It's Performance Time!

Year 3 are now two terms through their Music on the Map course and here's what they got up to in their second concert!

They are now reading music and playing together as an orchestra!

They had an audience of over 100, including all the Year 2 children who'll be learning their instruments next year. They soon have to choose if they want to continue playing an instrument next year, so let's hope they do.



Many thanks to everyone from Showcase, and to parents for helping them practise!

Y3 Science in the Kitchen!

Year 3 spent this morning in the kitchen combining our rocks and soils science unit with cooking to make Rocky Roads. This also allowed us to put into practice our weight measuring skills that we learnt earlier this term in Maths.

This also helped us to remember the difference between rocks and minerals. The rock is like the Rocky Road Biscuit made up of lots of different minerals (the ingredients).

Have a look at how we got on below!

Y5 finish second

Last week a team of Y5s competed in the Souhampton Sainsbury's School Games Benchball tournament at Chamberlayne leisure centre.

The team battled through all their games picking up some great results along the way, however they were just pipped to first place by Bassett Green. The team showed great sportsmanship throughout and Mr Shipp was delighted with team effort.

We will post the results as soon as they arrive.

Twists, turns and spins!

This half term in Year 2 our gymnastic focus has been twists, turns and spins.

We have learnt how to control our bodies while making these movements and coming up with different ways to twist, turn and spin our bodies on the apparatus.

Over the last two weeks, as part of the topic famous people and explorers, Year 2 have been carrying out their own learning at home researching someone in history who has interested them. The children then shared their work with their friends. Projects were presented in a variety of ways which included; powerpoints, film, posters, booklets and models. Can you identify any of these people?

Year R Height Week

In Year R we have been learning to describe and order objects according to height. We are using words like, "tallest" and "shorter" to talk about what it is that we are comparing. We have been measuring and comparing each other and putting ourselves into order from tallest to shortest! Can you see a picture of 'Banana group? Do you think they are in the right order? We even ordered all of our teachers! Miss Shore cheated and tried to go on he'r tippy toes! We have also been using bricks and animals to practice our ordering skills and had had a go at labeling them. We have used 'multilink' to measure spring flowers and see which were definitely the tallest, which we then recorded.

Explorers afternoon!

Year 2 have been learning about famous people.During this afternoon they learnt that Edmund Hillary was the first man to climb Mt Everest, Jacques Cousteau explored underwater and that Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon.

Science week in KS2!

KS2 had so much fun last week investigating and discovering so much about Science. Have a look at we got up to below.

Science Week!

Last week was National Science and Engineering week and in KS1 we did lots of 'wow' science and learnt lots of new and exciting things.

The week started out with a fun assembly exploring what happened when mentos were mixed with diet coke and when vinegar is mixed with bicarbonate of soda.

In Year R the children learnt about habitats and camouflaging and created their own African animal habitats to help them hide.

In Year 1 the children were the first to explore our new pond to see what creatures they could find and designed and created their own mini beasts suited to different purposes. The children also explored different materials and their properties by going on a hunt around the school.

In Year 2 the children made butter using only double cream and a jam jar! They learnt about the changes that were made and why it happens! It was very tasty! The children also recreated the vinegar and bicarbonate of soda experiments during their PDR time with messy outcomes.

Sport Relief 2014

Oakwood celebrated Sport Relief 2014 today by holding a red and white day.

Children and staff came to school dressed in red and white, we had; skirts, shirts, onesies, saints tops and more. All the children (and most of the teachers) also took part in the Sport Relief mile, which is four laps around the school field. We walked, jogged and ran the mile - there was even a three legged pair, can you spot them?

The school has managed to raise nearly £340 which has already been donated to the Sport Relief total. So thank you for your support.

Y4 Cooking project week 4

Yesterday the next group of eggcited chefs took to the Oakwood Kitchen to make an egg based delight, Quiche.

From not knowing what a Quiche was - to third helpings, were all in a mornings work for the year four children. The simple but eggceptionally tasty quiche turned out to be a massive hit with the children all of whom were keen to taste their recipe home and try it again.

Week 3 of Y4's 'Eggciting' cooking project

Last week was the third week of the Y4 cooking project which has been inspired by egg.

