Y6 Run/Bike-a-thon

Year 6 have been raising money to pay for their end of year celebration trip, and on Friday afternoon they got in the saddle and dusted off their running shoes to take part in a Run/Bike-a-thon on the school field.

The children had to complete as many laps of the 400m track around the edge of the field as possible in their allotted time. Children ran or cycled in 15 minute blocks, giving them time to rest and take on fluids - whilst they counted their partner's laps.

A huge well done to everyone. We are still collating the numbers of laps completed but it looks like quite a lot!

Now it's time to collect that sponsor money, bring it in to your class teacher as soon as you have collected from all your sponsors. Well done Y6!!

KS2 Summer 1 Sport 4 All

The sun is out, the skies are clear, and this half term the Sport 4 All activity was cricket!

It's not a sport which we have done much of at Oakwood over the last few years as our local cricket competition has been cancelled in both the last 2 years due to other teams pulling out, but all our KS2 children were keen to learn more out the great British summer sport.

So children could enjoy all that cricket has to offer...(without all the standing round that comes with Test cricket) we broke the sport down into small, fun skills: hitting the ball as far as you can (otherwise known as batting),  fielding's most glamorous moment (the diving catch) and high intensity kwik cricket. We lost quite a lot of balls into the hedges around the field, but it was all worth it! Thank you TMC.

Year 2 Roald Dahl quiz

The answers to the Roald Dahl quiz are:

Hot frogs from James and the Giant Peach

Bruce Bogtrotter’s cake from Matilda

Potions from George’s marvellous medicine

Wonka’s crunchy surprise from Charlie and the chocolate factory

Nishnobbler from The BFG

Doughnuts from Fantastic Mr Fox

The eight characters that you could see were:

Matilda, Miss Trunchbull, George, James, Fantastic Mr Fox, Aunt Sponge and Aunt Spiker, The BFG and The Twits. 

We hope you enjoyed celebration and all of the food that the children made! 

Here are the links to recipes that the children used to make the food, if you'd like to have a go at home: 

http://www.homefamily.net/revolting-recipes/ - Hot frogs, Bruce’s cake, Wonka’s crunchy surprise (adapted)

http://cakesbakesandcookies.com/2012/02/13/roald-dahl-recipes-book/ - Nishnobbler

Year 2 Roald Dahl celebration

Today all Year 2 have celebrated the end of a their Roald Dahl topic, Just Peachy. They have worked incredibly hard to write fact files about Roald Dahl, learn about mini-beasts and their habitats, do sketching and collaging in art and finally they have written amazing stories in the style of Roald Dahl. The stories have a theme of magic and good and bad characters and all their stories are very original.

The children have earned ‘Dahl Awards’ for various pieces of work they have completed. The children had the opportunity to share their work with their parents and have cooked some delicious food which is from some of Roald Dahl’s stories. Can you guess which food is from which story?

 Look on the next blog post for the answers.

Egyptian Exhibition Excitement

Year 5 have spent the last week working hard on their Egyptian landscapes and writing their information texts to go with them. Here are the end results, don't they look amazing?

Team Oakwood - All is going swimmingly!

A select group of Y5 and Y6 Girls and boys represented Team Oakwood at the Primary Swimming Gala this afternoon. They competed in races in Breastroke, Backstroke and Freestyle as well as a number of different relays.



Well done to all of the team!
More details to follow tomorrow!

Sharing our work in Year R

We had our monthly work share and this time invited our adults in to look at our work books. It's so nice to look back at all the progress we've made!

Eco-School Committee

This year, Miss.Jones and I have continued to work with our Eco-committee to help raise awareness of ecological issues. Some of the topics we have covered include:

• Researching and discussing how to help protect the local environment and wildlife by taking care of waste disposal correctly.
• Recycling, reducing, composting and re-using rubbish.
• Energy and water saving reasons and tips for others.

As I teach across Oakwood, I have noticed that the committee's messages are certainly having an impact: KS 1 have started using their composting bins at snack time again; children are reminding others not to leave the tap running at the sinks and I am always being asked if the lights or projector should go off if we are about to leave a room.

