Windy Nook Primary School

Y5/6 are putting the World Cup to good use...

They are researching that aims of the 1Goal charity before contacting our new MP to see what he will be doing about the issues we have found out about... watch this space!

As they finish their persuasive letters and presentations we will be uploading them to here.

If you can't wait - follow this link to find out for yourself...

 Link to 1Goal

This term in Y56 we're going to be focusing on a topic about 'Sound'. Below is a presentation containing links to lots of useful and interesting sites about sound and music. There's also a page on Life Cycles, which we'll be learning about after half term.

Happy surfing!

Weblinks Summer 2010 Y56.ppt

Is there a prize for getting the right answer?

Here is class 9's response.

- George is left alone with Grandma, whilst Mum goes shopping.

- George was bored to tears.

- Grandma demanded George to make a cup of tea.

- Grandma said George was growing too much because he ate too much chocolate.

- George decided to make Grandma a 'Special Medicine!'

- George hunts around the farm yard adding disgusting ingredients to the medicine.

- George added brown paint from the garage.

- George poured the grusome liquid into a brown medicine bottle.

Are we right?

Are you in Class 9?

Yes... well Class 10 are setting you the following challenge... Good Luck!

We've just got to the bit where 'the old hag opened her small round mouth, showing her brown stained teeth' just about to take the medicine. But can YOU order these eight points in the story to date?

- George hunts around the farm yard adding disgusting ingredients to the medicine.

- Grandma said George was growing too much because he ate too much chocolate.

- Grandma demanded George to make a cup of tea.

- George poured the grusome liquid into a brown medicine bottle. 

- George decided to make Grandma a 'Special Medicine!'

- George is left alone with Grandma, whilst Mum goes shopping.

- George added brown paint from the garage.

- George was bored to tears.

Let us know what you think...

As part of 'Book Week' the children in classes 9, 10 and 11 have been looking at 'The Mysteries of Harris Burdick'

A fictional editor's note tells of an encounter with an author and illustrator named Harris Burdick, who provided the images and captions as samples, each from a different picture book he had written. He left with a promise to deliver the complete manuscripts if the editor chose to buy the books. Burdick was never seen again, and the samples are all that remain of his supposed books.

YOU are challenged to imagine your own stories based on the images in the book. Click on the links below for the images and sample stories.

Harris Burdick Website

Harris Burdick images and sample stories

Please e-mail your stories on a 'word document' to windynookprimary@googlemail.com

Or write them on paper and bring them into school next week.

Because of the huge popularity of the 'bridge building' games I have found another good one. 

Remeber to turn the volume up high when the man pushes his box over the bridge!!!

Bridge Builder Game

Harry Potter... PAA!

If you want a REALLY good read just take a look at Olivia's offering below.

Why not have a read yourself and leave a comment to let Olivia (Moran) know which bits you liked most.

The story of the Zebra who lost his stripes.doc

Over the coming weeks the children in classes 9, 10 and 11 will be building their very own bridges. They will have to think about design, budget and think creatively when trying to overcome some of the problems that might occur.

Why not click on and download these free 'Bridge Builder' games and try them for yourself.

Bridge Builder 1

Bridge Builder 2

Bridge Builder 3

What a week it's been in UKS2 the children have been learning about business. They have had a host of visitors talking to them about their different occupations. Then they used this knowledge to develop their own enterprising ideas ranging from bird boxes, cakes, door hangers, face painting and even a relaxing hand treatment spa.

Click on the gallery link below to see more photographs.

photographs

Especially for Victoria! (always wanted to say that, does that mean I am an author?)

If you would like to more about the area and history around Ouseburn please click on the links below. Please remember to let us know what you think.

http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/

http://www.ouseburntrust.org.uk/

Today Year 5 followed in the footsteps of their Year 6 compatriots to Ouseburn. They braved the rain and the cold but as you can see by their faces a good time was had by all.

Keep watching the gallery for more photos. 

Gallery Link

Today was Y6's trip to Ouseburn Valley in Newcastle to look at the Victorian Heritage and the River Tyne. We had a great time! More details to follow...

