Stretham Community Primary School
Welcome
Robin Class
Week Beginning 15th April 2024
Week Beginning Monday 18th March 2024
On Monday, we had a wonderful dance session with Jack, from JSDC Dance Company.
We have been working hard on a non-chronological report all about Honey Bees! We have enjoyed the research because it has helped us to understand some of the lines in our Bee Musical production. The children are working hard on their tone of voice and sentence structures for this piece of writing.
Robin Class have enjoyed their rehearsals singing and acting out the different scenes. They are getting excited about their performances next week, though maybe a little nervous!
Week Beginning Monday 11th March 2024
We have been well on our way with rehearsals for our production. We are really excited to preform to our loved ones in just 8 days! Next week we will be very busy bees on stage getting sorted!
Alongside this, we have been continuing our learning about fractions and the children have been using drawn representations to support their understanding. They have work particularly hard on this.
We also enjoyed our Geography lesson all about different types of farming and learning the following terms: arable farming, pastoral farming and mixed farming.
It was also Science Week! We investigated pendulums and completed an investigation about making pendulum that moved for 30 seconds. It was a whole school competition and we loved our Science assembly.
Well done this week Robin Class.
Monday 4th March 2024
This week, we have been very busy with learning our lines for the Year 3/4 Production. Keep practising those lines at home and saying them with expression!
The children have been working hard to show their understanding of mixed number fractions and improper fractions. It has not been an easy task! Will continue our learning about fractions in the coming weeks.
In Science, we continued our learning about sound and how sound waves move through the air and other materials as vibrations. We learnt that when we can no longer hear something that is making sound it is because we have moved too far away and the sound waves have lost their energy. This means they can't reach our eardrum for us to hear the sound. We tested it out on the playground with a beeper.
This week, the children also enjoyed our 'Craft', Art lesson where we were able to tie-dye material to take home! They did a great job and they look very effective.
We have also managed to fit in World Book Day celebrations! We started off on Monday morning with a fantastic animal experience - all the children got to hold a meerkat! The children loved dressing up, participating in the BBC Live Lesson and making a Book Cover of their favourite book. We also enjoyed a story. There are a few more stories from different teachers in school on Seesaw for you to watch at your leisure!
Well done this week!
Monday 26th February 2024
We've had a great week back after half term! Here are a few things we have learnt:
- In Science, we learnt about how sound travels in vibrations as waves. We were able to prove this through various demonstrations. They then drew the models in their books and wrote about their learning.
- We created 'mood boards' in Art as part of our new craft unit. The children found images and materials that they liked and annotated their work.
- During English this week, we have been focusing on using a variety of verbs in a descriptive piece of writing about a bird. We were inspired by the book Windhover.
- In PE, we have started to develop our Tennis skills! Lots of us found this difficult but we just need to keep practising.
This week we have talked a lot about the word 'yet' and how we might not be able to do something 'yet' but if we keep persevering we'll be able to do it eventually!
Week Beginning Monday 12th February 2024
What a super end to the half term. Well done Robin Class for working so hard!
- This week we have enjoyed having a dance specialist in school teaching us an Indian dance. It was a lot of fun!
- Year 3s and Year 4s worked together on a Maths investigation to solve the puzzle of 'Who let the birds of prey out?' We had to solve different Maths problems to find the clues to the culprit. They showed great teamwork.
- Year 4s also made seasonal tarts in DT and used this to inspire our writing. We wrote instructions on how to make a tart (a recipe) using our computing skills.
Have an enjoyable half term!
Monday 5th February 2024
Here are a few things we have learnt this week:
- In Mathematics, we have continued our learning about length and perimeter, thinking about rectilinear shapes and polygons;
- In History, we made clay seals as if we were the people living in the Indus Valley civilisation. The children enjoyed being hands-on and using practical skills to support their learning;
- London was our topic for Geography, looking at cities and the facilities that they have;
- We finished off our non-chronological reports related to our Science learning. The children are very proud of their research and layouts.
Another super week! Keep up the hard work, Robins.
Week Beginning 29th January 2024
Here are a few things we have been learning:
- In English, we are writing non-chronological reports with a cross-curricular link to Science and Geography! The children have really enjoyed the research to get their ideas for their own texts.
