Week Seven

This week has been our annual book week and what a fantastic week it has been.  We have enjoyed different activities every day and improved our writing too. Here are just a few of the highlights of the week:

Monday - Poet Tony Peek came in an read us some of his excellent poems.

Tuesday - Ian from KIC Theatre had us creating drama based on World War I scenarios, including life in the trenches.

Wednesday - Tales From The Book of Life visited and entertained us with the story of Simon and Satan, using prose, puppets and music.

Thursday - We spent a fun-filled hour with Mr Steve Skinner (Eddie and Sofia's dad) where he read us his wonderful rhyming poems, had us performing some of the them and then working together as a class to write our own poem. It went like this:

Bertie went out and hurt his thumb

It made him feel really glum

After a while it began to go numb

So he hit himself on the cranium

And said, 'Am I really so dumb?!'

Then his numb thumb began to thrum

Which struck him dumb

So he couldn't ask him mum to come

He took out a stick and beat his drum

(Which could even be heard in Elham!)

Mum heard the drum

And took him to hospital in Birmingham

Which sent him into a huge tantrum

There the doctors used potassium, sodium and radium

(And even a tot of rum)

Which all helped fix his poor numb thumb!

We also wrote a diary entry as an historical character today and our pieces of writing were all entered into a competition for the best one, which in Oak Class was won by Harry Benson. Well done Harry, and well done everyone else for such super writing.

Friday - As is traditional at the end of Book Week, Friday was dressing-up day with everyone coming to school as their favourite historical character. We were also privileged today to be visited by Andrew Clover, author of the Rory Branagan humorous detective stories.  He spent an amazing hour with us teaching us, in a fun and crazy way, how to write stories.  We were really fired-up by his story workshop and all then went back to class and wrote amazing versions of the story for ourselves. Andrew judged them all and read out particularly good pieces of writing in celebration assembly.  Congratulations go to Lily Raison, Ned Stewart and Harry Benson for all winning prizes, with Harry's story being judged the best overall.  It was certainly Harry's lucky week!

We all agreed with Mr File that it has been the best Book Week ever! A big 'thank you' goes to Mrs Ferguson for organising it all so splendidly. 

Have a fun half-term break everyone and stay safe!

This week's spellings:

There is no spelling list for this week, but there will be a test of Friday of random words from the Year 3/4 and 5/6 lists which are in the back of the children's Home Spelling Books.

Week Six

We have had a very busy week as usual. Mrs Short made our brains ache in maths as we were learning to add fractions which some of us found more straightforward than others. If you would like some information on fractions to help us at home, please click on the link below where all is explained.

We also started to learn about circles and how to use a pair of compasses to draw circles to very precise measurements.  Next week we will be learning about pi (not the kind that you eat though!).

Music was especially fun this week as Mrs Hickman took us outside for some drumming practice (she didn't think it would be appreciated by the other classes and it was a lovely day for working outside too).

Next week looks set to be full of fun activities as it is our annual be Book Week. We are expecting visits from several authors, Lyminge library and Tales From The Book of Life. Mrs Ferguson has encouraged us all to take part in 'Read for Good' which raises money for books and storytellers in children's hospitals. Sponsorship forms went home on Thursday for this so please get reading as much as you can. The Book Fair will be open every day from Monday to Thursday so bring in your pocket money and buy yourself a new book or two - there are loads to choose from.

Don't forget that next Friday is 'Dress-Up Day'. Children can come to school as any historical figure (real or ficticious) that they wish.

Have a great weekend everyone!

This week's spellings:

Alpha

adorable
terrible
reasonable
incredible
comfortable

Beta

possible
noticeable
enjoyable
impossible
legible

Gamma

applicable
sensible
changeable
visible
dependable

Week Five

As well as our normal lessons this week, we enjoyed two special events.  The first was joining the rest of the school in St Mary's church for our annual Harvest Festival.  Each class performed a short play, poem or song and our piece was a poem about harvest where we used the letters in the word HARVEST to create new words such as EAT, VAST, STARVE and SHARE.  We performed it really well, although it could have gone wrong if someone had forgotten to move their letter round when necessary.  The other classes were very entertaining, especially Hazel class singing the alphabet song several times!  They were very cute.

We also really enjoyed a visit from Martin Crowther who came in to talk to us about World War I.  He brought with him lots of artefacts, many originals from the war, which we could handle and discuss.  Amongst other things, we looked at a soldier's hat and cap badge from the East Kent Regiment (The Buffs), a map of the countries involved which was given away in a newspaper and lots of postcards both to and from soldiers serving on the Western Front.  It was a really excellent session and we learnt lots in just one hour - we wished it could have gone on longer.  Mrs Godden took photos (some of them can be seen below) and made some notes, and Mrs Short then used then in our next topic lesson. We had to choose a photo of one of the items and then write what it could tell us about the war.

In Literacy, we have all written and decorated poems from the point of view of a serving WWI soldier and these are now on display either in the hall, or in class.

Another very successful week in Oak Class, we think!

