Oak

Welcome to Oak Class!

Oak Class is home to our Nursery, Reception, Year 1 & Year 2 learners at Langdale. We enjoy learning in lots of exciting ways in our wonderful classroom provision and outdoor area.

This year, the adults in Oak Class are:

Teacher/EYFS Lead: Miss B Storey

HLTA: Mr D Pegg

TA: Miss A-J Pattinson

We do PE on Mondays (with Mr Pegg) and Fridays (with Miss Storey). Children in Reception upwards should keep PE kits in school for use in these sessions.

To find out more about life in Early Years (Nursery & Reception) at our school, please see the link to the EYFS page of our website below. We hope you enjoy reading about all we get up to in our busy learning environment down below!

A huge thank you to Fred's Bookshop in Ambleside for letting us come and exchange our World Book Day tokens. Every child across school now has a book to bring home and enjoy! We had lots of fun sharing our favourite stories as a class and enjoying lots of fun activities to go along with them. Oak Class are super readers!

Spring 2

Traditional Tales

Jack and the Beanstalk, Cinderella, The Three Little Pigs, Little Red Riding Hood and many more...! We look forward to getting to know these stories really well this half term in lots of exciting ways.

Spring 1

People Who Help Us

This half term, EYFS and KS1 will be looking at the topic 'People Who Help Us'. As part of this, we have lots of exciting trips and visitors planned. Keep checking back to see what we have been up to!

Where better to start with 'People Who Help Us?' than with the volunteers that save people in the fells all around our school. Thanks to Nick from Langdale and Ambleside Mountain Rescue Team for talking to us about some of the ways you help people in particularly dangerous situations in the mountains. We also had a go at rescuing Bret who had 'broken his ankle' on the mountain! Super team work from Oak Class carrying him down on a stretcher!

We are absolutely loving seeing our Reception learners starting to use their phonics knowledge to write about their adventures. Children enjoyed reflecting on their fantastic morning at the fire station in the writing lessons with Miss Storey.

Autumn 2

In Oak Class, we love to discover all about celebrations all across the world (any excuse for a party!). We have been learning all about Diwali and some of the traditions that go along with it. Children have designed their own Mehndi patterns and have been making Rangoli patterns in lots of different ways. We have also enjoyed thinking about the story of Rama and Sita and how this is important for those celebrating Diwali this week. Happy Diwali!

Children have been showing their respect for fallen soldiers all around the world as we have been learning about the importance of poppies this Remembrance Day. KS1 have written some moving and thoughtful acrostic poetry and EYFS have enjoyed decorating their own poppies and creating a wreath for our whole school church service.

Remember, remember the 5th of November! This week, EYFS have enjoyed loads of fun bonfire night activities in the lead up to Fireworks Night. We have used toilet rolls to print our own fireworks and experimented using marbles to create explosion-like marks. Some real team work needed for this one! Children have also made some wonderful marks in the fireworks glitter tray. KS1 have written some brilliant setting descriptions using their senses to describe what you might experience on November 5th.

Autumn 1

We absolutely loved visiting Windermere Outdoor Activity Centre on Lake Windermere to take part in some open water canoeing. Children in Nursery and Reception enjoyed having races, playing games and singing songs in their rafted canoes whilst KS1 got to venture further out onto the lake in partners. All children were able to stand up in their boats (some even did the Grand Old Duke of York!). Amazing!

We loved our History workshop with Nick Credible from Dantastic Education all about Great Explorers! Nick had actually been to the Arctic and brought lots of gear and artefacts for us to have a look at (and try on!).

Loads of amazing learning linking to our 'Great Explorers' history topic for this half term. We are ready to explore!

Summer 2- Where shall we go on holiday?

This half term, we have been looking at the topic 'Where shall we go on holiday?'. As part of this, we have enjoyed a pretend camping holiday at Baysbrown campsite in Langdale. Children thought hard about all the steps we needed to take to prepare for the holiday including packing and route planning. We then set up our tents and had a brilliant day on camp!

This was brilliant preparation for our KS1 children who stayed overnight at this year's whole school camp.

