Oak Archive 2016 - 2019

Welcome to Oak Class!

 

10.1.20

Happy New Year! Oak Class have had a fantastic first week back. We have begun learning about our new topic, Home and Away, and the children made some fantastic contributions, amazing us with their knowledge about life in other countries. We have had a big Geography challenge, naming the countries of the United Kingdom, the continents of the world, and the countries of Asia. We have also been learning about the importance of Cherry Blossom (Sakura) in Japan, and the ways in which its arrival is celebrated. Pupils in Oak created some fantastic written accounts of the history and significance of Hanami (flower viewing festival) and then made beautiful printed and tissue paper flowers. Here are some pictures of Oak class in the middle of their Art lesson - looking very busy, and creating some lovely artwork!

Week commencing 4.11.19

We have had an amazing time taking part in Careers, Aspirations and Ambitions week this week. Our trip to Moor Farm has definitely put some roses in our cheeks after our lovely long walk, and the children learned so much about where our food comes from and what farmers do. We have also enjoyed talks from lots of different people on a huge range of different careers and aspirations, including a Channel swimmer, some animal rescuers, a firefighter, plumber, power station experts and a head teacher – and we still have one more exciting visitor this afternoon! We have been doing lots of writing and discussion about our strengths, skills, and dreams for the future and it has been fascinating to hear the children’s ideas. Hopefully there will be some interesting conversations at home too, perhaps sparked by some of the things we’ve seen and done this week. I have thoroughly enjoyed the week and I hope Oak pupils have too! 

Week commencing 28.10.19

This week we have had a lovely time celebrating Diwali. Oak class learned about the significance of light at Diwali and made paper lanterns to brighten up our classroom. In Maths, we have continued learning about addition and subtraction, with Years 3 and 4 getting to grips with column method, estimating, and checking using the inverse. Year 2 have also been adding and subtracting, and answering worded questions too. For English this week, we wrote spooky poems, and all of the children were asked to include alliteration in their poems. However, they decided to impress us by doing this and adding rhyme, rhythm and similes to their work – seriously spooky stuff and perfect for Halloween! In our Exploration Zone, the children have started work on life-size collages of Henry VIII – I can’t wait to see the finished results! 

 

 

Week commencing 14.10.19

 

Well done Oak class for a fantastic start to the school year this half term.

 

We finished off the half term with a week of creative fun. For their Science topic, the children made fantastic habitats using shoeboxes and other materials. Their models show the shelter and nutrition offered to the living things that can be found in that habitat and the children were really innovative in finding different ways to show these features.

 

Continuing our Tudors topic, the children also sketched each other and then painted portraits of a friend. This really helped them to develop their observational skills. They also put their colour mixing skills to good use, sharing ideas and even mixing up colours for the whole table to use.

 

In Maths and English we have been working hard as well - Years 3 and 4 have moved onto formal written methods for addition, and Year 2 have been busy looking at different methods for subtraction, especially subtraction involving numbers made up of tens and ones. In English, Oak class have been looking at poems and the different uses of language that we find in poetry. They did some really good group work looking at poems together, before planning and then writing their own Senses poem based on our school field. 

 

I hope everyone enjoys their half term break after all their hard work! Have fun, Oak class, and see you soon!

Mrs Parkin, Miss Reed and Mrs Rose

Week commencing 16.9.19

 

We have had another busy week in Oak Class!

 

We have continued reading The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon. The two main characters are now on the run from the police, following their robbery of the City Bank - and poor Dish has tripped over and cracked into pieces! The children had fun making WANTED posters to help the police catch Spoon. They also composed a diary entry together, retelling the story from Spoon's point of view. The children then started their own diary entries - and amazed Mrs Parkin by remembering the right spelling for "diary" in all their books! 

 

In Maths, we are still looking at place value, and the children have been working very hard counting in multiples - each year group has been focusing on a different set of number for this. This is a tricky bit of maths, but Oak have showed great determination in tackling this and drawing some fantastic number lines.

 

Half of Oak Class went out with Mrs Tickle this week, making scent bags in our garden area and exploring the smells of different plants! The other half stayed in the classroom and we looked at some Tudor artefacts from St. Neots Museum. They used differently-graded pencils to sketch the artefacts and record their observations. Next week we will swap over and each group will get to do the activity they haven't done yet!

 

Well done Oak class.

 

Mrs Parkin

Week commencing 9.9.19

 

We have had a fantastic second week back at school. We met our new PE teacher, and learned team sport skills such as dribbling a ball and following a partner. We also started our new Science topic, Living Things and their Habitats. Oak class drew their favourite living things and added labels. We also read the book we will be looking at in English this term, The Adventures of the Dish and the Spoon by Mini Grey. The children worked in groups to explore the illustrations this week and came up with some fantastic ideas using their inference skills! Next week we will continue writing expanded noun phrases and using exciting vocabulary. In Maths, we have been recapping Place Value and looking at different ways to represent numbers. The children were very creative in their approach and we saw some fantastic ways to represent the number of children in our class from both our Year 3/4 group and from Year 2. Well done Oak!