Wider Selection of photographs (Click me!)

Those scientists were at it again. This week they were learning about evaporation, or where does the water go for Mr. Hawdon.

Water was placed outside the classroom.

Then an equal amount of water was placed inside the classroom next to a heater where it was warmer.

What do you think will happen?

Please leave your suggestions in the comments section.

To find out more use the links below.

http://www.kidzone.ws/WATER/

http://www.chem4kids.com/files/matter_evap.html

http://www.kidsgeo.com/geography-for-kids/0102-evaporation.php

More exciting activities in classes 9, 10 and 11. The childern have been using two very different techniques to create art. They have been painting pictures of the old school using sand to give their painting a textured effect.

Then using 'Picasa' a simple to use software package they created authentic looking black and white photographs of the new school. Picasa is free to download and allows you turn photos into films, collages, slideshows and much more.

Why not try this at home, for more information click on the links below and let us know what you think.

http://picasa.google.co.uk/

http://www.kinderart.com/multic/sand.shtml

In science this week in UKS2 the children have been learning about dissolving.  

You can see the scientific enquiry on the faces of Megan, James and Victoria.

They carried out a series of experiments to find out which solids would dissolve in water.

As you can see by the smile on everyone's face that they are so enthusiastic about science. Feel sorry for Sam though he is the only one working. 

Salt , sugar and flour were just some of the solids used, so if you need to pop to the shops earlier than normal to buy these items you might know why.  

The children of classes 9, 10 and 11 took a step back in time this week.

Girls to the left, boys to the right.

Stand up for Mr. Stevenson please!

Sit up, back straight and arms folded!

Writing on slates.

Stand up when you speak to Mr. Stevenson!

A healthy body leads to a healthy mind

If you would like to know more about the Victorian era or this style of teaching ask Mr. Firth, apparently he completed his teacher training during this period of British history.  

Bored with the snow yet?

Arms tired from throwing snowballs?

Legs aching from walking back up the hill with your sledge?

Why not sit down in front of your computer with a hot drink and play some MATHLETICS. 

Click this link and get crunching!

http://www.mathletics.co.uk/

Did you see it?

Peter Pan proved to be yet another triumph for Y6 children at Windy Nook!

WEEKS of late night rehearsals were well worth it - a polished performance!

Click this link to see the cast...

  Pan.ppt

If like Luke you enjoy following up your lessons at home, why not send it to us at a.firth4@gateshead.org and we can share your fab work with the WORLD!

Click the link below to see the Greek work Luke prepared following some 'Lush Learning' in Class 10.

GREEK GODS.ppt

Leave Luke a message to let him know what you think!

In classes 9 & 10 we have been recording some of our favourite Greek myths. Some of them have a bit of a 'modern feel'.

joe d.mp3

kieran.mp3

sam k.mp3

shaun.mp3

At last! Year 5/6's Fairground Models are up and running, and today we enjoyed the fun fair experience, with rides, music, ice cream and popcorn! Have a look at some of our photos to see the fun we had...

Spooky or what?

Not only did two of our children win a fab prize from Gateshead Libraries, but they were brother and sister too!

Claudia and Oliver spent the day at the Newcastle football foundation as their prize for successfully
completing the Reading Stars Challenge during the summer holiday.

No photographs as yet (Mr Hawdon pinched the camera!) but we have had a go with our new 'esi-speak' microphones!

Click the links below to see what we enjoyed finding out about Germany and Africa...

German Schools.MP3

African Drums.MP3

Leave a comment and let us know what you think?

What would you like to leave a podcast about?

Years 4 and 5 had a fab day out last week at the Gateshead Stadium, where they met the crew the NASA Space Shuttle Discovery STS-119.

STS-119 was a space shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS).  The STS-119 mission delivered the final set of solar arrays needed to complete the ISS complement of electricity-generating solar panels.

You can read more about the mission by clicking the link below to the NASA website:

NASA Website

Read on to see more pictures of our fantastic day...

 s part of our science and Geography topics this term year 5/6 have visited the Blue Reef Aquarium and Tynemouth beach. 

