not up to standard.  A bit on the small side.  Let's try again.  Crookhillers NEVER  give up!

Sometimes it is hard to give or receive a compliment so in PSHE we all picked a name out of a hat and made a card for that person.  The card had to say something nice about the person.  We then gave each other the cards.  It was lovely to see so many smiley faces in Class 5! Everyone made a special effort to make the cards bright and colourful.

Today Year 3 visited the CLC Centre in Gateshead where we had lots of ICT fun!

We read some short stories then made up some music to go along with them. Instead of using ordinary instruments we used Sound Beams.

Sound Beams work by passing your hand in front of a sensor. Changing the speed and how close you are to the sensor affects the sound that comes out.

Pressing these coloured pads also made strange sound effects. We had a great morning and Mr Swan was very proud of all our hard work and excellent behaviour!

On Thursday we were really lucky because we had a music workshop at school. We were singing songs about pirates and parrots. It was great fun and we all got to join in. Have a look at our photos below.

Last Tuesday was Shrove Tuesday and we celebrated by making and eating lots of pancakes. We learned about why we eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday. We know it is because traditionally at Lent Christians used to give up fats and eggs and making pancakes is a yummy way to use up those foods.

As part of our topic work, children in Class Six are keeping 'water diary' this week. They are keeping a tally chart of where the water gets used at home. When they have collected their data, they are going to produce a pie chart to represent their findings!

So watch this space to be the first to see the results of this pioneering investigation!

Last Thursday, Classes Five and Six went on a trip to 'Safety Works' in Newcastle.  

What an eventful afternoon. After our detour on the bus (we went to the wrong place) we finally got to Safety works. Our topic for PSE has been health and safety and taking care of ourselves.

On this trip we looked at lots of different dangers around us and how we can all keep safe in the home and outside.

We got to have a try at dressing up as a fire fighter again which is always fun.

 

Class 5 have been working with partners to create perfect balances.

You need to trust your partner for these balances.

Class 5's topic this term has been Australia.  We have found out lots about the people, weather, land and animals.  26th January is Australia's National Day so we held our own celebrations in Class 5.

Yummy! Making Australian Chocolate Crackle Cakes 

We have been learning about Aboriginal Art and painted desert shields and boomerangs.

Is what we've been up to in ICT. Simulations can help test things if they are too expensive, too dangerous or would take too long in real life.

Here is young Master N. using an ironing board simulator. His lust for excitement is boundless!

Is it a lobster? No, it's a monster. Year 3 have been learning about Myths and Monsters and created this monstrosity in PE!

She doesn't look very impressed, does she?

We've been learning all about Fairtrade products and what it means for thousands of people all over the world. To understand what life is like for people not so fortunate as us, we made paper lanterns to 'sell'.

Usually mild-mannered Mr Swan became a mean factory boss for the day. He only paid us a tiny amount for each lantern we made, some of us didn't even have enough money to buy food!

The worst thing was when Mr Swan sold the lanterns to Miss Cowley for a huge amount. He got rich from all our hard work, it wasn't Fair!

We had to get protected as we were going into a laboratory.  We had to wear Lab.coats, goggles.

The black liquid was filtered and it came out as clear water.

Dry ice was put into coloured water.  A mist appeared at the top.

The liquid changed colour and then went to clear water.

This is what happens when you drop dry ice into a mixture of colouring, water and washing up liquid.

It's an effervescent eruption!!!!!!

CAB can

Class 1 had a great afternoon outside with our trainee teachers Miss Kay and Mr Abdul. We played lots of parachute games and thought it was great when we got stuck underneath.

Miss Brown thought we had all vanished because she couldn't see us. Can you find us??? 

Class 5 visited the CLC and had a fabulous time creating pieces of music to go with a video of a space ship launch.

  Class 2 made salt dough bananas, to make them more aware of Fairtrade products.  It was a real creative experience with lots of enthusiasm from the children.  The final result had Mrs. Hunter drooling with anticipation!  Oh yes, we have some bananas-lol !!

