Stretham Community Primary School
Welcome
Rabbit Class
Useful Information
Week Beginning 15th July 2024
Well, this will be the last post on our Rabbit Class webpage for this academic year and we thought you'd like to see some photos of our final visit to Forest School.
It's been a super year for all the children in Rabbit Class and we couldn't be more proud of them. Thank you so much for all your help, support and friendly smiles this year. We wish you all a very enjoyable summer break xx
Week Beginning 8th July 2024
A few highlights from the week include:
~ learning about Stonehenge in History
~ exploring language for position and movement in Maths
~ discussing families and what makes our families special in PSHE
~ exploring the variety of animals in different habitats across the world
~ finding out what is going on at our partner farm in Wales via a Zoom call with Megan the farmer
~ and not forgetting our 'Step & Stride' sponsored walk!
Week Beginning 1st July 2024
Another jam-packed week! In Science, we enjoyed exploring microhabitats in the Explorers' Area and recording what and where we found various invertebrates. As promised, there are also some photos of our butterfly release, from the end of last week.
Week Beginning 24th June 2024
What an exciting week it's been with Sports Day, our class assembly, transition morning and butterflies emerging from their chrysalides! There is always so much happening at this time of the year. The children came back from their first morning in Wren Class buzzing with excitement and enthusiasm - it was lovely to see. Here are a few photos from the week so far. Butterfly photos to follow.
Week Beginning 17th June 2024
It was the Premier Sport Kickathon this week. We were all invited to kick or throw a ball as hard as possible to see what maximum ball speeds we could reach. We all did ourselves proud and have the certificates to show for it. Let's hope it raises lots of sponsor money for the school.
In Computing this week, we used digital drawing tools (Scratch) to create an image. We all designed our own monsters - next week we will programme them to move!
Week Beginning 10th June 2024
We finished our cave paintings this week by adding some prehistoric animals using stencils and our own hand prints. We also learnt all about our ancestors being hunter-gatherers in the early Stone Age and played a fun game to consolidate our learning.
Week Beginning 3rd June 2024
Well, we've had a busy first week back after half term. We are all very excited about our new topic - The Stone Age. We enjoyed listening to 'Stone Age Boy', by Satoshi Kitamura. In this story, a young boy trips and falls down a dark hole to find himself in a very different time and place - Stone Age Britain! Before writing a description of the Stone Age camp, we used drama to explore the various jobs that people might have been doing.
In Art, we explored cave paintings of the Stone Age - we're going to have a go at creating our own! First, we had to produce a textured cave background using paints and a sponge. We will add prehistoric animals using stencils and our handprints in the next lesson.
Week Beginning 20th May 2024
We ended this half term with a fantastic trip to Wicken Fen! Despite the very wet weather, we had a brilliant time learning about how life used to be in the Fens. After learning lots about local History in the classroom, it was great to explore real life artefacts in the Fen cottage and workshop. We also extended our scientific knowledge of living things and their habitats with an excellent pond dipping session. All in all, a super day! Thank you so much for supporting this trip with your contributions and making arrangements for transport.
Week Beginning 13th May
In English, we finished reading a BBC version of Little Red Riding Hood. We had fun imagining the picnic shared by the characters at the end of the story (all except the wolf of course!) and the conversations that might have taken place. We looked at how direct speech is used in stories and then even had a go at including some in our own writing. This week we also enjoyed helping with the preparations for decorating our Stretham Feast float! We chose 'The Twits' as our Roald Dahl book, as we enjoyed listening to it in class so much.
Week Beginning 6th May 2024
Another jam-packed week with lots of super learning. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to the Explorers' Area on Tuesday. It was great to observe frogs and tadpoles in the pond as we have learnt all about the life cycle of the frog in Science. We got to cook potatoes on the fire this time - delicious! After our recent drumming workshop, it was also good to be able to practise playing rhythms in time with Mr Froment on his guitar.
