Spring term

Easter Parade

We all dressed up in our Easter finery for the school's parades today, wearing the hats, t-shirts, ties, glasses, etc that we had decorated at home.  It was great fun dancing down the catwalk to our favourite songs and the audiences seemed to enjoy it too!  Thank you to everyone who came along to support us and helped us to put together our fantastic Easter themed creations.  We hope you like the photos.

Gluing and Joining 01/04/19

This week we looked at different types of glue to use when joining materials. Each glue is good at certain jobs, while not so good at others. It was interesting to find the best glue for the job. In the process of experimenting, the children made a wide variety of inventions. From interesting decorations to a screw-fix dog the children had some fantastic idea.  They can be brought home later as the glue wasn't quite dry.

Using Tools 25/03/19

This week the group had the chance to use a variety of tools. We looked at different drills; drills for large and small holes, drills for dry wood and those for green wood and we looked at drills for materials other than wood. The children set to drilling but it is harder to hand drill wood than you think.  The children worked in pairs to drill and hold the wood.  Look at the amazing things the children made; wheels, weights, robots and heads! 

Come and See

We've had another great Come and See morning today with lots of visitors in the classroom.  In literacy we were describing a dragon's lair.  I was very impressed with the descriptive language the children were using.  After break we created 3D shapes using straws and playdough.  It wasn't easy but it helped us to investigate the properties of the 3D shapes.  

New Group in the Invention Shed 18/03/19

It was nice to take a new group into the Invention Shed today.  We did a  lot of thinking about how to use materials.  It can be hard to imagine a thing out of the materials that we have to hand. In the Invention Shed we try to use objects that are interesting and the object that we create arises out of the stimuli we get from the objects.  Looking at the inventions the pupils made you can see how fantastic their imaginations are.  We had a thief trap, marshmallow thrower, a bad guy radar and a mood teller, all in an afternoon.  I am looking forward to the next week.

Working with Shapes

We've been working with 2D shapes this week in maths.  We have been describing and identifying shapes and we have been sorting shapes using a Venn diagram.  

Weaving 11/03/19

After all the willow work that we did last week I wondered what else could be woven. The children had a look around the Invention Shed to find things, then thought about what the pieces could go around. Nails were a popular choice, but it soon became obvious that hammering nails was harder than the children first thought.  Some of the children stuck at it whilst others changed their mind about what they wanted to do. As a consequence, we got a real variety of finished products, from an owl sticking out its tongue to a woven picture frame. What inventive children there are at Newburn Manor Primary School!

World Book Day 

We've had a fantastic World Book Day.  In Year 2 we read 'The Wolf's Story' - the real story of Little Red Riding Hood told from the perspective of the wolf (Mrs Gill).  We then created wolf masks so we could retell our own version of the story.  

Invention Shed - Hurdle Making 04/03/19

We have a lot of willow to harvest on the field at the moment. The inventors from Year 2 went out and cut some down to help tidy the place up, but what to do with the wood; too small for fire wood but too big to just throw away. We had a go at making mini fences. It was hard to drill holes but everyone managed in the end. We then had to find sticks of the right size. Once these were in place we used the whips to weave in and out to make a fence. It was so much fun that I completely forgot to take any pictures. I remembered after we came in, so here is a photo of the start of the fence and then a finished one.

Art Week - The final results

We have had a great week creating some amazing art.  Today we used the tools we had sketched yesterday and added colour.  The tools from the past were coloured with charcoal and pastels.  The tools of the present were coloured with pencils and felt tips in bright colours.  They look fantastic.  What a super week we have had!

Hunting for Minibeasts

We had a great morning with Oscar from RSPB today.  He talked to us about minibeasts and where to find them.  He had lots of information to tell us and we remembered lots of facts to impress him with.  We visited our nature garden to look for minibeasts and found worms, spiders, woodlice, slugs and lots more.  

Invention Shed 25/02/19

A glorious sunny day meant that we could work outside today.  Last time the children had spent a lot of time taking apart keyboards.  This week I thought it would be good to see what could be made out of the things that we found inside the keyboards.  It was a lot harder than I first thought it would be.  It was difficult to use the hard, brittle keys.  Frankie worked very hard on finding ways to join them to other things whilst Lily made a very nice necklace. 

Art Week - Wednesday

Today we were exploring with charcoal.  We used charcoal in different ways to see how it can be used.  We also tried sketching a Lowry painting before adding pastels and charcoal to it.

Art Week - Tuesday 

We've had a busy day today.  This morning we looked at three pieces of art by different artists.  We thought about the similarities and differences and came up with some great ideas.  We also looked at a painting by Norman Cornish, a pitman painter.  We had a go at copying one of his pieces of art by looking carefully at the picture.  

This afternoon we thought about the different tools that people used nowadays and compared them to tools of the past.  We created a Pic Collage to show the different tools that are used in different jobs.  We also had a go at sketching some of the tools from the past and tools from today.

Art Week - Monday

Today we looked at the painting and used viewfinders to look closely at different parts of the picture.  We answered questions about the painting, thinking about the colours used, the weather and where we thought the painting was. 

We also looked at some other works of art by George Bellows and tried using the viewfinders to copy just part of the picture.  This was tricky at first but we definitely improved throughout the lesson.  Hopefully we will continue to work on these skills this week.

