Crew Hamill have continued building their rounders skills this afternoon. We warmed up by practising our underarm throwing technique, throwing the ball with accuracy to our partners. We then practised added in some batting skills, with one partner bowling and one batting then swapping. Following this, we used this skills in a mini game. We split into two teams – one batting and one fielding. We then played a mini game, focusing on the rules as we went along. We had so much fun and were very grateful for the warm weather which meant we could do it outside!
I’m sure you’ve all played dodgeball before, but have you ever played it IN THE DARK?! Today, Crew Hamill and Crew Thompson were super lucky to be able to play glow in the dark dodgeball. We had so much fun!
Crew Hamill finished their money unit in maths by spending the lesson working out how much change people should receive. They had three activities to complete on a round robin. The first group involved continuing in our fruit and veg shop with Miss Kelly. They identified the items they wanted to buy, worked out how much they were going to cost them and then worked out the change they should get when purchasing with £5 or £10. The second group involved working their way around the room to identify challenge questions (1, 2 or 3 stars for difficulty) and solving them. These all involved either one step or multi step questions that required them to identify change. The final group involved working in a cafe. The children had to choose one drink, one food item and one dessert. They then had to work out how much they had spent by adding the amounts together. Once they knew what they had spent, they had to work out how much change they would get from £5 or £10.
This week, Crew Hamill have delved deeper into the story of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. We looked further at key vocabulary within the story and practised our skimming and scanning skills by finding them in a word search. We have had a big fluency focus this week and each day we have focused on a different element – pausing, pace, accuracy and expression/intonation. For book talk, we read through the text and focused on pausing at punctuation to ensure our reading made sense. We then text marked our section of the text, identifying vocabulary words, important parts, parts that were exciting and parts that we loved. Once we had completed this, we answered quick fire questions about what we had read. For our second book talk lesson, we focused on pace as we read, ensuring we were reading at an appropriate pace – not too fast or too slow. We then continued with our retrieval and fluency focus, answering questions – first guided and then paired – about what we had read.
We had so much fun with our PE coaches this morning! We learnt lots of new ball skills like bouncing balls and throwing balls! We worked in teams to use our ball skills to collect the pirate treasure and then counted up the treasure to see which team had won! Once we knew how to play the game, we turned off the lights and played it while we glowed! It was so much fun!
In our rounders lesson, we have worked on developing our fielding techniques. We first practiced scooping up the ball two hands and then throwing it overarm back to the bowler. We then practiced some ball skills and worked on our catching. We noticed it was really important to keep an eye on the ball and watch it at all times. We then practiced the short barrier which helps us when fielding. We had to turn our foot sideways behind our hands to provide an extra protection so if we not grab it with our hands our foot will stop it. We then applied this in a mini game of rounders.
Since 2019 we have been working with the educational charity The Wood Foundation, which is based in Scotland. Dozens of educators from schools in the Aberdeen area have been visiting our Trust as delegates for the last four years – learning about Crew, expeditions and Leadership.
This week for the first time colleagues from our Trust, including our CAO Andy, had the opportunity to deliver CPD to teachers in Aberdeen, visiting schools and meeting students. It was heartwarming and humbling to see Crew – sometimes called Squads and Clans north of the border – being delivered in Scotland.
We look forward to welcoming more delegates to our Trust schools in the future and travelling back to support our new friends as they continue their Crew journey.
There Is No Planet B – Product Curation at Norton Juniors
The beautiful work from LKS2’s Expedition ‘There Is No Planet B’ is now curated outside the school! The awesome artwork, created from digital images of discarded waste, depicts various different animals whose habitats are being destroyed in the local community. To further reinforce the notion of climate emergency, through their literacy cycle, pupils also wrote persuasive speeches about how we can all bring about positive change if we work together.
