Oak Tree Class Blog
Oak Tree Class Blog
Week 2, ending 17 January 2025
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Reader: Dimo
Special Mention: Azhar
100% attendance prize raffle: Kourtney! A special well done to these children!
This week, Rock has been the genre of music the children have entered into class with. Foo Fighters seem to have been the most popular rock band, judging by the head banging I witnessed!
In English, we have begun our unit on poetry. Firstly, we have looked at figurative language used in poems and also a selection of poems about rainforests.
In Maths, we have continued working on Multiplication and Division, so any extra time you can find to spend on revising all those times tables (up to 12 x 12) will be time well spent. The grid method for multiplication has gone down a storm! (This method is part of the maths homework for this week – maybe some of you can remember learning this when you were in primary school….?)
In PE, we have started our unit on handball. The children work extremely well in these sessions and give their all at all times. Due to the icy/snowy conditions though, it had to be held indoors.
I hope you all have a fabulous weekend – some of you will probably be listening to children learning words for our production of Bugsy Malone. The children have until half term to learn all their lines and cues – they are all so very keen, which is marvellous. Some may be a little disappointed about the role they have been given, but whatever their role, it will definitely be a fun show to participate in, so please do encourage them.
Homework is Maths, Spellings and Grammar this week.
Yours,
Mrs Adrienne Amos
Week 1, ending 10 January
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Week 1, ending 10 January
Reader: Katherine
Special Mention: Shae
Well done to these children!
Welcome back to school for Spring Term 1! Metal Music has greeted the children every day – from Linkin’ Park, to Metallica via a bit of AC/DC! We have had a very enjoyable first week.
Music was also a big start as nine of our pupils, as we took part in the first Young Voices Performance in Sheffield. The children behaved impeccably, representing the school superbly and thoroughly enjoyed themselves, I think. If you get chance, try to watch any of our video clips on the school Facebook page. It was a lot of fun singing Lean on Me with Tommy Blaize, the singer from Strictly Come Dancing.
Speaking of talent - Y5 Auditions will be taking place next week for the speaking roles in Bugsy Malone. Do remind your children to keep learning the dialogue if they want a speaking part.
Friday formed the Launch Day for our new topic – Rainforests. On this day, all the children participated in a workshop -style session, learning skills that will enable the new topic to be a success: geography work, focusing on the Equator, creating a cover for our Topic Books and, most excitingly, we made a Biome in a Bottle! (Hopefully, I can attach the photos from this venture…)
We have started Multiplication in Maths.
And in English, we have spent time discussing our new novel for the term: The Explorer, by Katherine Rundell.
Please note: our PE sessions this week are on Monday and Wednesdays.
Have a great weekend,
Mrs Adrienne Amos
Week 7, ending 20 December (FINALLY!)
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Reader: Max
Special Mention: Elliot
A very well done to these children!
Christmas Classics have welcomed the children in each morning this week – top of the popularity scale seemed to be Chris de Burgh’s Class, A Spaceman Came Travelling.
The children did a brilliant job contributing to our UKS2 WW2 Christmas Presentation assembly, I think, and it was lovely to see such a big audience supporting them. A really special way to end a term-long topic.
Christmas cards, parties and activities have dominated our week, but we have also completed a short writing unit on the WW1 Christmas Truce of 1914. The children were given a choice of genre to write about it and really enjoyed a bit of freedom in their writing.
We did manage to hold an intra-school netball tournament, following our unit – we should find out the victors in Friday’s Celebration assembly.
And we also revealed to the children in Years 3 to 5 that our next production (at Eastertime) will be Bugsy Malone! We are super excited and have given out lots and lots of audition information sheets. Do encourage your child to get involved in this little venture - it's great fun!
Many thanks for your kind gifts and cards this Christmas Season – and I hope you all have a really lovely fun-filled holiday.
Yours,
Mrs Adrienne Amos
FYI
Week 6, ending 13 December 2024
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Reader: Zaiione
Special Mention: Ted M
A super well done to these children!
Songs from popular musicals have been the background music to our early morning work and it was lovely to see how animated all the children were when they recognised a track from Oliver! Food Glorious Food!
Hopefully, I shall get a chance to speak with all the Y5s about the launch and auditions for our new Y3-5 production before the end of term. (Performance dates will be in the week commencing 24 March 2025).
We have been able to watch the KS1 Nativity show, which has been fantastic! It was so sweet to see the younger siblings of Oak Tree Class performing their hearts out!
Fractions continue to form the basis of Maths and hopefully we will finish this unit before the holidays.
Practices are happening for the World War II Christmas (on next Tuesday) so I hope you will be able to come along and hear all about the fascinating work we have done so far in Year 5. Please note: the Christmas Party for UKS2 is on Monday, so party clothing needs to be worn for the day and WW2 outfits/costumes (just like the ones worn for our Worth Valley Railway trip) need to be worn on Tuesday (for our Christmas Presentation). There will be no Monday PE for Oak Tree Class; instead we will be having double PE on Thursday afternoon for our Inter-house netball tournament.
Some children have already brought in their Secret Santa gifts – well done to those very organised families! We need to rest of the Secret Santa gifts in on Monday, 16 December too.
Hope to see you next week!
Yours,
Mrs Adrienne Amos
Week 5, ending 6 December
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Reader: Ted M
Special Mention: Ella
Very well done to these children!
Dance music has been the music genre this week each morning. Calvin Harris’ track featuring Dua Lipa gained the most attention, I think. But none of the children had heard of Calvin Harris – just Dua Lipa!
It has been assessment week across the school, so much of our morning timetable has been carrying out our tests. More information on how these have gone will come out soon.
After weeks of researching, planning, writing and editing, the children have nearly finished publishing their non chronological reports on The Role of Women during WW2. The work so far really is astonishing! I am so pleased with all their efforts. Hopefully, you will have a copy of their publications very shortly - you will then see the progress they have already made this year.
Fractions continues in Maths. This week, we have been trying to find ways in which we can compare two different fractions. This has been quite tricky to understand, but it is so useful when we move onto adding and subtracting fractions later in the term.
Our netball lessons have been great fun this week – including learning how to pass in differing ways and to score!
Homework this weekend will be to learn the words for our Christmas songs and to try their hardest to memorise and recite from memory the two WW2-themed poems we have been studying this term.
Finally, as part of our PSHE topic, where we are exploring ‘how we may put others’ needs before our own’, the children have voted to carry out our very own Secret Santa activity. Each child has drawn a child’s name out and needs to buy a gift for that child for around £4. Gifts should be brought into school by Monday 16th December (wrapped, please!) and we will have fun opening them on our last day of term. I personally think the challenge will be to keep this a secret! (But if this task is a challenge for you financially, as a family, I have asked the children to let me know so I can sort out enough gifts for everyone. This is not an issue at all.)
I hope you have a lovely weekend – Christmas shopping maybe?
Yours,
Mrs Adrienne Amos