Finally, we rounded off the topic and the school year with a trip to Piel Island. The trip on the boat certainly gave us an adventurous, holiday feel! We were lucky enough to see the colony of seals that live off the island and explore the ruins of Piel Castle. A wonderful adventure that will inspire learning for the final week of term.

Year 1 Phonics Screening- Useful Resources!

Below, you will find links to some useful Read, Write, Inc resources to assist your child with their phonics learning at home. These resources and additional games can be a fun way to help your child prepare for their Year 1 phonics screening assessment in the Summer Term. Enjoy!

Swimming Update!

We are so proud of the progress Reception-Year 2 have made during their weekly swimming lessons over the last 2 half terms. Children can all now swim a width of the pool with their woggles, remembering to put their chins and faces in the water. Many of them are now swimming without woggles too! Wonderful to see their water confidence and abilities grow. A vital skill for living in the Lake District.

Summer 1

What a wonderful and warm welcome back after Easter we have had. We have begun this half term with a visit from one of our local farming families. They explained the process of lambing and spring time jobs on the farm. We then got to say hello to 3 of their new arrivals...

Our topic for this half term's learning is 'How Does Your Garden Grow?'. Keep checking this page for regular updates.

Spring 2

A big welcome back after the half term Oak Class! This half term we will be exploring the topic of weather and new life as we begin to think about Easter. We will be going Out and About every Friday morning as per usual and we will also be swimming at the Langdale Hotel every Tuesday afternoon (Reception & Year 1).

We are very excited to welcome you all back!

Spring 1- Animals!

This half term, we have been learning all about animals. In particular, we have been asking 'where in the world do animals come from?'. We enjoyed a trip to South Lakes Safari Zoo to see lots of animals that come from further afield. Children also loved writing about some animals that live a bit closer to home at the Wainwright Animal Shelter, Cumbria. We wrote our own versions of Rod Campbell's 'Dear Zoo' ('Dear Wainwright Shelter') and then went to say hello to some of the dogs and cats at the shelter! Fun and purposeful writing. Well done Oak Class!

Tarn Hows Waterfall Walk

Oak Class love their Friday mornings! This week, we went to experience the waterfalls near Tarn Hows. The children took part in Sense Stops where we quietly listened, looked and felt what was in our environment. Some amazing adjectives came out of this and we used 'relaxing' as inspiration for the background music choice in the following video. We hope it helps you feel like you were there with us!

Welcome back Oak Class! 2022-23

It has been wonderful to see our children back in school over the first few weeks of the Autumn term. It has been lovely to welcome some new faces to our class group too and great to see them settle so quickly into life at Langdale.

This half term, our learning topic is 'What makes me special?'. We look forward to thinking all about this as the term continues.

PE in Oak Class will take place on Thursdays. Children in Reception and Year 1 should bring PE kits to be kept at school for these sessions.

We look forward to sharing our learning across this year with you!

Summer 1

Farming

This has been such an exciting topic for Oak Class this half term. We have learned SO much about traditional farming in the Lake District and beyond. We have thought about where our food comes from and how the processes of farming have changed over time. We have also been fortunate enough to visit 2 different types of farm. A big thank you to the Growing Well farm at Sizergh Barn for talking to the children about how vegetables and crops are farmed and to Bobby in Y2 and family for showing us around his farm at the end of our valley.

Spring 1- How do we travel around?

This half term, Oak have been learning all about transport and how we travel around. This has included making teddy bear parachutes in DT, learning about old and new ways of travelling in History and even creating our own junk model methods of transport in Art.

This topic was rounded off brilliantly with an Out and About train trip from Windermere to Oxenholme Train Station. We love underpinning learning in the early years with these hands-on experiences. Our Oak children are now experts at constantly managing real-world risks and using these to inform the decisions they make.

See some highlights below....!

Chinese New Year!

Oak Class enjoyed welcoming in the year of the tiger as part of our whole school Chinese New Year celebrations.

The day was filled with lots of exciting learning. Fine motor skills practice using chopsticks for lunch and staplers to make our class dragon was a highlight. Even our youngest children have been practicing their mark making, writing the mandarin Chinese numerals across the provision. Children also enjoy using the iPad to take their own pictures and record their creations during free play (see the amazing 'Chinese dragon'!)

