Oak Tree Class Blog
Oak Tree Class Blog
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
Week 4, ending 29/11/24
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Reader: Morgan
Special Mention: Sid
A super well done to these children!
This week, we have been listening to Northern Soul music as we have come into class each morning. Lots of ‘bopping’ while doing our early morning tasks!
This has been a quieter week in Oak Tree Class – but we are building up to Christmas now. I hope some of you are able to come along on the morning of 17 December to see ‘A WW2 Christmas’. I’m sure you will enjoy it!
In Maths, our work on fractions has moved onto looking at improper fractions and mixed numbers. The children’s efforts in these objectives have been brilliant! I have been really encouraged by their working knowledge of these aspects.
By far, the most exciting session for me this week was the use of Digimaps in our Topic session. We looked at the local map and at how Leeds contributed to the war effort during WW2, particularly finding out about the Avro factory, based at Leeds Aerodrome. Fascinating!
Many thanks for all your donations for the Christmas Fair – and for buying raffle tickets. Hope to see you there on Saturday afternoon (12 til 2pm).
Have a fun weekend!
Yours,
Mrs Adrienne Amos
Week 3, ending 22 November
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
No special awards this week, as we have a Training Day on Friday.
But all of the children in OAK have been Outstanding Workers in one way or another!
Rock-a-billy and Rock ‘n’ Roll music have greeted us in class each morning – Elvis was by far the most commented upon artist! Lots of children said that their parents/grandparents loved listening to Elvis Presley.
We have continued to draft non-chronological reports in English! I am looking forward to seeing each published piece next week.
Equivalent fractions have been the mainstay of maths this week – we shall be spending a little longer on this concept too, as it seems to be one that the children have found tricky. Any support you can give with this in homework would be welcomed. (Often, hearing it explained by someone else can work wonders!)
Our history skills have moved on tremendously thanks to our very own Living Museum. What an enjoyable and informative session we had – by seeing actual artefacts from the era of World War Two, it makes the whole topic come alive for the children. Many thanks to Noah’s mum, who came in and gave the exhibitors some helpful ‘Top Tips’ for presenting their precious exhibits. Mr Cooke gave us an extra assembly session this week, where he shared the story of his Grandad’s escape from a WW2 prisoner of war camp. The children were gripped by the story!
We spent Thursday morning doing some crafts with an RE theme – and then in the afternoon, we were invited to take part in a Question and Answer session, which included being able to ask people of faith about their religions. It was extremely eye-opening for us!
Finally, well done to those children who are remembering to read regularly at home! We have noticed a bit of a dip in this with some of our Y5 children and would just like to remind you of the importance of reading. In UKS2, the expectation is that children should still be reading at least 5 times a week (approx. 1 hour of reading combined!) and they can do this independently and fill in their own reading records or with an adult. We are always happy to provide your child with book recommendations and strongly encourage them to come and talk to us if they are not enjoying the books they have chosen.
The Reading Agency is a UK charity with a mission to empower people of all ages to read. Their research shows that:
- One in four children hasn't reached the expected level of reading by the age of 11. Many of these children will struggle to keep up at secondary school.
- Students are less able to learn other subjects if they do not develop sufficient reading skills by the middle of primary school.
- Only 35% of 10-year-olds in England report that they like reading 'very much'. This lags behind countries like Russia (46%), Ireland (46%), New Zealand (44%), and Australia (43%).
- Children who read books often at age 10 and more than once a week at age 16 gain higher results in maths, vocabulary and spelling tests at age 16 than those who read less regularly.
We greatly appreciate everything parents, carers and children do to support reading for pleasure already.
Have a great weekend – a long weekend!
Mrs Adrienne Amos
Week 2, ending 15 November
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Week 2, ending 16 November
Reader: Toby
Special Mention: Bailey
Well done to these children!
A very busy week for us in UKS2! This week, the children have been listening to some good old-fashioned punk or punk pop songs. The Ramone’s classic number ‘Blitzkrieg’ seemed to be one of the most popular numbers. (Quite fitting considering we are studying WW2 this term!)
In English, we have continued to collect information for our non-chronological reports – pretty soon, they will be writing up their notes into a double-page spread. They are very excited about this!
