Science in Year 1 - Seasons

This term Year 1 are learning about different seasons. 

Last week, both classes had a lovely walk along Oakwood's beautiful nature trail. They observed the colours of the leaves, the different berries and toadstools growing as well as looking up high to appreciate the huge green canopy overhead. 

They also learned about the difference between deciduous trees, that lose their leaves in autumn and evergreens.

Over time Year 1 will be observing and discussing the changes that take place during each season, recording through, drawing, photos and charts.

YR Leaf Man

The children in Year R have really enjoyed the story Leaf Man. They were inspired by the beautiful illustrations and have had a go at creating their own leaf man pictures with the fallen autumn leaves and other natural items that they have found such as sticks, conkers and acorns.

The children had a lot of fun making their pictures. What other pictures could you create?

Autumn in Year R

Autumn in Year R

Curriculum Bulletin: Year 1

• This half term we will be learning all about our ourselves, especially our five senses.
• We will learn to identify, name and label the basic parts of the human body and say which part of the body is associated with each sense. 
• As well as learning that our senses are important, we will also learn about significant people in history that have had problems with their senses such as blindness or deafness. In particular Helen Keller and Louis Braille. 
• During the topic, we will investigate each of our senses through a variety of fun experiments. Take a look at the investigations we did last year.
• In our art lessons we will be using different mediums to create self portraits and pictures of what we like.
• We will be exploring how to use our bodies and voices to create and compose music.

• There will be whole class reading everyday and we will have the opportunity to respond to stories we have listened to. 
• Reading in small groups will happen once a week. The title of the book we have read will be recorded in our reading log. Please make sure these logs are kept in our book bags.  
• We recommend reading at least four times a week at home and recording this in our reading logs. In return we will gain a house point. 
• A really useful reading resource to use at home is Oxford Owl where you can sign up for free. 

Phonics

• Phonics is taught everyday to teach us how to read and spell. 
• During the summer term all of us in Year 1 will be screened on the phonemes in the English language. We will have to read some real words and some pseudonyms (fake words) containing the various phonemes. 
• Some really useful resources for practising phonics at home are:
• Phonics Play 
• Mr Thorne 

Writing

• We will be practising our independent writing skills by writing for different purposes. 
• Each week we will be given different cursive letters to practise to develop our handwriting skills. 
• When we write we must remember our nuts and bolts. 

 


Maths

• We will be focusing this half term on our number skills.
• Skills we will be practising include:
• Counting forwards and backwards to 20.
• Reading writing numbers to 20 in numerals and words. 
• Consolidating mathematical language such as: plus, more, total, add, equals, less than, take away, smaller than, greater than. 
• Ordering numbers to 20.
• Number bonds of numbers within 10.
• Some useful maths games can be found here. 

Days to remember

• PE is taught every Monday and Thursday. Please make sure a PE kit is in school for these days. 
• We have the opportunity to go to the library and change our books on a Tuesday.

Thank you!

HUGE thanks for your donations for our Harvest Festival!

We have had one of biggest collections ever and, thanks to your generosity, many families will be able to receive food from the Basics Bank right through the winter.

Matt and Duncan let us know that they have been able to deliver nearly 10,000 individual food parcels - and hope to do even more this winter...

Thanks to them both for leading us in celebration this morning.

Krypton Factor

On Wednesday 26 November, Oakwood were proud to host a special Federation of schools event for able, gifted and talented mathematicians: Krypton Factor.

The following schools attended with six pupils from years 3 to 5:
Oakwood Primary
Redbridge Primary
Mansel Park Primary
Fairisle Juniors
Tanners Brook Primary
Newlands Primary

The children worked with those from others schools on a range of fun and exciting maths activities and investigations. The Brussel Sprouts two player game from the Numberphile website was particularly popular!

All children were fully engaged in the tasks given, enjoyed themselves and said that they would love to take part again.



Watch this space for future Krypton Factor events!

Have fun at Half-Term!

Autumn half-term is a perfect time to get out and about!

Our latest newsletter tells you about 50 Things to do before you are 11¾!

This is a National Trust scheme to get children out and about doing all the things we tell them not to do!



Some examples are:

• Make a mud pie
• Go on a walk barefoot
• Cook on a campfire
• Eat an apple straight from a tree
• Catch a falling leaf
• Build a den!

Here's the full list!

We often say children can't do things because we think they might be too risky, but with proper thought and supervision, they normally can!

Children: make sure an adult always knows what you're planning to do and ask permission first!

A Happy Harvest!

Duncan from Southampton City Mission joined us for our Harvest Assembly this morning!

We also had Mr Charlesworth expertly playing the piano and Miss Patchett leading us in song! The signed poem was wonderful - everyone had learned it - and Years R, 1 and 2 sang to everyone, and the Songsters sang back.

It was also a good try-out for the new stage lights in the Key Stage 2 hall!

Duncan was really impressed with your very kind donations and the amazing singing of over 400 pupils.

He reminded us that he was saying Thank You to us and he reminded us to remember to say Thank You too!



(We hope Boots the Cat is OK!)

Autumn Dance Year R

We have been learning about changes that take place in Autumn. We used scarves to create an Autumn leaf dance.

Pumpkin Picking!

Six lucky Year 1 children went to visit the farm at the Countryside Education Trust in Beaulieu to collect some pumpkins for their pumpkin pie. They even had enough time to take a quick look around the farm!

The eco monitors and friends represented their whole year group on this important assignment.




We all got to taste the lovely pumpkin pie made by Miss Shore last year but this time the children got to go and see where the pumpkins came from and pick them themselves.

Harvest Festival

We welcomed Chris Davis into school today to lead our Harvest Festival.

