Fellside Community Primary School

See you all next year, school opens Tuesday 3rd January 2012.

Welcome to our whole school Christmas Performance.

This year every Reception child had a line to say in our Nativity play, and with lots of enthusiasm and practice, they all performed exceptionally well and made all at Fellside very proud!

Again Key Stage 1 classes joined together to perform 'Christmas with the Aliens'. Most of Year 2 played aliens who were stranded on Earth and invited to learn about Christmas by the children from Fellside.

Year 3 & 4 joined together to perform 'The Greatest Story Ever Told'. The performance switched between a modern day Grandad's living room on Christmas Day and Bethlehem at the time of Jesus' birth. The performance had rock guitarists, a choir, some lovely singing and some superb acting! The Year 3 and 4 children showed great enthusiasm throughout the performances - a great success!

Year 5 performed a modern day 'Cinderella', the children practised incredibly hard to put on a very entertaining show, filled with beautiful singing, superb acting and a lot of laughs!

Year 6 continued the fairy tale theme and put on an excellent performance of 'Sleeping Beauty'. All the children embraced their roles with mountains of enthusiasm and put on a really spectacular show!

Hope you enjoy the Animoto...

As always we welcome your comments.

On Tuesday 13th December, groups of Year One pupils assembled Christingles.
Christingles are made up of different parts, each one being there to remind us of something. The orange represents the world and the candle is to remind us of Jesus because Christians believe Jesus to be the light of the world. The red ribbon goes all round the 'world' and reminds Christians that Jesus died because it represents the blood of Jesus. The four cocktail sticks could stand for either: the four seasons or the four corners of the world. The sweets (or sometimes dried fruit) is to remind us of God's gifts to the world including kindness and love.
Year Two joined them for some singing as the candles were lit up. It was a magical moment! 
       

Tracey from 'kids R fit' came to school today and each class took it in turn to have a hoopstar session. Everyone gave it their best shot (including members of staff) and they all had a fantastic time. It was amazing to see how many different activities and games the children could do with a hoop and good music! 

 

      

  Click on the following links to view short video clips of the children in action -

hula hoops 082.avi   hula hoops 086.avi    hula hoops 095.avi  

hula hoops 111.avi   hula hoops 131.avi   hula hoops 168.avi 

Hope you enjoyed the photographs and videos of the children 'hooping'. Tracey is going to view the pictures and videos. Would children from each class please leave a message for Tracey in the comments box below, to let her know which part of the 'hooping' experience you enjoyed the most and if you would like to do it again in the future.

 

  

Looks like Mrs Maitland will need to practise a bit more to catch up with one of the children in Year 6! He managed to twirl 4 hoops in one go! If you would like more information about 'kidzRfit'  you can click on the following link to visit the website - kidzrfit   

 

 

 

 

 

To launch their role play bakery, Year One have been learning to make bread and butter. After carefully washing their hands, they were involved in measuring ingredients, mixing the dough, kneading it, watching it rise and then cooking it in our mobile cooker. The smell was wonderful!

Our butter was made by shaking thick cream until it separated into butter and buttermilk. It was hard work shaking it so we played 'pass the parcel' with the jar of cream until we could see white liquid and creamy yellow solids. We thought about the poor dairy maids whose job it was to churn butter every day in the olden days. Phew! It was tiring!

We did enjoy tucking into a slice of bread and butter as we listened to the story of the start of The Great Fire of London. In 1666, it had begun late at night on the 1st of September in a bakery shop in Pudding Lane. Thomas Farrinor, the baker hadn't checked his oven was put out properly. It is a good job we could just switch ours off!

For further information about The Great Fire of London, check out these links:

http://www.berkshirehistory.com/kids/great_fire_london.html

http://www.fireoflondon.org.uk/game

Please click on the following to access letters

Microsoft Word - Dr Bike 13th September 2011.pdf

Microsoft Word - Karate Class Sept 11 - Fell _2_.pdf

Thanks 

Please click on the following to access Little Kickers letter.

Microsoft Word - Year 1 Little Kickers Sept 11.pdf

Thanks

Just a reminder, children in Years 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 start school Tuesday 6th September. For children in Reception and Nursery, please see packs given out at the induction meetings. Thank you.