Week commencing 3rd June
We have had a fantastic first week back at school and are pleased to have Mrs Parkin back in our classroom. She taught the children how to create their own printing tiles and use acrylic paint to print with. The children designed their tiles based on Aztec patterns. They look amazing! The rest of the class will be doing theirs next week.
In Literacy, we have started reading the book Gregory Cool and have been making some inferences about where it is set and the characters in the story. The children then worked hard to write character descriptions.
We have started learning about statistics in Maths. The children created a class pictogram to show their favourite flavours of ice cream and learnt about using a key to show the value of each image. They were then able to read the data on pictograms to answer questions. We have also been using data to draw our own bar charts.
In Science, we have started our unit on sound. We used musical instruments to explore how sound is created and discussed how sound is caused by a vibration. The children used rice on a drum and a tuning fork in water to visualise the vibrations better.

We have been learning about Ramadan and the celebration of Eid al Fitr, which muslims have celebrated this week. We watched some videos to develop our understanding and I was impressed with how the children knew.
Homework for the next 6 weeks will be the humanities project that went home yesterday. The children have already come up with some fantastic ideas so I can’t wait to see these. Mathswhizz, reading and spellings are also part of homework.

Week commencing 13th May
We’ve had another busy week in Oak class. We have been learning about deforestation as part of our topic and the effects this has on the local and wider environments. The children have enjoyed playing different roles such as loggers, pharmacists and local inhabitants to debate their views. 
In Literacy, we have continued this topic and have been using our knowledge to write persuasive speeches to stop deforestation. The children worked in small groups on this to do some shared writing, which resulted in excellent work. We have also been writing diaries in role as the man from our book ‘The Great Kapok Tree’ describing his day where animals spoke to him about not cutting down their tree. The children were able to emphasise with the characters and also inferred how he might be feeling. We also enjoyed some drama to create freeze frames exploring the effect of deforestation. 
In Maths, we have been learning about money. The children have been practising adding and subtracting amounts to work out total costs and the change needed. We have also played mathopoly to further practise this.
In Science, the children have been learning all about light and shadows. They made puppets of animals from the rainforest and investigated what happened to shadow size as the light source moved further away from the puppet. We had great fun and we were able to describe what we found out.
I hope you have all had a fantastic weekend. I look forward to seeing all your artwork for the competition.

Week commencing 1st April

We had a great last week of term with lots of fun. On Monday, we enjoyed a fencing lesson where the children learnt how to position their feet, how to move and how to score points. It was fantastic! 

In Literacy, we used our notes from last week to write a game review about Dawn of the Dead, a vampire game that we trialled. The children were able to use what they have learnt about non-chronological reports to write wonderful reviews about the game. They gave information such as what the game was about, how to play and discussed what they liked and didn’t like about the game. The children then worked on their proof reading skills with a partner to check it made sense and read well.

We also wrote non-chronological reports comparing children’s lives today to those of Viking children. Oak have been researching topics such as food, school and hobbies to help them make comparisons.

In Maths, we have continued learning about fractions and developing our understanding of them. We have been counting up and down in fractions such as one fifth, two fifths, three fifths and using visuals to understand what this means. We have also looked at fractions on number lines to identify where they go and have been practising our reasoning skills to identify if they are correctly labelled.

In Science, we have come to the end of our unit on plants and have observed the plants we have grown to help us understand what plants need to grow and survive. The children were able to draw conclusions from their observations and have used their knowledge on plants to support them.

The children enjoyed designing their own Easter eggs using fabric and have created wonderful collages.

We had a fantastic reward day where the children took part in an Easter egg hunt, made chocolate crispie cakes and made Easter cards as well as watching the Easter film Hop.

On Friday, we had our Easter service where the children performed the songs and poems they have been learning, as well as the Easter bonnet parade. It was wonderful to see so many of you there. We hope you enjoyed it.

Have a great Easter break! No written homework has been set but please keep up Mathswhizz and reading. Spellings have also been set.

Week commencing 25th March
This week, we have continued learning about game reviews as part of our Literacy unit on non-chronological reports. The children are now secure in their knowledge of how these are written and what information is included. We enjoyed testing out a CBBC game and have made notes to help us write a review on it next week. The children explored the game to work out what the aims were and how to play it. They were able to explain positives and negatives of the game as well as deciding who the target audience might be.
In Maths, we have been revising the basic concepts behind fractions to make sure we have understood what they are and have been exploring ways to work out equivalent fractions.
The children enjoyed getting creative making Mother’s Day cards and used their previous learning on Kennings poems to write one describing their mums. I hope you all liked your cards and have had a wonderful day today!
Year 4 enjoyed 2 days of peer mediation training (see Miss Reed’s post) and are now ready to be peer mediators. Well done! 
While Year 4s were out, Year 3s have been learning about earthquakes and volcanoes. We learnt about how volcanoes are formed and the different types: active, dormant and extinct. We looked at some of the most well known and destructive volcanoes across the world and the children used their research and map skills to plot these into a map. The children were really interested in how earthquakes happen and have developed a good understanding about the tectonic plates that make up our Earth’s crust. We also learnt about earthquake safety and even practised an earthquake drill.