With previous groups having already made Omlettes and Pancakes this weeks groups learnt how to make Veggie Egg Fried rice. A simple, healthy dish like this is an import part of learning to cook and the two groups certainly enjoyed eating theirs!

Our March Club of the Month

On Friday we had our March club of the Month.

We were visited for the day by Stacey from 'The Arts Factory', a Theatre company for children in Southampton. As part of their training they teach: acting, singing and a whole range of dance mediums. However for our club of the month Stacey was just giving us an insight into some of the performance dace they teach.

Each of the classes really enjoyed their short session with her and were already talking about putting their new moves into action at the next school disco!

If your child would like to take part in some more sessions they are held on Saturdays at Mountbatten and Wednesdays at the Ageas Bowl - please see their website for further details.

'Goals!'

The Oakwood football team, along with 33 other teams, traveled to the Premier League Football Tournament being held at the Goals venue in Millbrook yesterday.

With only one team from each of the 8 groups progressing the the quarter finals Oakwood were given a tough draw with Hampshire cup runners up Anton Junior School, Holy Family, St Marys and Kings Furlong.

With teams playing each other twice, Oakwood picked up 6 wins, 1 draw and a loss - scoring 32 goals in the process. However this wasn't enough to progress to the next round, as Anton had managed just 1 point more!

Well done to all the boys who took part!

Keeping an eye on the weather!

If you want to know what the weather was like last Friday...

Naysa can tell you:

listen to ‘Weather Kid - Naysa’ on Audioboo

The Big Pedal

A huge thank-you to all the parents that made The Big Pedal such a success. The bike-shelter, and the railings nearby, were jam-packed with bikes and scooters.

177 children rode to school on bikes or scooters, and an incredible 300 of our 416 children came to school without a car!

Overall, the winning classes were Cedar Class in Key Stage 1 and 3BK in Key Stage 2. They will be the first recipients of our new class travel prizes: Suzie the Travel Bear (for KS1) and the Class Travel Trophy (KS2). Congratulations!

2014 Susie and The Travel Trophy

We'd love to see the bike shelter that busy every day. If you would like to equip your child with the safety skills they need to make the trip themselves, keep an eye out for free bike safety training in May.

Here is a taste of what happened:

Year R Jungle Art Show

To conclude our 'Jungle' topic we decided that we would like to help endangered animals by raising money and adopting one through WWF. For our homework, we filled-out a ballot and voted to decide which animal from the WWF website we would like to try and adopt. The elephant was the winner! The children learned about 'habitats' and how wasting paper can effect animals. We are very careful to make sure that we use both sides of paper before we put it into the recycling bin. We made African-style art and decided to have an Art Show to try and raise the money. We wrote invitations and made our own posters both at school and for our homework. We made 'monkey milkshakes' using milk and bananas, which we handed-out at the Art Show as delicious refreshments. We performed one of our favourite songs to all of the adults who came, 'Jungle Boogie Woogie'! We talked to adults about habitats and about how by recycling we can help save habitats. So far, we've raised nearly £70 thanks to the generosity of all who came!

Minstead: The Video (PG*)

(* Contains scenes of mild mud....)

After much hard work in the editing suite, Minstead: The Video (2014) is now available.

It stars Years 4 and 5 and is set in the glorious surroundings of the New Forest.

Although it was too late for the Oscars this year, we know you will enjoy it!

Year 1 Fairy Tale day.

To celebrate the end of our topic,'Once Upon a Time', we had a wonderful day dressing up as our favourite fairy tale characters. Parents were invited to watch children dance and show off their outfits in a 'fairy tale fashion show'!



Which characters can you spot? Thank you to everyone who helped make the day so much fun!

Team Oakwood back in the swing

On Monday this week the Oakwood football team got their season back under way following the Winter break and bad weather delays.

We hosted St Denys as our 5th opponents in the Southampton Schools League. Them team were a little rusty after the long delay caused by the horrendous weather we have received on the South coast during February but still managed to get a great result.

A 6-0 scoreline showed Oakwoods dominance and it could have been many more if not for some fantastic goal keeping from the St Denys' keeper.

Well done to Sam, who picked up the man of the match award after scoring two goals in his first game for the school team.

