Knapp house day 4

The final full day at Knapp has been another busy one.

The weather has been a little changeable, but the food has continued to be filling and wide ranging. A great breakfast this morning was followed by activities of tunneling and crate stacking and coastal walking. Both were a little damp and muddy (I'm glad we don't have to do all the washing!) from yesterday - but were again, great fun.



This afternoon was one of the rare times when all the Oakwood have been on an activity together. We went crabbing and out on the rib boat on the river estuary. There were plenty caught: some big, some small and other in between!



Tonight's blog is a bit earlier as it's DISCO night tonight!! Time to dress up and hit the dance floor!

Year 6 Oakhouse Thursday

Oakhouse have been so busy having fun this morning. We've made our own small community of people (they live on the ceiling!!) We've laughed all day ..... Off to do sports and games this afternoon!

Knapp House 2016 Day 3

The weather here in Devon has taken a bit of a turn for the worst today. We've had some dry spells, but it has been a mainly wet and windy day. But did we let that stop us?...

Don't be silly!

We have been getting even wetter riding the speedboat and dangling out behind on a ringo along the river Torrage; Climbing and abseiling on the tower and we all went canoeing out on the lake together.





This evening, the rain has returned (with vengeance). All groups were together again this evening having some fun and frolics in the rain with the pedal carts.
(*Sorry if we haven't shown many pictures of your child on the blog, there is only room for so many, and they take quite a while to upload down here!)




We've had lots of post arrive so far so thank you to parents and family who have sent messages, don't forget you can leave comments here on our blog for us too!

Year 6 Oakhouse Wednesday

Wow - what a day! Freezing cold and pouring with rain but there we were paddling around like ducks! Check out who got stuck in the bushes! Watch this space for more Oakhouse antics!!

Year 3 Photo Frames-part 2 Construction.

Year 6 Oakhouse Fun!

Year 6 are having a fantastic week so far....Monday was spent becoming wonderful budding artists and we even created a new display of our finished pieces!

In amongst the creativity we have made sausage rolls, wraps and muffins and had a sunny picnic followed by a super game of rounders on the field....

Watch this space for more news of what we are getting up to this week.....

Tuesday at Knapp House

Hello from Knapp House, Day two.

Its been a bit of a busy day today! Children were up very early and raring to go for breakfast (they must have run out of sweets and chocolate).
This morning's activities were: Canoe drill for two groups and climbing and abseiling for the other two. It was rather hard work in the pool for the canoe drill but the children are now ready to hit the lake later in the week. There were a number of people who beat their fear of heights and we are so proud of them!!



This afternoon was coastal walk and tree hoist and traverse. We did get a little wet, but the sun was soon shining again.



This evening two groups completed the crate stack and tunneling, the other two - tree hoist and traverse.



There are still a few awake, but most are now sleeping soundly.

Hugo Cabret Inspired Photo Frames-Part 1!

Wire work began in earnest in Year 3 to create our automaton that will be part of our Hugo Cabret inspired photo frames. Once the basic shape has been created the figures will be put aside until the frames are assembled. All the parts can then be placed in position ready to be strengthened by papier mache. They will then be decorated with paint and decoupage.  Handling wire is very fiddly and requires strong fingers but as usual Year 3 used their growth mindset to do their very best. Take a look at what they have achieved so far, and keep an eye out for our finished frames.

Year 4 Chocolate changes

As part of our Science, Year 4 have been experimenting with chocolate. They looked at the process of melting to change the solid into a liquid, dipping a piece of fruit in just to make sure it was ok. In order to change the liquid back into a solid, they poured the chocolate into moulds and refrigerated them. Look out for the chocolate boxes that will be coming soon.

Knapp House Day 1

We made great progress on the coach to the half-way stop, but a diversion a bit later on added an extra 45 minutes to our coach ride down; we did however get to enjoy some fantastic Devonshire scenery.

We didn't even have time to unpack properly before the activities started - we were straight into the fun! 2 groups donned the wetsuits and boarded the speed boat to make their way to the ringos, whilst the other 2 groups found their trunks and made their way to the swimming pool to practice their canoeing skills.

After Lasagne, hot dogs or ratatouille for dinner; all our groups completed the low ropes teamwork challenge. As I write this the children are starting to get ready for bed but there's no snoring yet (not even from Mrs Larder!)

Sports Day 2016

Despite the horrendous weather over the weekend and through Monday, we held out and made a late decision about Sports Day. The Sun dance I completed on the field worked its magic and Sports Day went ahead as planned!

Our now familiar carousel of activities got underway for KS2 in the early morning sunshine and was completed with great enthusiasm for nearly 2 hours. Whilst the sun came and went as it pleased, the children continued to show their Sports Day skills with the house relay races and the Year group Sprint Champion races finishing off the morning in style.

Although a picnic lunch was enjoyed by all, it was soon time to get back to work!

In the afternoon KS1 and Yr R completed their roundabout of activities, again showing all their sporting prowess in a range of activities. The KS1 Sprint champion races finishing off the day, watched by parents and the rest of the school.

In: 4th Place was 2014 winners' Britannia (548points) ; 3rd place - last years winners' Adonia (568 points); 2nd place Azura (579 points) and in 1st place

Ventura!! (614 points)

Year 2 Outback Art

As part of our new topic year 2 children have been researching Aboriginal artists and have created their own pieces of art work in the style of other artists. 

The themes included; animals, Earth colours, lines, dots and abstract. 

Year 2 and Year 4 share their wonderful writing!

This afternoon year 2 and year 4 have really enjoyed sharing their wonderful stories and poems.

Big Write Poetry and Story Fun in Year 3!