Week commencing 18th March
We started this week with an exciting archery session, where the children developed their understanding of how to load and shoot an arrow. We got some amazing scores!
In Literacy, we have started a unit on non-chronological reports and have been focusing on game reviews. The children have been learning about the key features of these and have looked for examples in texts. We’ve discussed who can write reviews and how some could be biased. We’ve also developed our understanding of subordinating conjunctions, prepositions and adverbials to give information on when, where and why.
We’ve continued learning about fractions in Maths, focussing on equivalent fractions. We have been using fraction walls to support our understanding and to see which fractions are the same size. We have also been looking into the relationship between equivalent fractions and how you can multiply the numerator and denominator to find an equivalent.
The children have been researching about Viking children’s lives, focussing on areas such as their school life, home life, hobbies and food. Next week, we’ll be using this information to compare their lives to ours.
We’ve also been designing our own Viking brooches after looking at their designs.
In Science, we’ve been learning about pollination and fertilisation in plants. We’ve been able to label the key parts within the flower and have learnt about their roles.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 11th March

We have had an exciting week with lots of Science! On Monday, we had a visit from Lockheed Martin who talked to us about their involvement in space engineering. They showed us some examples of space landers, which have been to the moon and Mars. The children were then give the challenge to design and make their own space lander to safely transport an egg. It had to have legs, a parachute and some kind of crumple zone.

On Thursday, Mrs Garland came in to talk to us about the layers of a leaf and we had chance to have a look at these under microscopes.

In our own Science lessons, we have continued learning about plants and have focussed on the roles each part do. Our seeds have started to grow and we are starting to make some observations about which ones are growing the most.

In Maths, we have started learning about fractions and understanding what each part tells us. The children worked in groups to match fractions to their visual representation and have also been learning about what a unit fraction is.

We have finished our work in Beowulf this week and the children have written their own legends. I have really enjoyed them!

Year 3s have shared their Viking projects with Year 4 so we have all learnt some interesting facts. The children have also been learning about settlements and how Vikings and Saxons would have given a lot of thought to where they chose to settle. We discussed the availability of shelter, food and water as well as being able to see oncoming attackers.

I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend.

Week commencing 25th February

We have had a fun first week back at school. On Monday morning, the children enjoyed working together using communication and problem solving skills to try to stand up without using their hands. They were all successful after a few attempts! On Wednesday, we had a visit from St John’s ambulance, who taught us how to use DRS ABC to assess and deal with a first aid situation. The children were shown how to do CPR and had a chance to practise this. They were impressed to hear that the tune of baby shark can be used to help get the speed of CPR right.

As part of our topic, we have been learning about Sutton Hoo and the discovery of a Saxon burial site. The children have been discussing the importance of archeological finds and have begun to understand their importance in teaching us about the past. We were able to learn some interesting facts about Saxon beliefs and also inferred a lot about what their lives were like.

In Science, we have started our unit on plants and have begun an investigation into what plants need to survive and grow. The children were able to name several elements already so we are trying to find out how much of these plants need. Each group is focusing on one element such as sunlight, water, space or air and have planted 3 seeds varying how much of these elements each seed will receive. They have come up with interesting ways to control these. We also wrote a set of instructions to help another class to carry out our investigation.

Year 3 had their forest school session with Mrs Tickle this week, while Year 4 continued with their coding. They have been learning about codes and variables. Please remember to send a change of clothing for forest school on Thursdays as the children need to be warm outside and they are likely to get dirty.

It has been assessment week so the children have worked hard to complete Maths, reading and SPAG papers. I am very proud of their attitudes towards the tests. I have therefore not set any written homework but please keep up Mathswhizz and reading.

Have a lovely weekend! 

Week commencing 28th January

Weeks commencing 14th and 21st January

Oak class have had a busy 2 weeks. They have got stuck into their forest school sessions with Mrs Tickle and are enjoying having the longer session outdoors. Please ensure that children bring something warm to change into or layers they can put on over the top of their uniform as it is still really cold.
We enjoyed a samba music workshop on Wednesday where the children developed their understanding of rhythm and used a range of instruments to create some samba music. It sounded amazing!
The children have also been getting to grips with coding on Espresso. We have been developing our knowledge of programming and using terminology such as objects and codes. I'm sure they have already showed you the games that they have been learning to make but if not, please ask them to as they have really enjoyed it.
In Literacy, we have been reading the story of Beowulf and have been learning how to develop our character descriptions through improving the verbs, adjectives and nouns that we use. The children have revised the parts of speech and are becoming more confident with identifying these. We have also been practising our proof-reading and editing skills by focussing on one section at a time.
We have started learning about measuring length this week and have built on their previous learning. We have been using rulers and tape measures to measure the length of lines and objects, being accurate to the nearest millimetre. The children have even moved onto using decimals to record these. They have been learning how to use their knowledge to support them in converting between mm and cm or cm and m, and have been able to find the differences between measurements.
In Science, we have been learning about states of matter. The children worked in groups to sort a range of items into solids, liquids and gases and then decided on criteria for how we know which state something is. They carried out an investigation on items such as sugar, fizzy drinks, butter and sponges to test them against their criteria to work out which state of matter they are.
We have been learning about the origin of town names in the United Kingdom and have specifically looked at places with Viking origins. We learnt about what Viking words such as thorp, by and borough mean and the children then used atlases to find examples of these. The children also used drama to explore some of the decisions that the Britons and Anglo-Saxons might have had to face. They worked well in groups to explore each possible option and came to a democratic decision.
Homework and spellings have been set. Please ask if you're unsure about anything. Keep up the Mathswhizz and reading.