- In Maths, the children are learning to convert between different units of measure.
- We have learnt to 'jump from height' in our PE lessons with the use of our legs and arms. The children had to perform their jumps safely and coordinate their landing.
- Our Religion and Worldviews lesson included learning about the story of Ganesha's birth, related to our Hinduism topic.
Week Beginning 22nd January 2024
This week:
- Robin Class went to Forest School and had a wonderful session this week. We made birdfeeders and hung them around school. The children enjoyed a hot chocolate and baked apple with cinnamon.
- In DT, the children have been exploring vegetables and fruits that grow around the world.
- We have been learning how to write a diary entry in English by pretending to be one of the characters in Robin Hood.
- In Geography, we learnt about the different facilities in towns.
Robin Class absolutely loved visiting our Stretham Art Gallery. We viewed everyone's work and looked at the different artists which inspired all of the great artistic flare across the school.
Week Beginning 15th January 2024
What a week! We have made great progress across the curriculum. We have been:
- for a walk around the village to spot amenities and buildings that 'make a village, a village'! The children should be proud of their sensible walking.
- conducting an investigation to measure the temperature of different jugs of water.
- working hard in English, creating WANTED posters for Robin Hood and thinking about arguments for and against his arrest.
- learning about what a 'source' is in History and identify the sources from the Indus Valley that help to piece together clues about this ancient civilisation.
- learning to work with a partner in PE, creating safe, strong partner movements/shapes.
Well done this week!
Week Beginning 8th January 2024
A big Happy New Year to all of you and your families. The children have come back brilliantly and are showing such a positive start to the term. Here is a little about what we have been doing this week...
- In Mathematics, we have begun our learning on multiplying by 10 and 100 and then have moved onto factors and factor pairs.
- The children have been using Robin Hood to inspire some amazing newspaper articles about a tournament that happened in the book. They are pretending that they witnessed the event first hand and are writing a column in 'The Sherwood Times' newspaper! I look forward to reading their writing.
- In History, we learnt about a 'dancing girl' figurine that was found in Mohenjo-daro. We also learnt that the Indus Civilisation build their settlement around the Indus River which floods to provide them with fertile land. The children did a super job at making links to other ancient civilisations we have learnt.
- During our States of Matter Science lesson, the children demonstrated their understanding of solids, liquids and gases. They learnt about the structure of the particles and the properties.
Week Beginning 11th December 2023
We're coming towards the end of term so we were finishing up a lot of our units and topics this week!
The children have worked particularly hard on writing letters to their Head Teacher about our Local Habitat Survey that we conducted. We looked into the threats that pose a danger to different habitats and wildlife. Following this, we wrote letters with recommendations on how we can improve our school grounds for the ecosystems around the school. They did a super job!
We also finished our Art and Design Unit on shading and tone, so were able to begin a fun Art project, looking into colour theory, including complementary colours. We focused on a particular artist and were inspired by their work! We can't wait to show you our results in the new year.
Week Beginning 4th December 2023
Here are a few things we have enjoyed this week:
- We continued our learning about mountains and looked specifically at what it would be like to live in the Andes.
- We finished our unit on the Cradles of Civilisations by comparing different ancient settlements.
- Year 4s have finished their learning of the times tables but we urge parents to support their child at home to consolidate this learning. Don't forget to make use of your Times Table Rock Stars accounts!
- We thoroughly enjoyed seeing the panto Mother Goose in Cambridge yesterday. Thank you so much to everyone involved in planning the trip and a big thank you to the PSA for funding it. What a privilege!
- Today we have worked closely with Year 3 to solve a Mathematics Mystery puzzle. We had to solve several different problems to give us clues as to which person was the sculptor. They worked beautifully in their pairs.
Week Beginning 27th November 2023
This week we have continued our learning in:
- Mathematics, looking at different times tables. We have now explicitly taught all of the times tables up to 12 x 12.
- English, using a picture by Harris Burdick to inspire some independent writing.
- our History topic, looking at Art that was created.
- Science, learning about classification. The children learned to ask questions related to the animal to help classify them. They thought about vertebrates/invertebrates, appearance, their habitat and what they eat.
These are just a few things we have done. We also visited the library!
