In Year 2 we enjoyed learning about Belgium on Europe Day. Eating the delicious food was our favourite part! We also were superstars when making fairground rides with Technology Tom!
We were excited to come to school in our Europe Day T-shirts. Each year group came to assembly wearing their T-shirts inspired by the country they had chosen to learn about, including Belgium, France and Scotland.
Year 1 learnt lots of facts about Switzerland, looked at maps about its position in Europe, made Swiss flags, tried Swiss foods, completed word searches, and mixed some paint tints to paint like the artist Paul Klee.
Our RE topic on Jewish faith has taught us a lot about belief and traditions.
Our Jewish visitor from Newcastle Synagogue brought it to life for us.
We listened to a story about Abraham, found out about writing and speaking Hebrew, and observed Alan demonstrating what happens during a traditional Shabbat Friday night dinner.
In preparation for his visit, we had decorated our own Kiddish cup, and recreated eating challah bread and blackcurrant juice. We listened to traditional Jewish music.
With the environment being at the forefront of many people’s minds these days, we thought we’d have a whole school Arty Party, re-designing old T-shirts in preparation for Europe Day.
On Friday, Year 5 had a visitor from ancient Mayan times, called Big Nose, to tell us about what life was like in those times, including: their beliefs; how they invented maths; the foods they ate from the rainforest; and lots more.
After a learning the Mayan numbers to 10 (complete with a competition of boys against girls, including a teacher round with help from good listeners), we sacrificed 5 children in different Mayan ways to please the gods. This included: decapitation, heart extraction, drowning, buried alive and shot by arrows.
Some children got to dress in Mayan clothes, and to find the most important person for a feathered headdress, we had to find out who could cross their eyes the best – since this was a sign of importance and beauty.
Next, we tried Mayan foods. However, we learned that many of the foods we eat nowadays made up a lot of the Mayan diet, such as avocados, peppers, corn (maize), beans and butternut squash. As well as their greatest export: chocolate. However, it was not chocolate we are used to – no milk. It was 85% cocoa. There were not many fans of the almost pure chocolate bar. 6 lucky (or unlucky) individuals got to try 100% pure cocoa beans – they were not fans either. The teachers also got to try some, but did not get that ‘chocolate fix’ from milk chocolate. It was described as bitter, salty and textured like nuts or sawdust.
After play and lunch, the year group was split to take part in drama sessions. They were split into a further 6 groups, then the children were given different situations to dramatise and deliver to the other groups. Each person needed to have an active role in the performance, no matter how quiet they were. We were told to be as funny and cheesy as possible to deliver the information to the rest of the groups, as we learn more when it’s fun.
To end our day, we took part in another drama session, this time including the teachers, to learn about the Mayan creation story. The teachers played the parts of the gods (Kuklukan and Hurrucan), where we played the different animals, trees and people that were created by the gods.
This afternoon, year 4 performed a play called Easter Praise at St Lawrence’s Church. Following a lot of hard work and practise, the children acted and sang superbly. All the teachers were very proud of the effort and enthusiasm which was put into the performance. Special thanks to Reverend Paul at St Lawrence’s for allowing us to use the church and to Mr Richardson for playing the music.
In the build up to Easter this week, year 4 have had the opportunity to learn more about Holy Week by taking part in a range of activities at St. Lawrence’s Church. As part of their R.E. studies, the children enjoyed an afternoon exploring the different parts of the Easter story. Many thanks to Reverend Paul and the volunteers at St. Lawrence’s Church for hosting the activities.
We are currently working towards reaccreditation of the International Award at Harton Primary School.
Before the Christmas holidays, every year group created beautiful Christmas cards to send to other European countries. We have received cards from schools in lots of countries including Spain, Croatia, Bulgaria, Poland, Wales and Latvia. Each year group also received their own set of cards created by children at another Spanish school. Y2E were also fortunate enough to receive personal Christmas cards from their new pen pals in Spain. We can’t wait to take part in more international projects!
Harton Primary School worked very hard to create cards for the other schools.
An example of a Christmas card we sent.
A card inspired by Zoe Scott.
A card inspired by Zoe Scott.
Some of Y2E with cards from their pen pals.
A beautiful card we received from Croatia.
We were very excited to look at the cards from all over Europe!
The children helped to sort out the cards.
Zulu Warriors visited school today and everybody got to take part in the activities. Zulu warriors are extremely strong and also very graceful. They shared their music and dance with children, even getting some of them to join in.
We hope you enjoy our photographs and videos.
Zulu warriors use drums and percussion to create rhythms for their dances.
We took lots of photos – the zulu warriors wear amabeshu and use fur and feathers to decorate their heads. They use goat skin and fur to decorate their arms and legs.
The Zulu Warriors enjoyed the spectators in school – they wanted us to join in with their dances. One of our children joined the warriors – he was very good!
We loved the dances and the singing – we hope that the Zulu warriors will visit our school again.
