Fruit Kebabs!

In Year 1 we have been learning about fruit and vegetables and where they grow.
We have looked at and tried lots of yummy fruit which we then decided to make into a fruit kebab.
We started by planning what we wanted on them and what equipment we will use before getting stuck in and making them!
We practised our knife skills and worked as a team to chop the fruit.



What fruit would you want on your kebab?

Y3 Fencing Festival

On Tuesday afternoon 8 Y3 children had their first taste of fencing (the one with the sword, not the one around your back garden).

During their two hour session they were instructed by a coach, who has also represented GB in worldwide competitions, and given the opportunity to try and practise a variety of different fencing skills and manoeuvres.



What a great way to spend an afternoon! A big thank you to Mrs Larder and one of our governors, Mrs Vaudin, for going with the children. And thank you to the parents who came late to pick their children up.

Lunar Theme Park Maths Challenge

Last week Year 5 had the job of designing their own theme park on the moon. The children had a budget of £500,000 to set it up and run it for a day. This would then help them decide on admission costs and running of the park. The children worked in pairs or small groups. Their first job was to design it using a criteria for what they were allowed and then use a price list for how much each item cost e.g. a major ride cost £50.000. The final part of the challenge was presenting their parks to their classteacher and evaluating their learning and taking on board on all the maths they needed to know and use to complete the task.

All the World's a Stage......

Year 6 Visit the Globe Theatre in London!

It was definitely all things fair that came Year 6's way today, as we enjoyed a captivating trip to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London.

The coach journey through the centre of London took us past some of the capital's most famous landmarks. After using Google Earth before our visit to explore the area. it was wonderful to see attractions such as: Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, the London Eye for real. For some of Year 6, it was the first time they had visited London: judging by all the excited exclamations that could be heard as the coach proceeded they were not disappointed.

Sightseeing From the Bus



On arrival, and after a very quick lunch, we were taken into the amazing Globe theatre. It was a magical experience-especially when we were allowed to act out a short scene on the actual stage. As you can see from the following photographs, some of the Year 6 children (and a certain very dramatic teacher!) were definitely in their element.

The Globe Theatre



From there, it was into the actual rehearsal rooms where we explored the story of Macbeth though drama. Can you spot who is playing the witches?

Workshop and Exhibition





The rest of the day was spent exploring the breathtaking area around the Globe. Take a look at some of the sights we explored:-

Sightseeing Around The Globe

Y4 study the Water Cycle

In English and Science lessons Y4 have been learning about the Water Cycle and the importance of the scientific processes of; evaporation, condensation, precipitation and collection.

To help us understand the cycle we created short dances to illustrate each of the main stages. We then wrote a story in role as a water molecule as it traveled from clouds to earth, through rivers and seas and back to the sky.

Year 2 Arctic Day

To celebrate the end of our Arctic topic in Year 2 we wrapped up warm and boarded a flight to the Arctic in the morning!

Whilst we were there we had to battle through a blizzard, then we spotted polar bears and whales and we even saw glaciers melting.

After we boarded the flight back to Oakwood Primary school we learnt about global warming. We learnt that things we do in England, such as not turning off lights and driving cars, can affect people all over the world which can cause flooding and ice caps to melt.

Next we became Inuits! Although we didn't have real snow to build an igloo we had lots of fun building igloos with marshmallows, glue and glitter. Later on we created Northern Lights art using pastels on a black piece of paper. We used our fingers as a tool for smudging and blending the colours together.

It was a great day and it was a fun way to celebrate the end of our topic. 

January Club of the Month

Friday saw the first 'Club of the Month' for 2015.

We welcomed Waterside Table Tennis club, based in Totton, to school for the first time. Colin French, the club chairman and development officer and Adam Proszko, the head coach, spend the day showing KS2 just how easy it is to start playing table tennis and how much enjoyment can be had from this extremely social sport.

Waterside Table Tennis Club is one of the top clubs in the South of England and has a huge purpose built facility at Testwood which can host 20 full size table.

Children brought home a flyer on Friday after their sessions on how they, and parents, can get involved with playing table tennis. They have also offered Oakwood pupils and families a free first session at the club to try it out.

If you want to you can find out more.

Year 2 Arctic PowerPoint Presentations

This term our topic in Year 2 has been 'The Arctic'. The children researched arctic animals in small groups and gathered lots of information ready to use in their ICT lessons.

The children used PowerPoint for the first time to present their information about either; Orca whales, Harp Seals, Arctic fox, Reindeer or Polar Bears. They imported photos of the animals, used slideshow effects and chose different design patterns and colours for the slides. The finished products were very good!

Both classes had the opportunity to share their presentations with their buddy classes in Year 3 and 4. The children had fun sharing it and both classes (including teachers!) learnt lots.

The children should be really proud of their work!

Road Safety in Year 6.

Year 6 were visited by the Schools Education Safety Unit yesterday who helped us to remember how to keep safe in a car journey,as a pedestrian and on a bike.