Today we had a special playtime, we got together with our Fellside Families and our Year 6 family member taught us some playground games. We had a great time!

Please can we join in!

What a performance, what a show... the sound of sweet music drifted through the school. We had solo performances to an orchestral finale, with harmonious performances in between. Every child played and sang with ease and confidence to a delightful audience.

At times the concert brought a tear to the eye, especially when one of our Nursery children played the violin.

Thank you and well done to all who performed, and to all who came and supported.

Thankfully the weather was kinder this weekend than last and the Pedalling Picnic took place this morning. With about 60 riders in total, it was another super event, well done to all families who came along. It was wonderful to see children from Nursery to Year 6 cycling together. Thank you to Alan Barlow and Gary Haley for organising this event.

Alan Barlow our 'Bike It Officer' arranged for Ben Slinger & Danny Butler from the Mad Cycle Stunt Team to perform at our school. Enjoy the Animoto of the dedicated and talented twosome, as they perform their outstanding bike stunts.

What was your favourite stunt ? Leave a comment and let us know.

Year 6 reached their target. A huge thank you to everyone for their support.

On Friday 24th June, we discovered the nest had not changed from the previous day. The beasts had not returned and had fled elsewhere. Community Police Officer Toni arrived and in our assembly she wrote up the daily happenings at the nest site as evidence. Also the children were happy to assist her with her inquiries. She wore a crime scene suit as she took samples of the shell, skin, bones and an unhatched egg which she bagged and labelled ready to be taken to a science lab in Gateshead to be analysed,

 What a week it has been! Several children had over the last few days reported strange circumstances in their back gardens - loud flapping, heavy footprints and a child from Year 1 even reported he had seen glimpses of a dragon's tail!

What was the creature that had roamed Whickham and made temporary home in our school grounds?

Perhaps the Scientist will shed some light...

Leave a comment if you have any seen anything mysterious in the Fellside area!

Community police officer, Toni arrived with some serious and important information for the whole school. In morning assembly, we were told that after some disturbances were reported early in the morning and the police had arrived to investigate. They discovered an enormous nest with five huge eggs in the centre. We were informed that we must not touch the nest as the area might be contaminated. Toni asked if we could collect evidence and clues that might help her investigate the scene later in the week. Scientist had advised her to leave the nest intact until the identity of the mother had been found.

 
Each class went to the scene to take a look for themselves. The eggs were huge. Later in the day children reported that they has seen one of the eggs moving slightly? Who could have laid such enormous eggs?

Day Two

We were keen to discover what had happened overnight. Had the mother returned to visit her clutch of gigantic eggs? When we went to take a look at the nest, we discovered that one of the babies had hatched! A broken shell was left behind but whatever had come out of it was nowhere to be seen. Blue and green slime surrounded the egg shell.

Mrs. Maitland had arranged Kay, a zoologist, to bring in some of his pets so that we could find out more about animals that hatch out of eggs. Reptiles, birds, fish, insects and spiders, amphibians and just three mammals hatch out of eggs we discovered. A Bearded Crested Lizard, a Blue Tongued Skink, a Red Kneed Tarantula, a Meerkat, a Blue Frog and a Python were some of the amazing animlas we met, Jay also brought in the most adorable baby ferrets.

 
The large python was very long, heavy and friendly. She felt smooth to the touch.A snake skin is left behind when a snake grows. Snake skins have the most amazing patterns

Everyone in school is writing about the nest from children in Year One to pupils in Year Six.

We look forward to your comments about the nest!

Creative Partnerships Project - Mask Making with Rose

In March, we first met Rose Furlonger who is an artist. She came in to meet us and to show her huge collection of interesting masks. This helped us think about what sorts of masks we would like to make ourselves.

Rose has a good many masks as you can see.

 

Rose made this wonderful Indian Prince for a play. Isn't he handsome?

We started making our own masks. It was a very sticky and messy business!

We made amazing masks of beautiful mermaids, skeleton pirates from Davy Jones' Locker, a selection of pirates and some of the creatures that are to be found on a treasure island like cheeky baboons and colourful parrots.

