Oak Tree Class Blog
Oak Tree Class Blog
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
Week 8, ending 25 October
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Reader: Noah
Special Mention: Lottie
A special well done to all these pupils this week!
And we have made it!! The past eight weeks have been a long, but rewarding half term for us in Oak Tree Class – none moreso than this past week.
Our fabulous diary entries have been produced, mounted and displayed; tricky aspects of maths have been smashed (including prime and square numbers!) and an inter-team rugby tournament has been carried out, to celebrate the end of a very successful unit in PE.
It is clear that many of you are practising times table facts with your children and this has been so helpful in our recent maths unit. Please continue to do so, as after half term, we shall be moving onto FRACTIONS – and a secure times table knowledge makes this a much easier unit for Y5 children.
The ukulele playing has improved dramatically this week – “Lean on Me” sounded great and many children volunteered to play solos to the class!
Our morning music style has been Soul – James Brown was a definite fave with this class!!
Oak Tree's Got talent was FA-BU-LOUS this afternoon.
I am attaching some pics for your pleasure. All children who participated received a sweet treat and a certificate. Well done to them all!
Look out for our *extra optional homework* for this half term – creating a WW2 shelter in a shoebox.
I hope you have a fab half term holiday! See you on November 4!
Yours,
Mrs Adrienne Amos
Week 7, ending 18 October
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Week 7, ending 18 October
Reader: Harrison
Special Mention: Lillian
A super well done to these pupils this week!
And the long term continues….! Just one week to go! But in the past week, we have been very busy in Oak Tree Class again, while listening to a variety of ‘Disney Classics’ in the morning.
Finally, we have published our WW2 diary entries. They are amazing. The children have evidently been able to empathise with children of their own age from this era – very pleasing. It was lovely to share these diary entries with so many parents on Parents’ Evenings. It is true to say that the handwriting of this class is excellent – many pen licences have been awarded.
Maths has been all about multiples this week, including a multiplication tables test – homework is also on this theme, so any support would be greatly appreciated.
It was our final Tag Rugby session this week – next week, we are hoping to hold an Intra-House Tournament for UKS2. Watch this space for the winners!
Many children from our class represented RPPS in a Cross-Country event – well done, guys!
Just to let you know, we have now sent home the children’s Celebration Books for you to enjoy. Due to time constraints etc we can no longer source, download, print and add further pics to these mementoes. But I can assure you that I shall regularly put pictures onto the weekly blog, so you can easily print them out and add them yourselves.
It has been lovely to meet so many of you at Parents’ Evenings this past week - I hope you have a splendid weekend!
Yours,
Mrs Adrienne Amos
Week 6, ending 11 October
Mrs Amos (a.amos) on: Oak Tree Class Blog
Week 5, ending 11 October
Reader: Millie
Special Mention: Seth
A super well done to these pupils this week!
It has been another great week for the children in Oak Tree Class. Tina Turner was by far the most enjoyed ‘Female Legend’ in our early morning music!
In Ukuleles, we all sang and plucked our way through 'Happy Birthday to you' to Dima, as it was actually his birthday. We have moved onto chords too, and began to sing and strum to 'A Thousand Years'.
Our English unit continues – diary entries have been written and edited; now we will publish! Already I can see progress in how the children are writing their ideas down – they are much more fluently adding details to each sentence, including elative clauses, expanded noun phrases and a range of conjunctions. All of these will stand them in good stead for the rest of Y5 and beyond.
In our topic session (history), the children have been investigating what food was rationed during WW2 and have also considered the language that was used in propaganda posters, encouraging families to ration their food. A lot of persuasive posters have been created by my brilliant class. I have been thrilled by the number of Ration Recipe pics that have been coming in - what superstars you all are! Keep up the fab work and continue to send photos of kids with creations to oak@ruffordparkprimary.org.uk
Here is a pic of us tasting the amazing bread, baked by Ted, following a WW2 ration recipe! Yum. We all loved it!
In Maths, more work has been done on addition and subtraction. We will revisit this area again shortly in Y5 but it would be very helpful if you could spend time revising ‘halving and doubling’ with your Y5 child. This is an area of weakness at the minute and could do with an extra boost from home. Thank you!
If you know how to say ‘Hello’ and ‘How are you’ in French, do practise together! Our French lessons are a lot of fun and it’s always good to know the children remember these phrases at home.
Have a lovely weekend! Hope to see you all at one of the Parents’ Evenings next week.
Yours,
Mrs Adrienne Amos