This week, as part of our environment topic, Class Six made their own water mills. The aim was to produce a water wheel which could move a weight.

We followed the instructions carefully and measured everything very accurately.............

All the materials we used were recycled (of course!)

We then tested our mills....

A few groups had to make some slight adjustments but by the end of the day everyone's worked!! Well done Class Six!!

As promised here is my web entry, introducing baby Eva Bainbridge. She was born on 8th January and both her and I are doing fiine! Keep up the hard work at school and we'll pop in for a visit soon!

This is Stephen's 'Snow Scene' in a box.  Isn't it just great?   What types of materials has he used?  Can you find the icy river?  How do you think Stephen made the snow flakes dangle down?  How did he make the snowman stand up?  How did he make the trees 'stand out'?

Stephen had to use a lot of thinking skills.       

Class 1 have been learning about places of worship and the features of those places. Today we went for a visit to Holy Cross Church.

Here is Michelle (Alans Mum) dressed up. Doesn't she look good???

Take a look in the gallery for the rest of the photos!!!

Crookhill Achievement Base have been doing work around a book entitled 'The Snow Child' by Debi Gliori.

How exciting? Crookhill has snow and Class 1 took advantage of it since we couldn't go on our trip to the Rising Sun Country Park.

We built a huge snowman by rolling the snow down the hill. We got the sledges out and had races down the hill. It was so much fun when it went fast. Even Mrs Grant and Mrs Kappen had a race. Mrs Grant won!!!

See our photo gallery to see the rest of the photos from our fun afternoon.

Class 1 havd a visit from Tyne and Wear Fire service today. We learned about the dangers of fire and how to keep our selves safe. We were allowed to try on the firemans special clothes that they wear to keep them safe when they are poutting out fires.

We had a lovely surprise when the fire engine turned up. The fireman helped us to hose the wall down using the small pipe. It was hard work pulling the lever back.

We got to sit in the fire engine and had our photo taken outside the engine. The fireman put the flashing lights on and turned the sirens on. They were very loud.

Take a look at Class Six's art work.....

Find your piece of work in the gallery.... NOW!

Reception and Year 1 are learning about our environment and how to look after it. We took a walk upto the park to look at our surrounding area. We found lots of mess and graffiti on the walls. We took lots of photos of the things we found. We played in the park when we got there on the new equipment. We had a fab time and can't wait to go back to play on the huge swing.

Today Reception and Class 1 have been making cakes. Half of us made cakes today and the rest of us are going to make cakes tomorrow. It was so much fun. We put all the ingredients in the bowl and mixed it all together. It was great when we got to crack the eggs. Our hands got all sticky.

Reception and Year 1 have had a fun filled afternoon making crisps.  We watched Come Outside first which told us how to make crisps.  We have had to cut and flavour our own potatoes and them bake them in the oven until they were crisp!  They were delicious.  We made cheese, salt and vinegar, ready salted and paprika flavours. 

Today Class Six visited the CLC and met the world-famous poet (and magican!) Nick Toczek.

We really enjoyed listening to some of his poems and watching him perform a few tricks!

He then helped us to create our own space themed poems, where we descibed ourselves as aliens and told a story about a journey into space. He even showed us all how to perform our own magic tricks, so watch out Mums and Dads for some disappearing coins!!!

As part of our topic on the environment, Class Six have produced portraits using recycled materials. Over the weeks we have been collecting junk items, such as packaging, and used these to create images of people. We had great fun in turning these junk items into excellent pieces of art work!

Reception and Year 1 are learning about our environment and where we live. We went for a walk upto the park and looked at our surroundings. We found lots of mess and graffiti and took photos of what we found.

Merry Christmas!

Class 1 went on a trip to Newcastle University and the Hatton Art Gallery. We went to look patterns that are all around us. We searched high and low to find as many different patterns as we could. After looking at one artist's paintings we made our own version of the painting using different shapes. We added mountains, trees and snowflakes. We had lots of fun.

Take a look in our Gallery pages to see more photos from our trip.

