Year 4 is currently the home of 9 very fluffy little chicks.
On Monday we welcomed them to school as eggs and have been keeping them warm in the incubator all week. Our first chick hatched on Wednesday afternoon and the final chick arrived on Thursday morning.
They have spent a lot of time sleeping, but they have been awake long enough for us to get to know them a little bit!
All this week year 4 have been working on solving maths problems. They have been working on the skills of analysing and reasoning - looking for patterns, common elements and reoccurring themes.
If you think you can solve it, then have a look.
Today Year 3 have had the opportunity to write whatever they like, wherever they like! Many of them were inspired by the great outdoors! We saw lots of creativity and a real passion to write for pleasure (and not just because the teacher said so)!
Oakwood welcomed St Deny's Junior School to the school field after school today for their latest league match.
Oakwood played some very good football and were very professional and disiplined in the one sided match. With the half time score at 11- 0 St Deny' changed their goal keeper which slowed the tide of goals. However Oakwood did eventually win 17 - 0.
Goal scorers: Levi (5), Gabe (3), Harry (3), Reece (3), Sam (1), Sam (1) Rhys (1)
Today was a very productive day in Year 5. We spent the day planning and making our very own gardens in preparation for our new topic 'changes'. Our new topic involves revising the life cycle of a plant and how plants reproduce. We will keep you posted with more photos when the gardens get going!
Today in Year 3, we lived through Anglo-Saxon History from the Fall of the Roman Empire in 410AD to the Battle of Hastings in 1066! We learnt about their Politics, Religion, Laws, Hobbies and even how they organised their attacks in close combat. Thanks to Mike and Portals into the Past. What a fun end to the topic!
Anglo-Saxon Battle Charge
To kick off our new topic 'Tell me a story', Year 1 had a fantastic fairytale hook day.
We were very impressed with all the fantastic costumes, particularly those who has added something home made.
We focused on recalling the stories through songs, role play and making puppets. We used Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff & The Three Little Pigs.
We have been learning about how some people celebrate Chinese New Year. We have been trying on traditional Chinese clothing and pretending to have a special Chinese meal in a restaurant. We have been making dragons and fans using our fine motor skills and have been reading a story called, "Ling Ling Goes to China". We wrote postcards to tell people about what we would like to see if we went to China. In dance class we pretended to be dragons and used large scarves to fly around the hall with traditional Chinese music playing. In maths we had to problem-solve ways to share a Chinese Moon Cake with friends and noticed that the circular Moon Cake changed shape as we continued to cut it in half, eventually transforming into a very small triangle-like shape!
Happy Chinese New Year from Year R!
The last week of the half term saw the 4th round of the inter-house sports cup competition. Y3 competed in a Benchball tournament to see which house could gain a lead at the half way stage of the cup.
Adonia romped to victory, winning all three of their matches. Ventura managed two victories, and Britannia one. But Azura could only manage to prop up the table with no wins.
This means at the half way stage of the competition the table looks like this;
Here are a few final pictures from Day 5 at Minstead.
The children had to pack and tidy their dormitories before changing their beds for the next set of children.
The final activity was the map of mystery, and although the weather finally turned on us and we got a little wet the children's spirits weren't dampened and they finished their Minstead adventure in style.
Year 1 have had an exciting end to the term by sharing all of their fabulous art work with their parents!
They shared various art and design creations they have made such as collages, pencil sketches, paintings and African masks. It even gave the parents the opportunity to see the story telling assembly that we performed this week.
The children were also really lucky to have Mr Smith come in and talk about his African mask and about living in Africa when he was younger.
Thank you for sharing your experiences!
This morning the children completed their final roundabout activity to earn their 5th bead for their necklace.
We also spent some time working on our Earth books as a reminder of all work they have done this week before trying to master the high seas (The Minstead river) by building paper boats and racing them downstream.
Following this we explored the Village of Minstead, where a few naughty children found themselves in the Stocks!!
This evening we had a campfire, sang some classic songs and told some very bad jokes.
Courtesy of Sonny,
Knock Knock,
Whose there?
Europe...
Today Oakstead children visited Marwell zoo, despite the chilly weather we wrapped up warm and had a fantastic day out observing and learning about the animals that live at Marwell.
