Oakie and Sam's Holiday.

Over the summer holidays, Oakie Bear and Sam went to stay with Miss Torjussen. They had a wonderful time exploring Devon and the weather was beautiful! Some of their highlights were going for lots of long walks through the fields, looking at all of the farm animals, visiting little villages and going to the seaside. They stayed in a lovely cottage and enjoyed relaxing with cups of tea, chocolate cookies and playing games. Oakie and Sam had fun playing hide and seek... can you spot Sam up high? Oakie and Sam even made a new friend, Kofi the dog!

Oakie and Sam are excited to be back at school to see all the children again.


 

Year 2 seaside visitor

Instead of Year 2 visiting the museum, the museum came to us courtesy of St Barbes, Lymington.

Rebecca gave a detailed presentation featuring photographs showing how the seaside has changed since the Victorian times. There are many similarities but there are also lots of differences.

The children had the opportunity to dress up and handle different artifacts; including an old fashioned camera, a penny lick and a metal bucket and a wooden spade. They even got to see a woolen swimming costume!

After seeing old fashioned and original postcards, the children had a go at writing and designing their own postcards.

Thank you to Rebecca and St Barbes museum, we have learned a great deal.

Oakie in New Zealand!

Hello! This is my very first blog post and it's from New Zealand!

I'm on the other side of the world after 24 hours on several aeroplanes. (That's a long time for a bear!) You can see me looking at the aeroplane map when we were over the Indian Ocean.

I've been to lots of places already, but my favourite is Hanmer Springs, where you can have a hot thermal bath and a hot chocolate!



Here's my journey! Have a zoom into New Zealand to see where I've been!

RNLI Visit

Year 5 and 6 classes were very fortunate to have the opportunity to have the RNLI visit today. Not only did the volunteers present the awards during celebration assembly, they also popped into the classes to speak to them about keeping SAFE when they are near water. So remember everyone...

S = Spot the dangers
A = Always go with a friend or adult
F = Find and follow the safety signs and flags
E = Emergency, put up your hand and shout, phone 999 or 112

Sam's Summer (Part 1)

Sam has had an extremely busy summer, with lots of stories to tell!

His first trip took him to Sri Lanka, a tear-drop shaped island off the south coast of India.

He started off in Colombo, the capital, which is next to a beautiful beach:



However, Sam isn't one for sitting around, so it wasn't long before he was off on some adventures. His first stop was a tea factory. Tea production is one of Sri Lanka's biggest industries - the climate provides perfect conditions for growing tea leaves:





He then went for a walk in a National Park called Horton Plains which is high in the mountains, 1800 metres above sea level. This park sits in the 'wet zone', and he was lucky to avoid a monsoon!



He walked for 8 kilometres to see 'World's End' - a magnificent view overlooking the land below:



It wasn't long before he gave his feet a break, and instead of lots of walking, he sat in a jeep to go on several safaris. Have a look at some of the animals he saw:



You might also have noticed the wave sculpture and memorial - listen out for the story behind this in assembly soon.

To finish his trip, Sam sampled some of the local highlights - a food market, drinking from a king coconut, visiting the elephant transit home and seeing a local turtle hatchery.



After a holiday like this, he needed to come home for a rest!

Oscar - En Vacances!

Oscar is enjoying his first few days of retirement by practising his French in the small Brittany village of Saint-Pol-de-Léon.

He went to the beach to go rock-pooling, had a few treats and visited the cathedral.



Finally, he caught the ferry safely back to Plymouth - so we'll see him in September.

Au revoir, Oscar!

Year 6 Leavers' Service

We were joined by Trudi from Lordshill Church for our Year 6 Leavers' Service this morning.

As is tradition, Year 3 pupils had made special clay candle holders for Year 6 and they presented them during the service. The candles were lit and Year 6 sung.



Trudi blessed the candles and wished Year 6 well on their way.

Another rite of passage for our leavers and a really magical moment.

Knapp House 2013

It's been a fun packed 2 days so far at Knapp House. The children have thrown themselves into every activity with gusto and have already impressed the adults here with their politeness and helpfulness.We have taken loads of photos and videos but unfortunately the internet connection here is extremely limited-it had taken all day to upload the photos so far. We will keep trying but for now enjoy the pictures of everyone surfing!

Surfing the Waves! 

Oscar Goes to Norway...

I had a great time during the summer!

As you can see, I was on a cruise which took me all the way from Southampton to the Norwegian fjords...

There are photos of me leaving Southampton for Norway on board the P&O ship Azura and you can see the Itchen Bridge in a background shot. The life jacket didn’t fit very well!

I attended the formal dining evening on board boat. You can see me with the cabin steward and then several senior crew members. The sunsets were amazing as we crossed the North Sea.

We dropped into Stavanger where the Queen Elizabeth was also in port.



As you can see, I have seen lakes, waterfalls, glaciers and snow. The snow was unusual, as by August there is only snow on the highest peaks, but as the weather has not been good this year snow was still much lower down and by the roadside in lots of places. We went down the steepest road in Norway with the most hairpin bends and through the longest road tunnel in the world – 27 kilometres! Finally we visited Bergen which is the shot of me looking down over the harbour having gone up the funicular* railway.

