A celebration of art in Woodpeckers and Owls

Despite the impending Christmas break, last week Owls and Woodpeckers hosted their final parent celebration of 2011.

During this half term the children have been studying the life and art of the famous Vincent Van Gogh. Following a lot of preparatory art and experimentation of different techniques and mediums, each child in Woodpeckers class produced their own version of either 'Starry Night' or 'Sunflowers'. Friends and family were amazed at the impressive efforts. Here are some of their comments:

"Some very talented pupils in Year 5 - super!!"

"The quality of the artwork was very impressive."

In Owls' class, they combined art with Science, by creating their own versions of 'Starry Night' and illuminating them with lightbulbs on complex circuits they had devised themselves. Well done.

Keep watching this space for photos of this stunning work in the New Year.

By Miss Blackler

Christmas Carol Service 2011

Christmas is coming....and what a fantastic way to celebrate with our Christmas Carol Service at Testwood Baptist Church!

On Monday 12th December, teachers and children, friends and family of Oakfield, all congregated at the Church to sing lots of songs and join in worship with Ray (the Youth Pastor).

The juniors created a great tableau and re-told the nativity story, whilst the choir led us in singing some more modern Christmas songs with very inventive actions! Great fun was had by all.

Thanks to all who attended and as always, huge thanks to Ray and his team for making us feel so welcome!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Oakfield Choir Sings at ASDA!

On Tuesday 6th December, Oakfield Choir performed at ASDA in Totton. We sang christmas carols for the general public in our local supermarket. Everyone who was watching us loved the performance and clapped and cheered every time we finished a song! After singing beautiful songs for about one hour, Mc-Donalds kindly supplied us with a mouth-watering hot-chocolate each (yum yum!). The choir had a really enjoyable time singing at ASDA and we would love to do it again next year!

By Charlotte and Scott ( Yr 5 Woodpeckers)

More Fun at the Fair!

All the fun of the Fair 2011!

This afternoon Oakfield got into the festive spirit at our Christmas Fair. Friends and family of the school had a fantastic time buying handcrafted cards, crackers and christmas tree decorations all made by the children.

Ladybirds made some beautiful table decorations (as modelled by Mr Graham) and Caterpillars and Dragonflies created some cracking crackers!

Dylan (year 5) drummed up some passing trade in the Woodland and children happily had their faces and nails painted and some even had tatoos applied - the kung Foo panda transfers were definitely the most popular!

With the smell of candy floss in the air and Christmas tunes playing in the background, it was lovely to see everybody having such a wonderful time.

Thank you to everybody who came for your fantastic support and a special (extra big) thank you must go to FOO, especially Mrs Lemon, for their excellent organisation which made the event so successful.

The Greenies Vs. bugs!

Jean and Debs from Hampshire Recycling came back to work with us again today. We audited our waste...we had more rubbish than before (oh dear!) but we also had nearly double the amount of recycling (great!). We now need to REDUCE our rubbish before they visit us again in the Spring.

After our waste audit, we looked carefully at our new compost bin by the herb garden. Did you know fruit, veg and paper towels are perfect to put in your compost bin but you shouldn't put in meat or cooked food because it might attract rats!

We then looked at all the animals you might find in a compost bin - worms, milipedes, centipedes and wolf spiders to name a few. We then made some movable compost animals and have displayed them by our school council board - come and take a look!

Oakfield's Big Dig Day 2!

Another Sunday..another checklist of jobs ticked off!

On a gloriously sunny November Day, the garden team (plus a few new willing arrivals) continued work on the Herb Garden. All the groundwork for the posts has now been completed - holes were dug and huge wooden posts chopped to size!

Sub-groups also worked around the school; painting walls and rubbing down the climbing frame ready for a good lick of paint - it should look as good as new when completed. We have also ordered new netting for the frame so apologies if it is out of action for a while but we want to make sure that it is always in tip-top health and safetly condition for the children.

