An Easter themed maths investigation

Year 2 were presented with this question:

There are 20 fluffy chicks who sit on 3 nests. An even number of chicks must be on each nest.

How many chicks can sit on each nest? How many different ways can be found?

The children could choose what they needed to help work out their answers. Some used multilink or cubes, some draw pictures, others made lists of even numbers and tried different combinations while others used their knowledge of number bonds to help.

How would you work out this problem?

Champions League Semi-Final

On Monday after school, Central West league winners - Oakwood, took on Wide Lane league winners Bitterne Manor.

The teams were playing for a place in the final of the league winners cup.

Oakwood started badly, conceding 2 goals in the opening 4 minutes of the game, and try as they might they couldn't find a way back into the game in the first half. Gabe hitting the post with a header from a corner coming closest to a goal.

In the second half Oakwood began to throw players forward in search for a goal but were caught on the break by the quick Bitterne strikers who took a commanding 0-4 lead. The Oakwood team never gave up though and a penalty and a header from Reece at least 5 minutes gave the team something to show for their effort.

The final whistle blew with the score at 2 - 4.

Man of the match went to Alan for a tough defensive display.

Happy Easter!

In Year R we having been busy learning about the Easter story and about how some Christians celebrate the holiday. We found some clues that the Easter Bunny left for us and carefully followed them to find......delicious Easter eggs! We had to use our knowledge of positional language to figure-out the clues but it was well worth it.......yum-yum! We've also been baking some special Easter nests to bring home as a treat.

Happy Easter everyone!

Cycle Safety with Star Cycling

Grant from Star Cycling came in to give us some tips on Staying Safe on the road.

Year 5 Visit the Winchester Science Centre

Year 5 had a great day today visiting the Winchester Science Centre. We watched an incredible planetarium show and explored the different exhibits in the centre. We also built rockets and launched them into Space (well... nearly!). We are really proud of the excellent manners and behaviour of the pupils in Year 5. They were superstars!

Sainsbury's School Games Benchball tournament

Oakwood sent two teams today to the School Games Benchball tournament at Chamberlayne Leisure Centre.

Each match was the best of 3 games, with 10 players on each side.

Both the Oakwood teams, Y5 and Y6 did very well, coming runners up in their groups and progressing through to the knockout stages and then on to the semi-finals. Y6 Oakwood beating Bassett Green to progress to the final, Y5 Oakwood loosing to Valentine to drop into the 3rd/4th place play off.

Unfortunately Both teams lost their final game meaning the two teams finished a very respectable 2nd and 4th. Well done to all 21 players who did their very best and represented Oakwood impeccably.

Year 2 Big Spring Sing

Year 2 joined children from Newlands Primary, Fairisle Infants at Shirley Warren Primary for a collaborative "Big Spring Sing".

Each of the schools had been learning the songs in their music lessons but when we came together we were taught actions, singing different parts with a harmony and even managed a round.

Singing altogether we certainly raised the roof!!

All the songs had a pirate theme and were enjoyed by all.

Thank you to all those involved for a fun afternoon of singing.

Gift from Sainsbury's Lordshill

This week Sainsbury's have kindly donated gifts of water bottles, cup cake cases and nail transfers which will be used by the children in school.

Thank you to Sainsbury's Lordshill, for thinking of us.

27 March 2015

Year 1 at Manor Farm

This week Year 1 went to Manor Farm to finish off our topic learning about Victorian life.

We got the chance to meet the animals and learn about how the farm was important during the Victorian times. We also got the chance to do some laundry the Victorian way in the farm house and go to school and meet Miss Stubbs.

We had a fantastic day!

March Club of the Month

Yesterday KS2 took part in their March Club of the Month. We welcomed back a previous visitor in Jim, who works for the English Rugby Board teaching rugby in secondary schools in the city.

He gave each class a taste of Rugby, through some movement and passing skills games. He was very impressed with the ever improving skill of our children and was particularly impressed with the children who recently represented Oakwood at the Southampton School Games Tag Rugby tournament.

If your child enjoyed their rugby session and would like to get involved with playing rugby on a more regular basis or would just like to try it again then they can attend one of Jim's sessions for Millbrook Rugby Club, which take place at Oasis Lordshill.