Chris is a well-known friend of the school and he and his team have already spent time with us this term leading the Year 6 RE Week.

We have collected packets and tins and dry goods which are put into storage for the winter by the SCRATCH charity.

Chris has led over 30 Harvest celebrations in schools this term, and so they are storing about 30 times the food you can see in our pictures. Chris told us that the sad news is that they will have to distribute all of that food this winter, leaving them with an empty warehouse in March.

Our Harvest Festival has never been more important.



We all sang and prayed together and our amazing Songsters sang a new song. Please enjoy!

Walk to School Week

Thanks to David Deane, who is the Walk to School officer for Southampton City Council, we had a really good launch to Walk to School Week this morning!

Everyone who walks for five days this week will get an exclusive Strider "football" badge and then have the chance to earn more badges by walking once a week for the rest of the year.


We also have chances to earn extra badges for quizzes and other walking events.

Here's Dave's presentation so you can remember what his message was!

New trees for Oakwood!

We were very lucky to receive 30 free tree saplings when we ordered resources with our Sainsburys Active Kids vouchers. Sainsburys teamed up with the Woodland Trust to provide schools across the UK with free tree or bush packs. The tree packs have been funded by donations from Sainsbury's 'Woodland' brand of free range eggs and chickens.

We have a range of trees: cherry plum, hazel, dog rose, black thorn, dogwood, elder and crab apple.
Yesterday, Year 4 spent the afternoon planting the saplings around our school field. Well done Year 4 - you did a great job. Everyone really enjoyed it, take a look at the photos to see for yourself.
They have been marked with plastic markers in the hope that they don't get stepped on! They are very small and fragile at the moment!



We will look forward to observing them grow and identifying which trees are which. Maybe in the future we will be able to use the fruit grown on the trees in cooking at school.

At Home at Oakwood...

Long before Oakwood Junior School was built, this area was all open woodland. The houses and the schools were built by cutting a big section out of Lordswood, which you can see on the aerial photo below...



The creatures which lived in Lordswood before the building started are still at home here, which means we get to see the most amazing woodland spiders, especially in Autumn. This one has made her home right outside the Admin Office windows...

Year 5 at the Southampton Boat Show

Year 5 had a fantastic day at the Southampton Boat Show today!

All sorts of boats and anything to do with boats were on display, so we went on working boats, pleasure boats, safety boats and luxury boats, big boats and small boats!

We had a tour of the RV Callista, which is a research vessel operated by the National Oceanography Centre right here in Southampton. We loved the infra-red camera which showed temperature rather than colour - they use that camera deep in the sea to show the temperatures creatures live in.

We also learned about the RNLI and the fact that they get no government funding to save lives around our coasts.



The luxury Sunseeker and Princess luxury yachts were amazing and so new and clean that we had to wear special overshoes on our feet to stop the dirt getting in. The one we liked best cost about £12 million... perhaps we'll get two!

We also got chance for lots of fun and games at the Calshot Stage Show, Heart FM, the GirlGuiding Rowing Machine and the University of Southampton, where we got helium balloons, played games and drew pirates... "Shiver me timbers, you salty old sea dogs!"

Rock'n'roll

4MM were lucky to be the first class to sample rock'n'roll dancing with dance teacher Hayley Warman-Johnston.
Every class will get to try out this fun dancing style before Christmas.

Sainsburys vouchers have funded this fantastic opportunity so thanks to everyone for collecting so many!

Enjoy your rock'n'rolling!!

Get Active at Half Term!

Our cluster schools have got together to lay on a big range of free activities to keep you occupied during half term...!

We're working with the YMCA to offer:

• Multi-sports
• Drumming and DJ workshops
• Arts and Crafts
• Outdoor Challenges

...including a unique opportunity to work on Team Building activities with volunteers from the YMCA in The Netherlands!

You can download the leaflet to read all the details, or you can phone YMCA direct on 023 8021 0227 to book places.

Don't forget - these activities are all free!

Titch says "Thank You"

Titch came into school this morning to celebrate Harvest with us!

He told us how he thanked his Mum for his breakfast...
...and his Mum said to thank the Supermarket
...and the Supermarket said to thank the farmer
...and the farmer said to thank the cow
...and the cow said to thank the grass
...and the grass said to thank God!

He then told the story of a family who received some of the harvest food and Mum said "Now we can have breakfast..."



Everyone brought in food for the collection - a really excellent display of tins and packets and boxes which was collected by Basics Bank after the assembly! They will sort it and send it out to those who need it over the winter months.

(You might notice that Titch also bought Chris along! Chris brought his MBE to show us - Congratulations! - and he told us it was the last of 39 Harvest Assemblies he had done this year. You must be exhausted, Chris! Thanks for fitting us in!)

The Aussie SATs!

Hello Folks!

How are you all doing?

I'm sorry I haven't been in touch for a while.....I have been soooooo busy!!

How did you all go with your SATS a few weeks ago? I thought I'd be able to escape them whilst I'm here in Brisbane, but no such luck, they have them here too! They are called NAPLAN here: National Assessment Program in Literacy and Numeracy, and they have to do them in years 3, 5, 7 and 9!

Last month I went on a school camp...it was awesome!

Unfortunately the photos the teachers took of me have gone astray so you can't see what I got up to, but I can tell you I had great fun. We stayed up really late both nights and during the day we did high rope climbing, abseiling, raft building and canoeing! On the last night we had a disco and a trivia quiz. I had such fun.

I hope you are all being good at Oakwood....and that the sun is warming up as you are going into summer. It's autumn here now, but it's really nice weather. I'm still in my shorts and t-shirt at school!

Bye for now

Oscar x