Week commencing 7th January
We enjoyed starting our first week back with a residential at Grafham Waters, where the children did archery, mountain biking, bush craft and problem solving activities. 
Then it was straight back to working hard and learning about our new topic Anglo-Saxons and Vikings. The children are very excited to learn more about this period and have already come up with lots of relevant questions that they hope to explore this term. This week, we have been learning about when both groups invaded Britain and where they came from. We looked at a timeline to see where this time period was in relation to our previous topic on the Romans. The children read about some key events that happened during the Anglo-Saxon and Viking period and placed these onto a timeline. They also used their mathematical knowledge to work out how long ago some of these events happened.
We have also been developing our ICT skills to be able to create a front cover for our new topic. The children have been learning and practising how to search for relevant images on the internet; how to copy and paste these onto a word document and how to manipulate them to their chosen size and place. 
In art, we have been learning about illuminated letters and looking at how they were used in Anglo-Saxon times. The children then created their own designs for their initials and used pastels to add colour. They have incorporated lots of interesting images into and around their chosen letters.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 10th December

We have had a busy but exciting week in Oak class. On Monday, we learnt about the meaning of Christingle and made our own ones for our service. The children were able to remember what each part of the Christingle represents. In the afternoon, we sang a few songs and performed a poem to our audience. The children were all very sensible with their lit Christingles.
On Tuesday, we had a Science quiz on our Electricity unit to assess what the children had learnt this half term. They enjoyed working in teams and were very competitive.
In Maths, we have continued practising using the bus stop method for division as well as beginning to understand worded problems that involve multiplication or division. We worked on recognising key words in the problem that gave us clues for what calculation we needed and developed our understanding of recognising whether the answer was a sensible one.
The children planned and wrote their own endings to the story of the “Ice Palace” making sure that it followed on from the story in the same style. They worked hard to write in paragraphs and we focussed on using exciting sentence openers. We also spent a lesson editing our writing: focusing on one thing at a time. We had a spelling station, a punctuation station, a ‘does it make sense?’ station and an adding more detail station. The children enjoyed moving around to focus on one thing at a time and this really helped them to check and improve their writing.
We have been making and decorating our Roman shields this week. The children followed their designs, tweaking them where necessary and they used a range of DT skills to get the shape of their shield. We are looking forward to having a Roman role play afternoon next week.
The children have also been making Christmas decorations out of clay. They used a range of skills to mould the clay and attach pieces together using a slip technique. These should have come home yesterday so hopefully they are adding to your festive decorations at home.
No homework has been set this week but please keep up reading and Mathswhizz. The children will have a big spelling test after the holidays on a selection of words from the last half term.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 26th November

Despite a lot of us feeling poorly with colds and sickness bugs this week, we have still managed a lot of learning and fun. We have continued our learning about electricity in Science and discovering whether materials are insulators or conductors by carrying out an investigation. The children were able to make predictions first and explained these well.

In Literacy, we have been learning how to create tension and suspense in our writing. We read further into the book “The Ice Palace” and the children described the scene where Ivan is chased by wolves.

We have been designing our own Roman shields, which we will be making soon. We learned about the shapes and symbols that were used on shields, which the children were able to use to support their designs. They also considered how they were make it and which materials they would need.

It has also been assessment week and the children have all showed great attitudes towards their tests. I am immensely proud of their focus and for always trying their best.

I hope you are all having a lovely weekend and that everyone is feeling better.

Week commencing 5th November
Oak class have been very creative this week. We learnt about silhouette art and used this along with a collage technique to create beautiful remembrance artwork. You can see these up on our classroom window. The children also took their artwork outside and have created a poppy using stones. This is still in the playground if you haven’t seen it yet.
We developed our understanding of the Hindu Festival of Lights, Diwali, and compared this to the Sikh festival Bandi Chhor. The children were able to retell the story of Rama and Sita and we learnt about how Diwali and Bandi Chhor are celebrated. We then created our own rangoli patterns and showed our understanding of these festivals through poems and information texts.
In Maths, we have started learning about multiplication and division. The children have recapped their understanding of these terms and what they mean. We have focussed on multiplying and dividing numbers by 10 and 100 to develop children’s understanding of the digits moving place. We even looked at decimals to really challenge our thinking.
We have started reading a new book in Literacy called the Ice Palace. The children have developed their prediction and inference skills by using the front cover to explain their ideas. We looked at winter images and how we could describe the settings in great detail. We have developed our understanding of using noun phrases, adverbs, similes and prepositions to add more detail. The children then worked in pairs to write poems about the settings. We have also been using drama to explore what characters might be doing and feeling at different points. The children were able to show emotion in their freezeframes too.
This afternoon, we took part in a BBC live lesson about remembrance where the children learnt a bit about what life was like in the First World War. We also learnt about Haiku poems and the children wrote their own about remembrance. They were very excited when our class was mentioned along the bottom of the screen.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 29th October

