Last week we had a fantastic time with our buddies. We did some Christmas crafts together and shared some stories.
Oaks love spending time with their buddies and have been setting a great example for the younger children to follow.
Every Friday afternoon, Acorns meet up with their buddies in Sycamores and Oaks, for a session of shared reading and singing. It’s a lovely opportunity for classes to come together and enjoy some social time. It really helps to develop social, communication and language skills, and gives the older children a sense of responsibility to look after their Acorns friends.
In Maths this week, Reception have been exploring the number 9. We discovered that it is a square number, and investigated which other numbers are square.
Year 1 have been working hard at addition and using part-whole models.
This week, as part of our Inter faith week work we have researched the history and purpose of Inter faith Week. We found out some fascinating pieces of information about the aims of the week, benefits of Inter faith Week as well as how other schools and work places could get involved.
We produced detailed non-chronological reports on the subject using our extensive knowledge. We enjoyed organising the information and highlighting the main information about the week.
We also created out very own Ramadan Lanterns.
As part of our work in Anti-Bullying Week in Oaks we looked into the history of work by the Anti-Bulling Alliance which is the charity behind Anti Bullying week.
We explored lots of information about Anti -Bullying week and bullying in general. We researched key information and then produced detail non-chronological reports on the subject.
The children enjoyed writing up all of their facts, information and statistics on the subject in their 2 page spreads.
Plums and Oaks enjoyed some integration time playing hide and seek in the long grass and sliding down the hill.
As an end of year treat for our amazing year 6’s we had a trip out. We started with a little visit to the park where everyone showed off their monkey bar skills…
We then split into teams and battled each other in Laser Quaser, It was game on! We also enjoyed some time in the arcades…
Then we finished off our day with our lunch at the beach and some time playing in the sand…
A great day was had by all!
Although it has been a short half term, it has been an extremely busy one for Oaks.
This term we have taken our SATs tests and I have to say, I am extremely proud of each and everyone for their effort, enthusiasm and positivity. This was not just limited to the week itself, but towards their entire time in year 6. I am sure they have done themselves proud.
There were some amazing things happening in SATS week. We definitely enjoyed our SATs breakfasts each day, followed by some entertaining dancing and singing to blast the nerves away!
This term we have continued our integration with Plums in PE, art, PHSE and even for our class trip to the Openzone. At the Openzone we created our own keyring designs which were then made using a 3D printer. We also continued our fantastic work on coding by making and programming a lego robot to dance.
Towards the end of the half term we have really started to think about our transition from primary school to secondary school and this will continue so the children who leave our school are as prepared as they can be.
We also have some interesting leavers’ activities planned so watch this space!
In Spring term 2 Oaks continued our fantastic topic: Frozen Kingdoms.
In history we learned about the great age of Arctic Exploration and were amazed when 2 days after learning about Ernest Shackleton and the survival voyage of the Endurance, his ship, which had remained under the Arctic Ocean for over 100 years are finally found! We looked at significant discoveries and evaluated the decisions made by some famous explorers and how these decisions positively or negative impacted the expeditions. We looked at different sources of information and made our own decisions and opinions on events based on facts.
As part of our Science week we looked at adaptability of Polar creatures, such as penguins and found out some incredible facts:
Did you know that Penguins bones are heavy and solid, unlike most other birds and this allows them to stay under water, similar to how a diver uses a weigh belt?
Did you know that a group of penguins is called a raft when they are in water and a waddle when they are on land?
In art we looked an Inuit artists and created our own stencils of arctic animals and even made sculptures out of bars of soap in the same way that Inuit artists use soapstone to create sculptures. In design and technology we looked the history of bridges, how they have changed, improved and developed over time before we create some of our own using masking tape and straws to hold various objects of different weights. We then evaluated our designed, made adjustments and improved our designs.
Mr Graham and Oaks
Oaks (Y6), Sycamores and Chestnuts (Y5) have been to Thurston (the South Tyneside Outdoor Activity Centre) in The Lakes.
All children (and staff) had an amazing week! They did lots of exciting things including: canoeing, tree climbing, orienteering, exploring a disused mine, walking up mountains, ghyll scrambling and much much more!
Look at these amazing photos…
This half term we have been developing our arithmetic skills as well as our fact retrieval skills when reading to improve our confidence in maths and English. We have developed our knowledge and understanding of fractions, decimals and percentages as well as coordinates and direction.
We have produced some outstanding pieces of writing about anti bullying week, multi faith week and children in Need as we consider the purpose and audience of our work, often selecting the appropriate vocabulary and level of formality.
In science we have enjoyed learning more about blood, how it is transported around the body. We have created models to show how we breathe and looked at different types of blood and why transfusions are sometimes needed. It has been extremely interesting. We have continued our study of North America and looked at time zones, calculating different time differences around the world.
We have enjoyed interrogating with Plums class for P.E, art and design, PSHE (Kidsafe) and design and technology- we even baked our own festive treats in the lifeskills room.