Week Beginning 29th April 2024
We continued learning about plants this week in Science. We want to find out what a seed needs to grow into a healthy plant so, after lots of discussion in groups, we took some beans and decided how we could test what conditions give us the most healthy plant. We are going to grow them under different conditions so that we can compare them. For example, some of our beans won't get any water, others won't have soil and some won't get much sunlight because we are going to grow them under a box. We predict that the beans with soil, water and sunlight will grow into the most healthy plants.
Earlier in the week, we thoroughly enjoyed a brilliant drumming workshop with Tim, a visitor from Rhythmicity. We met 'Sammy the Spider' and used our instruments to help tell the story of the day he made some rather special friends.
Week Beginning 22nd April 2024
What a busy week it's been for Rabbit Class! A few highlights include:
- exploring the village of Stretham, using our map skills and looking for clues to the past, thinking particularly about what different buildings may have been used for.
- writing a recount of our walk around Stretham.
- building on our knowledge of fractions, thinking about quarters and thirds.
- investigating the strength of different 3D shapes, made from paper, and testing just how strong paper cylinders can be by applying an increasing number of books!
- catching up with Farmer Megan from Wales (via zoom) and finding out all about the calves on the farm; a great follow-up to our learning about life cycles in Science. We all had questions to ask. We also proudly announced the name of the dairy cow we have been allowed to name - Oreo!
Week Beginning 15th April 2024
We started our new topic on plants in Science. After recapping some of our prior knowledge, we explored seed dispersal and the different ways a seed may travel away from the plant or tree it came from. We had a go at making helicopter seeds from paper and observing how well they travelled inside and outside.
In DT, we conducted a test to see which 3D shape was the most stable. Using the same piece of modelling clay, we made a sphere, a cuboid, a pyramid and a cylinder. We placed each shape on a piece of card and then tilted the card until the shape toppled or rolled and recorded the height at which this happened. We discovered a low pyramid and a cuboid were the most stable.
Week Beginning 25th March 2024
Well it may have been a shorter week, but we managed to squeeze in a lot - including our class assembly and watching the fantastic production, The Bee Musical, by Years 3 and 4. After lots of super learning this term, we enjoyed making Easter cards and chocolate nests today.
Wishing you all a very enjoyable Easter break!
Week Beginning 18th March 2024
As part of our work on data handling, in Computing lessons, we will be looking at digital pictograms. This week, one of our activities was to use a range of attributes to describe people. It was a bit like playing 'Guess Who?'
In Maths we have been learning all about measure. We have already looked at length, height, mass, volume and capacity and this week we learnt about measuring temperature. Here we are using thermometers to measure the temperatures of various beakers of water.
Week Beginning 11th March 2024
We love Science Week at Stretham! As well as a visit to a very wet and muddy Explorers’ Area this week, we enjoyed lots of Science to celebrate British Science week. The theme this year was ‘time’ and Mrs Dunham challenged the whole school to make a pendulum that swings for exactly 30 seconds. We had a lot a fun exploring pendulums and finding out what happens when you change the length of the string, the weight on the end of the string, or just how far you pull the weight back to start it swinging. We also carried out an investigation to find out what happens to our heartrate during exercise, we explored the diversity of different jobs in science and we looked at the frog life cycle in more detail. What a busy week!
Week Beginning 4th March 2024
What a fantastic week we've had, celebrating World Book Day! We fully embraced this year's theme of animals. We started the week with a visit from The Animal Experience which was brilliant; we particularly enjoyed cuddling the meerkats. We also did some research into African animals, which inked well to one of the stories we have read this week, The Ugly Five by Julia Donaldson. We enjoyed many stories this week, as well as learning how to draw a story character and writing our own book reviews.
Week Beginning 26th February 2024
We've been measuring in Maths this week. We had to measure the lengths and heights of different objects both inside and outside the school, using the units metres and centimetres. We also thought about the language we use when comparing measurements (taller, tallest, shorter, shortest etc.).
Week Beginning 12th February 2024
In Music, we have been learning to play repeated rhythms to fit phrases about animals that you might see on safari. This week we used percussion instruments to play the rhythms in time to some African music, thinking carefully about the dynamics.