It’s been a very successful first week back for us: Year 4 came second in their sports tournament, Year 3 won their sports tournament and our 4 spellers came joint first at the spelling bee :) A huge well done to Oak class for working so hard and always trying their best.
We had a fun PE lesson on Tuesday recapping our basic ball skills and practising ready for the sports tournament. We learnt the rules on how to play netball and the children practised working as a team to pass the ball before trying to score. Year 4 were very supportive and helpful in showing Year 3 how to block and defend.
In Topic, the children have been developing their online research skills by finding out about Roman inventions. They’ve started to find out details about inventions such as the aqua duct and roads. I’m looking forward to seeing their finished work next week.
We have continued practising our subtraction skills, including looking at when is best to use different methods. The children have a strong understanding of using the column method for this and have been revising their place value knowledge to be able to mentally subtract multiples of 10 or 100.
This afternoon, the children enjoyed using marbles, paint and shoebox lids to create exciting pieces of artwork representing fireworks.
Homework and spellings have been set. Please let me know if you have any questions. Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 15th October
This week, the children have enjoyed making Roman flatbread. They were able to follow the recipe accurately to measure out their ingredients and worked well in their groups to split the jobs. The children also wrote a fantastic set of written instructions to help anyone else make the bread.
We also looked into Roman coins and the designs that are on them. The children then designed their own version, based on these, which they will make out of clay after half term. Many thanks to George's sister, Sophia, and Zach for sharing some replica coins for us to look at :)
In Science, we have been learning about muscles and the children planned and carried out their own investigation to find out whether exercise made muscles stronger. They worked hard to write up their predictions and explained their ideas as well as their results afterwards.
In Literacy, we have continued writing poetry. This week we learnt about calligrams and how to set poetry out in the shape of what it's about. They also practised performing these to the class.
No written homework has been set for the holidays but please keep up with reading an Mathswhizz. There will be a spelling test when we come back on a random selection of words from the past 6 weeks.
Have a lovely half term!

Week commencing 8th October
It’s been another busy week for us in a Oak class. At the start of the week, the children went on a poetry hunt to find and read different poems about Autumn. They were also looking for examples of adjectives, verbs, similes, alliteration and onomatopoeia, which they did a great job with. We learnt more about these types of language as well as personification and metaphors and the children then planned their own examples for some of these about Autumn. They later used their ideas to write their own Autumn poems. Some chose to write in the style of an acrostic, while others tried a cinquain. 
In Maths, we have moved onto subtraction and using the column method to work out answers. The children have revised their mental subtraction skills and how to use number bonds to support them. We have also started looking at exchanging our tens when we don’t have enough ones to take away from.
We have been learning about different types of skeletons in Science. The children demonstrated their great understanding of vertebrates and invertebrates by completing a quiz to sort animals into these categories. We also learnt about endoskeletons, exoskeletons and hydrostatic skeletons and discussed which animals could fit into these categories. 
In PE, the children continued to work on their ball skills and how to pass the ball without it being intercepted. They practised different techniques to move around their opponents and pass the ball.
As part of our topic, we have been learning about Roman roads and cities that were named by Romans. The children have been learning how to use an index in an atlas to locate some of these cities on a map and plotted them onto their own maps. They also learnt about some Roman roads which went between these cities and plotted those onto their maps.
We enjoyed an afternoon of creating Autumn artwork using a range of autumnal colours. The children experimented using paintbrushes, their fingers and leaves to create different effects with the paint.
Homework and spellings have been set. Please keep up the great work with Mathswhizz and reading.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 1st October
It has been another busy week for Oak class. We started the week at church with our harvest festival service. The children really enjoyed singing the sings they’ve been learning and those who performed the poem did a great job!
We’ve been learning about the skeleton in Science and what some of the scientific names for our bones are. The children worked together to put a skeleton together and labelled the main bones. Some then looked at animal skeletons to find common bones between their skeleton and ours.
In Literacy, we storymapped “escape from Pompeii” and used this to help us to plan our own stories based on the book. The children worked hard to include lots of action, description and speech in their stories.
We have moved onto addition in Maths and how to use our number bonds to support our mental addition. We started learning about written methods and how to use column method to add 3-digit numbers together (4-digit for Year 4). We’ve used base 10 to support our understanding of carrying numbers over.
In PE, the children have continued developing their ball skills with Mrs Marriott. They practised putting their skills into a range of games and have enjoyed working together.
As part of our topic, the children have been learning about Boudicca. We read a story about her and the children researched further information about her. As a class, we discussed the impact she has had on lives today. We also developed our understanding of Britain and located East Anglia on a map.
On Thursday, we took part in a live lesson to celebrate national poetry day. We learnt about similes and metaphors and then wrote our own examples. The children practised using different emotions such as shock and happiness to help them read poems in different ways. They then planned their own poem about school using their senses.
Homework and spellings have been set. The children need to practise where each of the homophones can be used in sentences and what they mean.