KS1 Football Festival

Six Y2 had the opportunity to take part in the Sainsbury's Southampton School Games, KS1 football festival this afternoon.

Because of the number of children in Y2 from Oakwood who wanted to take part in the festival, 6 were selected at random to represent the school.

They went with Mrs Eltherington to Test Park Sports Ground where they spent the afternoon kicking and passing in the sunshine. A big thank you to Mrs Eltherington for going and well done to the six children who took part.

Oak Class Mathematicians!

We had to put on our thinking hats today (just like "Captain Think") and solve some problems! We sat in a circle and in the middle was a lovely (pretend) roast chicken. Miss Shore and Oakie Bear wanted to share the chicken, so Miss Shore cut it into 5 pieces. We had to find different ways to share the chicken and were asked to "document" it on our whiteboards. We were told we could do so in any way we liked! Some people chose to use addition sentences, some used subtraction sentences, some used pictures and some chose a bit of everything! In the photos, Miss Shore had 1 piece and Oakie Bear had 4. We had a chance to show and explain our methods to our friends. Look at all the different methods we had! What would you have done?

Bikeability

Well done to Year 5 for developing their Bike Safety skills!

Big Pedal

Today it was the big pedal and it was great to see so many children getting their bikes ready for Summer. After school the Travel Team set up an obstacle course which was extremely popular!

Year 6 at St James Church

An afternoon of practical activities, discussion and time for reflection was enjoyed by Year 6 children at St. James Church in Shirley today. Following the timeline of the events of Easter Week, the children moved through different stations beginning with the Last Supper and ending with an experience of the Empty Tomb. The children raised many thought provoking questions which led to some interesting discussions. We all left the church with a deeper understanding of the Easter Story which will be celebrated by Christian communities next week.

4TA Visit Down to Earth Community Farm

4TA had an absolutely fantastic day today! We visited Down to Earth Community Farm on Green Lane.

After the brisk walk in the morning sunshine to get there the children were straight into activities. Before lunch each group completed two workshops; one learning about the small and exotic animals which they look after in their small animal room, the second involved visiting and preparing the larger farm animals for their day.

The children got up close and friendly with; Bearded Dragons, Skink, Pygmy Hedgehogs, Geckos, Goats, Sheep, Turkeys, Cows, Rabbits, Guinea pigs and numerous breeds of Chicken.

After lunch, and a quick playtime, the children were back with the animals - completing a further two workshops. We learnt about the best ways to groom and look after small and medium size pets, as well as completing a plant and animal hunt.

All the children said what a great day they had and wished they could go back again on Friday when 4TW are visiting!

5FL's Awesome Class Assembly!

5FL had great fun this morning performing their class assembly to their parents and friends. Our assembly was all about our plans for the future and how our learning at Oakwood will help us when we grow up. Well done 5FL for a super assembly!



You can also have a go at our super difficult interactive quiz, programmed and coded from "Scratch"!

Y4 Science Eggsperiments

Following the visit of chicks to Year 4 at the start of this half term, Y4 have been conducting some egg based science experiments.

They have been testing just how strong egg shells are. How much weight do you think one egg shell can support? A prize will be given in assembly for the closest guess posted on the comments section!

Music (still) on the Map!

It was time today for Year 3 to perform for us once again!

Our trumpeters, trombonists, percussionists and clarinetists showed just how hard they have been working and rehearsing for their second Music on the Map concert for parents.

We're two thirds of the way through the year, and the talent was clear to see - they have a much wider repertoire of tunes, more accurate and faster playing - all the time displaying a true pride in what they do! We can't wait for their concert with performers from other schools at Central Hall in the summer! (Friday 22 June - put it in your diaries!)



Thanks to all the teachers from Showcase Performance Group! (Now celebrating their 5th Year in Southampton Schools - watch their celebration video below!)

Perfect 8

Oakwood's current and future football team finished off the schools football league in style today. Beating Foundry Lane Primary School 2-0 on the school field.

Oakwood fielded a completely different team in each half, meaning several players made their school debut. One of those was year four, Jack, who was unanimously awarded Man of the match by the rest of the team.

