We are collecting Active Kids Vouchers!

Help us to collect vouchers for some new equipment for our school!

Hand your vouchers in to your class teacher or bring them to the office!

'Once Upon a Time' in Year one...

Year 1 have also been learning about Traditional Tales. We have been reading the story of the Jolly Postman. Do you know any of the Traditional Tale characters that are mentioned in the story?

We have drawn pastel pictures of the characters and discussed what they are like. We have also used 'Dazzle' on the computer to create pictures of the characters.

Looking after your teeth.....

We made posters to remind each other to look after our teeth and to keep them clean. Which one is your favourite?

Well done to Bradley (Year R), Jimmy (Year 1) and Paolo (Year 2) for winning the competition. Your posters will be displayed in our local dental practice for all to see!

Year 3's Mythical Exhibition

Year 3 presented a fantastic home learning project exhibition on Friday. Well done to all the children who have worked so hard and thank you parents and friends for coming too!

Please have a look at our photos below.

Governors learn about spreadsheets...and lots more

Some of the governors spent a day in school recently. We all enjoy seeing the school in action and spending time talking to the children about their work. On this visit year 5 enthusiastically told us all about the biscuit business topic. Their knowledge of spreadsheets put us to shame and it was lovely seeing the children work in teams to come up with so many creative ideas. We also took part in singing assembly and spoke to a group of children from all of the year groups about their writing books. The thing I enjoy most about our visits to school is just popping in to see the various classes doing their day to day work. A particular highlight for me on this visit was seeing year 4 act out their poetry. All of the children I spoke to during my visit were happy and enthusiastic about their time at school and very keen to talk to us about their experiences.

Year 4 Bollywood Day

This half term, Year 4 will be studying their Bollywood Topic. We will be comparing life in our local area to life in a small village in southern India, Chembakolli.

Today we took part in an Indian hook day where we did a number of exciting activities. Here are some of them:

• Dressing up in Indian clothes
• Finding India on the map
• Connections to Indian game
• Looking at photos of an Indian village
• Cooking and tasting Indian food - vegtable curry, naan bread and onion bhajis
• Indian music
• Indian dance
• Indian art (look out for the displays in our classroms soon!)
  
  
  
  
  
  

Year 2 Traditional Tales...

We have been thinking about the heroes and villains in traditional tales. Look closely at our display:

We have made shoe box settings of some Traditional Tales:

The Three Little Pigs

Little Red Riding Hood

Friday 10 February 2012: Schools Open

The Oakwood Schools will be open as normal today, Friday 10 February 2012.

There has been some snow overnight, but the roads seem to to be generally clear, and we see no major problems with staff getting to work or pupils getting to school.

Roads and pavements may be icy, so please take care on your journey and allow extra time.

We may need to keep some pedestrian gates closed, but the gates from Sandpiper Road will be open. We welcome your understanding if you can't use your normal gate.

Thank you!

Friday 10 February: Schools Open

The Oakwood Schools will be open as normal today, Friday 10 February 2012.

There has been some snow overnight, but the roads seem to to be generally clear, and we see no major problems with staff getting to work or pupils getting to school.

Roads and pavements may be icy, so please take care on your journey and allow extra time.

We may need to keep some pedestrian gates closed, but the gates from Sandpiper Road will be open. We welcome your understanding if you can't use your normal gate.

If your child is at Minstead, we will update you during the day - they did have snow last night, but at the moment, we don't see any problems with the journey back.

Thank you!

Snow at Minstead

Frosty Thursday at Minstead

Today at Minstead we rotated to our final chicken, muck moving or pond dipping activity.

In the afternoon, we explored more of the New Forest and made our seven special words using only natural materials. There words are: biodiversity, transport, rich world, poor world, energy, water, recycling and food and farming.

In the evening, we sat around a glowing bonfire, told jokes, sang songs and Chris told us a fascinating and magical story. We might even share it in assembly when we get back!

We can't believe we are going home tomorrow! This week has gone by so quickly, probably because we have been so busy and have been having such a brilliant time.



Please see today's photo gallery!