In Art, we have been looking at the colourful designs of the ceramics artist Clarice Cliff. Using her work as our inspiration, we decorated paper plates by first using bright, colourful paint strokes and then adding a contrasting pattern by blowing black paint across the plate.
Week Beginning 5th February 2024
This week, we enjoyed a visit from Mr Sheldrick who brought along his vintage car, an Austin Seven Box Saloon, for us to look at. It really helped us to understand some differences between cars from the past and present.
In Geography, we did some research on Kenya using atlases and fact files.
Week Beginning 29th January 2024
In Art, we made clay tiles with repeating patterns this week. We used a variety of different tools and objects to cut out the tile and create the patterns.
In English, we enjoyed listening to the story 'The Storm Whale' by Benji Davies. It is about a young boy, called Noi, who lives with his dad. He finds a baby whale washed up on the beach after a storm and decides to take it home to care for it. We used role-play to imagine the scene when Noi's dad finds a baby whale in their bath tub! We then wrote letters to Noi to persuade him that he really should return the whale to the sea. Here are some pictures of our role-play; perhaps you can guess which of us are playing Noi and which are playing his dad.
Week Beginning 22nd January 2024
More Art this week - this time, some painting! We worked hard to develop our painting skills, thinking about how to grip the brush, load it with the correct amount of paint and then use continuous flowing strokes.
In Computing this week, we were programming. First we had to predict where Beebot would arrive and then we had a go at programming Beebot ourselves, debugging when necessary.
Week Beginning 15th January 2024
We started our new topic on animals, including humans, this week. We had a really good discussion about the features of animals and what makes an animal an animal! In groups, we carried out a sorting activity to revisit the various features of the five main vertebrate animal groups (mammals, fish, birds, amphibians and reptiles).
In Art this week, we explored the use of tones in shading,
Week Beginning 8th January 2024
This week we have been learning about the American artist Romare Bearden. His family moved to the Harlem neighbourhood of New York when he was a child and much of his art was inspired by the buildings, people, music and poetry from his early life. We looked at some of the collages he created using different types of paper: wallpaper, newspapers, magazine pictures and hand-painted papers. Using his collage, 'The Block', as our inspiration (a collage Bearden created as a tribute to the streets of Harlem), we had a go at creating our own collages of a street! At one point, it appeared that every surface in the classroom was covered in paper but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!
In Geography this week, we were naming and locating the 7 continents and 5 oceans of the world, using globes and maps.
Home Learning for Monday 8th January 2024
Week Beginning 11th December 2023
To everyone who came to see 'The Twinkly Nativity', we hope you enjoyed it! We had so much fun performing to you all - what an experience. The classroom was buzzing with excitement this week and we are so proud of each and every member of Rabbit Class. Thank you to all who helped with costumes, learning lines and just generally supporting the children. A fantastic effort from everyone!
Week Beginning 4th December 2023
What a week! As well as some reading, writing and maths, we have been very busy rehearsing for our KS1 production, The Twinkly Nativity. We can't wait to share it with you next week! What with that, and Christmas Jumper Day and a trip into Cambridge for the pantomime, this week has been full of excitement and festive cheer!
Week Beginning 27th November 2023
It was time to make our healthy wraps this week! We have spent the last few weeks learning about food groups and a balanced diet, taste-testing different combinations and deciding on our fillings. So this week, we got to make our wraps, design the packaging, then eat them and finally evaluate them. Delicious and very nutritious!
We have also been working on our mental maths skills this week. We enjoyed using an online game to practise quick recall of number bonds.
Week Beginning 20th November 2023
This week, Rabbit and Hedgehog Classes joined together to celebrate the end of our topic on castles, with a special 'Banquet Day'. The children arrived in fabulous costumes and thoroughly enjoyed a day of activities in The Great Hall of Stretham Castle! As well as a banquet with singing and dancing, the children enjoyed all sorts of different castle-themed activities; making and testing a catapult, weaving a place mat, making a crown and trying their hand at some court jester skills, to name but a few. A great time was had by all!