The English Committee have had a busy day. Firstly, we fed back what exciting activities we all got up to on World Book Day. All classes reported that they really enjoyed having stories read to them by another teacher.

Our task today was to explore all the wonderful picture books that we have in our KS2 library, in order to take recommendations back to our class teachers and our peers. Only a few of us had taken these books from the library before because we believed they were for younger children. We all agreed that this is certainly not the case and we would be taking more pictures books out in the future. We all thought that it would be a good idea if every teacher could read at least one picture book a week to us as there is such a great selection.

It's time to cycle...

Finally, the mornings are sunny and it's bright when we go home. It's a great time to give the car a rest and enjoy a peaceful bike ride to school!

Chris Stow and his team were back today to make sure all our bike's are in safe working condition. They also gave parent's advice on bike maintenance and they even brought a few freebies to 'bling' our bikes. The stage is set for the Big Pedal on Friday!

If you go down to the woods today ...

Last week Year 3 took a local walk to Lordswood Woods. The children had the job of using a map to navigate themselves through the woods and use their co-ordinates to find landmarks. We talked alot about landmarks and how footpaths are drawn differently to roads on a map and why.

Crazy Clay Crocs!

Year 3 had a croc of a time last week making crocodiles out of clay. The lesson links to our stable structures (DT) and class novel 'Krindlekrax'. The children had to make their crocodile stand up, thinking about the feet and how the crocodiles body needed to be widened. The children learnt many skills including:the rolling and scoring of clay, and using different different tools to mark the clay. Have a look at our photos below! Look out for the painted finished versions too!

World Book Day in Year R

We decided we would like to write our very own book to celebrate 'World Book day'. We decided that we wanted the book to be about the jungle, as that is our current topic. Oak and Beech class took turns adding new pages and deciding what we thought should happen next. It was great fun brain-storming our ideas! We helped our teachers to write our ideas down by 'sound-talking' unknown words and spelling high-frequency words from memory. We hope you enjoy it!

Once there were creative book designers......

As part of World Book Day 2014, Year 6 redesigned the front cover of our current class novel 'Once' by Morris Gleitzman. 

Once is a cleverly crafted, very emotional story of Felix-a young Jewish boy living through World War Two. Through his story, children learn what it must have been like to be a child during the Holocaust; forced to grow up far too quickly.

Children were given free choice as to which art media they could use to create their new covers. Take a look at the stunning results:-

World Book Day 2014.

As part of World Book Day 2014, all teachers left the safety of their own classrooms and year groups; in order to share a favourite story with a class they had not worked with before. Great enjoyment was had by all. See if you can spot which teacher went where in the following photos:-

Y1 World Book Day

We have been celebrating World Book Day by sharing our favourite books today. We have listened to lots of stories, laughed and giggled and started to create a dance based on Traditional Stories (final piece to be shown next week!)
Here are some of our favourite books...



We have created a display in the Year 1 base with reasons for our choices. Come and find out our favourite stories, even Mr Charlesworth and Mrs Vanes.

4TA Visit Down to Earth Community Farm

On Tuesday, the first half of Y4 made the journey to Millbrook where they visited Down to Earth Community Farm. The sun was shining and the skies were clear, which really helped all the children have such a fantastic trip.

They fed Goats and Sheep, chased and cuddled Chickens and tiptoed behind Turkeys. They also learnt about Hedgehogs, Sugar Gliders, Snakes, Skink and many more animals both local and exotic.

Year One 'Boomwacker' Performances.

In Music we have been learning how to play the Boomwhacker. Each Boomwhacker, when wacked, plays a single note. We have been working in teams to put notes together in chords and melodies. In this performance, the whole class is providing some chordal accompaniment in The Blue Danube Waltz, by Johann Strauss. We hope you like it!

Week one of Y4's Cooking Project

The 'egg'citement is beginning to build in Y4. (Sorry lots of those to come over the next few weeks)

On Monday Y4's live chicken eggs arrive at school and as we have this 'egg'stremely exciting opportunity, we have decided to learn a selection of different egg based recipes.

Today's groups learnt how to make 'The Perfect Omelette' - which of course is made from two eggs not three. The children Omelettes really were quite 'egg'cellent, just take a look.