Week Beginning 24th November 2024
This week, Robin Class have enjoyed learning:
- all about performance poetry in English. We have looked at four different poems related to themes from around this time of year and have practised performing in groups, in pairs and then building up to an individual performance of one of the four poems we studied. The children could choose which poem they wanted to perform and did so with confidence, expression and gestures!
- about multiplication and division facts. The children have been explicitly taught the times tables up 10x12 and will continue to develop this learning next week.
- about invertebrates in Science. The children went on an invertebrate hunt in the Forest School Area where they could turn over logs, look under leaves and move shrubs to find different insects, crustacean, annelids and arachnids. The children completed an identification log on the invertebrates they found.
- about different 'cradles of civilisations' in History. We learnt that people stopped being nomadic, began farming and making bronze (by melting copper and tin) instead of moving around.
This was another busy week of learning. I hope you all have some rest this weekend and enjoy the PSA School Christmas Market this Saturday!
Week Beginning 13th November 2023
This week has been very busy:
- All the children have worked incredibly hard on producing a 'second-draft' for their Time-Slip stories. Well to everyone - you should all be so proud of your work.
- In Maths this week, we have been explicitly teaching the times tables ready for more complex multiplication and division learning.
- We enjoyed our first lesson in Geography all about Mountains. Ask your child about the 4 peaks in the UK!
- It has been 'Kindness Week' so we have learnt all about what is bullying compared to what is mean/not nice. We have been following a Kindness Calendar where we have set simple challenges at lunch times. For example, say please and thank you or make someone laugh. The children wrote letters to people to show they are thankful as our final kindness activity.
- In PE, the children worked hard on their dribbling skills. They enjoyed having a go at defending and attacking during mini-games.
Robin Class enjoyed celebrating Children in Need Day! We coloured a Pudsey bear, put out our pennies on Pudsey and loved being in non-uniform/spots & stripes.
Week Beginning 6th November 2023
It has been a busy week preparing for our class assembly, but we have somehow managed to do a lot of work too!
- In English, we have been writing up our 'Time-Slip' stories using our plans. The children looked at a model write of the first 2 paragraphs and had a go at identifying different features such as conjunctions, sentence starters (including fronted adverbials) and adjectives.
- In Maths this week, the children have learnt about area. They have been practising counting squares to identify the area using square units and they have also been drawing their own shapes by using cubes to support their visual representations.
- We learnt a short dance in PE for our class assembly.
- History was all about trading, building and writing in Ancient Sumer.
- We are also learning about our emotions in PSHE.
- In Science this week the children have learnt about vertebrates and began to classify animals into the 5 different groups: mammal, reptiles, fish, amphibians and birds.
Week Beginning 30th October 2023
We have had a busy first week back after half term. The children are very tired and are deserving of a restful weekend. Here is a little bit about what we have done this week:
- In Maths, we have learnt how to subtract two 4-digit numbers with exchanges!
- We have used the underlying pattern of a story to plan our own versions ready for next week and the week after, in English.
- We have learnt all about Matsya and Manu, a traditional Hindu story. The children had a go at creating actions to help retell the story with their learning partners.
- We have begun our new topic in Science, 'Animals and their Habitats', and the children have worked hard to group animals based on their characteristics.
- Robin Class completed a PSHE activity where we had different scenarios and we had to ask ourselves the question 'How bad is it?' for each one.
- The children have complete a hedgehog comprehension and enjoyed our hedgehog talk from a lady who works for Cambridgeshire Wildlife Care, where they look after endangered wild animals.
Well done this week. I look forward to next week with you all!
Week Beginning the 16th October 2023
We have had a busy end to half term. We have:
- finished some super writing in English where they wrote as if they were a rock traveling down a river, and eventually they turned into a grain of sand. This linked with our Geography and the children were able to use key vocabulary.
- learnt about food chains in Science and completed a sorting activity.
- enjoyed our first session of hockey in PE. Our focus was 'push passes' and this we will practise when we return.
- lastly, we used place value counters in Maths to support our addition of 4-digit numbers with exchanges.
Have a fun, safe and happy half term.