We learned the importance of remaining quiet and calm on a long journey; how to check out bikes to make sure they are in safe working order and were reminded of the road safety rules that will keep us safe when crossing the road.

We also learnt how important it was to be observant at all times. We watched a couple of short films where our powers of observation were tested .  In the first film we were asked to count the number of ball passes: most of us did this easily but then failed to notice the moon walking bear!! Secondly, we watched a murder mystery clip. Intent on solving the who dunnit scenario, we failed to notice the 21 changes that occurred during the film: a valuable lesson learnt!

Sainsbury's School Games - Badminton League

Monday saw week one of the SSG badminton league get underway at Bitterne Park School. Oakwood took both a girls and a boys team, each consisting of four Y5/6 children.

The Boys team were victorious against Springhill 'B' but were beaten by Bassett Green 'A' and Springhill 'A'. Whilst the girls team were closely outplayed by Springhill.

Thank you to the parents who provided transport for their children, and we look forward to the next set of fixtures in future weeks.

Healthy Schools Week in YR

Last week it was Healthy Schools week throughout the school. In Year R we focused mainly on dental health, and most of us have started brushing our teeth in school! We each have our own toothbrush that is kept in a special 'bus' to make sure they don't touch anybody else's. Some children practiced brushing using the giant teeth. We also thought about other ways to stay healthy, like eating healthy food, getting enough sleep and doing lots of exercise. Lots of us were very pleased when we got a sticker for eating all our fruit and veg at lunchtime!

Year 5 make a Pen Pal!

In Year 5 we have been writing letters to Year 5 and 6 children at a school in Nottingham (Robert Mellors Primary School).

We planned and drafted them in our English books then wrote them up on headed paper and illustrated them to represent us.

Finally, we addressed our envolopes, stuck on the stamps and had a rainy walk to the post box to send them on their way!

We are really looking forward to our replies and hearing from our new Pen Pals!

Check out our photos and video of our letter writing process and trip to the post box.

Musical Bears!

These little bears are looking for honey and berries because they know that winter is coming! They are looking high in the trees and low on the forest floor. When the tinkly winter music (played by our wonderful musicians) begins to play the little bears begin to get tired and look for somewhere to hibernate. They sleep soundly all winter and then one spring day......they begin to yawn and stretch. It's time to wake up, little bears! We then each got an instrument and played along with the song, "Brown Bear is Sleeping". We kept the beat of the music and talked about how it was SLOW.

Year 5 Suss out dissolving

Year 5 were given the chance to investigate two key questions based on 'dissolving'. 1) How do you know a substance will dissolve in a liquid? 2) How can you get a substance back from a solution? They had lots of fun deciding what worked and what didn't. When it came to the writing up part and finding out the answers the children had the task of reporting back their findings using Google drive.

Aliens Love Underpants!

Last week we received a message from space! An alien in the video message told us to go and search inside the rocket ship (in our new role-play) and we found a book, "Aliens Love Underpants". The alien told us that if we decorate the role-play with pants and label them that they will fly back down and steal some of them! We have been very busy designing and labelling pants for the role-play and hanging them up with clothes pegs, just like in the story! We have also been building rocket ships using construction, cutting and sticking astronauts (using our improving scissor skills), doing rocket ship surveys around the school and making 'splat' aliens using paints and straws.

Stay tuned for more......

This week we're reading, "Aliens in Underpants Save the World!"

KS1 enjoy M&M's fantastic production of Pinocchio!

On Friday, KS1 had a very special treat! Thanks to the OSA, M&M Productions came to school with their spectacular version of Pinocchio, complete with "Oh no he didn't!"s, "He's behind you!"s and boundless energy. The children particularly enjoyed references to Frozen, The Lego Movie and X Factor, and even two of our very own Teaching Assistants got to join in the fun! Can you spot them?

Year 5 Electronics Day

To start off our English instruction writing topic we had an electronics day. This involved us bringing in an electronic device and its instruction manual. We then looked at each other’s devices using the instructions and had a go at following them.

This allowed us to identify the features of successful instructions in a practical fun way. Following this activity we had a go at rewriting one of devices instructions without looking at the original instructions, trying to include as many of the features we previously identified.

We then swapped devices and instructions and tried them out to see if they were written in a clear way.

Do you know how often you should test your smoke alarm?

Well ask any member of Year 6 and they will be able to tell you the answer.

Following a visit from the Hampshire Fire Crew, Year 6 have been made very aware of how to avoid fire hazards particularly in the home.

Have you ever planned an escape route with your family should a fire ever start in your home?

Article 21 - All children must be protected and kept safe.

Year 1 fly to Kenya and back again, all in one morning!

Year 1 have had lots of fun today getting their passports and tickets ready, making their way through security and taking an aeroplane journey all the way to Kenya. On the flight the children watched a safety video and had some tasty in flight snacks!

When they got to Kenya the children became explorers and found out lots of fun new facts about the country for example the capital of Kenya is Nairobi and it has a mountain called Mount Kenya.

They managed to squeeze all of this in before flying back to the UK in time for lunch!