Art Week

This is Art Week in school where we will be looking at the painting: Men of the Docks by George Bellows.  We will be using his painting as inspiration for a week of art.  Watch this space this week to see what we get up to.

Super Attitude at the Dodgeball Competition

We had a great time at the dodgeball competition this afternoon.  The whole team worked superbly and I was very proud to witness their team spirit and their great attitudes towards everyone.  We came third and a team member was awarded a certificate for 'Outstanding Achievement'.  Well done to everyone who took part. 

Our Fantastic Class Assembly

Today we had our class assembly all about our area.  We told our audience all about the wonderful things that you can do in and around Newcastle.  We also sang a local song too.  It was lovely to have such a large audience, thank you for coming to see the children perform. 

Invention Time 11/02/19

A new group from year 2 started to use the Invention Shed today. We explored how to join things without using glue. Can you believe you can sew wood?  Lily invented a way of sewing together wood, I wonder how we can use this to make some more cool inventions?  Lola found that hammering is very hard.  The boys in this group all chose to work with some keyboards. It was hard to join things with them so they set about taking them apart. It looks like Aydin found some octopus skin inside his.  Next time I think it would be great to try and make something using all the parts that we got out of the keyboards.

Taekwondo with Mr Churchward

Year 2 had a great afternoon with Mr Churchward.  He will be working with them over the next few weeks on how to improve their strength.  He showed them lots of different exercises that they can do regularly.  He will also work on some punching and kicking skills. 

Our Trip to the Baltic

We had a great morning at the Baltic for our bridges workshop.  We sat in the viewing gallery and looked at all of the bridges on the Tyne.  Then we tried drawing what we could see from memory.  We also tried drawing without lifting our pencil off the paper and then we used viewfinders to concentrate on a small area of our view.  After drawing bridges, we then had a chance to build a bridge out of one sheet of card.  It wasn't easy - we came up with some great designs.  What a fantastic morning!

Come and See 

Thank you to everyone who came in to Year 2 to see the learning taking place today.  We were sharing in maths, introducing the division symbol and remembering our equal groups.  In literacy, we were writing about Jesmond Dene, which lots of children now want to visit, possibly because of the petting zoo.

Sheducation 28/01/19

The group had their last session in the shed today. I asked them to make something that could show what we do in the shed. The children set to work inventing lots of different things. Unfortunately, time got in the way with some children not finishing all what they wanted to do but the results were still fantastic. The variety of ideas surprised me; Jasmine made a collage, Ellen a picture hanger, James a TV and Layton wanted to make a wheeled device - it was very complex and used complex joining to make it work. We had to change his plan as he couldn't quite get it finished in time.  Two children joined us for an extra session as others were off. Kaiden and Laila had a productive afternoon and look forward to their four weekly sessions, which will be starting soon.

More Bridges

Today we were bridge building again.  Over the last few weeks we have experimented with paper to see how to make it stronger.  Today we built our final bridges out of paper and used all of the things we have been learning about.  We used different methods to make the bridges stronger and we had success!  In week 1, we only had a few successes.  This week every group's bridge was successful.  Well done Year 2!  They will be displayed in the classroom for everyone to see.

Joining without Tape or Glue 21/01/19

I was very happy to have the heater in the shed today as it allowed the children to go out and enjoy their time inventing. It was so toasty that we were able to take coats and hats off. Today we experimented with different ways to join materials. This time it was wood. The children experimented with nails, screws, saws and drills to make a variety of objects. I thought I was going to make a puppet but in the end it turned into a fidget spinner. I like the way the objects are able to evolve as they are being made allowing different techniques of joining to be explored.

PANTS!

Rachael, our school nurse, came to talk to us about the NSPCC 'PANTS' rule and how to keep ourselves safe.  We watched a great video about Pantosaurus.  If you'd like to find out more and watch the video at home, please visit the following NSPCC website link:

https://www.nspcc.org.uk.preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/underwear-rule/

Lighting the Shed 14/01/19

Last week we noticed how dark it can get in the shed in the winter so using the skills that we learnt we thought it would be a good idea to make some lights. Our shed looks so pretty now the lights make a big difference. 

The children had to think carefully about how to join together the materials that they picked. After the experiments with tape last week the children thought hard about better ways to join materials together. We settled on glue, but then found that some glue is better at sticking some things whilst other glue is not. After a lot of effort the effect is great. I just need to cable the wires away and then the shed will be set up just right.

Building Bridges

Since Newcastle is well  known for its many bridges, and as part of this term's Our Area topic, we have today been exploring how to construct bridges using only paper and masking tape.  We worked in teams, each designing and building a bridge, then we tested all of the bridges to see if they could support the weight of a toy car.  Some of the sturdier bridges could do this successfully and we all learned a lot about how we could improve our designs.  We now look forward to revisiting this project again and further developing our ideas.

Invention Shed 07/01/19

A new group for the new year and what a lot of super new ideas everyone was having. Today we had sirens, decorations, wind chimes, telescopes and wands being made. Everyone experimented with different ways of joining things together. We found that tape isn't always the best solution. Jada wove things, Layton used wire to secure his decoration, whilst Jasmine experimented with nails. I look forward to the next 3 weeks.