The team did leave it late to grab the victory though, an own goal, and a close range strike from Gabe both came in the last 2 minutes of the match.

Hockey Team Week 3

The Hockey team continued their red hot form into Tuesday's games at Cantell School!

The team beat Thornhill 5-0 and thrashed Bassett Green B 10-1. Brilliant results!

The team have now completed their league games and currently sit joint top of the league. Oakwood do not have any games to play next week, but are awaiting the outcome of others to see if they are crowned champions.

Thanks to Mrs McGowan for the photo!

The Very Hungry...Year Rs!!!

Last week we read the story, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". We had a great time creating our own butterfly life-cycle dances and shared the videos with our peers. We used the story sack to retell the story from memory. We wrote speech bubbles for the caterpillar on our own and with a teacher, which we enjoyed reading to the class! We "hot-seated" the caterpillar who visited our classroom and asked him questions like, "Why did you eat so much?" and "What was it like in the cocoon?" We have our own caterpillars in the class and we've been watching them grow. We can't wait for them to make cocoons! We think it will be soon as they've become quite fat and furry! A Giant African Snail named "Lettuce" came to visit us, it was enormous! We followed a recipe to make, "Miss Shore's Disgusting Minibeast Soup" and had to double the ingredients so there was enough to share with the other class! We have made our own "Minibeast Cafe" and are having a great time pretending to be customers, chefs and servers. We have been applying our knowledge of time, money and reading/writing to our creative play. We made our own disgusting menus that include food like, "worm spaghetti", "spider soup" and "butterfly toast". Would you like flies with that?

What a muddle!

Cedar class have been learning about so many traditional tales this half term that they have got a bit confused and when they came to performing their assembly, a few extra characters made their way into the Goldilocks story.

Can you spot the impostors?



We hope you enjoyed the performance!

Fairy tale settings

In Year 2 our topic has been Fairy tales. The children recently completed a DT and art project by making their own fairy tale settings using a shoe box.

The children were very creative and they planned and made magical, woodland, fantasy settings using paint and collage materials. Once their settings were complete they made characters which were attached to strips of card so they were able to slide them in and out through the sides, through the top and bottom of their settings!

The finished products were very good! Take a look at the photos of their fairy tale settings...

Oakwood 1-0 Tanners Brook...And some news!

On Friday after school Oakwood played Tanners Brook Primary School in their second football match in two days.

The scoreline of 1-0 didn't reflect how dominant the Oakwood team had been. Gabe heading the only goal from a corner. The defence stayed solid and were marshalled brilliantly by man of the match goal keeper Dan.

After reporting the score to the league secretary we received news, following the win Oakwood have been crowned league winners for the second year running! Well done boys!
The team will now play in the semi-final of the Champions League trophy against the winner of another of the Southampton Leagues.

2015 Comic Relief

A massive thank you to all who brought in their £1 donations today for Comic Relief! We raised the fantastic amount of £434 which may still rise!

We painted our faces funny for money, came to school with our clothes inside out and performed our flash mob routine to 'Uptown Funk' and 'Happy!'

A huge thank you to you all!

Oakwood 6 - 0 Fairisle

The first of Oakwood's two football games this week went better than the team could ever have hoped for!

Oakwood welcomed a strong Fairisle team for the 4:00pm kick off. Oakwood started slowly, adapting to a new formation, but quickly found their stride moving to a 3-0 lead by half time. The team kept pushing during the second half grabbing another 3 excellent team goals.

Well done to man of the match Reece who scored (4) goals, Gabe (1) and Sam (1).

Sainsbury's School Games Tag Rugby Tournaments

Today saw the Sainsbury's School Games Y3/4 and the Y5/6 Tag-rugby tournaments. Eighteen girls and boys from Oakwood were determined to equal last year's successful competitions, where Oakwood won the Y3/4 competition and came 2nd in the Y5/6 tournament.

Things got off to a great start for both teams and picked up come brilliant results during the group stages of the competitions.