Year 3 had some  no writing poetry and story writing fun today in our 'Big Write'. Instead of writing we were set the challenge of only using the words from chapter 7 of our current class novel ' The Invention of Hugo Cabret' by Brian Selznick. So we cut and read and rearranged and created some creative writing. Take a look at a few of our efforts:-

Papier Mache, Bridges and a 100 Penny Challenge!

Year 3 have started their new DT work this week. They will be making photo frames based on our current class novel 'The Invention of Hugo Cabret by Brian Selznick. The frame will incorporate the ancient art of papier mache and also 3D wire work.

We started by looking a little closer at the papier mache technique . We learned that it is a french word for chewed paper and that it was even used by the ancient Egyptians to make coffins. We also learned that when done properly it is incredibly strong and long lasting. So to practice the layering technique we papier mached an initial from our name. We learned the importance of layering over the edges, how much glue to use (and not use!) and how using different papers help us to know how many layers we have used.



An important part of our unit is understanding how to create a stable structure. To help us with this, and as part of our European study on France we looked at a range of famous french bridges. We saw examples of arch, beam, truss, suspension and cable stay bridges and looked very carefully at what made them secure and stable. We were then given the challenge of creating a bridge from given materials that would support a cup holding 100 pennies. Some of our bridges were more successful than others but we learned a lot! Take a look:-

Have you ever?

This week the children in Year 2 have been rehearsing and performing poetry to inspire them to write their own poem using a similar style.

The poem they performed was called...

Have You Ever? 

Have you ever seen a rainbow’s end? 

Don’t you know it’s around the bend? 

Have you ever seen the flowers grow, reaching tall in row after row? 

Have you ever seen a glowworm fly, lighting up the darkened sky? 

Have you ever seen the winter snow, as it blankets the ground below? 

If you watch and listen, you soon will know that nature has a special show! 

Look for Mother Nature’s glow, and see her special talent show.

We look forward to reading their own poems on Friday. 

Can you write your own 'Have you ever?' poem? 

Y6 Teddy bears

Y6 have been working very hard at the moment, and making alot of mess in the process!

Of course I'm referring to their teddy bears. Whilst some children are finding sewing their own teddy quite straight forward, others are finding it a little more tricky and are struggling for motivation. So today we arranged for Mrs Raven (from KS1) to visit us and share some of her 'bear' expertise.

Round and round we go!

Before half term and also this week Year 4 have been working around the clock on designing, making, adjusting and completing their fantastic moving carousels. Their Design and Technology unit has all been part of our Circus based topic 'Roll up Roll up'. Which has also included story writing based on the story 'Leon and The Place Between'. Alot of Science learning prior to the carousels had to be done. From safety to circuit building and testing. It has been an electrifying experience!

WANTED: The Giant!

Here are the Year R children in action, making lots of "Wanted" posters to help the police!

WANTED: The Giant!

Year R received an urgent message from the police this week asking for our help to find the Giant from, "Jack and the Beanstalk". We have been making "Wanted" posters to hang in our new role-play to help the police catch him!

Icy taste buds!

Having brainstormed some flavour ideas for their Jude's challenges, today our business groups put their ideas to the test in part of their market research... taste testing! Lots of yummy fun was had testing the combinations of flavours, textures and smells.

Factory Fun

This week Year 5 have been lucky enough to visit Jude's ice cream factory, in Twyford (Winchester) and meet Jude herself and her husband, Theo, who created the business. This was Year 5's first trip on our new Oakwood minibus! They learnt about how the business was created; how ice cream is made; had a tour of the factory and they even got to sample some freshly made ice cream, YUMMY!

This visit was to kick start their latest topic 'Jude's Challenge', which they will be working on for the next 4 weeks. Back at school we have created business groups. Their challenge is to design a new flavour of ice cream and present their product, alongside a charity they would donate their profits to (if their team won) to Jude at the end of the project.

We had a great time meeting the Jude's team and are excited to start designing our products!

Year 4 Aztec Sacrifice

To start our new Aztec topic, the Year 4 children learned the importance of human sacrifice in order to keep the sun god happy. Well after today the sun god would be beaming as the children created some outstanding sacrificial dances. Please not no children were harmed in the making of these dances.

STAR ROCKS!

Year 3 had fun today using Starburst candies to help us understand how different rocks are formed. Cutting our candies into smaller sediments, morphing them together with heat and pressure and melting them in the microwave helped us to visualise and understand how Sedimentary, Metamorphic and Igneous rocks are formed. It also helped us to understand the properties of solids and liquids and the processes of melting and solidification. Take a look:-

City Athletics Championships

Today was one of the biggest days in the City's school sport calendar. The City Athletics Championship.

It was an absolutely glorious day of weather, and that seemed to bring the best out of the children competing. A whole number of City records were broken - one twice. 

Although we do not yet know where the Oakwood teams finished (but we know it wasn't the top three) we do know that once again we had a very successful day. We now have more City Champions than ever.

Most track events had heats, followed by finals: the first three finishers from each heat progressing to the final. The long distance and field events were straight out finals - a fight for the gold. 

Whilst everybody who represented Oakwood deserves a special mention, as they did the school proud, there are a few names I will list who made the podium in their events.

Ethan - Gold - Y3 boys 60m
Praise - Gold - Y3/4 girls throwing
Marcus - Gold - Y5 boys 80m
Amy - Gold - Y5 girls 80m
Ethan/Robbie/Jola/Marcus - Silver - Y5/6 boys 4x100m Relay
Owen - Silver - Y5/6 boys 600m
Shannon - Silver - Y5/6 girls triple jump
Robbie - Bronze - Y6 boys 80m
Jola - Bronze - Y6 boys 150m

Well done to everyone who went today and represented Team Oakwood!