This Week's Spellings are shown below. Just a reminder that everyone is expected learn all 15 words. Alpha are expected to get the first five all correct, Beta the first ten correct, and Gamma all fifteen correct. There will also be two mystery words each week - one from each of the Year 3/4 and 5/6 word lists which are in the back of each child's home spelling book, so these lists should be looked at on a weekly basis too.

Alpha

balance
distance
science
sentence
difference

Beta

absence
performance
influence
audience
importance

Gamma

reluctance
presence
appearance
sequence
nuisance

Week Four

Well, another busy week has flown by.  It's amazing how much we manage to fit into just five days! No wonder we need the weekend to recover!

We have been continuing our literacy work on Private Peaceful and were asked to write about James Peaceful's death from another character's perspective.  We were also asked by Mrs Short to create and describe a character of our own.  There were some super descriptions of characters with interesting names such as The Colonel, Grandma Wolf, Big Joe, Mr Munnings and Miss McAllister.

In maths, we learn about number with Mrs Short on Monday to Wednesday, then Mrs Godden teaches us about Shape and Measure on Thursday and Friday.  Our brains were certainly stretched this week as we have covered prime numbers, square numbers, factors and multiples as well as measuring and drawing angles.  Using a protractor correctly does not come naturally to us all, but we certainly all tried our best to work accurately.

Science was particularly fun this week. We learnt how white light is actually made up of all the colours of the rainbow and we used prisms to separate white light out into these individual colours.  We made a colour wheel each, with each of the colours of the rainbow on it. When these were spun fast enough, the colours merged together and showed as white light - thereby proving what we had learnt.

Don't forget that next Thursday we will be holding our Harvest Festival in St Mary's Church at 2pm. Come along and see what we have been up to for harvest.

Have a wonderful autumn weekend everyone!

Week Three

We welcomed a very special visitor into school on Friday afternoon - Trevor Willmott, Bishop of Dover kindly came to visit all of us in class and then stayed on to join in with our celebration assembly.  Prior to this, we all gathered outside school to as he unveiled a beautiful new mosaic of our school and church designed and created for us by one of our governors, Graham Ernst Jones. It is a wonderful piece of artwork and a lovely addition to our school, so thank you Mr Jones for your time and talent.  Next time you come to the school reception have a good look at it and see if you can spot the squirrel (put there are Mr Files' request!).

We too had the chance to be artists this week. Following some tuition from the talented Mrs Vincent, we have each created a WWI battlefield scene using colour wash for the sunset and silhouettes for the figures. They are all proudly on display in the hall or our classroom, but you can see photos of them below.

On Thursday mornings we always work on as short reading comprehension together. This week we learn the story of a Swiss inventor, Georges de Mestral, who created something we all use every day - Velcro - which we all found very interesting. If you want to know more about Georges and his amazing invention, just click on the link below.

Mrs Godden gave out a short piece of homework on vocabulary used to describe 2-D shapes. Please ensure this is returned to school by Friday 28th September. Thank you.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Week Two

Oak Class were able to get fully into the routine of Year 6 this week, with mornings dedicated to English and Maths and the afternoons used to cover the foundation subjects such as science, history and computing.  The children began their topic work on World War I (to coincide with the centenary of the ending of the war in 1918) and were introduced to Michael Morpurgo's book set in WWI, 'Private Peaceful'.

Science lessons also began this week on the topic of Light, as well as music lessons with Mrs Hickman. This term the children are continuing to learn the fife which they began in Years 4 and 5.

In French, they have learnt the names of the planets and the order in which they are located. Many of them found the mnemonic 'My Very Easy Method Just Speeds Up Naming Planets' as useful way of remembering their order, although some preferred 'My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas'!

Week One

A very warm 'Welcome back to school' from the team in Oak Class.  This week has been one for settling in to Year Six for the children and they have all adapted well to life 'at the top of the school'.  We will not be having a Head Boy and Girl this year, but each of the Oak Class children has been given the role of a prefect (badges will follow shortly) and they are expected to set a good example to the rest of the school at all times.  Prefect roles include being Buddies (helping the younger children at lunchtime and on the playground), Register Monitors (ensuring these are delivered to each class morning and afternoon) and Computer Monitors (ensuring that the laptops are plugged into charge at certain times of day, and helping Mrs Godden to set up the laptops for the KS1 children).

Each child produced a super piece of artwork this week. Mrs Vincent drew the silhouette of each child's head and the children then filled these with pictures of all their favourite things.  They are on display in class, so do look out for them next time you are in. Now that the dreaded Kent Test is over, we will begin lessons in earnest next week. Mrs Short will be giving their timetables at the beginning of next week. 

Topics for this term are as follows:

Literacy - Writing around World War I, based on the nove 'Private Peaceful' by Michael Morpurgo.

Maths - Number work (place value, calculation methods) with Mrs Short and Shape work (properties of shapes, angles, etc) with Mrs Godden

Science - Light

Topic - World War I

Computing - Networks, the Internet and World Wide Web, How to search safely, Designing a web page

French - Les Planetes (describing the planets)

RE - Creation and Science: Conflicting or Complementary

Mrs Short, Mrs Godden and Mrs Vincent are looking forward to a fun and successful year for all the Oak Class children.