Earlier on in the year Class 1 and 2 had to come to school dressed as their favourite book character for a trip to Saltwell Park. While we were there we saw lots of different book characters and some of them read stories to us. We even had a story in French. As well as listening to some great stories we had the opportunity to practice our circus skills. We even saw one of the men fire eating. Something not to try at home!!! We had a fabulous afternoon out.

Working together on posters about looking good and feeling good.

During our creativity week about reading and authors we did lots of exciting activities.

During Awesome Authors week, Jules Burnett, a local author and illustrator, worked with Class 5.  He showed us how he developed his ideas for books and helped us to draw trolls and red kites.

We have been learning about The Tudors.  We visited the Quayside and followed the Tudor Trail.  We met lots of Tudor characters.

We met Ralph Blackburn, a Tudor Merchant.  He is giving Mary Sullivan a job as a ratcatcher.

Sally Bentley was an alehouse mistress.

 We made Tudor houses in Design Technology and painted Henry VIII and his six wives in Art.

KS1 had a lady from Beamish come to talk about things from the past. We looked at how people used to live and compared it with how we live today. We really enjoyed getting in the tin bath. It is very small.

We got to play with all the old toys that children used to play with both inside and out.

Reception and Year 1 took advantage of the snow. We all got wrapped up warm and headed for the field where there was lots of snow. We rolled the snow into large balls and made snowmen. We all had lots of fun. We can't wait for it to snow again.

We have found out about the author Dick King-Smith and his love of pigs in our 'Awesome Author' week. Our parents came in for the afternoon and helped us with our work!

This term, Class 4 have been finding out about the Romans and their invasion of our country.  We have made some shields and armour and roman soldiers. We used the shields and armour in our Harvest festival and role play.

Mrs Kirkland has been working with us and we have been looking at forces! We really enjoyed using the force cards to make plasticine creatures!

Playing blow 'rice' football was great.

 We have learnt that forces are fun!

We read this book and dressed as Kings and Queens, said 'grace' and ate some nail soup (no real nails were used!) We learnt how to use a spoon to eat soup in a 'nice' way. Manners at the table were very important.

Stephen loved his King's crown so much he used it in the school's carol service as a wise man.

CAB have been doing a lot of cooking. We made jacket potatoes, learning to use a masher was a real challenge!

We also made butterfly cakes, finding out that weighing ingredients exactly is important.

What has happened to our teeth? In Science, Mrs Kirkland gave us some disclosure tablets to chew. When we had finished they showed us how clean our teeth were. The more blue colour on our teeth the 'dirtier' our teeth! The less blue, the cleaner our teeth!

In preperation for our 'Awesome Author' week, we took a trip to Seven Stories to meet the author, Mini Grey. We have been looking at her books and it was great to meet her. She showed us how to make zigzag books.

On Monday, Key Stage 1 and Reception went to 'Down on the Farm' to visit Santa and see the animals.

On Friday 5th December, Class 2 braved the cold to venture down to the CLC. Our theme for the session was Grace Darling, as our topic has been the North East. We made some great photo books, added text and then also added audio to each page! It was great fun and hopefully coming soon will be some of our photo books for you to check out!

Class 2 have many talents and in this project they combined two of them! First of all, we constructed models of a bus. Just like the tour bus we rode on when we went on our tour around Newcastle and Gateshead. Then we used our electrical knowledge to build a circuit to create working headlights. This made fabulous, realistic models, and to think they started life as a cereal box!

Our Year Six class recently visited Gateshead City Learning Centre to create a radio programme based on our work on Ancient Greece.

Listen to the programme
crookhillradio.mp3.

Miss Sharpe is Acting Deputy Head. She is also the Class 6 teacher.

As part of our Ancient Greece topic, Class Six visited South Shields Museum and Art Gallery to see the British Museum's travelling exhibition. We were fascinated by the artefacts - including some pottery over 2000 years old! 

We found out about the life of a Hopolite solider and enjoyed wearing some of the replica helmets and shields. We also looked the part in our authentic Greek costumes.

We learnt lots and lots on our trip and wrote some lovely thank you letters to the museum to thank them for the great day we had.