Junior Lego League have been thinking about different buildings and architecture around South Shields. We discussed the different features of buildings and chose some buildings that we liked . We sketched out the building and discussed the structure. We then used Lego to start to build our chosen building!
Our day was very much based around Roald Dahl’s story of The Witches. We went on a hunt for descriptive vocabulary, wrote our own spells to defeat the witches, solved witch-themed problems and even designed our own character for a Roald Dahl story. Y4E even ended the day with a Kahoot quiz, where we had to answer questions about the first 6 chapters of The Witches. It has been a brilliant day with fantastic costumes and excitement around reading.
Well done to all of the children who have entered our Spring Reading Challenge, reading a book in an unusual place. It is wonderful to see so much enthusiasm around reading. A winner will be picked from each year group and announced in assembly on World Book Day – Friday 6th March. 
Nursery AM, YRB, Y1H, Y2E, Y3L, Y4C, Y5J and Y6F were our Wellbeing Week Bake Off winners. They all earned themselves a cookery session with our cook, Mrs Seales. Each class chose a recipe to use from their prize of a new recipe book. Everyone enjoyed the experience. A big thank you to Mrs Seales
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We loved receiving our Epiphany cards, letters and paper crowns from our penfriends from Noisy-le-Sec. The tradition associated with Epiphany, a Christian feast day on January 6th, was so interesting to read about. We liked the idea of having a galette des rois cake, and wearing a crown to be king or queen for the day.
Year 4 had a brilliant time exploring an African market, which was inspired by the one featured in the story Grace and Family. They listened to traditional music and imagined they were wandering along the bustling aisles, sampling a range of delicious foods. We’re very excited to write detailed setting descriptions using our notes.
We have introduced a new online learning platform called NumBots. This game is aimed at boosting addition and subtraction skills for all aged children.
Since the success of Times Tables Rockstars in encouraging children to master times table and division fact instant recall, we would like their skills with mental addition and subtraction to be just as good. NumBots will help! More importantly, children in both Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 can access the games.
All children start at the same place in Story mode, and when they get to a certain stage they will unlock Challenge mode. The idea is that they play little and often, and this will significantly improve their understanding of number bonds and addition and subtraction facts.
The login is exactly the same as the one for Times Tables Rockstars – Key Stage 1 parents should have received parent letters with new login details.
Times Tables Rockstars app and NumBots app are available to download on all android and Apple devices.
Our School Council have been like busy little elves making Positive Vibes Boxes for each class. They can’t wait to share them with their classes in January and explain how to use them. We promote positive mental health and wellbeing at Harton Primary.
Our Year 4,5,and 6 Wellbeing Club were the first to visit our newly planted orchard. We have apple, quince, plum, pear and cherry trees. They are looking forward to more frequent visits to tidy the raised beds and plant seeds.
Kerry from the Operation Encompass team has visited Year 3, Year 4 and Year 5 this year. She focused on Empathy and Emotions in her Year 4 workshops today, building upon last term’s unit of Friendship. The modules are PSHE modules. The session was very interactive, and there were lots of opportunities to share and discuss. The children were given advice on how to stay safe, raising self-esteem, resilience, coping with different emotions, and who they can contact in a situation.
Year 4 parents were also invited to a drop in session with Kerry.
