Croft Community School

Rowan Week 20.11.23

By d.franklin November 24, 2023

We have been getting very creative in Rowan class this week.

In RE we have been learning about Advent and what the different candles mean. Once we learnt about it we began creating our own wreaths.

The children loved beginning to make these, we are finishing these off next lesson.

In Art we have been looking at mono printing and Lino printing. We tried this with black ink then we tried this with colour ink. This work is inspired by William Morris who created a lot of textile work. His work often involved flowers.

Rowans Trip to the Cinema

By d.franklin November 24, 2023

Rowan class had a very exciting day! It was a trip to the cinema!

The children were so excited on the morning and we had all brought in our drink and snacks.

We got onto the school minibus and drove to the cinema which was in Gateshead. On the way there we were all having a look to see what we could see.

Everyone behaved so well on the bus. We made sure all are seatbelts were plugged in and stayed sitting for the full journey until the bus stopped.

Once we got there we went into the cinema to our seats. We got the VIP seats!!

The children were so excited. We watched the Whale and the Snail and Stick Man. They all went ‘WOW’ when the film started. They all sat so beautifully watching the films. They made Croft very proud.

It was such a lovely experience as some of the children expressed that they had not been to the cinema before so watching their reactions were great!

Natural structures and sculptures.

By l.robson November 21, 2023

In Art Oak class have been working on using a range of materials creatively to make a natural sculpture, know what construction materials are and use them to assemble a structure.

Today we went to Hamsterley forest to explore natural sculptures and construct a den using natural materials.

We went on a walk to find the Gruffalo sculpture.

We then worked as a team to construct a den (with a little help).

After this we went for a walk and crossed ‘pooh stick bridge’. Oak class learnt why the bridge had the special name.

In Science we have been learning all about seasons. On our walk we spoke about how we know it is autumn time.

“leaves falling off the tree”, “Brown and yellow leaves”, “toadstools”

Finally we found a special structure that we especially found fun! Did you know you can make a whole play park out of natural materials?

We had so much fun! Not only learning about Art but developing our turn taking skills, being able to assess for dangers (tree stumps that we sometimes tripped over), physical development, observational skills and just being active.

Well done Oak class, brilliant work and behaviour. We are super proud!

Hamsterley Forest – Natural Structures and Seasons.

By l.robson November 21, 2023

In Art Oak class have been learning all about sculptures, structures and natural artwork.

Today we went on a trip to Hamsterley forest to learn more about what a natural structure is, what construction materials are and to make a den using construction materials.

We enjoyed hunting for the Gruffalo and discussing what he was made out of.

We then worked as a team to construct a den (we may have had a little help).

We had a walk across pooh stick bridge and learnt why the bridge had that special name.

In Science we have been learning about the seasons. Whilst we were exploring in the forest we spoke about how we knew it was autumn time.

“Not many leaves on the trees” “Brown and orange leaves” “toadstools”

We then found a construction that we especially enjoyed. Did you know you could construct a play park out of natural material?

Well done Oak class, brilliant day!

Sculpture and observational drawings in Oak

By l.robson November 20, 2023

Oak class are learning all about sculptures, observational drawings and natural art.

In our first lesson we used clay to sculpt a natural object. We learnt different ways of sculpting clay such as pinching, rolling, smoothing and adding pieces.

Once we learnt these techniques we used them to sculpt a hedgehog.

In our second lesson we created some wonderful observational drawings. We gathered some natural objects for our homework to then draw in class. We looked closely at the shape and size of the objects and selected the corrected colours.

Well done Oak class!

PE – Oak

By l.robson November 10, 2023

Oak class last term were working on dance in PE.

The theme of our dance was toys.

Miss Robson told us a story about her Aunt Maud. When Miss Robson went for a sleepover at Aunt Maud’s house the toys used to come alive. Using Attention Autism we moved in different ways, snuck around the space trying not to wake up Miss Robson.

Oak class thought about different toys that might come alive during the night. We practiced moving like the toys, thinking of a starting position, moving like the toy and then ending in the same position they started in. We thought about how we could shuffle, turn, prance, twirl, balance, stride and spring.

We looked at the different elements of dance focusing on the who and the what.

We then learnt a dance based around the story of Aunt Maud, using the music Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy and made props to help us.

Can you guess which toys we were?

Attention Autism – Oak Class

By l.robson November 10, 2023

Attention Autism is one of our favourite tools for learning in Oak class.

The four stages of Attention Autism help us to focus our attention, build on our group focused attention, turn- taking, then shifting our attention and to be able to focus, shift and re-engaging our attention. Being able to focus and sustain our attention supports us with engagement in lessons, communication and retaining new information.

In Geography today we were learning all about the world.

Miss Robson used the bucket to gain our attention, before moving on to introducing our new topic. Oak class loved the bucket activities and it definitely got our attention.

The new topic ‘The World’ was introduced and Miss Robson created a bit of a mess making world pictures. We took it in turns to create a picture too, identifying land and water.

We looked at different types of maps and atlas’. Using our class world map we tried to find where we lived.

Creative Rowan Class in DT

By d.franklin November 9, 2023

In DT pupils have been working really hard on designing their very own pocket purse. We began by designing the shape that we wanted. This was drawn onto a piece of paper and cut out to give us a template for our purse. We then used the template to guide us where to cut our felt. This was a little trickier than we thought as the felt was thick. Once this was cut out we were able to get our sewing needle and string to attach and fold the shape of our purse. We had to go over some safety regulations with our needles as they were sharp! We had to stay in our seats and make sure these weren’t pointing at any of our friends. We marked out where we were stitching by putting little holes in the felt. Once this was done we began stitching. We were all SO proud of how they looked.

TAKE A LOOK….

We worked so hard!