Returning across the North Sea, I checked out the Health Spa and the pools on the boat. Finally, I met Captain Paul Brown, Master of the Azura and tried the bridge simulator!

Zoom in and have a look around...



(*A small prize for anyone from OJS who can leave a comment to tell me what a funicular railway is...!)

Happy Christmas!

Dear Parents

It was a very busy last week at Oakwood!

It was really wonderful to see so many of you at the two Christmas performances and I was very proud of our talented singers, dancers, actors and technicians!

I hope the performances got you in the Christmas mood!

We had a really lovely Christmas dinner – roast turkey, stuffing, chipolatas and all the trimmings. Thank you to our amazing kitchen and lunchtime staff for producing fantastic fare for us!

And on Friday morning, we had our Carol Service. This is always a very magical occasion and we were joined by the team from Lordshill Church, who led us in celebration.

As we come to the end of 2011, I would like to wish you all a very Happy Christmas on behalf of everyone at the school. Enjoy spending time with family and friends and we’ll see you in 2012! School reopens for pupils on Tuesday 3 January 2012.

Best wishes
from all at Oakwood Junior School

Where was Oscar...?

I also went away in the summer holidays, but not quite as far as SAM, who went to Sweden...

There is a small prize if you can guess where I was when I had my photograph taken...



Be very careful to read the question properly!

Hej från Sverige!

Hej!

(That's how you say "Hello" in Swedish!)

I went to Sweden during the summer holidays to a little town called Värmdö, which is near Stockholm, the capital city...



As you can see from the map, this part of Sweden is made up of thousands and thousands of little islands, so there's lots of water... - change to the satellite view and zoom in for a proper look round!

What do you think the Swedish words on the safety ring in my photo mean?

from SAM



PS I am in both photos, I'm just a little harder to spot in one of them!

Home at last!

My time in Canada has come to an end - just in time for me to return to school tomorrow morning!

The last stop on my trip was Vancouver...



...which is a large city on the west coast of Canada. Like many North American cities, it is full of skyscraper buildings:



Vancouver has one of largest city parks in the whole continent, called Stanley Park. It is a great place to spot more wildlife like the Canada Goose and grey (but really black!) squirrel below:





Stanley Park also celebrates Native American culture, as you can see from the totem poles exhibit here:



It has been an eventful summer, but I am refreshed and ready to start the new term. Hope you all are too!

See you tomorrow!

Furry Friends!

Hello again!

I have travelled nearly 200 miles along the "Icefields Parkway" and have arrived in Jasper. The roadside had some stunning views. Here I am at Peyto Lake (I had to climb a really steep hill to get here!):



This is the Columbia Icefield. It is a large area of ice wedged between two mountains. The ice here is as deep as the Eiffel Tower (in Paris) is tall!



During my travels through the Rockies, I have met many of my Canadian cousins. It was great to see them, even if they are much bigger than me!



However, it was the real wildlife that was the most exciting. The Rockies is home to lots of beautiful, wild animals - and some of them are quite scary! In the photos below, you will see a mule deer (can you work out why it's named after a mule?), red squirrel, beavers, mountain goats and a beautiful stag.



If you look REALLY closely, you will see a coyote in this photo. (Sorry it's very far away, but it wasn't safe to get much closer!)



The highlight of my trip was seeing some real bears! This is a photo of a black bear (from behind!)...



...and this is a grizzly bear!



These bears are a very important part of the environment in this part of Canada, and must be treated with great respect.

Well, my time in the Rockies has come to an end. Now I am boarding a train which will take 18 hours to reach Vancouver, which is a big city on the west coast of Canada. Speak to you soon!

Hello from Canada!

I travelled 9 hours on a plane in order to get to Calgary, which is in Western Canada. It's the gateway to the Canadian Rockies - a massive area which is surrounded by lots of mountains.

I started off in a little town called Banff, which is a ski resort in the winter. It is also the name of a National Park, which means that the area is very special and beautiful, so has to be protected. I went on some great walks - here is a picture of me next to Lake Louise...

...and here I am at Emerald Lake:

The water in these lakes is always incredibly blue, no matter what the weather. If you can find out why, leave a comment at the end of the blog and the first person to get the correct answer will win a prize!

I also let my adventurous side out on my holiday. I walked along the side of Johnstone Canyon and even went tree climbing!

I'm now on my way to another little town called Jasper. I have to drive nearly 200 miles along a stretch of road called the "Icefields Parkway" to get there, so keep looking on the blog for my next instalment!

SAM at the Zugspitze

Hello! I hope you are enjoying your holidays!

Today, I travelled through the inside of a mountain on a train in Germany, sat in some snow in the middle of summer, went on a cable car through the clouds and walked into another country!



The Zugspitze is the highest mountain in Germany - it's in the Bavarian Alps.

(Have go with the buttons on the map to look around and see a satellite view...)

It's normally covered in snow as lots of people go skiing here in the winter. To get to the top, you can either walk - that takes two days and it's not good if you have paws - or you can go on the special railway line which goes through a tunnel inside the mountain.

You can then go on a special cable car down again.

Here is the view from the very top. On a clear day, you can see into four countries...



...but for a special prize when you get back to school, email me at sam@oakwoodlive.net to tell me which other country I walked into at the very top... (There are clues in the pictures...!)

See you in September!