Following our assembly we finished the topic with an exciting and informative visit to Hartepool Maritime Marina.

Click on the following link to access information regarding the Pedalling Picnic

Pedalling_picnic_letters.pdf

Pedalling picnic 2011.pdf

Apologies, cancelled today, taking place Saturday 25th June.

On Monday 13th June fireman Lenny brought his fire engine to our school.

We worked!

We dressed up!

We watched!

We asked! 

We enjoyed!

Please click on the following link to access letter

  Fellside breakfast 17th June  

Please click on the following link to access letter

Family French Workshop

Year 6 are doing their Enterprise Project starting Monday 13th June - Friday 24rd June. Please click on the following link to see their Enterprise Project Newsletter -

Year 6 Enterprise.doc

is the target the children have set and they are working together in groups to try and raise the full amount. The list of activities are as follows- 

support Year 6. Help them reach their target, so they can achieve their dream, and have the best Year 6 school leaver's party ever!

Please click on the following to access summer fair letter.
Microsoft Word - Dear Parents Fair.pdf

Please click on the following to access sickness bug letter. 

Microsoft Word - Dear Parentillness.pdf

Ahoy, me Hearties! 

For those of you who didn't manage to jump aboard the captain's ship on Tuesday 29th March. Without going overboard, shiver me timbers, it was a great show!  Can you guess what the Year 1 & Year 2 assembly was about ?  Enjoy the photographs from our assembly.  

(click on any photo to enlarge it)

What is a pirate's favorite subject in school?   -  Aaarrr-t!

Please don't forget to leave a comment.

The newly knighted members of Year One travelled north to Alnwick Castle to face the fearful dragon and complete their quest.

The weather was fair and dressed in the garb of medieval knights and ladies they prepared for their adventure by making magical holly wands and watched some magic before setting forth to meet the beast.

In the darkness they made their way slowly through the darkest parts of the castle. Past ugly screeching skeletons they went, past a revolving tunnel, past a maze of magic mirror until they came face to face with the huge dragon. Luckily he was sleeping and the brave children were able to pass unharmed. How brave and courageous they were!

After feasting in the courtyard the children ventured on to take a look around the castle.

Each of our teams - the Black Eagles, the Green Dragons, the Blue Griffins and the Red Lions - had a turn storming the castle, down a ditch and up a mound. How difficult it would have been doing this wearing full armour or chain mail! Real knights avoided running in armour as it made them hot and exhausted very quickly. 

Year One had a super time visiting Alnwick and would like to thank all their parent helpers.

(especially Aaron's mum for taking the super photographs).

 I you would like to see, or find out more information about Alnwick Castle, please click on the following link - alnwick castle 

As always we would love you to leave a comment below about the visit to Alnwick Castle  

Then they pledged an oath that they would uphold the Knights' code - that they would defend the Church, King and Country fight fairly, use good manners, dance elegantly, eat politely and face dragons with courage and without fear.

One by one, each 'knight' went down on one knee before their Lady and were dubbed with their own silver sword. Everyone took their role very seriously and remembered to say their lines.

Play the animoto below to see the ceremony 

 Afterwards each group of knights gathered together to show off their new shields made in their technology lessons. What do you think of them?

 The Knights and Ladies of Year One were now ready for 'The Dragon's Quest.'

They wrote instructions for anyone who wants to be dubbed and become a knight too.

Please leave a comment on your favourite part of the Year 1 Ladies & Knights Dubbing Ceremony.

February 2nd was a big day for us as we walked, full of excitement, to Spoor Methodist Church to witness the wedding of our chosen bride and groom.

On the 7th of June, Fire Prevention Officer and Fire Fighter Lenny Smith came to visit Year One in their classroom.

As part of their food & farming topic, on Thursday 20th May, Year 1 and Year 2 went on a visit to Hall Hill Farm.

On the 7th of June, Fire Prevention Officer, Fire Fighter Lenny Smith came to visit Year One in their classroom.

He told the children about the dangers of matches, lighters and electrical appliances in the home. Year One could think of many things that could hurt and burn.