We found out about the different habitats in and around the coast.  We had the chance to touch and feel some of the animals that live in a rockpool.

We also walked along the tynemouth coast exploring the features.  We throughly enjoyed our time playing in the beach!

Click on the link below for the web addresses for the websites you could use for your Hinduism research.

Weblinks for Hinduism.doc

Samuel Morse is famous for creating the mores code. Today is his birthday. He was born in1791 died in 1872. In 1836 Samuel Morse demonstrated the ability of a telegraph system to transmit information over electrical wires.

Click this link to solve our secret message...

Morse Messages

_._.  /  _ _ _  /  _ _    .

_ _ _  /  _.

_ .  /  .  /  ._ _  /  _._.  /  ._  /  ...  /  _  /  ._..  /  .  /  

Mr Firth will give two merit points to the first person to decode the message!

By Alex and Connor

Here is a super link for Year 6 science revision!

http://www.compare4kids.co.uk/learn.php

Let me know what you think

Amanda Ross (teacher for visual impairment) and her team spent the morning with children from Year 3/4. Lots of practical activities were offered to children so that they could find out for themselves what it would be like to have a visual impairment.

During the afternoon Year 5/6 took part in workshops with Maxine Caine (our Educational Psychologist) and Mrs Preece to investigate how co-ordination difficulties affect the lives of many people. They too had the chance to experience what it would be like to be visually impaired using some of Amanda's equipment.

 Not only did the children have to have to move around using the specialist glasses- they also had to complete an obstacle course. This gave us all a good idea of what it would be like to walk down Gateshead high street with a visual impairment. 

A co-ordination activity that left us all frustrated!

Did anyone manage to draw around the whole star?

Whilst Y6 were off chilling out with a spot of origami, Y5 celebrated the end of Diversity Week by indulging in some sweet treats!

What a week!

Loads of fantastic work and many a good cause started too.

Here are a few of the pieces of work children in Class 10 produced in response to some of the information we discovered from the visitors we had during Environment Week...

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Jigsaw!.ppt

As part of our 'Diversity Week' activities, in Year 5/6 each class linked up with a class from Year 3/4 to share an artistic craft from another culture. In Classes 8 and 11 we did some mexican weaving with paper, in Class 7 and 10 we used handprinting to create Unity Wreaths and in Classes 6 and 9 we we did some mexican weaving with wool.

Have a look at the photos and tell us what you think!

As part of 'Environment Week', Ian Skinner, a Dog Warden from Gateshead council , came into school to talk to classes 9. 10 and 11 about his job and how we canavoid getting a fine!

Thanks again to all the parents and carers who braved the grotty weather to hear our words of wisdom this afternoon!
We hope you found it useful and as promised we will be adding further information to this post (helpful links etc.)
Please remember SATs week begins May 11th.

Thanks again,

UKS2 Team

Year 5/6 were rolling back the years this afternoon.

Three friends we made through our involvement with the 'That Was Then' local history project, came to speak to us about a host of experiences linked to living through World War II.

Are you in Y5/6?

If you are, why not leave a comment telling everyone one fact you learned.

Better still use the link below to leave a comment on the website Mrs. Minns runs. Let her know what you enjoyed most about the afternoon.

www.webwanderers.org

Thanks again to our special guests:
Mrs Minns
Col. A. Johnson MBE
Mr S. McRae

After a gruelling week researching and writing Instructional Texts; Classes nine and ten put their money where their mouths are and tried following the 'Chocolate Treats' instructions.

Fancy a treat?

Download this PPT - it has all the information you need to make some yourself. They were proper lush!

Chocolate Treats - web.ppt

Warning: Please eat responsibly.

We are going podcast mad in Class 10 at the moment!

Take a moment to click on the poems recorded below. Even if we say it ourselves... they're fantastic.

Our aim was to create a piece of descriptive poetry so good, you'd not be able to get the images out of your head!

Please let us know what you think...

