Year 1

Year 1 Oak have been ambitious like Abby this week with their D.T. learning. We started by making frame structures using straws and tape. The children persevered even when they found it challenging and created fantastic cuboid frames. 

  

We then used what we practised to make chairs for soft toys. The children tried new things like Taibah and designed a chair. Then used their designs to build the chair. They made the frame structure and then built a seat with paper plates. The children were curious about making their chairs more stable and added extra frames to achieve this.

  

Amazing work 1 Oak, you are designers! 

Year 5

5 Oak have been having a fantastic time in the art studio this term. They have been showing amazing ambition and collaboration. 

Firstly, the children made two circles out of aluminium wire. Why did we use aluminium wire you may ask? Elizah explains that, “Unlike other wires, aluminium wire can bend and be flexible.”    

In the next lesson, the children were given a planet to make using the aluminium wire. Medina explained that, “We have been given a planet to make using wire. We are attaching the rings on by bending the wire with pliers.” We are also using the pliers to cut the wire. Tawhid explained, “I have the planet Saturn so I have added rings around the outside” 

       

I noticed fantastic collaboration in this lesson.  People asking “Can you help me attach the two rings together by holding my planet?” And advising, “Maybe you should use 1mm gauge aluminium wire as this will be easier to attach.”

Year 2

We have really enjoyed working with Helen in the Art Studio to create mixed media countryside landscapes. First, we washed our canvas with ink to create an interesting background. Then, we learned about the features of the countryside and, using card and glue, added those features onto our landscapes. This included features such as trees, bridges, rivers and fences. We outlined these features using a thick nib pen and added finer details using a thin nib pen. Our final pieces were epic! Have a look in the South building foyer to see some examples of our great work.

Year 4

We are having a very busy few weeks  in 4 Oak. We have been learning chess on a Tuesday afternoon. We have learnt about the pawn, rook and bishop and what each chess piece is worth and how it moves. We are really enjoying chess!

  

We have also started Art this week. We are going to look at the artists Kehinde Wiley and Faith Ringgold. We will be focusing on working with fabric and will be fabric artists for the next 4 weeks. We will be making miniature maps, we will be cutting, sewing and designing our maps in the coming weeks. 

 

In Science we are learning about sound. We used data loggers and went around the school to look at how different environments have different sound amplitudes. We worked collaboratively to make sure each member of our group had a turn. We are also setting up a fair test to find out if a sound becomes softer or louder when it is further away from the data logger.

 

Year 6

6 Oak began their first D&T project of the year this week. Our aim is to design and make a kite using tetrahedrons made from paper straws.

In our first lesson, we investigated the best ways to connect two paper straws together. Finding an effective way to connect two straws will mean our kites will be strong and they won’t fall apart easily in the wind.  We tried out using glue, sticky tape, pipe cleaners and paper clips to join the straws and after investigating each one, we found that pipe cleaners produced the strongest and most effective join.

Now we are excited to construct our kites and see if we can make them fly!

           

             

Year 3

In 3 Oak this week (and also for the past few weeks!) we’ve been working hard at our writing.  We’ve read a book called Leon and the Place Between and used it to write our own stories about what would happen if we visited a magic show.  Our grammar focus was subordinating conjunctions and different fronted adverbials. 

Please read Maymoonah’s excellent story!

In our Maths lessons, we’ve been learning how to add and subtract by using a numberline.  This is a great strategy that really helps you with mental maths.  This week, we’ve used this method to add and subtract by compensating. 

Please have a look at Inaaya’s work!

We finalised our DT project recently, which involved designing and constructing a small animal structure out of cardboard.  We learnt about shell structures and how they contain and protect the things that are in them.  It was a little fiddly, but after practising finger fluency we managed to independently join the pieces of cardboard together. 

 

Take a look at these great projects!

 

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Year 2 at the IDEA store

In year 2 we have recently visited the Ideas Store library in Whitechapel to explore all the exciting books on offer! It was so lovely to have so many parents and carers that were able to join us and come share in our childrens’ love of reading!

The children were so enthused about how many wonderful books were on offer to borrow and it was brilliant to see families taking out piles of books to read at home! Reading together is not only great for your child’s reading but is also a great way for families to spend some quality time together.

   

Thank you to all our families who continue to support their child’s reading outside of school - it really does make such a difference!