As part of our new topic Changes, in our english lessons we are reading the book 'The runaway iceberg' all about a pair of penguins and how the melting of the ice is affecting their environment. In today's lesson we have been acting out the story with a small iceberg and our penguins. Newstead class loved melting the min icebergs to retrieve a penguin and recalled the sequence of the story confidently. 

This week Newstead class have enjoyed a trip to Carlton Digby school to share science investigations. We took part in their science lab an experiment to see which colour would move the quickest using different liquids. We used skittles and poured on water, salt water and vinegar. The vinegar poured over the skittles moved the colour to the middle of the plate faster. The other experiment Newstead had a go at was seeing what colour a piece of material that had been dyed using cabbage water would change when using lemon juice water and salt water. We came back with some lovely tie dye patches.

In English we have been reading the story of the coco bean and learning about the journey from bean to shop. 

This week we have been working on following instructions, either by reading or listening to. We used our Fairtrade chocolate to make some delicious cakes!

This term in PSHE we are looking at jobs and have enjoyed dressing up in different uniforms and talking about the job roles. 

In DT we have started weaving which we find relaxing and is going well. 

In Science we have started learning about solids, liquids and gas; we started this week talking about the different properties and placing items into the 3 categories. 

In our Humanities lessons this week we have been acting out the Transatlantic slave trade, we have dressed as slaves from West Africa, traded  toy guns and cloth from Britain and cotton, sugar and tobacco from the Americas. 

In our English lessons we have been learning about where bananas are grown and the journey they take to arrive in our supermarkets. This week we have made banana and blueberry muffins. Newstead class did some great listening and following instructions to make the muffins and hopefully shared with their parents. 

Week beginning: 8th January 2024

Happy new year to you all!

Here is what we will be learning in the Spring term:

Week beginning 4th Dec

In science we have been learning about sound; how sound travels in waves that we can not see. We have watched waves ripple in water and raisons vibrate on a drum. To develop our understanding we experimented with pitch, predicting if instruments would have a low or high sound then feeling the vibrations to see how this changed. 

In English we are reading Stone Age Boy and have really enjoyed learning about making fire using a bow drill. We were then able to write instructions to do this and explain what we had done. 

This week in Newstead we have been hot-seating characters from Stone Age Boy to find out more about them and work on our communication skills. We enjoyed dressing up for the parts!

We have also been working on structures in DT and enjoyed making our own tent considering size, shape and ways to support them. 

This first week back in Newstead class we have been recognising coins, adding coins together and using money to purchase items at our class shop. The pupils were great at pricing up items up and labelling them for sale and giving change when they were the shop keeper. The pupils were very independent when being the customer recognising the coins and reading the price labels. 

This week Newstead class as part of our topic lessons we have had a go at stone age tie dying. They each had a strip of material, we found some natural resources of berries and flowers that were bright colours of orange, red and purple. The children squashed the berries and flowers into the material strip using a rock and changed the colour of their material. The class enjoyed doing this activity in the lovely sunshine in the sensory garden and all worked together well, lovely activity Newstead. 

This term in our cooking lessons we have been tasting and testing vegetables, meats and noodles to decide which we would like in our stir fry. Newstead class have done some great trying and saying if they like or don't like certain vegetables, whether they like them raw or cooked and which they want in  their own stir fry design. Great job Newstead!

Newstead class had a fantastic trip to the spirit of the stone age at the University of Nottingham museum. We had a go at spear throwing and friction fire starting. We did some cave painting around our hands, made clay pots and had a go at weaving. In the afternoon we made a fence by weaving to keep our goat in which we had a go at milking and ground some flour. The children got really involved and had a go at all the activities, such a lovely class trip, super proud of them. 

Information for parents:

Please have a look at our new timetable for Newstead class. We have PE on a Friday so please send your child to school in their PE kit. Above is a picture of our new Teaching Assistant Mrs Turner, who we have welcomed into Newstead class. Also above is a picture of Miss Selby who will teach Newstead class on a Thursday and Friday when she returns to school in October. 

We are really enjoying getting to know our new friends in Newstead! 

Newstead staff team