In Maths, we have had to spend extra time revising Y3 and Y4 work on equivalent fractions. It is quite a tricky area at this stage in their learning; nevertheless, it is a concept that needs to be understood fully by Y5. It would be helpful if you could quiz your child on which fractions are equivalent to ½ etc
Netball skills and mini games have continued in PE and we are building up to a Netball Tournament, hopefully to be held in the final week of term.
At last, we have begun to plan possible meals to cook for the final part of our DT topic. The following website would help to give the children more interesting food choices – plain chicken, mashed potatoes and peas seems to be the most favoured WW2 meal idea at present….
https://the1940sexperiment.com/100-wartime-recipes/
Our highlight this week, I believe, was our topic day on Monday. The children were obviously struck by the number of names we saw on the plaques outside Yeadon Town Hall and they all created beautiful commemorative pebbles, containing the name of a local fallen soldier. They are currently on display in the school’s main reception area if you would like to peek through the window to see them! Lots of lovely, thought-provoking activities happened throughput the day and did seem to encourage the children to acknowledge why we remember on 11 November each year.
More exciting topic work next week – we are holding UKS2’s first Living Museum on Wednesday. If you/your family have any WW2 artefacts that your child is confident enough to share with us, we would love to see it/them. Here is some information you may find useful:
On Wednesday, 20 November, we are holding our Living Museums in the UKS2 classrooms as part of our WW2 topic. This is a great opportunity for the children to bring in any WW2 memorabilia that you/your family may have.
Here are some possible artefacts you may send in.
- Medals
- Letters/Diaries
- Photographs
- Military uniform items
- Ration books/Home Front memorabilia
- Any other WW2-era artefacts
If your child is taking part in this exciting venture, then for this weekend, your child’s homework task is to research a little about the item(s) and to record/present these facts - maybe a poster could be created? Or flashcards with information? Your child will be standing with their artefact and talking about it to the visiting children from Years 5 and 6.
And also to the parents from 3.20 to 3.50. You are welcome to come into the UKS2 classrooms at the end of school and see the artefacts on display and listen to the children talking about them.
We really hope that by looking at genuine artefacts from the era of 1939-1945, the children will gain an even better understanding of our key topic question: I wonder how WW2 affected families in Yorkshire.
It was lovely to see the children 'dress down' for today - Children in Need Day.
Also - do remember that next week is a slightly shorter week – we have a training day on Friday.
Have a lovely weekend.
Yours,
Mrs Adrienne Amos
Week 1, ending 8 November
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Reader: Deacon
Special Mention: Matilda
Well done to these children!
Welcome back to school for Autumn 2! Blues music has greeted us each morning in Oak Tree Class and the children seemed mostly to enjoy Gary Clark Junior’s blues guitar playing.
In Maths, we have finished our unit on multiplication, particularly learning concepts of cube numbers, multiplying and dividing by 10, 100 and 1000 and also identifying multiples of 10. Next week, we begin a Y5 unit on fractions. Yet again, this unit really relies on having a good grasp of times table facts. We shall be revisiting this when we can, but any extra consolidating you can do in this area at home will surely reap rewards.
In English, we have continued to learn about non-chronological reports, beginning to collect information from a variety of resources on the role of women during WW2.
In PE, we have begun our unit on netball and had two fantastic sessions. In RE, we started our work on Sikhism.
But the highlight of our week has definitely been exploring more about the seasonal food that is grown at this time of year. It was so encouraging to hear the children talking about why it is good to use seasonal food but also it was fab to witness everyone tasting a wide variety of seasonal food. Ask your child which of the following foodstuffs they tried and enjoyed: swede, runner beans, butternut squash, parsnip, broccoli, cauliflower, lentils, corned beef and spam. Over the next few weeks, the children will be designing seasonal meals that are healthy and that adhere to WW2 rationing restrictions. Your child might find this website useful to look at before making any decisions: https://the1940sexperiment.com/100-wartime-recipes/
Continuing with the WW2 topic, on Monday, we will be walking to the Town Hall to begin our enquiry question of ‘Why we remember’. Hopefully, the children have had the opportunity to buy a poppy to wear on this day to help reflect this act of remembrance – it all seems very fitting for us this year, as we are learning about events in World War Two.
**Please make sure your child wears school uniform to school on Monday – not PE kit**
Have a splendid weekend,
Yours,
Mrs Adrienne Amos