Ash Class
Welcome to Ash class' page
W/c: 17th July 2017
Looking back...
We have reached our final point of year four and have been busy looking back on what we have achieved this year. We have discussed our favourite moments and the children have created their own memory books. Here is a piece of artwork they did at the beginning of the week to bring together all of their thoughts about the year.
We hope you all have a lovely Summer holiday.
W/c: 10th July 2017
The history of Manea
This week we were lucky enough to have a look at some photographs brought in by Mr Short.
Mrs Guy shared her knowledge whilst the children looked at them and they were able to ask her lots of questions.
W/c: 3rd July 2017
SWEET SCANDAL!
On Tuesday, Ash class used the outdoor environment to write descriptive sentences and metaphors. When we returned we were met with a shocking crime scene!
Sweet wrappers were scattered across the table and we soon realised that our tub of spelling sweets had been stolen! We were all devastated.
We soon set to work trying to find the culprit and made a list of possible suspects. Next, we wrote questions and interviewed Mrs Elliott, Mrs Loynes, Belinda and Mr Lenton!
Manea School news
BBC child news
ABC news
Manea Madness
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W/c: 26th June 2017
Sports day
We have had another busy week this week- but a particular highlight was sports day! The children worked really hard when competing in their races and really enjoyed the treat of a lovely ice-cream donated by Mr Payne.
PSHE
We have been learning about diversity in PSHE. This week, we focused on stereotypes. We thought about what a grandma looked like and drew them:
Life bus
On Friday, we went into the life bus. We learnt all about different parts of the body and their jobs. We thought about the fact that we are all unique and can make our own choices- we even took a trip to the planet Conformatron and discussed how boring it would be if we were all exactly the same!
W/c: 19th June 2017
This week, we have worked hard practising our version of Aladdin for the Summer production, we loved performing it on Thursday and the children really enjoyed seeing all of the friendly faces in the audience. We would all like to say a huge thank you to all of the parents for helping the children to learn their parts and songs. The hard work was well worth it.
Literacy
In Literacy, we have thought about the story of Aladdin. We considered the characters' feelings at different points in the story and then re-wrote the story from the perspective of Aladdin's best friend Abu.
Maths
In Maths, we learnt about symmetry and created our own symmetrical magic carpets.
W/c: 12th June 2017
Wonderwalls...
This week we have started our new topic of 'Sound' within Science. We started the unit by investigating sounds. We explored musical instruments and even found out what happened when you tie a fork to a piece of string and place the string near your ear. As we explored, we thought of different questions to add to our wonder walls for example "How does sound get to your ear?", "Does a metal fork make a different sound to a plastic fork?" and "Does sound always sound the same in both ears?". We will be investigating some of this throughout the unit.
W/c: 5th June 2017
Tag rugby coaching:
On Wednesday, we had our first tag rugby session with one of the coaches from the Witchford Sports Partnership. We learnt how to put on the tag rugby belts and practised trying to take these from each other. We now also know how to hold a rugby ball and started to learn how to score a try. We'll be continuing to have these sessions every Wednesday these half term- so please make sure all PE kits are in school.
W/c: 22nd May 2017
Manea book day:
On Thursday, we really enjoyed coming to school dressed up as our favourite book characters.
W/c: 15th May 2017
Year 3/ 4 trip to Ferry Meadows!
On Thursday, the sun shone brightly and Ash and Willow class went to Ferry Meadows in Peterborough. We had such a wonderful day and learnt how to apply our knowledge of co-ordinates to grid references and we also learnt how to use a compass.
The children were absolutely fantastic all day and a real credit to our school. We would also like to say a huge thank you to all of the adults that helped us to enjoy this fabulous trip.
Read to succeed- Lion Learners visit.
As part of the read to succeed programme, Steve Barclay has arranged for all Year 4 children to receive a free book. To launch this in school, we received a visit from the Lion Learners team on Friday. We listened to a book about a boy who magically turned into lots of different animals. As each of the animals were mentioned we were then able to hold or stroke these animals. We saw rabbits, guinea pigs, a snake, a tarantula, a lizard and a tortoise. Some were a little more scary than others- but we were very brave!
W/c: 8th May 2017
A week full of outdoor learning!
