Oak Tree Class Blog
Oak Tree Class Blog
Week 1, ending 12 January 2024
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Reader: Ruby
Special Mention: Destiny
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 Twister Sister via a bit of AC/DC! We have had a very enjoyable first week.
Music was also a big start for ten of our pupils, as we took part in the first Young Voices Performance in Sheffield. The girls (for there were only girls in the choir from my class) behaved impeccably, representing the school superbly and thoroughly enjoyed themselves, I think. Singing along to a live band with over 4,500 voices was quite something.... If you get chance, try to watch a young drummer, Nandi Bushell, on YouTube. She was one of the amazing guest artists for the concert and we were all blown away by her talent.
Speaking of talent - Y5 Auditions have taken place this week for the speaking roles in Oliver! More details about these will trickle through to you next week, I am certain! But it is safe to say, that Miss Suggett and I were incredibly impressed by the auditions and we are truly excited about our upcoming show.
Wednesday formed the Launch Day for our new topic – My Region and the Western USA - quite a wordy title, but we will predominantly be looking at rivers and mountains, comparing the two regions with a geography base. On this day, all the children participated in a workshop -style session, learning skills that will enable the new topic to be a success.
Fractions continue in Maths – but we are nearing the end of this super long (and super important) unit.
And in English, we have spent time discussing our achievements from 2023 and our hopes for 2024. This was linked to Mr Cooke’s assembly on the Roman god Janus, who is depicted as having two faces: one to see the past; the other to see the future.
Please remember: our PE sessions this week are on Thursdays and Fridays now.
Have a great weekend,
Mrs Adrienne Amos
Week 7, ending 22 December (FINALLY!)
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Reader: Zara
Special Mention: Henry S
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 Y5/6 Very Victorian Christmas 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 completely finished and evaluated our Marble Runs (hurrah!). I have put some final pictures on our Facebook page for you to see. Their final creations were truly fab – and many had taken on board the need for their run to be aesthetically pleasing! :)
We did manage to have a bit of an intra-school football tournament, following our unit, in spite of wind and rain – the Blue Team was the victorious one this time. Well done, Blues!
Many thanks for your kind gifts and cards – and I hope you all have a really lovely fun-filled holiday.
Yours,
Mrs Adrienne Amos
Week 6, ending 15 December 2023
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Reader: Lillie
Special Mention: Stanley
A super well done to these children!
Songs from popular musicals have been the background music to our early morning work and it was exciting to see how animated all the children were when they recognised a track from Oliver! Hopefully, I shall get a chance to speak with all the Y5s about the launch and auditions for our Y3-5 production before the end of term. (Performance dates will be in the week commencing 18 March 2024)
We have also been able to watch the EYFS and KS1 Nativity shows, which have been fantastic!
Fractions and Dickens continue to form the basis of Maths and English in Upper Key Stage 2 at the moment, along with a sprinkling of Christmas essence. This week, Oak Tree Class were able to participate in a national science lesson, combined with artwork. I am hoping your child has told you a bit about this fun Christmas decoration activity, but it has also been posted on the brand new Rufford Park and Nursery page on Facebook.
The best day of the week for the children was Wednesday, when we spent the day designing and building marble runs – at last, the tubes have been fully utilised!
Practices are happening for the Very Victorian 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, and hear the array of Christmas songs we have been learning too!
Hope to see you then,
Yours,
Mrs Adrienne Amos
Week 5, ending 8 December
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Reader: Isabel
Special Mention: Viraaj
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!
After weeks of researching, planning, writing and editing, the children have finally finished publishing their biographies on Dr Barnardo. The work really is astonishing! I am so pleased with all their efforts. Hopefully, you will have found a copy of their publications in their bags and can 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 Gymnastics lesson was great fun this week – while learning how to move backwards into a ‘bridge’, the children also put together sequences that displayed other balances they have been learning. Their final sequences were really polished and the children demonstrated some great team work in this task.
Once again, using Digimaps in our topic session was a highlight. The children really enjoyed looking at their (and your!) address on the modern map – and then comparing it to a map of the same area in 1950 and in 1890. The discussions we had were very rich and they made lots of fantastic observations about their local area(s).
As part of our PSHE topic, where we are exploring how ‘we have more in common than not’, 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 between £2 and £3. Gifts should be brought into school by Monday 18th December (wrapped, please!) and we will have fun opening them on our last day of term. I personally think the challenge will be keeping this a secret! (But if this task is a challenge for you, 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?
Yours,
Mrs Adrienne Amos
Week 4, ending 1 December
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Reader: Blake
Special Mention: Zara
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, but Tainted Love, by Gloria Jones was the big hit!
As this has been assessment week, the children have spent a lot of their morning lesson time completing tests, but we have continued to work on writing biographies about Thomas Barnardo.
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 a modern map of Yeadon and, by the click of a button, we switched it to a map from 1890. It was so interesting to see the changes over time. I have tried to build in a little more time for the children to use this App next week.
If any of you have any Marble Runs hiding away somewhere, I would really appreciate them being sent in for Weds to Thursday, as our DT lesson could do with a few more.
PLEASE NOTE: our second PE lesson this next week will be on Wednesday, not Thirsday.
(The children have been asking about our Very Victorian Christmas assembly – it has been put on the school newsletter, but it will be on Tuesday 19th December. Really hope lots of you can come along to support it!)
Have a fun (snowy?) weekend!
Yours,
Mrs Adrienne Amos