Abbey-Jo G.mp3

Chloe L.mp3

Jack I.mp3

Katie W.mp3

Louis C.mp3

Thomas P.mp3

Tom H.mp3

Enjoy!

As part of our Literacy work, classes 9 and 10 have written their own radio adverts to try and persuade you to come along and watch our Christmas pantomime, 'Cinderella'.

Have a listen:

Alex and Britney (mp3)

Conor and Alex P (mp3)

Josh and Olivia M (mp3)

Oliver and Natasha (mp3)

Peter and Steven and Shaun (mp3)

Rebecca and Isla (mp3)

Alayna H - Cinderella advert.wav

Cara & Amy - Cinderella advert.wav

Group 1 - Cinderella advert.mp3

Group 2 - Cinderella advert.mp3

Harry K - Cinderella advert.mp3

Holly W - Cinderella Advert.mp3

Katie - Cinderella advert.wav

Rebecca K - Cinderella advert.wav

To support our 'Healthy Choices Week' our year five and six children are busy tearing through the water!
With the aid of computer simulation software they are teaming up to race against each other, other local schools and Primary Schools from across the nation!

Go to www.concept2.co.uk/league to find out more.

Key stage 2 had a day of cooking demonstrations and food tasting when 'Expochef ' came into school.

Kasia, showed how make healthy burgers, smoothies and a salad dressing . Some of us got the chance to help her and taste the final product...yum yum!

www.expochef.co.uk

We invited our parents into school to help us cook our healthy treats!

Class 9 made some Christmas gingerbread and we were really pleased with the results...they tasted delicious!

Class 10 made some warming winter soup! It was enjoyed by all!

Class 11 made some Christmas Cranberry Rockies and we thought they were fab!

We would like to share our recipes with you.

christmas gingerbread.pdf

Christmas Cranberry Rockies

Have you ever wondered if your name is one of the most popular in school? In Class 11's Maths set we have been finding out!
We got a list of all the names of children in school - can you imagine how long it took for us to sort through that lot!?! Luckily there are 30 of us so we shared the work out. Then we compiled our lists to come up with the top 10 names for girls and boys.
Are you surprised by our results? Leave us a comment to tell us what you think!

Download file

In Class 11, we are preparing to create radio news reports using Audacity software. Listen to the links below to get a sneak preview of how our reports will sound...

Download file

In Years 5 and 6 we have been finding out about the various jobs that people did during the war. Download this file and click on the links to find out about what you could do!

Which job would you prefer and why? Post a comment!

Download file

In Literacy this week in Class 11 we are looking at newspaper reports. Click on the links to read and listen to a range of Internet, TV and radio reports.

Download file

Three girls from Class 10 found a gap in the market and bled it dry during our recent 'Enterprise Week'.

They evaluated their venture and created this presentation to share their highs and lows with YOU!

Download file

As promised... here is a homework reminder for Mr Firth's Numeracy set.

This is a download of today's lesson plus homework task in PowerPoint 2003.
Download Homework

This is a download of today's lesson plus homework task in Smart.
Download Homework

Have fun.

In order to use the links from the powerpoint presentation you will need to run the powerpoint first.

Download Mega Maths powerpoint

If you have downloaded Smart software you can use this link.

Download file

Have fun and let us know what you think.

How Keen?

Once again the children of Windy Nook have done us all proud!

Over a dozen Y6 pupils are coming into school 45min early to trail a pack of maths games UKS2 staff have put together. Although not all wish to be in the spot light...

...they are all grafting away to sharpen maths skills through the playing of carefully selected maths games.
If you are really good - you get to play on the interactive Smart Board.

Year five and six pupils are getting even more creative!

Using Windows Photo Story they are creating a moving visual image and marrying it up to a bespoke audio track!

Working in groups, the children have created graphical scores, detailing which sounds will need to fade in and out at each stage of the animation.

They have then had great fun using junk modelling to design and construct a range of homemade instruments to produce the sounds they are after.

Keep your eyes peeled as by the end of next week we may be in a position to publish links to the first few finished items!