The last activity the committee had was to create a board game (Snakes and Ladders) style to promote being green. A few examples of their drafts can be seen below.

Cookery Club - Week 2

This Tuesday the children made Jamie Oliver's salsa and nachos. We had one minor thumb scratching incident but no blood made it into the salsa! The patient resumed activity shortly.

We decided to substitute chillies for sweet red bell peppers to avoid making it too spicy. Everyone loved the home baked nachos and about half the children said they'd prefer it without the raw onion in the salsa.  However, Mr Taylor enjoyed his and Archie said "I love this salsa, much better than the one I buy at Tesco!"

If you spot any funny faces in the photos, its because someone was a little over zealous with salting some of the nachos. 

One thing I have been heartened to see both weeks so far, is the children (and parents) happily sampling their takeaway pots on the way home.

After half term we will be cooking spaghetti bolognese. 

Oak class singing their healthy Fruit and Veg song.
Remember to eat your 5 a day!

Federation ICT event

Five of our top ICT whizzes attended an exciting Lordshill and Redbridge Federation ICT event held at Shirley Warren Primary School.
They did Scratch programming, making a game for children to use on Safer Internet Day to learn about e-safety.

The children all worked in a team with children from other schools - great collaborative working! A successful day!! 

I've had the pleasure of teaching Music to Year R this half term.
We have been learning to sing the song 'Down in the jungle' adding actions to match the animals. We practised keeping the beat and then created our own small compositions (using animal images to make musical notation) with percussion instruments.

The children have learned the names of several instruments and enjoyed playing them to mimic different animal sounds.

The last 2 weeks, we linked the music to healthy fruit and vegetables. The children learned a song about eating their 5 a day, talked about their favourite fruit and vegetables. They mimed harvesting them, accompanied by a sound for each pluck of the fruit/vegetable.

Video of the singing to follow.

Green fingers in Year 1

Year 1 were very successful at growing cress. They must have green fingers!

The children sprinkled the seeds on damp cotton wool and left them in a bright place to germinate. Within a few days the children were able to see the cress grow.

When it was ready the cress was cut and served on crackers.

It was interesting to find out what they thought as some had never tried it before.

Year 1's trip to Hillier Gardens.

What a wonderful trip Year 1 have had at Hillier Gardens today!

As part of our topic 'Growing Things' the children had the opportunity to visit Hillier Gardens and take part in many exciting activities.

These activities included:

A tour around the vegetable garden.
A game where the children learned about the role of bees.
Art in the gardens where children created pieces of art using natural materials.
Creating a caterpillar using herbs. 
A seed survival game.
Looking at plants through coloured filters.

The children also walked through the bamboo tunnel, over the wooden plank, across the wobbly bridge and to the big pond!

Thank you to Hillier Gardens for having us and to all the parent helpers who joined us today.

Personal Best Day

It was another great Personal Best Day for all Key Stage 1 and Early Years children. The TMC coaches organised a fun day which focused on fitness and core activities. The children were pushed to their limits by having a go at skipping, squats, sit-ups, step-ups on a bench and even burpees! Despite it being tough at times, the children enjoyed having a go at all the exercises and were able to learn some new skills.

Y6 Make 5 Grow Business Pitching day

Having worked hard over the last week to build a strong business idea, designed logos; slogans; created costing sheets and conducted product research - TODAY was the big day. Pitching day.

All thirteen groups of children stood nervously in turn, facing their classmates, business rivals and their investment dragons - hoping to get the investment needed to kick-start their business. There was a whole range of pictures, videos, spreadsheets and slideshows all in the name of earning the backing of their chosen dragon.

Whilst eleven business were awarded funding after their pitch; two businesses will have to return on Monday with an improved plan, and show the dragons they can act on the advice given. Our investors could choose 4 companies each to invest in: there were some tense moments as dragons fought to convince groups to choose them - leading to some quick heated discussions amongst team members - but the dragons didn't get all their own way.

