This autumn, the whole school had chance to learn how to draw portraits of their favourite characters. Kerry Cook, from the Sunderland Art Rooms, held a workshop for each year to teach the children the skills they need to produce effective portraits.
As part of their topic this term, Year 5 & 6 spent the morning cooking traditional Mayan food. They made tortillas from scratch and also hot chocolate made with cocoa. The best part of the day, after they had cleaned up, was tasting their hard work!
Year 5 and Year 6 visited Bowes Museum to take part in a Discover Arts Award workshop. They looked at the work of Sunderland artist Jo Howell and then explored her technique of cyanotype printing. They had lots of fun in the play area at lunchtime and watched the famous mechanical silver swan before returning to school.
Over the last few weeks, the children in year 4 & 5 have been working very hard to make the sensory garden summer ready so everyone can enjoy it. They have dug out some very deep and stubborn weeds, cut back bushes and plants and have also planted many new flowers and vegetables in the beds which are growing very nicely. The potatoes and onions are coming on a treat and the peppers, chillies and salad veg are nearly ready to be replanted into the vegetable bed. The children enjoyed clearing away all the rubbish from the winter and adding a splash of colour with some new decorations. They already have many more ideas how to improve the garden. Keep an eye out on our page for more photographs.
Years 4-6 had a fun morning using different items of junk to make models. They thought about their design and what they wanted the out come to be. See if you can tell what some of them are?
The RNLI came to visit the school to teach us all about water safety. We learnt lots of hints and tips to keep safe around water and found out the best way to manage cold water shock if we ever fell into water. Some children also had the chance to dress up as Lifeguards!
Some of year 4, 5 and 6 have been learning about what skills you might need if you were stranded somewhere to keep safe. We explored how to make clean water from a stream, river or ocean. We also researched what foods were safe to eat in the wild. We talked about protecting ourselves not only from the weather but also any animals that might prey on us.
We designed and then made a shelter that would protect us and learnt about two methods to make fire to help us cook, keep warm and also ward off animals and insects.
We ended the session with BBQ sausages and toasted marshmallows (which we know wouldn’t be available if we were stranded)!
As part of our themed week on the Great Outdoors, we have been tending to our sensory garden.
After a few days of bad weather, it finally cleared and we got back into our garden. There is still lots of things to do but it is looking better already and we even have some potatoes planted!
We have been working hard to pull out the weeds and plant beautiful flowers in their place.
On Friday 8th March, the Rota Kids team organised and ran a fundraising afternoon to raise money for the NSPCC. Amongst the activities were face painting decorate a biscuit and a treasure hunt. Each class had the opportunity to have a try at each activity. A great deal of fun was had by all and they raised a considerable amount of money in the process. Well done everyone!
As part of the children’s technology project, they took part in food technology lessons looking at a variety of different fruits with the aim of designing their own fruit salad based around a theme. In small groups, they had to think about how their fruit salad could be presented as well as what fruits would fit with their theme both in terms of taste, texture and colour. Week 1 was all about trying and tasting many different types of fruits and designing their fruit salad. Week 2 started with refining their design and then making and evaluating their fruit salad.
At the end of the lessons, the children enjoyed eating their designs!