Year One leaned what to do if there is a fire:

 Shout, 'FIRE!'

 Get out

 Call the Fire Brigade out

  Stay out

Then Lenny told Year One all about Smoke Alarms after they had watched an episode of Fireman Sam. Smoke alarms can save lives but they need to be tested regularly.

Fire Fighter, Lenny, allowed some pupils to try on his uniform. The Fire Fighter is protected from head to toe.

Year One did have a giggle because the uniform was so very big for them.

Next the Fire appliance and White Watch arrived to talk about how fires are fought. Inside the Fire engine the children spotted banana, bottled water and Mars bars. Fire fighter, Kevin told us these were for the fire fighters because fighting fires is hot and thirsty work. Sweets and bananas give instant energy as fire fighting is very hard and tiring work.

Fireman Sam showed us what his breathing apparatus looks like. He sounded like Darth Vader we thought.

Then Y1 were allowed to squirt water with the huge hose.

We were supposed to hit a target but some of the teachers' cars were washed accidentally.

Since White Watch were on call they had to go but they left the school car park with their siren going, their lights flashing and a hoot of their horn.

Please post a comment and let us know what you most enjoyed about the day the Fire Brigade came to school.

As part of their food & farming topic, on Thursday 20^th May, Year 1 and Year 2 went on a visit to Hall Hill Farm. We had all wished for good weather and our wish was granted, the weather was perfect, it was sunny, warm and dry!   

Hello children, welcome to our farm, hope you have a good day..  baa baaa ba baa! 

We enjoyed looking at the deer. 

We had fun feeding the horses.  

One of the lambs decided to come out of the field to see us.

We gave the sheep their food pellets. 

  We were allowed to nurse the rabbits. 

We all took turns in bottle feeding the lambs.

No matter how hard you try,

you will never get through that small gap!

We had a ride on the tractor train. 

 There were other animals too, do you know what they are?

If you would like to look at the farm, please click on the link below.  www.hallhillfarm.co.uk 

In March we spent a whole afternoom preparing fruit salads, fruit kebabs and fruit trifles with some helpful dads, mums and grandmas. We had learned, during a visit from our school nurse and in our science lessons, that as part of a healthy diet, we all should be eating five portions of friut and vegetables a day to get enough minerals and vitamins into our bodies to help us keep healthy.

 A whole array of different sorts of fruits was kindly donated by parents and grandparents and we had such good fun peeling and cutting food and making up our fruit dishes. The best part, of course was when we had the chance to sample our ware. Delicious ! Many children tried fruits they had never had before and found them to their liking.

With our talented creative partners Shirley and Kim, Year Two and Year One continued their Wedding topic by making larger than life sized models of a Sikh Bride and Groom who we called Anneena and Nadim after some Oxford Reading Tree characters.

Year One made Nadim.

Three full days in March were taken up making the structure of the bridegroom out of willow rods, covering this with papier mache 'skin', painting and printing his clothes. We made a 'magic carpet'  out of Ragoli patterns using a wax batik technique and created beautiful patterns to look like decorated 'Hennaed' hands just like those that would be painted on the hands of a real Sikh bride for her wedding. The boys made a red turban headress and the girls Hindi tiaras like that of goddesses.

Our Colourful Rangoli designs 

 Shirley Wells and helpers making the willow skeleton.

Mono-printing Indian patterns     

 Our beautiful bride and groom were blessed with good wishes from 'gods and goddesses'.

February 2nd was a big day for us as we walked, full of excitement, to Spoor Methodist Church to witness the wedding of our chosen bride and groom. Dressed in our wedding finery, we enacted a real wedding service in a real church, with a real minister conducting the service, with real organ music and a real congregation of friends and family. Liz Kent conducted the service and was very impressed with the bride and groom for keeping their cool and saying their vows (without any giggles or tears.)

Here is the happy couple signing the register.

  Friends posing for the Wedding shots all dressed in the Sunday best 

 Back at school the bride and groom led the dancing with a waltz. 

The reception went smoothly with toasts from the father of the bride and the best man.