Week commencing 24th September 
This week, we have been learning about Roman mosaics and where they would have been found. The children were fascinated to learn about how each piece was made and put into place. We looked at different designs such as images of soldiers, animals and patterns. The children then used these ideas to create their own design, which they then accurately made using coloured stickers. We have also been finding out about what homes were like during the Roman times. The children worked in pairs to carry out their research and have been practising finding relevant information.
In Literacy, we have continued our work on the book Escape from Pompeii. We have been learning how to write a diary entry and what to include in one. The children worked in pairs to plan their diary entry in the role as one of the main characters and then wrote excellent diary entries to describe their escape from the erupting volcano. We have also been using drama to act out what the characters might have said to each other during their escape and then learnt how to write these conversations correctly using speech marks.
To practise what the children have learnt about place value, we went on a reasoning ramble outside for them to find and answer the reasoning questions. They worked well together and discussed how they would work out the answer. We have been learning how to round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000.
We started learning about the skeleton in Science and discussed why we need a skeleton. The children had lots of wonderful ideas and we looked specifically at how certain parts of the skeleton have specific roles such as protection. We also learnt about the different types of joints we have and where these joints could be.
Have a wonderful weekend! We look forward to seeing many of you at church on Monday for the Harvest Festival.

Week commencing 17th September
We have had an exciting week as our new student teacher Mrs Parkin joined our class. She will be working with us until Christmas and then back with us again after Easter. The children enjoyed introducing themselves and discussing their hobbies during circle time.
The children enjoyed another PE lesson with Mrs Marriott where they continued developing their throwing and catching skills, as well as looking at different types of throws.
In Maths, we have been learning how to partition numbers into hundreds, tens and ones (Year 4 also looked at thousands) as well as comparing number using greater than and less than symbols. The children have learnt how to add ten or hundred to a given number by using their place value knowledge and some have challenged themselves with reasoning questions on this.
We have continued reading the book ‘Escape from Pompeii’ in Literacy, focussing on the main characters. The children have learnt how to write a character description and have practise editing their writing to make improvements. We revised the parts of a sentence such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs by learning a song to help us remember. The children were then able to identify these in a text.
As part of our Topic, we have been learning how to sketch and have practised using shading. The children used the Roman replica items to create wonderful sketches.
We have had our first growth mindset lessons of the year. Year 3 read a story about a character who was scared about falling off a tightrope and discussed how they might support them in not giving up their dreams. Year 4 looked at successful celebrities and discussed who thought was more successful. We then found out about the failures they had had to overcome before they succeeded such Bill Gates failing his exams. The children were able to explain how having a growth mindset encouraged these celebrities to persevere and eventually become a success.

On Tuesday, we learnt about the Jewish festival of Yom Kippur and what happens on that day. The children then made cards in celebration.
Homework, spellings and Mathswhizz have all been set. Please ask if you have any questions. The children should be reading their book band books to an adult as much as possible, as well as reading their dotted books independently. They will complete quizzes on the dotted books once they have read them to check their comprehension of the book.

Week commencing 10th September
The children have worked really hard this week and have enjoyed working together. We had a visit from the life bus, where we learnt about what’s in our bodies and how to keep healthy. We also looked at the effects of alcohol and drugs. 
On Thursday, we celebrated Roald Dahl day by discussing our favourite Roald Dahl books and the children wrote a factfile about him. We also designed our own piece of art using characters from his books.
In Science, we have started learning about healthy eating and the five food groups. They worked together to organise foods into proteins, carbohydrates, dairy, fruit and vegetables and sugars and fats. There were some excellent discussions about foods such as fish and chips, which could be a mixture of the food groups especially depending on how they’d been cooked.
In topic, we have been looking at when the Roman period was and discussed BC and AD. The children then used their understanding of timelines and dates to put some important events into order. 
We have started learning about place value with Year 3 looking at 3 digit numbers and Year 4 looking at 4 digit numbers. The children used dienes, counters and drawings to represent numbers, as well as looking at where they would go on a number line.
Our book in Literacy this half term is called ‘Escape from Pompeii’. The children have been using the front cover and title to make predictions and inferences about the story. We started reading the story and have been making notes on the setting of the story using the five senses. 
In PE, we have started our dance lessons and multiskills lessons this week. The children practised controlling the ball in different ways and developing their throwing and catching skills.
Homework has been set and the children have new spellings in their books to learn. Please continue with Mathswhizz and reading too. If you would like to use Mathswhizz on a tablet, you need to download the Puffin app and choose Mathswhizz through there. Please let me know if you have any questions.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week beginning 9th July

What a busy week it's been! We started the week with our swimming lesson, where the children learnt about synchronised swimming. They worked in small groups to create their own routine and performed these to the rest of the class. They looked amazing!
In maths, we've continued learning about measurement and have been looking at mass. We have revised the units used and developed our knowledge of converting between these. We discussed the vocabulary needed to... describe mass and the children practised using different scales to measure mass.
Oak class have written newspaper reports describing the disappearance of a professor, who went exploring in the North Pole. The children were able to find and infer information from a video clip to give them all the facts they needed to build a report.
All week, they have put a lot of time and effort into rehearsing for the end of year performance, which (I'm sure you'll agree) they did an excellent job of.
Today, they have started practising the parable of the good punk rocker with Mrs Dack, which they'll perform at the church next month if children are available to go. Further information about this service will be in the newsletter next week.
There's so written homework this week but please make sure children are up to date with their Mathswhizz.

