Oakwood's Percussion Academy left the drums in the cupboard to finish off the half term...
Having already drummed on drums and had a week of body percussion, they decided to attack the chairs this time!
They had a fantastic time, thanks to Alex from Showcase Percussion Association.
PS. The Oakwood Schools take no responsibility if percussionists damage chairs at home!
Oakwood's Percussion Academy left the drums in the cupboard to finish off the half term...
Having already drummed on drums and had a week of body percussion, they decided to attack the chairs this time!
They had a fantastic time, thanks to Alex from Showcase Percussion Association.
PS. The Oakwood Schools take no responsibility if percussionists damage chairs at home!
Year 3 worked extremely hard constructing their photo frames yesterday.
Well done Year 3!
Here are just a few photos from three of the new clubs we are running this half term...
Drama Club - exploring emotions and stage presence!
Logs Club - practising spellings, tables and reading and being tested for awards!
Chess Club - checking if it's check or checkmate!
These are just three of the vast range of clubs we're running this term - over 150 children in clubs over the week!
Thanks to David Deane, who is the Walk to School officer for Southampton City Council, we had a really good launch to Walk to School Week this morning!
Everyone who walks for five days this week will get an exclusive Strider "football" badge and then have the chance to earn more badges by walking once a week for the rest of the year.
We also have chances to earn extra badges for quizzes and other walking events.
Here's Dave's presentation so you can remember what his message was!
Year 4 have been enjoying learning about the Romans this half term.
We have just had our Home Learning Project Exhibition. Everyone was very impressed with the quality of work produced. There were mosaics, Power Points, stories, quizzes, photo albums, models and even a Roman film!
Well done Year 4!
If you visit 4KP, look out for their new clock...!
The Reception classes have created an Autumn wall with their work. Look at the collage, the Autumn colours and our leaves. We had lots of fun!!
Here are the latest 3D sculptures created by Year 6 as part of our People in Action art topic. We think the results made all the tired hands and aching muscles (as plasticine was pounded to soften and shape it) worthwhile. Take a look:-
Keep an eye out on the blog in the next few weeks for some amazing metal sculptures and something (or someone!) BIG coming this way, as part of this ongoing project.
In Mexico City:
Well, we have been in Mexico City for one week and are adjusting to not only living in a new country but also to living in a city!
Our journey was longer than we'd expected because all the electricity at Mexico City Airport failed just as we were coming in to land, so there were no lights on the runway and we were diverted to Toluca......see if you can find it on Google Maps!
Having sat in the plane on the runway for 4 hours, we were told that the lights were still out at Mexico City Airport and so we had to get off the plane, collect our luggage and go by bus the rest of the way.
Unfortunately, our luggage didn't get put onto our plane and so we couldn't collect it - in fact it was delivered to us three days later. I wonder where it went? The bus ride took another hour and a half so by the time we actually arrived in Mexico City, we were about seven hours late!
Lucy started school on the 3rd October and is enjoying meeting children from different countries. She is going to a very small international school where there are only 28 pupils. In fact she is one of only three in her year group! The other children come from various countries: Mexico, Korea, Cananda, America, New Zealand and Ireland.
The school day is very like Oakwood - it begins at 8.30am and finishes at 3.05pm with 45 mins for lunch. There is a park opposite the school (which is a large house) and the children are allowed to go and eat their lunch and play there.
Although the school is only about 7 miles away it takes about an hour and a half to get there! This means we leave just after 7am and take two buses. The buses do not run to a timetable and the driver will often sit and wait until the bus is full before setting off, as this is more cost effective. The roads are busy and noisy - there aren't many road rules! If the traffic is at a stand still the driver will turn off the main road onto the side streets and make up his own route. This was a bit scary the first time it happened because we didn't know where we were going! Thankfully, he pulled back onto the main road before we had to get off and we recognised where we were. It only costs about 8 pesos each to do the whole journey. Can you find out how much this would be in the UK?
We are living in a large house, which is also where the offices are for the organisation we are working with. We have two rooms and then share the kitchen. The kitchen has a good fridge/freezer and cooker but no built in cupboards or sink. The sink is outside and only has cold water!
We are hoping our Spanish will improve quickly so that we can understand more and speak to the Mexican people.
Adios!
Year 6 have been working really hard at their art topic People in Action...
They have used posable action figures, sketched in their sketchbooks, created string portraits and made fantastic Plasticine models.
They have also started to use Pivot Stick Animator to show actions just with a few lines...
Charlotte's animation is a really clever first attempt!
We had a wonderful time when we visited school last week. Sadly we missed Year 6 who were at Oasis Academy for the day, but we saw lots of exciting learning – Wow words, Reading Roundabouts, tables and spelling logs.
This was Ann Crocker’s first visit to the school since becoming a governor – “I was bowled over by how happy and confident the children are. The teachers welcomed us into their classrooms and it was a pleasure to watch them at work. I had a school dinner which was a lot nicer than when I was at school! A thoroughly enjoyable day and I am really looking forward to the next one.”
It was also Julie Yeo’s first visit as a parent governor. She enjoyed hearing from Mrs Worley about the new after-school clubs.
Jackie Kerwood spent time with Year 5 finding out about their Titanic project. “All of the children were eager to tell me about the Titanic survivor they had chosen to research, everything from 1st class royalty to men who had been working the engine room.”
We ended the day by discussing with Mr Taylor and Mrs Whitmarsh how we can all work together to make Oakwood Junior School even better.
Thank you to all of you for a stupendous day.
Year 3 had a wondeful morning visiting Southampton Art Gallery yesterday. We found out all about charcoal and how to use it to make portraits.
The Year 4s had a day of sampling small amounts of the food Romans ate. They started breakfast with bread, dates, figs and half a teaspoon of honey.
"I liked the bread and honey. It was really really nice."
Throughout the day the children took turns to either prepare, cook or serve food. Their afternoon feast consisted of a vegetable & barley stew, bread with fish dipping sauce (Garum) and a side salad of cucumber and celery.
"The stew was quite nice but I didn't like the fish sauce."
The children researched Roman food, Roman lesiure time and concocted their own Roman menu.
We had a very important visitor in assembly this morning, with a very important message.
Firefighter Simon Packer came into school from Redbridge Fire Station to tell us all how to...
Some old friends of the school have just arrived in Mexico!
Lucy (an ex pupil of the school) and her Mum and Dad have gone out to live in Mexico for a few years.
They went to Mexico a few yeas ago when Lucy's Mum, Hilary, worked for the school as a teaching assistant. They took SAM with them, and you can read about the good work they did while they were out there.
SAM and Lucy, looking a bit younger than they are now, with their Mexican friends.
This time, they have gone to do more work with the same charity, and have offered to keep everyone in the school up-to-date with what they achieve.
Many of the children and families in the poorer parts of Mexico City don't have access to clean running water, let alone a school to go to, and they make their living by foraging on the city's rubbish dumps.
We are looking forward to hearing how the Hamilton family settle in, about Lucy's new school and how it's different to Oakwood and about all the work they will be doing for the charity.
Good luck, Lucy, Hilary and Aaron!
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