The wedding cake looked gorgeous and Year Two's bride and groom joined our bride and groom for the cutting of the cake.

When the wedding was over, all the girls in Year one stood in a line as our bride threw her bouquet.

Key Stage One were working on a topic called Fire! Fire! so the workshop was based on the movement of flames and the events of The Great Fire of Gateshead.
Jo Temperly of the Bare Toed Company brought with her some fabulous resources - flame coloured chiffon scarves were used as emerging flickering, dancing flames that grew into raging winds and finally died down into slow moving embers. Sheets of lycra were used to create shapes emerging from burning buildings, movements to suggest frantic and controlled rescues were developed and a story in dance was slowly built up. The music Jo chose was perfect and we even gave her a rendition of our own thrilling dance to Kasabian's "Fire!" that we had been practising prior to her visit.

 Here is a display made after visiting St. Mary's Heritage Centre, Gateshead. Year One have created their own city of Gateshead burning in the year 1854. This was inspired by a workshop led by Mr. Richard Stephenson. The children learned all about the terrible, great fire that devastated the quayside that year and of the people who were involved.

Here the children are seen examining and handling artefacts from the past. These related to the main groups of people who were affected. From the housewives who had to flee from their homes grabbing their children as they ran to the over worked firefighters who came to the rescue. From the miners, who as far away as Monkwearmouth heard the blast of the explosding warehouses to the poor policeman who discovered the fire in the early hours. 

 "Hands up all those who can tell me facts about how far the fire spread and how it was able continue for so long!"

Below, Richard, dressed as Charles Bertram, a key character in the event, explains to the children just how far the fire spread - over to the Newcastle side of the Tyne!

Using interactive computer imagery, dramatic portrayals, handling artefacts and walking the actual route of the fire from the Gateshead riverside to Newcastle Quayside, the children were introduced to this local historic event. The day was rounded off with some song writing - 'London's Burning, London's Burning' became 'Gateshead's Burning, Gateshead's Burning!'

Our thanks to Richard Stephenson for a very enlightening day! As one of the children remarked - we learned so much and didn't even have to write a thing!  

The 'sea' is made from a paper plate which is covered in stripes of coloured tissue paper. The layers of PVA glue make it strong so that when the plate is dried and folded it is strong enough to rock. The boat with the sail is made by folding a single cardboard square and carefully coloured. We know that boats are female so we have given them our own Mums' names. Mr. Grinling is seen fishing with a cocktail stick 'fishing rod' and he has caught a rainbow fish.

We have been reading the whole series of Lighthouse Keeper stories. After reading, 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Cat', we wrote missing pet posters. After reading, 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Rescue', we wrote recounts about the rescue of the beached whale and after reading 'The Lighthouse Keeper's Lunch', we had such fun designing and writing a recipe for the most disgusting sandwiches we could possibly imagine! 

As part of their history studies, Year One have been looking at old fashioned and modern toys. They have been comparing toys from the past and those that are played with by today's children. They have compared teddies - one as old as Mrs. Armstrong with a brand new bear. They have looked at the types of toys that Victorian children would have played with and the types of materials they were made from. Children had fewer toys in those days and often, especially toys played with by poorer children, they were home made.

Year One pupils had a go at making their own toys to play with. They made old fashioned peg dolls. These started off as traditional wooden pegs. At first Year One boys were not so excited about making 'dolls' but when they began making 'Ghost Peg dolls', they had great fun.

Here are the next set of peg dolls - our Princess range! Dainty, pretty and great fun to make...

Year One have been working hard in their Design Technology lessons sorting fruits and vegetables and taking part in tasting sessions. We have been discovering how they are prepared before they are consumed and trying our hands at making food.
One of our activities was to make 'Fruit Kebabs'. With fruit kindly donated by parents we set about making a delicious healthy snack. What fun we had! All of the children tried a new fruit they had never tasted before as we had an array of exotic fruits to choose from. After all the washing, peeling and assembling we all tucked in! It was finger licking good - quite literally!
Want to find out more? Read on...

For our 40th birthday celebrations we decided to visit our favourite places at school. We took lots of photographs. Come and have a look at them!