Well done to the children who participated in October’s Reading Challenge.
Children in EYFS shared a book about their favourite TV character.
Children in Key Stage 1 read aloud to their pet or favourite soft toy.
Children in Key Stage 2 read a magazine or a news article.
Some of our Year 2 pupils visited our allotment to see which fruit and vegetables were growing there. We found broccoli, spinach, Swiss chard, cabbage, mint, thyme, courgette, blackberries and rosemary. Some of these are mentioned in our Oliver’s Vegetables story book. It helped us to write our descriptions of Grandpa’s garden.
Over the past few years, Harton Primary has had the privilege of working with Lumb Bank writing retreat in Yorkshire. The children and staff stay at Lumb Bank for one week in an 18th-century mill owner’s house in West Yorkshire, which once belonged to Ted Hughes. It’s set in 20 acres of woodland with breathtaking views of the valley below.
The children work with well-known and successful authors of children’s books and undertake workshops and drama activities which inform their writing. In previous years, Year 6 children have had this opportunity. However, earlier this year, sixteen of our Year 5 children were chosen to attend. They worked with Liz Flanagan and Anthony McGowan, two amazing authors who gave the children invaluable advice and feedback on their work.
The children created an Anthology of their work which consisted of poetry, short stories and word association sentences. They produced some amazing writing and represented the school fantastically. What a great week we had!
Yesterday was National Writing Day and this year’s challenge was for the children to write a 24 word story in 7 minutes. Our children’s entries were fantastic and some of them rather moving. Even 24 words can have such a powerful effect.
We are delighted to announce that one of our pupils has become the North East Regional Winner of the Premier League Writing Stars Poetry Competition 2020.
Sophie wrote a fabulous poem on this year’s theme of ambition, setting goals and achieving them. There were 7,000 entries in total, so it’s a fantastic achievement. Well done Sophie!
The children were challenged to write a poem about lock down. I am sure you will agree that the children have put lots of thought into these exceptional poems and, although lock down definitely has its struggles, the children are making the most of it and looking at the positives.
We have seen some fantastic pictures that our children have drawn to enter The Ickabog Illustration Competition.
J.K. Rowling is publishing an original story, The Ickabog (the “Story”), online (https://www.theickabog.com/read-the-story) in instalments over seven weeks, and is inviting children to help her by illustrating the Story.
A new instalment of the Story and illustration themes to go with it will be revealed daily, Monday to Friday, throughout the course of the seven weeks, so do stay tuned.
34 winning illustrations will be selected to bring the serialised story to the printed page when it is published in full, which is intended for November 2020.
Entries are open, and the competition will close at 6pm BST on Friday 17th July 2020.
Summer Reading Challenge 2020
The Summer Reading Challenge, presented by The Reading Agency is delivered in partnership with public libraries and funded by Arts Council England. Children are encouraged to read any books of their choice during the summer holidays (we recommend at least six) with collectable incentives and rewards, plus a certificate for every child who completes the Challenge. Usually, the Challenge takes place in public libraries across the country. This year, with the disruption caused by Covid-19 and the impact of social distancing on schools and public libraries, the all-new digital Summer Reading Challenge is launching earlier than usual – today!
The theme for the Challenge is “Silly Squad”- a celebration of funny books, happiness and laughter, featuring bespoke artwork from award-winning children’s author and illustrator, Laura Ellen Anderson.
Today- Friday 5th June there will be a whole host of virtual events with guest celebrities and authors to mark the launch of the digital Challenge on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/SummerReadingChallengeUK from 4 to 7pm.
The website https://summerreadingchallenge.org.uk/ will be updated tomorrow and will include new School and Home Zones. The website is free to access and a place for children to rate and review their books and work towards their reading goal. It will also feature video content, games, quizzes and digital and downloadable activities to incentivise and encourage children and their families to take part in the Challenge at home.
We would love as many of you to be involved as possible and cant wait to see your silly squad pictures to celebrate the the launch!
*Remember there are lots of websites/ apps which allow you to access books for free. Have a look at https://hartonprimary.co.uk/reading-at-harton/ for more information!
Some exciting news for J.K. Rowling fans! During lockdown, J.K. Rowling – the world famous author of the Harry Potter novels – has written and is releasing a new story The Ickabog in free instalments on the website tagged in this post. https://www.theickabog.com/home/
Every day, she will be making suggestions for what you might like to draw. You can enter the official competition being run by J.K Rowling’s publishers, for the chance to have your artwork included in a printed version of the book due out later this year.
Get creative and get drawing! Please also send us some of your wonderful illustrations. We can’t wait to see them.
Being away from school hasn’t stopped Year 3 from working hard! This week they have completed some excellent Maths and English work this week, take a look!