Some children’s highlight to the day are below:
"I loved seeing the baby snow leopard, it was small and cute and the Mum was keeping it warm" Charlie (Year 4)
"The piranha fish was fascinating because the are known for being dangerous" Levi (Year 5)
"The Meerkats were really cute and funny running around with their friends" Leah (Year 4)
"Seeing the Pygmy hippos was amazing and my favourite hippo was Gloria the baby hippo, who was learning to swim under water with her Mum" Keisha (Year 5)
As part of Oakstead week, we had a great morning out on a local walk to Lordswood woods to explore and collect natural resources to contribute towards the decoration of our willow weaved frames we made on Monday.
As you can see by our footwear in the photos we came across a few muddy puddles!
Last term the children in the Community and Neighbourhood committee wrote postcards to a small school which is situated on the Copperbelt in Zambia, Central Africa.
The children were very excited to receive the postcards and learn about Oakwood, that had been hand delivered.
It is our hope that there will be some future corresponence so that we can learn more about our global community.
Today Year 2 had their personal best day hosted by the sports coaches from TMC.
This is where a variety of different stations are set up. They are then demonstrated to the children before they participate and work through the different levels of difficulty at each station to find out what level is their "Personal best".
Each station has a different focus for a specific sports skill.
Lots of fun was had and a huge thank you to TMC for organising this half termly event.
The children in Year 2 have been finding out about the festival of Chinese New Year.
They listened to the story associated with the Chinese zodiac signs, decorated Dragon masks and tasted noodles using chop sticks!
This week 12 children had been selected from across Key stage 1 to represent Oakwood at a Racquet Skills Festival, which was held at East Park Terrace, Southampton.
During the afternoon the children were given the opportunity to practise and develop their skills further, while having fun at the same time.
A big thank you to Mrs Sweetingham and Miss Pratt for taking these children and taking part.
I wonder if there is a budding a tennis player among them?
Day Three Minstead Log:
After a filling breakfast of beans on toast and cereal, it was business as usual for the Oakwood crew. They have now fully adapted to the New Forest pace of life.
On rotation this morning, the groups completed a different activity from yesterday: pond dipping, muck moving or looking after the chickens.
Then in the afternoon we had to tackle the 'Bog of Doom'. We walked over 40 minutes to get to one of the biggest and deepest bogs in the east of the forest. Some brave souls (no pun intended) even braved the bog bare feet.
It is now nine o'clock and they are all tucked up safely in bed. I can here someone snoring, but can't quite make out who it is! Maybe you can guess?
Day two of Minstead has again seen ideal weather for a crisp February.
This morning we completed the first of our three roundabout sessions, Aquatic Adventures, Egg Layers or Muck Movers. After, we continued our exploration of the New Forest, where we made the best dens ever seen in Minstead.
The evening activities were all art based. Clay work, to create monster heads for Thursday nights Bonfire, Bandanas, to celebrate our animal names, and lanterns, to light the way around sight in the darkness.
Have a look at our pictures below.
Today in Reception we had an extra special PE lesson. The brilliant coaches from TMC came in to help us take on challenges, and try to achieve our 'personal best'. Everyone had a go at each of the different activities. We practiced catching and throwing, bouncing the ball and walking like soldiers. We worked hard and had great fun!
Marvellous Minstead got off to a great start today with muddy wellies, wet socks and tired feet.
The children have all begun to explore the New Forest and chosen their badges - remember to test your child when they return! Whilst exploring the beautiful forest we built dams in the river (hence the soggy socks) and took great delight in 'busting' them.
After dinner, which was a rather filling Pizza, potato wedges and salad followed by apple and blackberry crumble, we moved to the classroom to start our earthbooks before stories around the fire in the Roundhouse.
We can't wait for a goodnight's sleep!!
STOP PRESS! A trail of destruction has been left behind on our playground. It seems that a Big Bad Wolf has destroyed a straw house and a stick house - only to be foiled by the quick wits of three little pigs. Today, Year 3 investigated the crime-scene and spoke to those involved in order to determine the facts and give the public some answers!
Watch this space for this week's reports written by year three themselves.
Fifteen children from Y4, 5 and 6 went to Fairisle Junior School this morning to compete in the First Federation Fitness Festival.
The children went up against four other schools in a range of fitness challenges to try and determine who was 'fittest'.
All of the athletes who represented Oakwood did so with great determination and sportsmanship, showing that you can give your best and enjoy yourself at the same time.
Although we do not have a full table of results to show, Oakwood picked up the 1st place trophy! And were closely followed by Fairisle.