Many thanks to everybody who helped. It was lovely to work alongside such supportive parents and form stronger bonds with the people in our community, all your help was very much appreciated and I know the children will benefit hugely from all that we have achieved.

Mrs Wilkinson

Specialist ICT teaching at Oakfield

We are extremely fortunate to have James Harrap, Secondary ICT teacher and ICT specialist, coming in and working with the children. He is currently working with Foxes and as you can see from the photographs below, they are having lots of fun learning how to e-mail each other safely.

Molly said "I've learnt how to type an e-mail...Mr Harrap showed us a few different computer tricks that I never knew before. I can't wait to learn how to blog too!"

Mr Harrap will be working with year groups 2-6 to give the children additional specialist ICT teaching. What a fantastic opportunity for all the children and we would like to thank Mr Harrap for supporting Oakfield.

FOO Fashion Show!

Glamorous models, bright lights, the smell of hairspray in the air...it could only be Oakfield's fashion show!

With a fabulous selection of clothes from Street y'z, children were styled to perfection before hitting the catwalk! Mrs Mabbatt was great on the mike alongside Nikki Scammell.

FOO set up some exciting side stands selling a selection of jewellery, gifts, bags
and refreshments to satisfy the crowds.

Oakfield would like to say a massive thank you to FOO for organising such a successful event and also to Street y'z, meandher handbags and fancytogs jewellery for all their support at the event.

The NSPCC visit the children of Oakfield

Pat and Buddy from the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children) visited us on Wednesday 2nd November to tell us all about Childline and how they help children who are feeling worried or upset.

We are going to help Childline by raising some money for them. We get to take part in a Super Circuit event tomorrow (Tuesday 8th November) which we will be sponsored for. If we get enough sponsors, we earn badges!Pat explained that we should not ask strangers to sponsor us, we are only allowed to ask people we know.

INFORMATION FOR CHILDREN
If you are having a tough time, don't forget the Childline number is 0800 11 11, there is always a person waiting to take your call. It doesn't cost you a single penny but having a chat might help you to overcome your fears or worries.

Thanks for reading all about the NSPCC.
From the Squirrels!

Oakfield's Big Dig!

The Herb Garden starts!

After measuring up and a visit from Mr Muir, who kindly dug the foundations out for us, the Oakfield Gardening Team got started! Lots of enthusuastic and hard working parents and children gave up their Sunday to help us create an idyllic garden for all of us kids to use. The herb and flower garden will help us to learn more about Science, Geography and Healthy Eating.

Everybody worked really hard to make 8 garden planters, 1 herb wheel, 1 chicken coop and half the slabs were laid down. We also managed to tidy up the quadrangle, organise the greenhouse and give the new guinea pig hutch a new home! What a lot of work to do in one day! A MASSIVE THANK YOU to everybody who came and helped out.

As you can see below, it is all looking really good! We are continuing with work this Sunday 13th November from 1-4pm. Please pop along for a couple of hours and help out if you can spare the time!

Any help would be much appreciated!

From Squirrels class!

Awesome Egyptian Art!

Today Foxes and Badgers have been artists all day. We had a visiting artist, Caroline O'Brien, who led the day. We found out lots of information all about different Egyptian Gods and then used this to create our own banners displaying symbols about our God.

Miss Chainey and Mrs Cunningham were really impressed at how well we worked together in our groups to produce our art work. We are planning to display it around school, but if you can't wait for it to be hung up then please pop into the classrooms to have a look!

Miss Chainey and Mrs Cunningham

Owls and Woodpeckers family celebration

On Wednesday Owls and Woodpeckers had a family celebration. We (the children) planned the whole celebration ourselves. We showed our parents some acts and we told them about keeping healthy as our topic was called Feeling 100%. We had a brilliant family celebration and then once it finished our parents came back to our classes and had a look at our work.
By Scott (Woodpeckers)

Oakfield's fashion show

Love the latest fashions?
Fed up of trapsing around the shops?
Want to find a bargain?

