Mr Steadman and Miss Smith have been training up our new Sports Leaders.
They will be teaching our younger children some new games, and joining in with their games too.
Some Year 1 children were on hand to help give them some practise in using their leadership skills.
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.
We were delighted today to present these three pupils with very prestigious ‘Word Millionaire’ trophies in assembly. Amie, Evie and Ashlee have been such enthusiastic and dedicated readers, both in and out of school that they have read over one million words through our Accelerated Reader program. We are very proud of them and hope to be awarding more Word Millionaires soon.
Year 5 went on a trip to Beamish to learn about life during World War One, in preparation for reading ‘War Horse’ by Micheal Morpurgo. We had the chance to visit shops in the town, journey into the mine and take part in a workshop based on a real solider from WW1.
On Friday the 16th of March, Year 5 took part in a workshop with Essex performing poet Jac Bottjer. They each wrote a poem about a troll, with use of various poetic language – including similes, metaphors, expanding metaphors and abstract description.
The final description of the poem likened this giant troll to a problem that each of us face or worry about, such as online trolls or the fear of war.
We ended the session with Jac by performing our poems to the rest of the year group.
Harton Primary School will be open on Monday 5th March.
Thank you for your co-operation over the past few days.
Due to weather conditions, Harton Primary School will remain closed on Friday, 2nd March.
Tomorrows Boccia tournament has been cancelled. This will be rearranged for a later date and a letter will be sent out with the children who have been selected to take part.
As there has been no improvement to the weather and icy conditions are forecast overnight, Harton Primary School will remain closed on Thursday 1st March.
World Book Day will be rescheduled for a future date.
Three Year 5 teams recently took part in a basketball tournament at Temple Park organised by Newcastle Eagles. All the children really enjoyed taking part and one of the teams was unlucky to lose in the final on a basketball shoot out.