As our classroom was being used for the Year 6 Sats process this week, we have enjoyed a week full to the brim of outdoor learning. Although it started off a little chilly, it warmed up by the end of the week and we enjoyed having both our Maths and Literacy lessons in our outdoor environments.
In Literacy, we have started our unit on stories from other cultures. We read the story 'The Awongaleema Tree' and practised retelling this as a class. We then created story maps to help us act out the story.
In Maths, we started the week looking at multiplication. We counted how many star jumps we could do in one minute and then multiplied this by sixty to find out how many we may have done in one hour. We used the grid method to solve our problems.
Towards the end of the week we thought about shapes. We searched around the school for different quadrilaterals and discussed the properties of these. On Thursday, we investigated angles within our outdoor environments and estimated their angles.
W/c: 4th May 2017
Poetry
We have come to the end of our poetry unit this week. We have really enjoyed learning about list poems, haikus and kennings. Towards the end of this week we learnt about clerihews. We worked together to write our own versions in groups. We then recorded these using the GarageBand app on the Ipad and added sound effects and a musical beat.
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W/c: 24th April 2017
Topic
This week, we have started our topic on Manea. We have really enjoyed looking at some of the old Manea photos some of the children have brought in- so thank you all once again.
We have thought about the location of Manea and have found it on different maps this week. We also discussed the location of nearby places using the four compass points.
Maths
Maths this week has been all about fractions and decimals. We have investigated equivalent fractions and we are now able to tell you how to write some of them as decimals. We have worked hard to compare decimals. On Friday we played a game where we had to put decimals on a number line, a bit like 'four in a row'- the children definitely got very competitive!
W/c: 17th April 2017
Maths
In Maths this week, we have started our unit on Fractions. We first investigated tenths and linked these to our understanding of dividing by ten. We measured our height and found out what one tenth of our height would be. Some of us extended this further by measuring the playground and finding 1/100 of each of these measurements. They then created a scaled drawing.
Mini-beast hotels!
On Thursday, we arrived at school to see that a pile of pallets had been delivered. We used this to create the mini-beast hotels we planned during last terms Science topic! We can't wait to see which types of mini-beasts we will attract.
We would all like to say a huge thank you to the parents who donated all of the things that helped us to achieve these.
History
On Friday, we looked at different artefacts linked to the Romans in Fenland. This closed up our topic on the Romans nicely, ready to start our new topic of 'our locality'. We investigated different artefacts and considered what we thought they were used for.
W/c: 27th March 2017
The day Ash class became inventors...
On the 28th March, six glittery bags were delivered to Ash class. First, they had to read a number of different texts, including boarding passes, receipts and diary entries, to help them figure out who sent the mysterious packages. They soon realised they were sent by a relative of the Roman inventor Maddasbananus (from the book Roman's on the Rampage).
W/c: 20th March 2017
Red Nose Day
On the 24th March we celebrated Red Nose day to raise money for Comic Relief. We all dressed up as our favourite nose or came to school dressed in red. We learnt about why it was important that we raised money. We also designed our own red noses.
Escape from Pompeii
After reading Escape from Pompeii by Christina Balit, we have been learning about the eruption of Mt Vesuvius and considering what we can learn about the Romans from the ruins of Pompeii.
This week we have been building our very own Mt Vesuvius'. We all worked really well in our groups.
The Last day of Pompeii
Pompeii Eruption
Catastrophe in Pompeii
W/c: 6th March 2017
Explanation texts
This week, we have been learning about explanation texts. Below is an example of our writing, we hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed writing them!
How a tap really works!
If you think you know a tap really works well think again!
Firstly,you turn hot or cold water on knob.A blue, glimmering light shows under neath your tap, and red when you turn it off.
Next, little tiny elephants hop into your tap and feathers tickle the elephants trunk and they spray water for ages. But, if you leave your tap on the elephants get tired and then you have to get a new tap!
However, no human can ever find out other wise no one will ever have another tap again!
Now you know how a tap really works!
Maths: Telling the time
We have worked really hard this week and have learnt how to tell the time to the five minute interval. On Friday we applied all of this to a game of 'time bingo' outside- it was lots of fun!
W/c: 27th February 2017
Science week!