Then come to OAKFIELD'S FASHION SHOW!
Hosted by FOO
on

THURSDAY 3RD NOVEMBER

Doors open 6.45pm

Show starts 7.00pm

Tickets are FREE!

Come and watch the models show of the latest fashions at the right price for your pocket!

10% of the proceeds from all sales will go to FOO (Friends of Oakfield) to help support our school.

Do you know how to Murf?

Today the school Council (AKA The Greenies) met up with Jean and Debra from Hampshire recycling to create an action plan to help reduce waste at Oakfield.

We went all around the school finding ways to increase the amount of recycling we could do.....we spied on Mrs Tritton in the office....peaked into Caterpillars' class and walked all around our lovely grounds.

We have decided on lots of actions, here are the first few from our action plan....
1) Make lots of posters to remind adults and children how to recycle
2) Make scrap paper trays for each classroom
3) Label rubbish and recycling bins
4) Create a compost heap
5) Creat a school recycling bank

As you can see we have lots of work ahead of us at Oakfield...good job the Greenies are on the case!

After our action plan we 'murfed' ourselves into workers at a Material Recycling Centre (MRF). It was harder than it looked to make sure all the correct bits of recycling went to the right place!

We had lots of fun and learnt a lot...thanks Jean and Debra!

Watch out for the Greenies around Oakfield completing their action plan!

Ladybird's Welly Walk

On Thursday, Ladybird's went on a Welly Walk. We each took a piece of string and went on a hunt for Autumn leaves to thread onto them. We explored lots of areas of the field to find leaves from different types of trees. They were lots of different colours! We had a list of red, orange, yellow, green and brown.

While we were out exploring we sang our Welly Walk song (to the tune of 'Here we go Round the Mulberry Bush').
"We're going on a welly walk, a welly walk, a welly walk. We're going on a welly walk to thread some Autumn leaves!"

Our threaded leaves are now hanging in our classroom. Come and see what we have been doing!

Miss Brown

Check out our posters!

Today we made reduce, re-use and recycle posters to let the school know how they can reduce rubbish in our school!

Woodpeckers get in the groove!

Last week we were joined by members of the charity Lepra, who had organised a fundraising dance day. Each class had a slot throughout the day and our Woodpecker class certainly enjoyed themselves as you'll see from the photos below. It fitted perfectly as part of our current topic on Feeling 100% as well as helping raise money for this worthwhile charity.

Oakfield Greenies get started!

Oakfield's School Council teamed up with Jean from Recycling Hampshire to look at how we recycle in school and to spread the word about how we can get even better!

First of all, Jean told us all about recycling and the ways Hampshire and the government are making England a 'greener' country.

Next, we decided on our new name...'The Greenies' and became very hands-on as we looked through all our school rubbish to see how good we were at recycling. We weighed and recorded how much rubbish and recycling we had. We are hoping to reduce the amount of rubbish and increase the amount of recyling before Jean visits us again!

Did you know that used tissues should go in the RUBBISH bin?
If something has been laminated it should go in the RUBBISH bin too?
At school, Jean said that only 'bottle shaped' plastics should go in the recycling bin!

We told everybody else in the school all that we had learned in Friday's assembly.... we will be keeping a close eye on everybody's recycling habits in the school. We also want to start recycling other items besides paper and plastic...did you know we can even recycle our handwriting pens?

Watch out for our posters to remind you!

From Eamon, Daisy, Thomas, Mia, Sarah, Dylan, Mollie, Jude, Eve, Callum, Maisey, Nathaniel, Oliver and Alice.

Owls and Woodpeckers learn about fire safety

Yesterday, Owls and Woodpeckers classes were visited by Hampshire Fire and Rescue Service to learn about fire safety and arson awareness.

They were given the opportunity to be fire investigators in a specially equipped vehicle. They also learnt about basic safety measures in the home and thought about a home fire escape plan. Ask your child about what you should do to keep yourselves and your home safe.

By Miss Blackler

Badger Class Samba Concert

Badger Class performed absolutely brilliantly in our recent Samba Concert. The children played their instruments fantastically and all of the other children, parents, grandparents and guests all enjoyed listening a great deal. I think it is one of the best concerts we have done this year.

