Oak Week Beginning 5th February 2024
Our lessons in Oak this week have featured even more links to developing positive health than normal as we have been focussing our minds for Children's Mental Health week. The theme this year has been 'My Voice Matters' and we have been working on developing self esteem and positive thinking methods to help this. Emotional literacy is an important tool in helping our children communicate effectively about how they are feeling and explain what they are thinking, we have been building on these skills too. Throughout each day we have been finding opportunities to reflect on how we have been feeling as well as doing some explicit activities focussed on how we think about ourselves. In addition we have explored different methods to calm down such as focused observations, following certain balls around a screen, and 4 - 7 - 8 breathing, where you breathe in for 4 seconds, hold for 7 seconds then release over 8 seconds We have created a display of the work we have created a photo is in the gallery.
We have been very creative this week and started to make the lino print blocks which will use to print onto fabric next half term and then sew to create a pencil case. The children found it very tricky to use the lino cutting tools at first but they got much better the more they used them. It was quite fiddley and a few children changed their designs once they realised it was easier to keep the designs simple. The lino cutters were very sharp and the children had to work cautiously and follow the safety guidance to avoid any accidents. It was very good for them to learn a new skill especially one that took great patience and care.
In Computing we have learnt how to create a loop code which draws repeated shapes to draw some very fancy patterns, changing the number of repeats, the angle of repeat and the number of sides on the initial shape. They also experimented with different colours too. In Topic we have been considering some statements about the region of Campagna in Italy. The statements they had to think about were: Campagna is a great place to live and go on holiday, Not many people live in the north of Italy because of the Alps, and Campagna is a better place to live than Worcestershire. The children had to use their knowledge of the region together with thematic maps and their geographical understanding to give a detailed explanation of their reasons. I was very impressed with the way they used the facts to help back up their reasoning.
To finish of our week we helped our wellbeing with a walk in the sunshine! Our usual session in the woods had to be suspended due to the rain but we had lots of fun nonetheless. We had fun splashing in puddles and being with our friends. When we arrived at the meadow, we went to the top of the hill and shouted out the affirmations we have been practising all week in class, to promote positive thinking and improve our self esteem. I'm sure some of you may have heard us !! It was a great way to finish the week off, to see so many rosy cheeks and smiley faces.
The Oak Team hope you all have a restful half term and have lots of chances to spend some quality time together.