Week beginning 2nd July

We had an exciting start to the week with our poetry festival in St Neots. The children enjoyed performing the 3 poems they’d learnt, including the actions, and listened well to the other schools performing theirs.
We have been enjoying the sunshine as well and taken some of our learning outside. The children planned an investigation to find out what happens to sound over distance. They worked in pairs and measured how far away they could get from their part...ner, who was playing a musical instrument. I think they were surprised at how far sound travels!
In Maths, we’ve been learning about the difference between capacity and volume. The children have revised their understanding of measuring liquid, including using different scales. They worked accurately to measure out ingredients for potions and then had fun making their own.
We’ve also been rehearsing with Rowan for the end of year performance of Macbeth. The children are working hard to learn their lines and are enjoying all the singing!
On Wednesday morning, Year 4 spent some time in their new class with Mrs Duncan and we welcomed Year 2 into Oak.
No written homework this week but please keep up the reading and Mathswhizz. Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 18th June

We started this week with some fun games at our swimming session. The children used noodles to relay race against each other. They practised different ways of getting across the pool as quickly as they could. We then played a game of water polo, where all children had to remain on noodles as a challenge.

Year 2s joined us for an afternoon carrying out some research about countries in the World Cup. The children worked in pairs to use the internet to find out facts such as capitals, population and language. They then shared 2 of their chosen facts to share with everyone.

In Maths, we have started learning about shapes and angles. We revised what a turn is and the children practised using language such as clockwise and anti-clockwise. We then looked at different sizes of angles and learnt the terms right angle, acute and obtuse to describe them.

As a class, we have rewritten the poem ‘Don’t call out’ to ‘Don’t lie’ following the same structure. We discussed our ideas and then came up with a list of rhyming words for lie. The children then worked in groups to write a verse using these. We have created actions to help us remember this poem and have started practising it.

This afternoon, the children enjoyed erupting their volcanoes. I’m sure you’ll agree how great a job they’ve done building them!

Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 4th June

We had a great start to our last half term by tasting the children's baked goods, which they had made for their homework. They were then able to write detailed instructions for how to make their cakes/biscuits.
In preparation for our Poetry Festival next month, we have started learning our first poem 'The blind men and the elephant'. The children looked up unknown words and used the context to work out what they meant. We practised reading it through to deve...lop our expression and tone and decided how to perform it. We have been learning the actions to the poem and trying to remember it off by heart.
In Maths, we've been revising how to tell the time on analogue and digital clocks. The children have also learnt how to write the time using the 24 hour clock and understand the difference between am and pm.
We have started making our volcanoes in partners using all the recycled items to create the shape. The children worked really well together to discuss what they wanted to use, if they needed to change the shape of anything and how they could attach it. They are looking brilliant already.
In Science, we have started learning about sound and where it comes from. We went on a sound hunt around school to see which sounds we could hear and we tried to work out what made them. The children have been learning about how sounds are caused by vibrations so we wanted to work out what was vibrating for each sound.
Oak class look forward to seeing you tomorrow at our stall at the school fete!

Week commencing 7th May

This week we’ve enjoyed learning about how volcanoes are formed and finding out where some of the world’s most active volcanoes are. The children used the internet to research where these are and plotted them onto a map.
In Literacy, we’ve continued reading the Iron Man and discussing the problem he poses to the farmers. We looked at what the farmers could do to solve the problem and if these would work. The children then wrote persuasive letters suggesting ...their ideas to fix the problem, describing how to go about it and using persuasive devices. After they’d written them, they worked with a partner to edit and improve their writing.
In Maths, we’ve been learning about statistics and how to interpret the information on bar charts and pictograms. We’ve learnt how to find the information on the charts and how to use it to work out further information. The children then asked each other about their favourite sports, hobbies or food to create their own bar charts. They are learning how to choose an appropriate scale, label axes and add their information accurately.
We’ve continued learning about living things in Science and have been learning how to construct a food chain. The children matched up definitions to vocabulary such as consumer, producer, predator and prey.
They then worked in pairs to choose living things to build a food chain labelling each part.
In PE, we’ve been practising our athletics skills. The children used howlers, tried shot put and practised their long jump. We also had a relay race using bean bags to develop our balance and coordination skills.
Have a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 30th April

This week we’ve enjoyed getting stuck into our new topic on robots and inventions. The children researched significant inventions such as the light bulb, penicillin and automobiles to find out when they were invented and by who. They then plotted these dates onto a timeline using their understanding of dates. The children also chose whether to design a healthy meal for the Iron man and explain their food choices or to design their own robot using paint and explain what they do.

In Maths, we’ve been learning to solve problems involving money. The children used their understanding of money to work out problems involving finding totals, change and investigating what they could have bought. We have been using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to solve problems.

We’ve continued reading the Iron Man in Literacy and have been using freeze frames to explore character’s thoughts, feelings and what they could say in reaction to events in the story. The children have been writing a diary as Hogarth describing the night he saw the Iron Man. They described what they saw in detail and recorded their feelings to this.