Well done to all the children who went, and thanks to Mrs Wheeler and Mrs Smallwood for taking the team.
Our Year 4 pupils rounded off an excellent few weeks of storytelling assemblies in Key Stage 2 this week, with their storytelling battle between 4TA and 4TW.
As part of our English curriculum, all children learn quality texts off by heart in order to be able to 'magpie' great words and phrases to use in their own writing.
This term, Year 3 have learned the myth "Beowulf", Year 4 learned a non-chronological text about Hammerhead Sharks, and Year 5 learned some instructions on how to trap a beast.
Amazing!
This week parents and friends joined us to celebrate our Year 5's recent home learning projects. Take a look - they are fabulous!
Year 3 have been enjoying taking part in a 'Free Write' session. They have had lots of opportunity to use their creativity and write for pleasure.What fun we had!
This term, in their PE lessons, Year 2 have have been trying out different balances, created different shapes with their bodies and travelled in a variety of ways too. They have really enjoyed having the wall bars and apparatus out and have had the opportunity to transfer some of the skills they have practised on the floor.
Look at how we point our toes!
Oakwood played host to Springhill this evening in the Semi-final of the Southampton City Cup, and it was truly an epic match.
This week Elm class took their peers, friends and family back in time to 2nd September 1666 when the Great Fire of London started.
Our topic in Year 2 was the Great Fire of London so Elm class wanted to share what they had learnt. The children re-told and acted out the story, they read out facts which they had learnt, they shared their art work and sang 'London's Burning'.
They were fantastic and they should feel really proud of themselves for doing such a great performance!
You can't catch me! I'm the Gingerbread Man!
As part of our Adventures topic we have read the book, "The Gingerbread Man". We have baked our own gingerbread men and were careful not to take them out of the oven too early......so they didn't run away like they did in the story! We retold the story using puppets and have made "WANTED" posters to catch the sneaky fox! We made our own collages using cutting skills. We even used gingerbread men to find number bonds in maths!
On the week commencing 26th January, Year 1 took part in four exciting maths investigations.
They had to apply their skills of counting, reasoning and group discussion. The main focus was to persevere and innovate. We were very impressed with how they recognised where they had not followed patterns and kept going until they succeeded.
You can see that they were so excited, Willow class chose to continue with their investigations during snack time.
What a fantastic maths week!
Last week Year 5 had a musical time learning all about the famous 'Gustav Holst' and the 'Planets'. Our current topic is based around the 'Earth, Sun and Moon' with our class novel 'Cosmic' by Frank Cottrell-Boyce so the planets was a perfect match. The children listened to the music thinking about key vocabulary and how we appreciate music.
They also completed a sound line showing where changes happen. We talked about the type of musical instruments played in an orchestra, what they look like and sound like too! Other activities led onto performing a short piece of drama as if you had landed on the planet Jupiter, and it was HOT! Also, children's gymnastic unit is based on performance.
The children are currently working in groups to perform to 'Mars' thinking about how the music changes and how this is reflected in their performance and equipment choice.
This morning saw round three of the Inter-house sports cup. Y5 competed in a tag rugby competition. Thankfully there was no snow today and the weather was fine, with sun shining!
The scores were:
Ventura 1-7 Britannia Adonia 2-4 Azura
Britannia 2-3 Adonia Azura 1-1 Ventura
Ventura 4-4 Adonia Azura 4-3 Britannia
These results meaning;
Azura 1st, Adonia 2nd, and a tie for 3rd place both Ventura and Britannia scoring 5 points.
Next week Y3 compete in round 4 with a benchball competition.
During our topic 'Aliens Love Underpants', Year R made up dances based around our ideas about space and aliens. We got to show off our dances to all the grown ups who came to our special work share! Here is Beech class' dance again, in case you missed it. First, we blast off, then we press buttons, pull levers and steer our rockets through space. When we land, we pull on our boots, zip up our space suits, and put on our heavy helmets. We take a few steps out onto the planet, before becoming an alien! We hope you enjoy!
After the successful introduction of wet play books, the Playground committee have made it their next task to ensure that every class contains a wet play box that has a variety of entertaining, fun and interesting games. Needless to say our first port of call was to test out and play different games to see what games we would like to have in our wet play boxes.
Take a look at the fun we had:-
Now we have a good idea of the activities we prefer, we have come up with ideas to raise funds and persuade people to part with old board games etc that they might not use any longer. We will keep you posted-so keep watching this space.
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