Well done Badger Class!! You were superb as always!

From
Miss Chainey

Oakfield's Golden Rules

We have lots of golden rules and these are what they are.

We show respect for others  (do speak  politely  to  one   another).

We   listen to others (do not interrupt).

We are kind and helpful (do not hurt anybody’s  feelings).

We are gentle (do not hurt others).

We are honest (do not cover up).

We look after our property (do not waste or damage thing’s).

We always follow instructions.

Written by Fin (Yr3 - Foxes)

woodpeckers awesome street dancing!

On Tuesday 28th of June, Woodpeckers did some awesome dancing! We had a cool dancing instructor, Hayley, she was so encouraging and enthusiastic. She did the street/break dance timeline (from old skool to nu skool)
We did some magnificent moves!




Hayley did some amazing dancing in the hall also we did some pretty funky wave moves.
WE GOT MISS BLACKLER TO JOIN IN TOO!- she was really good it as well. Everyone joined in and did their best, it was fantastic. Some of us decided to take a letter home so we could join her dance club. But if you want, you can do it at school on Fridays after school (of course).






We got to play around with the moves and in the end we had a dance. Everyone was really good, especially Mia and Jessica and lets not forget Jacob, who was good too! We had an hour with Hayley, so we did lots and lots of dancing - and we thought is was absolutely brilliant!






Tuesday was ... well... I can't even describe it. WOW!
Even though we had to miss literacy!

By Caitlin

digital art

Last Thursday, two people from Year 5 and two people from Year 2 were invited to a digital art course for the afternoon.

A man called Tony came in aswell as some children from local schools and told us about the art he did (digital art.)

We started off by doing a quick collage with buttons,fabric and metal.
Once we had done that, Tony came and took a picture of our collage and then he uploaded our pitures onto the computer.Then, if you wanted, you could have your picture taken too.

Everybody logged onto a computer and listened to Tony talk about what we had to do next. So everybody went onto a programme called paint.NET.On this programme you could put all your pictures into a digital collage. We were able to change the colour of our skin and clothes, we were also able to add pictures from the internet too.

We enjoyed it and it was very fun. We learned alot.






By Charlie and Bethany.

Oakfield's Multicultural Art Week

Last week at Oakfield Primary School, everyone was busy with their art. Every class had their own topic. The whole school did lots of exciting activities which kept them very busy.

Yr 5 and Yr 6's topic was the Far East. They walked to Goatee Beach and did some exciting activities like tea writing, pebble painting and Andy Goldworthy nature pictures.

Yr 3 and 4's topic was South America. They did fun things like weaving and worry dolls. The worry dolls were made of wire and wool. The weaving was very complicated but they ended up looking beautiful.

The infants topic was Africa. They had lots of fun with their art. They made murals of people. Then they coloured them in which made them look really nice.

At the end of the week we had a massive celebration in the hall. That's where we showed off all our work to the Mum's and Dad's who were amazed. Then we had a picnic outside and a chinese dragon decided to join us! Two or three other people played the drums and the cymbals.

As you can see we had an amazing week!

By Eamon and Evie

Badgers Samba lessons!

Badgers have really enjoyed learning how to play the different Samba instruments this term. We have all loved making LOTS of noise, listening to Mr Brookes' stories all about Lettie and can't wait to show off our skills in our Samba concert on the 11th of July 2011!



We look forward to seeing you all there to share in our musical successes!

Badger class.

Badgers learn how to train a dragon!

This term Badgers class have been learning all about dragon training!

On our launch day we all came dressed as fairytale characters including; knights, princesses, jesters, wizards, Kings and even a dragon!




Throughout the day we read stories about dragons, acted out our own fairytale playscripts and even had the opportunity to visit Oakfield's very own cinema!

A fantastic day was had by all - looking forward to reading some of our own dragon stories...

The NED show visits Oakfield!