In Science, we are continuing to learn about classification as part of our living things unit. We discussed the terms reptiles, mammals, amphibians, birds and fish so that we could explain the characteristics of living things in each group. We then learnt how to use questions to help us sort living things onto a flow chart.

Homework and spellings have been set. Please keep up Mathswhizz and reading too. Enjoy the wonderful weather this bank holiday weekend.

Week commencing 26th March

This week we’ve enjoyed doing lots of creative activities to finish our topic on India. The children glazed their clay gods, which have now been in the kiln and are looking amazing! We drew the Taj Mahal on our wash backgrounds we painted last week and used oil pastels to add colour. The children learnt how to use these and blend the colours. They then added the little details on using pencil. We also added our finishing touches to our dandiya sticks and practised our dances. The children loved performing their dances to Ash class and Puddleducks this afternoon. We also enjoyed listening to Ash class share their booklets about Emperor penguins. We’ve learnt some interesting facts from you too!

In Literacy, we read a range of poems about Spring looking at the features used. The children then used these ideas to write their own riddles, acrostics, shape and free verse poems.

In Maths, we used Easter challenge cards to practise our problem solving skills. The children used their knowledge to work out what they needed to do to solve them and revised their methods to work them out. They also enjoyed completing several different types of questions to solve an Easter mystery.

The children polished off their gymnastics routines this week and enjoyed with each other. They were able to include a range of balances using the equipment and include transitions in and out of them.

Have a wonderful Easter break. No written homework has been set but keep up the Mathswhizz and reading please. The spelling test after Easter will be on the next 2 lists.

Week commencing 19th March

This week we’ve enjoyed lots of creative activities for our topic. The children learnt how to create a wash using water colours, which we’ll later use as a backdrop for Taj Mahal drawings. They also painted the base colours for their dandiya sticks ready for decorating in detail next week. The children researched Indian dancing, in particular ones using dandiya sticks. They used this to help them to create their own Indian dance in pairs. We look forward to performing them with our own dandiya sticks.

As part of our Science unit, we have been learning how fossils are formed. The children then created their own fossils using salt dough. They’ve worked pretty well and you can see the imprints of the animals.

In PE, we brought all the equipment out including the wall bars, which the children loved exploring. The children used these to develop their balances even further and challenging themselves. 

We’ve continued learning about fractions and using our understanding to answer worded problems. We compared who had the most pizza, which amount of pocket money would work out more and worked out the number of people with a certain characteristic based on the fraction of a group.

In Literacy, we planned and wrote our own persuasive letters asking to be allowed to choose our own bedtimes. We recapped the persuasive devices we’ve been learning about and learnt how to write strong opening and closing paragraphs. 

We ended our week by fund raising for Sports relief. The children enjoyed a range of activities at lunchtime as well as dressing in their own sportswear to raise money.

I hope you’re all having a lovely weekend!

Week commencing 12th March
We’ve enjoyed doing a range of experiments to celebrate Science week including learning about the effects of acidic vinegar on milk and how we can get things out of ice. The children showed great determination in trying different ways to save their figurines from the ice including using warm water. They were able to explain that warm water melts ice because ice melts when warm. Oak class used grated chocolate to create different types of rock to develop our understanding our how sedimentary, igneous and metamorphic rocks are formed and what they look like. We also enjoyed watching the mad science show and taking part in a range of activities with the Unilever scientists.
As part of our topic, we created Indian Gods out of clay. The children practised moulding clay and attaching parts to create a God they’d chosen. They were able to add details through mark making.
In Maths, we continued learning about fractions and decimal equivalents for halves and quarters. Year 4 also looked at tenths and hundredths as decimals. We also looked at how to add and subtract fractions with the same denominators. We used pictures and bar models to help us understand what was happening and why the denominator stays the same.
We revised the different sentences types: simple, compound and complex. We discussed how these are formed and how we could improve a simple sentence into a complex or a compound sentence. We used our unit on adverts to practise writing these types of sentences.
In gymnastics, the children moved onto using a range of equipment to adapt their balances and tried different ways of entering and exit each balance. They are trying challenging balances and becoming more confident in showing these to their peers.

Week commencing 5th March

The children have worked hard this week on their assessments. They all have a great attitude to tests and always try their best. They have made massive progress this term and I am so proud of them!

We looked at a range of worded problems in Maths this week to revise all 4 operations and our understanding of problem solving. The children were able to use their knowledge to work out how to solve these and supported each other in practising our written methods for calculations. 

As part of our growth mindset lessons, the Year 3s learnt about mistakes that worked such as how the frisbee ended up being created by accident. The Year 4s discussed characteristics of a good learner and used these to create top trumps cards about themselves. They then explained the ratings they’d given themselves.

The children used their understanding of earthquakes to write a diary entry as someone who had experienced one. They discussed what features diaries need and what details they could include before writing.

In PE, we continued developing our balances in gymnastics and how we could challenge ourselves. We started to include other pieces of equipment such as benches and worked on how we could transition between the balances. 

In Topic, we finished our biographies about a famous person in Indian history and then planned how we could make a clay model of an Indian god, which we’ll be making next week.

No written homework has been set as they have worked so hard on their tests. However, please continue with Mathswhizz and reading.

Have a great weekend!