We have had a fantastic start to Science week and we are enjoying exploring the theme of 'change'. We can't wait to show you all of our learning at our Science fair on Friday.
On Monday, we thought about the effect of changing environments on living things. We thought about how Storm Doris had ripped up the tree at the front of school and we discussed which living things may have had it as their habitats. To help encourage more wildlife to our school we decided to plant flowers and hang bird feeders. We investigated how many living things live out the front of school now and we will then explore again in a few weeks time.
Science week
W/c: 20th February 2017
500 word stories
We have been working really hard on our 500 word stories for the BBC Radio 2 competition. We are really proud what we have achieved over the last few weeks. We don't want to give too much away but have a read at some of our fabulous story beginnings:
Down in a clean home, lived a young adventurous boy named Michael. His bedroom was full of posters of dinosars and the jungle. In the kitchen Michael asked his mum if he could go out into the deep dark woods. His mum replied
“ No you always go out into the woods.” Michael pleaded and pleaded. Then finally she gave in and said “Yes”…
So Michael gathered up all of his things and started of though the grubby streets of where he lived. Michael walked some more and finally he reached the wood. He heard a whisper. It sounded like this shhhhhhhhh. He saw it…
The tree that was different.
The tree trunk was as dark as a brown grizzly bear. The light green leaves were as bright as a snails slime.
In a place above the clouds called Dream Land Wilbur, a forgetful wizard, was fast asleep. He was no ordinary wizard he was a dream wizard! He was supposed to be giving a little boy a dream. He was in charge of a boy’s dreams called Tommy but he forgot to wake up! Wilbur’s parents and sister lived in Tooth Land. Wilber had never forgotten to give Tommy a dream before.
The next day was scorching hot. Wilber was finally woken up by his phone. Suddenly the phone said “You have one message from the police station. Press one to listen to your message.”
In a small, wooden cottage on a cobblestone road lived a pig called Paul and all his family Brothers, Sisters, Mum, Dad, Nan, Grandfather, Uncle, Auntie. All was fine until one day the fierce, big, bad wolf (who lived around the corner to them) came and gobbled up all of his family, luckily he was able to escape he was as quick as a flash he got away from the horrible teeth.
Although, he was short and very quick, he wanted to go on a diet but it was a very unusual diet-it was a diet for eating loads and loads of food and he wanted to get chubby ( shall I say fat ) and he had stuck to his words.
W/c: 6th February 2017
Fire Fire!
After half term, we will begin our Literacy topic of 'explanation texts' and will even write one about fire. Today we experienced a fire pit with Mr Lenton. We asked him lots of questions, which will help us with our writing including 'How do you keep safe?', 'How can you make a fire?', 'Why does the air look funny around the flames?' and 'How are fires used?'. We then had an extra special treat of roasting marshmallows on the fire!
W/c: 30th January 2017
Our class assembly
We really enjoyed performing the poem 'Just like a Roman' in our class assembly on Thursday. We especially enjoyed 'slaying like a Roman!'. It was also lovely to see so many parents come back to the classroom to look at our work.
Please look at the weekly news to see more photographs.
Super subtraction
W/c: 23rd January 2017
A trip to the woods
On Monday, we visited the woods to support our learning on 'Living things and their habitats'.
First we explored the environment by looking into mirrors. We had to think of as many similes and metaphors to describe what we could see.
W/c: 16th January 2017
Maths
This week we have been learning about angles. We have learnt what acute, obtuse and right angles look like. We then looked around our outdoor environment for them. We found lots, especially right angles.
Science
In Science, we have been thinking about the food chains of different animals. We learnt that many food chains are linked to one another, creating 'food webs'. Have a look at the food web which we created as a class:
W/c: 9th January 2017
Popcorn and Movie afternoon!
We were so excited last half term when we realised that we had won the attendance race (a joint win with Willow class). On Monday, we enjoyed watched 'Angry Birds' whilst eating some delicious popcorn. We're now working hard to make sure we win it again this term!
Maths
We have been concentrating on place value this week and have now grown confident with using decimals. On Tuesday, we learnt how to divide and multiply numbers with one decimal place by ten and 100.