Week Beginning 9th October 2023
Over this week, we have learnt:
- how rivers are formed. We have learnt about a young river as well as a mature river, which included waterfalls. The children have worked hard to learn some of the relevant vocabulary (spur, riverbed, erosion, deposition, sediment, estuary, mangroves and more!)
- how to clap-out notations using 'tea', 'coffee' and 'soup' for the crotchet, quaver and minim during our Music lesson.
- about what a good listening body is. We had an extra PSHE lesson to talk about how to listen well and show that we are listening through our body language.
- about Rama, Sita and the Demon Ravana! We discovered in the story that Hanuman was Sita's saviour.
- how to write our names using hieroglyphics for our canopic jar project in Art.
- the terms 'coordinating conjunction' and 'subordinating conjunction' when learning about sentence structure in grammar. The children practised making compound and complex sentences using different conjunctions.
You have had a super week, Robins. One more to go before half term!
Week Beginning 2nd October 2023
What a busy week! Here are a few things we have learnt:
- We combined our English and History this week by learning about the mummification process and adapting this to mummify our own tomatoes! Robin Class then wrote instructions on how they did it.
- In Geography, we learnt about the water cycle and got to see a model of the water cycle in action! It even rained on a few of our heads!
- We have been learning to round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000.
- Lastly, in Science, we have learnt a little about the different parts and functions of the digestive system.
Well done this week, Robins!
Week Beginning 25th September 2023
This week has flown by with another brilliant trip! They enjoyed their time at the Fitzwilliam Museum and they learnt a lot about Ancient Egyptians. The children were 'mind-blown' when they were told that an ancient Egyptian person also once saw the same things they were looking at!
In Science this week, we completed another enquiry. As a class, we put hard-boiled eggs into glass jars filled with different soft drinks. We were investigating what happens to the eggshells after 48 hours and asked ourselves how we could compare this to the enamel of our teeth and tooth decay. The results were rather interesting...
We are nearing the end of our place value unit: learning about Roman Numerals in Maths. Have you checked your clocks at home for the 'error' we talked about? (The number 4 on a lot of clocks is actually wrong!)
In English, the children have completed some writing to describe the setting where the Egyptian Cinderella took place.
Lastly, we somehow managed to squeeze in learning about the water cycle in Geography, notations in Music and began another Art project!
Week Beginning 18th September 2023
Well done Robin Class for a super week. You have had the joy of lots of teachers being with you this week and you coped brilliantly with change.
This week you thoroughly enjoyed your visit to Denny Abbey. Your behaviour was excellent. You learnt so much about farming in the fens, from learning about blacksmiths to finding out about corn and wheat. All of you created super bird scarers too in an Arts and Crafts activity. We hope you enjoyed your visit!
You have also begun celebrating harvest in school by creating our own pumpkin paintings. We had a go at 'observational drawings', thinking carefully about what the object looks like, its texture and its size, when sketching. Then we painted them using watercolours.
Week beginning 11th September 2023
I can't believe we have finished our second week! Here are a few things we have been doing...
- In English, we have read a beautiful story called 'The Egyptian Cinderella'. We are basing our sentence work and writing around this theme and working hard to understand different word classes.
- In Mathematics, our Year 4s have been representing numbers up to 10,000. We have used place value counters to support our learning.
- We played a talking game called 'Islands' in PSHE where we were able to find out more about our classmates. The children learnt that even though we have many things in common with each other, we are also very different!
- Lastly, we read 'The Dot' by Peter H. Rhynolds and were inspired to try our best across all areas of the curriculum this week, even if we thought we couldn't do it. The children celebrated 'International Dot Day' by designing their very own dots!
Well done Robin Class.
Week Beginning 4th September 2023
Welcome back Year 4s! I am so proud of the way you have all settled back into the swing of things this week. You really have come back grown up and ready to learn.
This week, we have started some exciting topics. We have:
- practised our gliding, floating and breathing skills in the swimming pool;
- looked very closely at our teeth, inspecting them with a mirror to help us learn the names and functions of the different teeth we have in our mouths;
- we created fantastic Egyptian pharaoh hats using oil pastels;
- practised writing our numbers in numerals and in words;
- and lastly, we have written our very first piece of independent writing as Year 4s!
A very big, 'well done' for a super week back at school.
Video message from Mr Sweeney.MOV