Today at Oakfield, we had a visit from Billy and his trusty friend Yo-Yo Ned, from the NED show in America.

They told us how to be champions and how to go for our goals. Billy was really funny and showed us lots of fabulous yo-yo tricks, along with great voices and sound effects too. He could've been a comedian!

NED stands for:

NEVER GIVE UP
ENCOURAGE OTHERS
DO YOUR BEST

We think all of Oakfield will remember Billy and Ned's great message. They left us feeling very happy and confident and we are looking forward to 'boomerang-ing' compliments to one another from now on!

By Jordan G and Lucy (Owls)

Introducing Jon from Brazil!

On Wednesday, a lady called Avril, from Actionaid, came to talk to us about our new adopted child.

Over the past year, each class has saved money raised from Parent Celebrations to put towards sponsoring a child from another country. This is a fantastic opportunity for us to learn about a new country and culture and also help someone who isn't lucky enough to have an Oakfield Primary School to go to!

Avril told us about Joao Guilherme Santos Lemos (his name translates to Jon). He is 7 years old and lives in Brazil. The school council chose to sponsor a child from Brazil because they had heard about the dangers and violence of living there and they wanted to help a child avoid the gangs and get a good education.

'Jon'lives in a wooden house with his grandparents and his brother and sister. His brother is called Thiago and his sister is called Carol. Jon is lucky because with our money he can have a room of his own and go to school.

Jon has already written us a letter and sends us a hug. We are going to write to him and tell him all about Oakfield!

By Tim and Amber (Owls)

Art week

Art week is a week when we have 5 days of art.

In the last couple of days we have learnt how to do weaving, and we made an Aztec mask. We made it out of clay. We are going to spray paint it – and we might paint it different colours.

Written by Teigan S (Yr 3)

Ribbit Ribbit

A strange thing happened last Tuesday!!


It was an exciting day because somebody was dressing up as a frog, so we hade to go and find some clues. There was a book called Tuesday. The book told us what happened (lots of frogs flew away on lily pads in the middle of the night).
After that we had to sort the pages out in order. It was fun!

Then it was lunch time. Suddenly the frog man came they again so we all screamed loudly and ran off. Then it was play time. Play time is where we run a round it is really fun.

Written by Mollie N.(Yr3)

Foxes and Badgers dance the Zumba!!

On Tuesday the 21 of June a dance teacher came into school her name was Hayley.

A day at Goatee Beach

As part of Multicultural Arts Week, Owls and Woodpeckers walked down to Goatee Beach to spend the day learning about Japanese Culture.

We chose to visit the beach because in our class novel, Kensuke's Kingdom by Michael Morpurgo, we are reading about a boy called Michael who becomes shipwrecked on a small island and makes his home on the beach.

We tried our hand at a number of activities; from Japanese pebble painting and writing our names in Japanese, to creating natural art landscapes and writing Haikus (a type of poem) about Goatee Beach.

We had a fantastic day and are looking forward to learning much more about Japanese culture and art this week.

Woodpeckers get some A.T.T.I.T.U.D.E!

There's much excitement in Woodpeckers class as we are busy choreographing dances ready for the end of term production 'School Daze' on Wednesday 6th July at Testwood Baptist Church. Don't miss it!

Dragon Training!

Foxes class proved that they have what it takes to be Dragon Trainers!

Everyone came dressed as a fantasy character to help us launch our new 'Dragon Training' topic. After a morning of story-telling, the children enjoyed watching a fantasy tale in our impromptu cinema.

I think we'll be picking popcorn up off the carpet for weeks to come!

Land Ho!

Owls and Woodpeckers enjoyed the start of their new topic 'Land Ho!' on Tuesday as they celebrated with a Hook afternoon!

We found out about Japan, learnt how to use chopsticks and wrote our name in Japanese using noodles!

Xavier was really pleased that he cracked how to use chopsticks and Holly F was surprised that it wasn't considered bad manners to slurp your noodles! We look forward to the rest of our topic.