Christmas in Oak Class!

Outdoor Classroom Day! (4.11.21)

For outdoor classroom day, we got to see a hot air balloon inflating and had a yummy lunch at Stickle Barn.

We also enjoyed an outdoor phonics hunt, gross motor art activities and a lovely walk up Sticklegyhll!

Autumn 1- Welcome back Oak Class!

It has been absolutely wonderful welcoming the children back to Oak Class over the past few weeks. We have enjoyed getting to know the faces joining us across nursery, reception and year 1. It has been great to see the children getting to know each other and learning together!

The adults in Oak Class this year will be:

Miss Storey- Class Teacher (EYFS Lead)

Mrs Morrison- Senior Teaching Assistant

Mr Pegg- Senior Teaching Assistant

Mrs Scott- Teaching Assistant (Out and About- Friday AM)

We will be doing PE on a Tuesday and Wednesday this half term. Every Friday morning we will also be heading out and about in the minibus to discover more about our incredible and unique local area.

We can't wait to keep playing, learning and exploring as the term continues! Keep an eye out to see what we've been getting up to...

Summer term 

We love messy play! We had lots of fun mixing colour, washing up liquid and water to make rainbow bubbles!

-TROLLS-

We went on a troll hunt around the forest to find the famous Lake District trolls! 

We also made troll biscuits and had lots of fun getting messy with a troll tuff tray! 

Spring Term 2021

While the children all worked very hard on their remote learning, all of us were delighted to be back at school with their friends and teachers in our wonderful learning space. Our topic this half term was traditional tales and the children loved retelling The Three Little Pigs, Jack and the Beanstalk and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We made houses of sticks in the forest for our pigs, hoisted letters up the beanstalk to the giant and cooked porridge for the three bears. As the weather warmed up we carried out lots of outdoor learning particularly investigating signs of spring - finding a toad that had just come out of hibernation, planting seeds and watering the flowers. Indoors we enjoyed programming our new robot Beebot and doing lots of fantastic painting. As Easter approached we learned about the Easter story and made crosses to put in the Easter garden we planted. We also enjoyed lots of learning connected to Easter Egg hunts.

Autumn Term 2 - 2020

What an exciting time it has been in Oak Class. For most of the children this has been their first Langdale School Christmas and they have really enjoyed all the special activities that this magical time of year brings. There have been daily adventures with our Elf on the Shelf, Elfie, who gets into mischief when we aren't here and today gave the children a fun treasure hunt where we practised our phonics to read the clues. The reception children have made super progress with their phonics and can now read ditties - very short stories. We have been as busy as Santa's Elves getting lots of lovely surprises ready for our families in our art and science activities. We have read lots of Christmassy stories such as "Dream Snow" and "Father Christmas Needs a Wee" which have also helped us develop our maths skills. We had a wonderful party with Beech Class playing lots of games. The children were so well behaved at the Christmas dinner on Tuesday. It was a pleasure to be out with such grown up children. The highlight on Friday was the premier of the Langdale School 2020 Nativity Film. We really enjoyed seeing ourselves and our friends on the big screen. As the term come to an end, I would just like to say how proud I am of all that the Oak children have achieved this term, settling in and learning such a lot of new things. 

Stories with Mrs Parkyn

Autumn in Oak

The start of the year for our youngest learners is spent getting to know each other, our local area and how life in school works. We have been spending lots of time in our woods looking at the changes that Autumn brings, carrying out science, maths, art and construction activities. The class has enjoyed getting out and about on walks and in the minibus. 

The reception children have started the exciting journey of learning to read. The children are really enjoying their Read Write Inc phonics lessons as we learn to read and write our phase 1 sounds. We have been enjoying lots of brilliant books such as Leaf Man, The Gruffalo and the Smartest Giant. We have had fun responding to them with activities inside and out. In maths, the children have been matching, sorting and comparing amounts. We have played lots of maths games and explored patterns. Our maths has really been helped by our weekly cookery session and sand and water play.