Well done to everyone, and keep an eye out for the launch of each business!

Good luck Y6

Cookery Club Week 1

Wow! We had a fantastic first week at Cookery Club.
The plan is to enjoy cooking a variety of simple yummy meals that can easily be repeated at home. 

This week we kept it nice and simple: locating equipment, peeling and cutting safely and teamwork for the clean up.

The children were brilliant and quickly prepared and cooked a British favourite of sausages and mash.

Sadly we discovered we had no proper potato masher, so we ended up with less attractive but equally tasty buttered, slightly mushed boiled potatoes.

The next day Katie's mum said how much Katie enjoyed cooking and eating it all, including the carrots, which is apparently a first. Great news!

Next week is home made nachos and Jamie Oliver's salsa. 

Ancient Architecture Action!

In Year 5 this week we were set the challenge of becoming pyramid builders. In our teams our first challenge was some tricky calculations to calculate the following:
- How many sugar cubes were in each box?
- How many sugar cubes would each group receive, when the cubes are divided equally between the 12 groups?
- How many cubes were required to build each layer and pyramids of different sizes?
Each group could then decide on the dimensions of their 3 pyramids (for their Pyramids of Giza model).

We then put our architecture skills to the test and used our calculations to build the pyramids. This task required us to come together as a team and put our patience skills to the test!

Boys Test Park Football Tournament

With the girls team having played yesterday; the boys teams were keen to do well at the School Games football 6-a-sides at Test Park.

The 'B' teams results were:
Oakwood B 1 - 0 Springhill B
Oakwood B 1 - 0 Fairisle A
Oakwood B 1 - 0 Hollybrook B
Oakwood B 0 - 0 Ludlow
Oakwood B 0 - 0 St Patricks
Oakwood B 0 - 0 Bitterne Manor
Oakwood B 0 - 1 St Monica
Oakwood B 1 - 0 Bassett Green A

The team picked up some great results and conceded just a single goal all tournament! However the run of 3 draws meant Oakwood B fell just short of a spot in the semi-finals. Well done to scorers: Jack (1), Jenson (2) and Levi (1); but special mention to player of the tournament Dan!

The 'A' teams results were:
Oakwood A 0 - 1 Hollybrook A
Oakwood A 1 - 0 Freemantle
Oakwood A 1 - 0 Townhill
Oakwood A 0 - 1 Springhill A
Oakwood A 2 - 0 Bassett Green B
Oakwood A 2 - 0 Fairisle B
Oakwood A 2 - 0 Kanes Hill

Again the team picked up some excellent results and were unlucky to loose both games to a single goal have created good scoring chances. the team also just missed out on a semi final place. Well done to goal scorers: Robbie (2), Reece (5),  Sam (2); but special mention to player of the tournament Ollie.

Girls Test Park football tournament

A team of Oakwood girls took part in the School Games Girls football tournament this afternoon. Despite never having played together as a team, the girls really did Oakwood proud.

Their results were:
Oakwood 1 - 0 Townhill
Oakwood 2 - 0 Freemantle
Oakwood 3 - 0 Hollybrook
Oakwood 3 - 0 Fairisle B
Oakwood 0 - 0 Springhill A
Oakwood 0 - 0 Kanes Hill
Oakwood 2 - 0 Bassett Green

The meant that Team Oakwood topped their group and advanced to the semi-finals. Oakwood met Ludlow and in the short (5 minutes) games Oakwood struggled to break through a compact Ludlow defence. Eventually Ludlow make a break with the ball and scrambled the ball past the Oakwood 'keeper. The score finishing 0 - 1.

Oakwood's final game was therefore the 3rd/4th place play-off. Oakwood played well to beat Springhill 1- 0 - Shannon grabbing the only goal of the game.

Oakwood conceded only 1 goal in nine games which was staggering!

Well done to all the team, but special mention to player of the tournament, Shannon.