Written by Jordan W and Rachel K

We've got that Friday feeling at Osmington...

The children were up with the larks this morning (6.45am to be exact) as we had to be packed and out of our rooms before breakfast. Everybody scored a 10 for their room inspection as cases were all neatly lined up outside rooms an incredible 15 minutes early!

After a hearty breakfast of sausages and hash browns we were off to our final activities....booo!

Group 1 started with archery. Maja proved to be our 'Robin Hood' of the session, hitting the bullseye with apparent ease!

Group 2 went off to face their fears and conquer the abseiling tower. Alexandra was an absolute star and was determined to crack it and even Miss Denton bounced her way down!

Soon it will be time for our last lunch and final photographs as we will be boarding the coach at 1.30pm to head home. See you soon everyone...!

Tricky Thursday Continued....

With some intrepidation, we headed to Osmington's very own lake (AKA The Puddle!) to try our hands at raft building. The children split into two groups and employed various techniques and skills to design their own floating vessel. It soon became very clear who the managers were!! After both rafts made it to the other side they promptly began to fall apart and sink.In a scene reminiscent of the Titanic, children desperately clutched onto anything and anyone still floating and managed to entertain themselves for the rest of the session. Parents be warned......what went in white, came out brown!

After a quick warm up and a change of clothes, it was time for group 1 to head to Aeroball and group 2 to try their hand at driving the Quads. Jessie and Carla won the Aeroball tournament and Josh showed himself to be a bit of a stuntman on the quad bike.

Ben enjoyed his birthday dinner, followed by birthday cake and the cafeteria joining in with his birthday song!

Excitement mounted as the children then primped and preened themselves for the disco. Mrs Venn and Miss Denton donned their hairdressing hats and armed with hairdryers and straighteners, had queues of girls (and boys) at their doors.

Disco fever took over as everybody hit the dance floor with our 'groupie' Roy, who showed us his groovy moves. We returned home tired and happy.

We can't believe the week has gone so quickly, our last activities tomorrow are archery and abseiling. We promise not to leave anyone at the top of the tower before we leave for home.

Tune in tomorrow to find out who the new 'Robin Hood' of Oakfield is.....

Tricky Thursday at Osmington...

Good morning everyone!

Despite another good night everyone is finding it harder to get up now. The adults are waking up the children rather than the other way around!

We had a very special start to the day because it is Ben's birthday. In the breakfast hall, Ben had 'Happy Birthday' sung to him as he opened all his cards...including one from Cheryl Cole! You can tell from the photographs that Ben was very impressed by this and he has displayed all his cards proudly in his bedroom!

After another quick room inspection (which included 'hotel style' folded toilet paper and inventive folding of clothes in bags!) it was off to the first activities of the day.

Group 1 has been rifle shooting. Everybody was a really good shot! Thomas particularly enjoyed it and proved to be a great marksman.

Group 2 went into the 'Tunnels of Doom' and helped Mrs Venn through it! Each member of the group went deep underground, into the depths of the hillside. This activity really showed how supportive our children are of each other and they did us proud. The instructor was incredibly impressed with them.

This afternoon we are raft-building...check the blog later tonight to see who will survive...

Osmington Wicked Wednesday part 2........

The children were surprised by our two lunchtime visitors today - Mrs Smith and Mrs Isaac, who is replacing Miss Stephens for the rest of the holiday. Mrs Smith was really impressed with how much the children ate, how well behaved they were and how tidy their rooms were!

After fuelling up on burgers and chips we headed back to the Olympic Sailing Centre once again. Whilst Miss Denton, Mrs Venn and Mrs Isaac hob-nobbed with team GB (Mrs Isaac even helped them land their boat!) the children got down to the serious task of kayaking!

Jordan G was an absolute star for overcoming his fears and having a brilliant time teamed with Winnie the instructor. Luckily no-one was taken out by a rogue paddle and everybody had fun splashing about in the shelter of the double harbour.