Y3/4                                                                                        
Oakwood 3 - 3 Springhill
Oakwood 5 - 2 Bassett Green
Oakwood 4 - 1 Mansel Park A

Y5/6
Oakwood 3 - 2 Townhill
Oakwood 5 - 0 Fairisle
Oakwood 2 - 3 Bassett Green
Oakwood 2 - 1 Springhill

With both teams reaching the semi-finals things were looking very positive. The Y3/4 team played their semi first - taking on Springhill, who the team had drawn with in the group stages. Both sides played some excellent passing rugby, but unfortunately for Oakwood, it was Springhill who came out on top, winning 3-1.

The Y5/6 team went one better winning their semi-final with relative comfort, before coming up against last year's winners Bassett Green in the final and, boy, was it a close one! It took a last ditch tackle to deny Oakwood an equalising try in the final 20 seconds, meaning they lost 1 - 2.

Explorers War Dances

In PE we are EXPLORING dances from different parts of the world. Last week we learned the fearsome Maori Haka from New Zealand, and this week we had a go creating our own war dances for our Houses.

Here are the results:

Southampton School Games Hockey League

Yesterday saw the second week of the Southampton School Games Hockey League which is taking place at Cantell Secondary School. There are nine teams taking part in the League, which is being run over five weeks.

During the 1st weeks fixtures Oakwood played three games, winning two and losing one to a last-minute goal.

Oakwood 3 - 0 Springhill A
Oakwood 3 - 1 Springhill B
Oakwood 4 - 5 Newlands

Yesterday's matches saw Oakwood win all three of their games.

Oakwood 4 - 3 Bassett Green A
Oakwood 5 - 1 Newlands B
Oakwood 5 - 0 Valentine

Goal scores so far are; Harrison (8), Gabe (6), Dan (2), Ben (2), Cerys (1), Hannah (1), Harry (1)

After these superb results Oakwood sit joint top in the league table!

Oakwood 3 - 0 St Marks

On Friday after school Oakwood continued their excellent form with their 3 - 0 away win over St Marks Junior School. This maintained the team's 100% record in league and cup this season. That's five wins from five league games scoring 32 goals and conceding just five.

The 3-0 win came courtesy of goals from Gabe (1), Sam C (1) and Robbie (1) against a St Marks team who had only lost once this season.

The team are back in action next week with two games, one against local rivals Fairisle and one against tough opponents Tanners Brook.

Year 5 have a go at some flower dissecting

To help the children learn about how flowers reproduce, the children had the challenge of dissecting a tulip then labelling all the reproductive parts.

Writing for pleasure

Year 4 have spent this morning writing for pleasure.

They were given the option of a choice of structured adult supported writing ideas, or writing independently on a free write. Lots of children chose to write independently, writing about a whole range of things from Minecraft to mermaids. Whilst others focused on our recent visitors, chicks, writing in role as a chicken as it hatched and was looked after by horrible giants! (Children).
The final groups wrote fairy tales and newspaper reports.

All the children worked really hard to produce an excellent piece of writing, but most of all - they all had fun and are looking forward to next Friday when we will be doing it again.

Roving Reporters in Year 6

Our able writers group attended a special two day event at Tanners Brook Primary School: Redbridge and Lordshill Primary Federation newspaper writing workshop. Representatives from other schools in the Federation joined our Oakwood pupils.

It kicked off with a guided workshop run by Rory, one of the Daily Echo editors. The children were then transformed into roving reporters to begin investigating and reporting on a mysterious event. Strange goings on had occurred in the ICT suite - with upturned furniture, silver foil and blue slime!

The following day, the reporters were able to see further photo and video evidence of a blue creature - bizarre! To get the children ready to write, they enjoyed a fun warm up activity which involved writing ideas on paper, scrunching them up and throwing them around the room! They then picked one up and wrote another idea on it. Once we had done this a few times we magpied some of the best phrases - there is a photo of this below!

The children were given time to write their newspaper reports. our reporters represented Oakwood superbly and did some amazing writing. We are very proud of them.

Watch out for the report of Rory's visit to the workshop in the Daily Echo in the next few days and also Oakwood's news articles!

Easter Garden Planting Year 3

Today, Year 3 have spent a lovely afternoon preparing and planting our Easter Gardens. We have sown our grass seeds and planted our flowers. We are hoping to present our finished gardens very soon. Wish us luck that our grass grows!