Outstanding Oakstead

Year 4 and 5 have taken part in many exciting acitivities during Oakstead week, including:

• Constructing love bugs using, pebbles, fabric or card.
• Designing candle holders using recycled glass jars and tissue paper.
• Constructing minibeasts with rolled up newspaper.
• Making wool pom pom minibeasts.
• Sketching trees and natural objects.
• We had a visit from Liberty's Owl, Raptor and Reptile Centre where we met a number of interesting creatures!
• We visited Testwood Lakes where we completed 8 challenging Eco tasks. There was a "What can you compost?" game; we had to build a shelter to protect us from a thunderstorm and we each planted a mustard seed. Plus many more!
• Today we are creating posters to recount our trip to Testwood Lakes to show Year 3.
• We are also making bubble and squeak in the kitchen with Mrs Larder.
• In addition, we have two afternoons of TMC sport and team building games to look forward to.
• Tomorrow we hope to take part in an environmental debate!

What a busy week!

Wild Wednesday at Minstead

It's another frosty (and brilliant) day today at Minstead! We had another lovely breakfast(beans on toast and cereal) and rotated so we could try a new morning activity (chickens, pond dipping or muck moving).

After lunch we went on long and muddy walk to visit one of the New Forest's many bogs. It was like walking on a giant sponge! We saw the Thenga being pushed into the bog, it didn't even touch the bottom!

We are now drying off and getting ready to have an evening of telling stories and singing around around the fire in the roundhouse!

Chilly Tuesday at Minstead

Brrrr... hello from Minstead! We have enjoyed our first full day here and have lots to tell you about!

We started the day with a very hearty breakfast of cereal, apple juice, orange juice, scrambled eggs, mushrooms, bacon AND toast with jam! It was a great way to give the energy we would need for such a busy day!

Today we split into three smaller groups for the first part of the day. One group became Aquatic Adventurers and did some brilliant pond dipping, another group were Muckmovers and discovered how recycle and the final group were our Egglayers, who got to learn all about Minstead Study Centre's chickens and how to look after them - eggciting!

In the afternoon we we went on an artistic adventure in the woods. We created circle pictures and even built a fairy village.

Needless to say we were delighted to eat our delicious dinner of cottage pie and we even had some cake to celebrate a birthday!

Later on, we had two special visitors (thank you Mrs Worley and Mrs DiMaiolo) join us and we made scary clay heads and delicate candle holders to use with our bonfie on Thursday.

Magic, Muddy Monday at Minstead!

What a brilliant time we are having at Minstead and a fantastic start to our week!

After waving our enthusiastic goodbyes we arrived at Minstead Study Centre. When we had found our rooms and settled in, we journeyed into the New Forest.

 

We had a super time exploring the woods and took part in some great activities:

- We chose (or did they choose us?) our animal name badges and will work very hard this week to collect all the beads we can.

- We built dams across a stream.

- Our bodies were covered in leaves to make a cocoon.

- We explored a ford and got very wet!

- We listenened to music boxes through trees - try it yourself!

- We went on a night walk to meet Adam and Eve.

Our busy day concluded with listening to stories about where the Sun may have come from and singing around the campfire in the roundhouse.

We are all having a great time - even though it might be a little bit muddy!

 

Please take a look at our photo gallery!

No Snow!

We're pleased to say that Southampton seems to have escaped the snow so far, so unless we turn into Narnia by morning, the Oakwood Schools will be open as normal and the visit to Minstead will leave on time.

If your child is going to Minstead, please remember gloves, scarves and extra socks for warmth. It's still going to be cold!

If it snows...

As you will know from the letter we sent home yesterday, and from the weather forecasts, it's just possible that Southampton and the surrounding area may get some snow over the weekend.

If there's snow, we will do our best to make sure the Oakwood schools open on Monday as normal, but we will let you know as early as possible if we can't open.

We'll update this blog and send texts either late Sunday evening, or very early on Monday morning.

For those children going to Minstead on Monday, we'll need to check that Minstead is open and safe, that the coach company can get us there safely and that we can follow all the safety regulations which the City Council and Hampshire County Council put in place.

We will make sure information about Minstead is also posted on this blog.

The current forecast for Southampton suggests that temperatures will stay just above freezing over Sunday night and that rain and fog are more likely than snow by Monday morning, but obviously things could change.

Thank you for your support. Keep your eyes on the blog and stay warm!

Year 4 Iron Man Home Learning Project Exhibition

This half term, Year 4's Home Learning Project was based on our class novel, The Iron Man and also our topic, What's It Worth Planet Earth, linked to our work on the 3 Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Year 4 worked very hard on their homework and produced fabulous models, stories, instructions, diagrams and PowerPoints.

Year 3, parents, family and friends enjoyed the exhibition.

Look out for some of the Iron Men around the school!




Well Done Year 4!