More curry for tea, then it was time for room inspections. Once again, we were treated to dance routines, beat-boxes and sweets and jokes...also spotless rooms! The children are certainly challenging each other to win the 'Best room of the week' prize.

The sound of campfire songs could be heard for miles as we all gathered around the flames on the headland and sang silly songs, heard stories and played games. Oakfield then had a special treat once all the other groups had left. We all snuggled closer to the fire and ate smores (toasted marshmallows sandwiched between chocolate digestive biscuits) whilst the adults burnt their hands and singed their eyebrows...all good fun!

Tomorrow we are raft building, rifle shooting and navigating tunnel trails..we can't believe it is our last full day tomorrow already!

Night night everyone!

Wicked Wednesday at Osmington...

Day 3 and it is getting harder to wake up...

Some children had exactly 6 minutes between getting up and room inspections this morning! The fresh air, excitement and jam-packed days are beginning to show! Despite some sleepy heads, everybody did sleep well and had a good night.

Perking up after a hearty breakfast of sausages and scrambled egg....and toast...and cereal...and fruit...and yogurt, we all went off to our first activities of the day.

Group 1 have been climbing the heights of the indoor wall and Tim was a star at getting to the top.

Group 2 have been trampolining - we love the funny faces you can pull when you are in the air. Jemma showed us her 'swivel hip' skills, Maja showed us her luminous socks and Isaac showed us his socks with holes in!

After lunch, both groups are off to the Olympic Sailing Centre to go kayaking....check the blog tonight to see who stayed dry!

Terrific Tuesday part 2....

Terrific Tuesday part 2........

After lunch we all headed off to the Olympic Sailing Centre at Portland Bill to test our sailing skills. Amber had a Titanic moment at the bow of the drascombe and Alexandra's group got soaked by a 'Tsunami'. The American, GB and Norwegian Olympic sailing teams were all out on the water and gave our group lots of waves and encouragement!

The children were delighted to have hot dogs and curry for tea, followed by crumble and custard. Mrs Venn is enjoying not having to do any washing up!

Our evening activity was called 'Wash-out', the children had to guess words written in the air with their bottoms, make the world's longest human chain and create an advert to promote PGL! A fantastic time was had by all!

Room inspections continue to go well....parents you would be amazed at how tidy your children are being! The children are awarded points every morning and evening and some children are going above and beyond the call of duty to gain those extra brownie points.....plate clearing and make over provision for adults to name but a few! We were particularly impressed when walking in to room 447 to find the cosmetic counter below!

Terrific Tuesday at Osmington...

Day 2 at Osmington...

After the usual chatting and giggling, all the children slept well and we had a very successful first night. We were all woken up by glorious sunshine streaming through our windows and the view over the bay is stunning.

After filling up on a massive cooked breakfast, we have headed off to our first activities of the day. Activity group 1 (Alexandra, Clarissa, Holly S, Jessie, Carla, Nicole, Emily, Tim, Xavier, Jordan G, Zac and Thomas) have been fencing. Zac has been providing some hilarious sound effects and lots of dodgy french accents can be heard throughout the hall! Tim is proving to be a dab hand at fencing whilst Carla and Jordan G were the last 'men' standing when playing 'catch the fencing glove!'

Activity group 2 (Lucy, Holly F, Maja, Amber, Rachel, Holly W, Jemma, Ben, Isaac, Jordan W, Billy and Josh)have all been aero-balling and it is getting quite competitive. Holly F is showing off her trampolining skills and as you can see, great fun is being had by all!

Watch out for the next update later on today....

Monday Mania at Osmington!

After lots of hugs and waves we set off to Osmington today. After hundreds of "Are we nearly there yets" we arrived at Osmington. The sea is stunning and it is very windy. After checking into our rooms and meeting our instructor, called Roy, we were showed all around the site and then played football.

Dinner was fish fingers and lasagne with heaps of bread, salad, pasta and chips. Everyone enjoyed the food and we are all eating lots.

After a room inspection (Miss Denton style!)it was time to play wacky races. Lucy did a fantastic impresion of a chicken laying an egg and Xavier proved to be very co-ordinated!

