Bishop Auckland, Co Durham
We’ve had a very busy first half term of 2020 with lots of interesting visitor, visits and activities, it was all topped of this week with snow at Woodland, which the children all really enjoyed!
Today our cook Karen made all the children and staff a lovely Valentines bun which were delicious, thank you Karen xxx
The Apple Tree- Orchestral Performance
In partnership with the Durham Music Service and The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE), the Squirrels watched and participated in ‘The Apple Tree’, featuring soprano Kirsty Hopkins. With lots of opportunities for singing, signing and joining in, it was a lively and interactive event, designed to be accessible to all.
The 45-minute-long performance was broadcast live from Ushaw College and was a fabulous opportunity to introduce the children to the world of orchestral music.
The Children learnt about the changing seasons through a mixture of Baroque and folk music, and met the magnificent instruments of the orchestra. This concert was designed for young children and has received rave reviews. We watched it online along with hundreds of other children, teachers and families across the country.
The broadcast was delivered via YouTube and is available to watch again by all for 6 months, you will find this by searching on YouTube. The performance was a co-production by Orchestras Live, NYMAZ and Durham and Darlington Music Education Hub.
Make a Difference (Rural Isolation Project) – Stay and Play
On Monday 3rd February we held our second Stay and Play for local families and their little ones. This term’s theme was ‘All Things Messy’ providing opportunities for the children to experience sensory play to the fullest!
The Year 6 Play Leaders helped to plan a fun packed afternoon and set up a range of activities including a Slime table, sand tray with letter moulds, Aqua gel beads with water wheels and gel numbers, biscuit decorating, and the popular paint tray and giant paper roll! During planning, the Play leaders were introduced to the Early Years Curriculum and tried to choose activities that would help the children to learn and play.
We had a great turn out of toddlers and families who thoroughly enjoyed getting very messy! Children enjoyed getting fully involved and it wasn’t long before there were hands, feet and at one point, whole bodies in the paint tray!
Once the paint had been washed away, the afternoon was rounded off with refreshments and snacks for some very tired and happy preschoolers.
In Squirrels we have been learning all about how and why Chinese New Year is celebrated. Here are just some of the fun activities we got up to.
We made our own marbled paper to make paper lanterns out of when we learnt about Chinese New Year. We used red and yellow as these are considered colours of good luck in China.
We also made some Chinese dragon puppets too. We had to follow the instructions and cut and stick really carefully.
While we watched a puppet show film about how the order of the animals for Chinese New Year was chosen, we tried some prawn crackers. They are a bit like fishy crisps! They were yummy but we know that they are a snack food and so we can only have them occasionally as they have a lot of fat and salt in them. After this we re-told the story we had learnt about the animals in our Writing books.
We watched a video about how people prepare for, and celebrate, Chinese New Year in Liverpool. We asked and answered questions about what we saw. After this we used a table to find out what animal represents the year we were born in.
We also listened to traditional Chinese music throughout the day and talked about the different instruments we could hear and the sounds we made. On our computers we used a musical editing program to make our own music inspired by the Chinese music we had listened to.
In nursery we worked with Mrs Ord to order the animals in the Chinese New Year video in the order that they won the race by putting our numbers to 12 in order. We worked together to make a big display for the wall. Didn’t we do well?
In Squirrels we have been learning how to use the tie-dye technique to make colourful patterns on fabric. We used blues, whites and purples to represent the cold of winter after learning a song about Jack Frost in music. Next, we will embellish our work with sequins and glitter to represent the frost crystals that Jack Frost paints across the winter landscape.
Happy New Year!
We hope that everyone had a happy and enjoyable Christmas and New Year, we all certainly did. The children have settled back into school well this week and are looking forward to starting their new topics. Keep a check on the School Blog during 2020, it lets you see what fun and exciting activities and events happen everyday at Woodland Primary School!
What a busy couple of week it’s been at Woodland!
Last Tuesday we performed our Christmas play – Strictly the Nativity – Lights, Camel, Action 2! The Sequin. The children were amazing and the dancing and singing was wonderful! They all really enjoyed performing and appreciated all the kind comments from parents and families.
The Christmas Fair was a great success and FOWS have raised a grand total of £537 which is fantastic and will be used to benefit all the children.
Last Wednesday we all had a delicious Christmas Lunch made by our school fantastic cook Karen Yum, Yum! It was a lovely meal and we all had great fun eating and listening to Christmas songs together.
On Thursday Squirrel Class enjoyed a ‘Christmas Stay & Play’ afternoon and Mr Petty our new teacher came along to meet the children and parents.
Over the last few weeks Karen our school cook has been making Gingerbread people with the children and they finished by decorating them on Tuesday, they look amazing. We would like to say a ‘Huge Thank you’ to Karen for volunteering to do this in her own time with the children.
On Monday afternoon Owl Class went along to Woodland Village Hall to perform some songs and play their flutes for the luncheon club.
On Tuesday we all went to The Georgian Theatre in Richmond to see the pantomime Aladdin. It was great fun and our children really got involved and some played starring roles! It was a great afternoon with lots of laughs and excitement.
Thursday was party day and we had lots of exciting games. The children played in teams and it was lovely to see how well they all help each other to share the fun. Santa made a surprise visit with presents for all the children and then we enjoyed a party feast!
Friday was ‘Christmas Jumper Day’ and we all enjoyed our last day in school before Christmas and finished the afternoon off watching a Christmas film!
We have had a fabulous term and wish you all a happy and relaxing Christmas break.
See you all next year!
It was lovely to see so may people in school for our ‘Special Person Christmas Lunch’ and our Christingle Service on Tuesday. We all enjoyed a delicious Christmas lunch with our invited special guests prepared by our fantastic school cook Karen.
During the morning the children really enjoyed making the Christingles and learning about the meaning and the work of The Children’s Society. A special thank you to Rev Brian and Lloyd for conducting the service in the afternoon. We will send the money donated in the Christingle Candles and from the refreshment donations to The Children’s Society. Thank you.
Last week we had our Children in Need morning in school. The morning started off with a Joe Wicks work out, which everyone really enjoyed and after the session we all had a refreshing berry smoothie, yum,yum! The play leaders then rushed to their stalls that they had prepared which included a cake stall, toy stall and lots of fun activities and games including decorate a biscuit, tin can alley, pudsey pennies and lots more. Everyone enjoyed this amazing day and we raised a whopping £183 for Children in Need.
By Leon
In Monday assemblies we have been talking about how everyone is different. We can look different, have different families, sound different, feel different about things, like different foods and that’s ok. People shouldn’t worry about it. On Tuesday, year 5/6 had a brilliant discussion which led to us decorating a cake to enter a competition for a charity called Educate and Celebrate. We created an amazing rainbow cake with 6 layers (thank you so much Karen!). We wrote messages around the base of the cake, here are some of them:
• be yourself
• be proud of who you are
• everyone is equal
• you can be different
• love has no labels
• everyone is human
• love who you love
• love yourself for being you