Week Beginning 13th November 2023
This week marks 'Anti-Bullying and Kindness Week' and children across the whole school have been enjoying a variety of different activities. In Rabbit Class, we all thought very carefully about how we can be kind with our words and actions. We each listed 5 different ways we can be kind to others in the petals of our own personal 'Kindness Flower'.
We thoroughly enjoyed the Stacking Festival at the sports centre in Soham this week. We rotated round different stations in our groups, trying all sorts of different activities - who knew you could do so much with stacking cups? Everyone demonstrated a fantastic attitude and should feel very proud of themselves!
In Design Technology this week, we were tasting different combinations of protein, vegetables and dairy foods for our balanced wraps.
Week Beginning 6th November 2023
We really enjoyed our Science lesson this week. In this unit, we have been exploring everyday materials and their different properties. Before the half term break, we carried out a simple test to investigate which materials are waterproof. This week, we used wax crayons to see if we could make cotton fabric waterproof. Did you know, it was a scientist called Charles Macintosh who was the inventor of the first ever 'Mackintosh' raincoat? He loved Science and it was when he was exploring with chemicals that he became the first person to create waterproof fabric by sandwiching a layer of liquid rubber in-between two pieces of material.
In Design Technology this week, we thought about food! We looked at the different food groups and then designed three balanced meals for our restaurant menu.
Week Beginning 30th October 2023
In Maths this week, we have been looking at subtraction. Our main focus has been subtracting ones from a 2-digit number. We started with numbers below 20, then used our bonds-to-10 to help with subtractions from a tens number (eg. 40 - 6 or 60 - 8). By the end of the week we were tackling subtractions such as 54 - 8 and 62 - 7. We looked at different methods to help us, such as using tens and ones or making jumps on a number line.
In English, we have been learning about life in a castle. After working in a group to research a particular aspect of castle-life, we then had to present the information to the rest of the class.
Week Beginning 16th October 2023
Another busy week in Rabbit Class to finish off the half term!
It's been all about knights this week in English lessons. We had to search the room for answers to questions about knights and then complete our own quiz sheet. We also acted out a day in the life of a knight, before writing diary entries.
In Music, we looked at the texture of music as different layers and then had a go at writing graphic scores for our own compositions with percussion instruments.
Week Beginning 9th October 2023
We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to Forest School this week. As well as exploring, we created pumpkin heads and baked cinnamon apples on the fire.
We also enjoyed a week of hula-hooping across the whole school! The theme of the week was determination and self-belief. There were different hula-hoop challenges to try and we all worked incredibly hard to improve our skills. Some were really surprised with how much they improved! Everyone showed great determination and should feel very proud of their achievements.
Week Beginning 2nd October 2023
We had to work cooperatively this week to assemble our castles - it took great teamwork! We were very proud of the finished models.
In Science, we carried out a simple test to answer the question 'Which materials are waterproof?'
Week Beginning 25th September 2023
This week saw the start of our castle-building project! We are working in groups to construct replica castles, made from cardboard, to help us learn about the features of a castle.
Thankfully, this week's swimming session was not interrupted by thunder and we got to work on our pull action.
Week Beginning 19th September 2023
In our Computing lesson this week, we used our 'click and drag' skills to complete a sorting activity on the laptops, to compare inside and outside uses of IT.
Half the class got to enjoy a swimming session on Monday, before the thunder arrived! Don't worry the others will get a longer session next week.
Week Beginning 11th September 2023
Our first topic in Science is 'Uses of Everyday Materials' and this week we went on a materials hunt around our school. We noticed that we had quite a lot of paper, fabric and plastic in our classroom, compared to outside, and that there were a lot of things made from wood outside.
In Maths, we have been exploring 2-digit numbers, thinking about how many tens and how many ones there are. We have practised using place-value charts and part-whole models to write 2-digit numbers and partition them into tens and ones.
Week Beginning 4th September 2023
Welcome to our Rabbit Class web page!
The children have had a super first week in Rabbit Class and should feel very proud of themselves. We’ve been very busy exploring our new classroom, deciding on class rules, working together, talking about our emotions, being creative and thinking about the year ahead and all that we want to achieve.
Video message from Mr Sweeney.MOV
