Project 7: Sunderland and the North-East

The 'Sunderland and the North-East' project spanned two weeks as it incorporated a five day trip to Sunderland to visit Solomon's grandparents.The project involved visiting multiple local attractions, and then creating a 'Visit the North-East' tourism poster.

We visited Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children's Books in Ouseburn, Newcastle. There are seven floors of interactive activities relating to children's books, with a special exhibition on comic books when we went. There's plenty to fill a whole day, and really engaging staff who are great with children. Solomon was particularly taken by the Attic floor at the top, generally used for storytime but with lots of dressing up boxes scattered around.

The "Can't You Sleep, Little Bear" bear cave

We visited Hylton Castle in Sunderland, the gatehouse-tower of a castle. An impressive building from the 14th century, although unfortunately the castle was fenced off as part of its ongoing refurbishment. There was, however, a really good park next to the castle.

Hylton Castle

We also visited Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens, and Sunderland's illuminations which are on each October.

Cheshire Cat at Sunderland's illuminations

We also watched a number of videos about Sunderland's coal mining, ship building and glass making heritage.

Finally, Solomon brought together some of the different features of the North East into a 'Visit the North East' poster.

'Visit The North East'

The poster incorporates the Angel of the North, a car (representing the Nissan car factory), Hylton Castle, a toadstool from the Alice in Wonderland part of the Sunderland illuminations, a glass vase and a ship to represent Sunderland's shipbuilding and glass making heritage.

Next week's project: Space and the Planets!