Goal scorers: Shannon (7), Kayla (2), Molly (1), Praise (1)

Year 4 were 'electrifying'

Year 4 have been experimenting with electrical circuits, trying to make bulbs light, make them brighter and add switches. They had to use their knowledge of conductors to add one to their circuit to keep the current flowing and add an insulator to break the circuit. It was an electrifying afternoon!

Make 5 Grow

Year 6 children have been full of enthusiasm over the last couple of days as they get into their Make 5 Grow project - Funded by Virgin Money.

The children have created a small business and are currently planning how they will turn their £5 in to £5million. They have already met their business consultants to discuss initial ideas and are now planning in depth their business idea, and putting together their 'pitch' for Friday when they present to the Dragons for funding.

How strong are the links in your group?

This afternoon Year 5 formed the teams they will be working in to create their Egyptian lands. To kick start this project we had an afternoon focusing on team building. First we watched a variety of clips and discussed good and bad teamwork qualities. After this we were set a challenge to test our teamwork skills. The challenge involved each team having a piece of paper, scissors and glue; the winning team was the team that created the longest paper chain from the equipment provided. To end the afternoon we had a discussion about our team dynamics. Lots of lessons were learnt ready for our second project challenge tomorrow. Keep an eye on the blog for updates on how our Egyptian 3D lands are forming.

Year R explore the pond...

We've really enjoyed exploring the wonderful wildlife in the pond area. We discovered minibeasts of all sorts hiding in among the rocks and weeds. We dipped into the pond with our nets and found some tadpoles and even discovered some lovely little frogs hopping around in the reeds! We looked at how the rain water was collected and even where our fruit and vegetable waste ends up. What a great way to spend an afternoon!

Getting ready for sports day

Year R have been speedy this afternoon practising our racing for sports day. We went up to the field with our cones and sacks and for the first time ever got into lanes to sprint and jump in the sack. I think we did pretty well for the first time and most of us managed to even stay in one lane the whole way through our race!

Roald Dahl construction creations!

To take a break from SATs, the Year 2 children have created fantastic settings from Roald Dahl's stories, using construction and lego. Have a look at their imaginative, crazy creations...

Sketching by the pond

The children in Year 1 have been learning about "Growing things". They have been looking at lots of different plants and finding out what flowers we have growing around the school.

It was a sunny afternoon when the children took their sketch books outside to carefully observe the colours, shapes and sizes of the flowers growing.

Can you name some of the flowers we have drawn?

Growing Sunflowers

Year 1 have been learning how plants grow this half term. As part of the topic, the children had the opportunity to grow their very own sunflower!

After planting the seed, the children looked after their pot ensuring that it had enough water and sunlight. They then observed the sunflowers starting to grow.

In addition during their English lessons, instructions were written to tell others how to plant a sunflower seed.

The children have all taken their sunflowers home to watch them grow further.

How tall is your sunflower now?

Identifying Trees

As part of our topic 'Growing Things', Year 1 have been identifying the different trees around the school grounds.

The children looked at the similarities and differences between the trees including their size, leaves, trucks and whether they are deciduous or evergreen.

To name the trees, the children looked at the their leaves and compared them with a identification chart and discussed their findings.

How many trees can you name?

counting in 2s......

We lined the monkeys up in 2 and noticed the 'odd' and 'even' numbers. We proved that counting in 2s was much faster than counting in ones! We then used two colours of pen to write numbers to 30, can you see the odd numbers?

Monkey milkshake mayhem!

As part of our JUNGLE topic we made delicious and healthy milkshakes! Mmmmmmm!

Year 2 trip to The New Forest Study Centre

To introduce the start to our topic about habitats and mini-beasts, Year 2 visited The New Forest Study Centre.

Throughout a fun-filled packed day of activities the children went on a mini-beast hunt. They had to group their mini-beasts by counting how many legs they had. Next, they went pond dipping and the children had to identify the insects they had found by using a picture flow chart. They also had to imagine they were door mice and they had to build a cosy habitat for it to live in, that would keep it warm and safe during the winter.

See if you can identify: newts, woodlice, worms, beetles, dragonfly larvae and centipedes in the photos. Do you know what their habitats are?