The Tempest- A storm! A shipwreck! An enchanted island!

Newport pupils from Mrs Fieldgate's literacy groups in Year 5 and 6 have been studying Shakespeare's play The Tempest. This play, the last one Shakespeare penned before retiring from the theatre, is a mystical, magical mysterious romantic comedy of revenge, a father's love for his daughter and the misuse of power. Having studied the plotlines and the characters, Mrs Fieldgate was keen to show the children how Shakespeare's work is best seen as a  live theatrical performance So this week the groups attended a matinee performance by Shakespeare4kids theatre company at  Dorking Halls.

The audience was treated to a wonderful performance of  the play. Here are a few of the children's comments:
"I thought the Tempest was amazing  and everyone should watch it!" commented Courtney.
"I thought it was very entertaining and the I loved how the actors interacted with the audience", stated Molly.
" The Tempest was brilliant- I really enjoyed  Caliban's performance", beamed Markus.
" The acting was great and the play was so funny. I would definitely recommend it to everyone" Katie.

A very big thank you to Mrs Wren  for giving up her time to help transport the children to the theatre.

Science Day!

Today year 6 went down to Belle Vue to test and make toothpaste. Using well known brands such as:
Colgate, Aquafresh, Macleans and Sainbury's own brand, the children tested the smell, shine, packaging and appearance. They then went on to make their own toothpaste. In the afternoon year 6 used their experiences from the morning and made the best toothpaste using bicarbonate of soda, glycerine, cornflower, salt, peppermint essence, water and food colouring if they wanted to change the appearance. The children also came up with their own name for their new toothpaste and designed and made all of the packaging independently. Both year 1 and year 6 demonstrated superb behaviour and everyone learnt how to keep their teeth clean with the best possible toothpaste. An extra thank you to Belle Vue for organising the morning. A fantastic day all round and we cannot wait for Science Day again next year!

Miss Cooke and Mrs Shuttleworth

Poetry Workshop

This week some of  Newport Junior School's Year 4 pupils warmly welcomed pupils from five other primary schools to a  morning packed with poetry. Sir John Betjeman stated that "Poetry is the shortest way of saying things. It gives you room to think and dream" and Mrs Fieldgate's workshop gave all the children lots of new ways in which to describe  everyday objects and abstract nouns (things you can name but can't actually touch e.g emotions- anger, sadness, happiness). Studying poems from our current Poet Laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, as well as Ted Hughes and Pie Corbett , the children learnt how to make super similes even better and also got to grips with discovering how personifcation can be a really powerful writing tool.

 

Fear
It follows you everywhere-a fear.
You can dart, dive and weave  but the fear always pants by your shoulder.
You look behind straight at it,but it's so fast it's gone.
People say it is voiceless yet it screams endlessly in my ear.
It's like a giant ghost.
It has a shadowy ,dim,black cloak.
It whispers and mutters "I'll never go away".
I can't look fear in the face.
Alex

The morning session was rounded off with the children sharing their wonderful poetry to the other pupils and their teachers who had accompanied them to Newport. A big thank you to the Year 4 -Chloe, Pippa, Cole, Alex, Charlotte, Isabelle, Abbey and Jonny who worked really hard throughout the session and produced some fantastic poems.

Day for Change 2013

Day for Change 2013!

 

Year 3 have been very busy this half term. One of the many things we have learnt about has been Day for Change. We have looked at similarities and differences between ourselves and other children from around the world.

 

The focus this year was on food - we thought about how we can eat healthily and why we need to eat healthily. All our work last term meant we had some excellent ideas already.

 

We decided to get all arty and create some fantastic fruit sculptures using plastic carrier bags as our basis (reduce, reuse, recycle!). Once we had created the shapes of our fruits and covered them in a layer of papier mache, we had the chance to paint our fruits. They will be on display for the parents to come and look at for our end of term exhibitions.

 

Have a look at some of our brilliant fruits...

Day for Change!

Today, children went off curriculum to learn about Niger, in Western Africa. One in ten children are faced with severe hunger, which is why we were aiming to raise as much money as possible so that we could send it to UNICEF. The school councillors in years 5 and 6 began the campaign with planning and presenting a whole school assembly. We did end up collecting over £180 so thank you to everyone who brought their money in. Our money will now go towards food, medicine and equipment to hospitals and clinics to help malnourished children get better.

Our focus this year was food and each year group made structures or murals to show the area they were researching e.g. food cycles, harvesting, farming and healthy eating. We also played traditional African games and 5P were lucky enough to see some traditional African trousers, drums and much more.

Have a look at some of our pictures to see how much fun we had.