Well Done to the Year 6 football team who competed in the 'Councillor John Hird Cup' tournament on the 12th and 13th November.The boys not only displayed their brilliant football skills but also their sportsmanship in every match.The team played well in all three matches which resulted in the team winning the final against St Johns.Ross Wilson scored a hat trick.Alexander Bainbridge, Ryan Beard and Jay Kirtley also scored in the final.We have now got a big trophy for the school cabinet.A big thanks to Dave and John for giving up their time to train the team.

On Wednesday June 20th Lisa White came to speak to pupils in year five and year six about the ways in which Aveda help the global environment.

We watched DVD's and heard about the many projects Aveda is involved with around the world, helping communities to support themselves. Those of us who answered questions correctly even got prizes!

Hair Raising Stuff!

Everyone got to try the products and we came away with not only new facts but an Aveda goody bag too!

If you were there why not click on 'Comment' and type in one of the bits of information you remember most.

Perhaps you can recall what Lisa said happened every 15 seconds?

Eight year six girls braved the horrible weather today to represent our school in the Thomas Hepburn Cluster Girls 7 aside football tournament.

For our Healthy Week last year, the children designed, advertised and sold a range of Smoothies.

Take a look at the videos and adverts below...

Smoothie 1 (00.37 wmv)
Smoothie 2 (00.18 wmv)
Smoothie 3 (00.15 wmv)
Smoothie 4 (00.25 wmv)
Smoothie 5 (00.36 wmv)
Smoothie 6 (00.25 wmv)

Would these adverts make you buy one of our smoothies?

Team 1 Powerpoint (41KB)
Team 2 Powerpoint (257KB)
Team 3 Powerpoint (55KB)
Team 4 Powerpoint (40KB)
Team 5 Powerpoint (56KB)
Team 6 Powerpoint (71KB)

What a week!

Our Y6 pupils have done themselves proud this week.

Their brains may well be on the verge of exhaustion but WOW, what an effort they have made.

Not only have they sat SATs, but they have fitted in a number of refresher sessions, plenty of fresh air and a few even found time to make a presentaion about our developing school grounds to our Y3/4 classes!

Thanks to all involved, especially our parent helpers.
Of course the last word goes to our 'braintastic' stars of the show...

Year Six - 2007!

The floodgates are open!

Today sixty children from Y5 / 6 have made use of our new gate, giving us access to the wealth of learning opportunities on the Windy Nook Nature Park.

In French lessons, Year 5/6 have been learning about cities, towns and other places in France, as well as learning how to describe the weather. If you'd like to find out more about France, have a look at this website! It's packed with information about France. Have a look and see if there's somewhere in France you'd like to find out more about, and let us know!

http://www.woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/Homework/france.html

This week we have been making biscuits as part of our Design Technology work. If you'd like to have a go at making some at home, here's the basic recipe:

250g butter
140g caster sugar
1 egg yolk
300g plain flour

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl.
2. Add the egg yolk and flour, and beat to combine.
3. Add extras such as chocolate chips, cocoa powder, peanut butter or vanilla. If you are planning on making shaped biscuits, chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes.
4. Shape the biscuits.
5. Bake the biscuits at 180 degrees for 12 - 15 minutes.

Mr Hawdon

What the children say...
Mr Hawdon is a first rate teacher (and is considerably older than Mr Firth!)

Mr Firth: Deputy Head Teacher

What the children say...
Mr Firth is the funniest teacher in the world - he interrupts lessons to tell jokes! He always helps you when you are stuck.

I agree, he's fab - totally underrated! In fact I think he looks younger and slightly thinner with every day that passes! (and he definitely would never do something so underhand as to edit his 'What the children say' page...

Mrs Marwood

What the children say...
Mrs Marwood is always happy. She doesn't get upset if you get answers wrong, she just explains it again more clearly. She is also really kind.

Upper Key Stage Two, is the last phase in our school, and caters for the oldest children who are in Year 5 and 6, again split into 2 mixed ability classes, each having a mixture of Year 5 and Year 6 children and 1 Year 6 class.

All Key Stage Two includes all the junior children.