We are all having a fantastic time.....look out for the next update tomorrow!

School Tour

Owls have now learnt how to make a rolling slideshow! Here are some funky photos of our fabulous, newly designed, classrooms!

What do you think of them?

We love them!

Woodpeckers and Owls Learn to Blog!

This Thursday afternoon, Woodpeckers and Owls got together to learn how to blog. They will now be able to tell you about all the fun things they are learning and all the amazing activities they take part in!

Woodpeckers venture into the Dragon's Den!

Today, Woodpeckers have been testing out their entrepreneurial talents by pitching their chocolate bar designs to the 'Dragons'. These pitches were the result of several weeks of hard work - designing and conducting questionnaires, collating and presenting the results, brainstorming and testing ideas to come up with their final presentations.

The dragons asked some tough questions about the profitability of the children's business proposals, which they confidently answered under pressure.

Miss Blackler said, "The children have been looking forward to entering the Dragon's Den and have been working exceptionally hard. They have learnt about how businesses work and have developed useful skills in ICT as they produced their questionnaires on Microsoft Publisher."

All the groups made a good pitch for some investment, but the overall winners were Emma, Carmen and Libby with their 'Choc Shock' bar.

Felicity Aston comes to Oakfield!

On Monday 9th May 2011 Oakfield had a very special visitor.  She was an Antarctica explorer called Felicity Aston.

Felicity spoke to us about Antarctica, and she brought her exploring kit with her.  Some children like Maisie (Yr3) and Max (Yr4) got to try on some Antarctic exploring kit.

Felicity has a big red jacket and a big black hat that keeps her warm in the South Pole.  Felicity taught us how we could scare off a polar bear by making ourselves look big, and rustling a plastic bag.  She taught us about frost-bite and that the animals in Antarctica are not afraid of people because they have never been hurt.

We all really really enjoyed Felicity coming to Oakfield and lots of us want to be Antarctic explorers (but some of us don't)!

Little Canada Pictures

Final Little Canada Post!

We have just completed our final activities at Little Canada and the children are now in the shop spending the last of their pocket money. Some lovely gifts are on their way!!

Everyone really enjoyed Dragons Quest and Abseiling this morning, even though Dragons Quest was pretty challenging.

Everybody did fantastically at Abseiling. The whole of Miss Stephens' group had at least one go and most of Miss Chainey's group had a go too. Ellie, Sarah, Kate and Isaac managed to have at least 3 goes each! Very brave!

I have been so proud of everybody on our trip to Little Canada and would like to thank the children for such a fantastic trip.

Well done!!

You have all been SUPERB as always! :)

Miss Chainey

Little Canada Update 3!

We have all just finished our final breakfast together at Little Canada.

We are now off to get ready for our last two activities - abseiling and Dragons Quest. Everyone is very excited, as well as being nervous about the abseiling.

We have had such a good time here, that none of us want it to end!

Miss Chainey

Little Canada Update 2!

We have all been having a fantastic time at Little Canada over the last 2 days.

All of our activities have been superb fun and the children are getting a great deal out of them. Many of them have been very brave and are over coming a lot of their fears, which is brilliant and I am extremely proud of them all. They have all grown in confidence as the week has progressed and have all given everything a try.

The giant swing has proved to be a favourite activitiy for the children and myself and Miss Stephens alike as well as The Matrix, fencing, aeroball and the low ropes.

They are still continuing to eat like horses, even going back for seconds at the salad bar and fruit bowl!!

Everyone had a great time at the camp fire last night. We got to sing lots of funny songs, hear silly stories and eat our smores (toasted marshmellow in between two chocolate biscuits), which were yummy!!

The disco tonight was lots of fun and everybody had a good time boogying the night away! The girls put in some extra special effort in to making themselves look lovely (as did the boys!!).

We are all really looking forward to abseiling and Dragons Quest tomorrow.

Miss Chainey

Photo's from our Australian Outback topic