Art/History
On Friday, we learnt that the Romans had many forms of art and that they preferred realism Art. We discovered that the Romans had Art work within their homes which was painted onto wet plaster (frescos). We then used ideas from information texts to sketch our own Roman scene. We had to think about how to make this realistic and thought carefully about the finer details. We then brought our pictures alive by using bright water colour paints. We can't wait to put these skills into practice in our Roman homes/ shoe boxes next week.
W/c: 2nd January 2017
Happy New Year
The children have settled back in to school life well and were very enthusiastic about sharing what they had been up to over this holiday.
Literacy
We have been continuing our work on play scripts this week. We read the Roman legend 'Romulus and Remus' and thought about what the characters would say to one another. We built on this throughout the week and began to write our own Romulus and Remus play scripts on Friday.
Maths
Our current unit in Maths is number and place value. This week, we have been representing numbers in different ways including through drawings and expanded number sentences. We then estimated numbers on a number line.
W/c: 12th December 2016
It's Christmas!
We've been feeling very festive this week. We've been busy preparing our Christmas crafts to bring home on Friday: Cards have been written, hats made and calendars painted. Not too forget many hours spent designing, creating and sewing our beautiful decorations. We can't wait for you to see our hard work!
A Christmas catastrophe
W/c: 5th December 2016
Greek theatre masks
On our Ancient Greek day we made our own theatre masks. We finally finished these this week using paint, wool and paper to create our own Ancient Greek Gods and characters- Medusa was very popular. Look how great they are:
W/c: 28th November 2016
Fun with fractions
In our Maths lessons, we have began our new unit on fractions. This week, we have been exploring fractions using fraction strips and by drawing diagrams. We successful used this to find equivalent fractions and we began to realise the pattern in these.
We are now beginning to apply what we have learnt when looking at fractions of shapes to looking at fractions of amounts.
W/c: 21st November 2016
Science- classifying
In our Science lessons, we have been looking at living things and their habitats. We have already explored our school grounds and looked at the different habitats within it. Today, we realised that with so many different species of animals, they had to be classified!
First we investigated making classification keys using something we all know best- sweets!
W/c: 14th November 2016
Ancient Greek day:
On Monday we celebrated our learning this topic by having our very own Ancient Greek day!
Didn't we all look fantastic...?
W/c: 7th November 2016
Maths
We have been learning about measurement in Maths. We started by measuring the length of objects and have now learnt how to convert measurements between cm and mm. This week we have weighed different objects and worked on reading scales. On Tuesday, we applied these skills to working out how much it would cost to post objects using the game: http://www.topmarks.co.uk/Flash.aspx?b=maths/measures. First we measured the weight of an object, then the length and finally we read a table to work out how much the postage would cost.
Ancient Greek Gods and Goddesses
We have learnt all about the religion of Ancient Greeks. We have discussed the different Gods and thought about how they were worshipped. On Tuesday, we chose a God and read a description of them. We then had to sketch a picture of what we thought they could have looked like. We enjoyed using the charcoal but realised it was really easy to smudge it.
Next, we gathered data about which God was our favourite. We had to walk around the classroom and ask our friends which God/Goddess they preferred, we gathered this data in a a tally chart.
Then, during our computing lesson, we created a bar chart using the results.
W/c: 31st October 2016
Literacy
In our Literacy lessons, we are looking at poetry. On Wednesday, we read different poems around the classroom. Here are some comments from the children:
"I liked the pink poem because it had lots of colours in it and it made me feel happy."
"We liked the poem 'Hope' because there were really good rhyming words in it like bright and white."
"I disliked the poem 'Remember' because it made me feel sad. It used really sad adjectives."
"I liked the poem 'Diamonds or Coal?' because it explained the diamonds and the coal, whilst using very good rhyming words."
Performance Poetry- Walking with my iguana by Brian Moses
Art
We have been focusing on self-portraits in Art. This week, we were given half of a picture of ourselves and had to sketch in the other half, consider shadows.
W/c: 17th October 2016
As part of outdoor learning week last week we began to create our own versions of the book "10 things I can do to help my world" by Melanie Walsh. We managed to finish them on Monday this week- just in time for the marketplace! Don't they look fantastic?
W/c: 10th October 2016
Outdoor learning week!
We have embraced the chilly weather this week and have had great fun problem solving in our outdoor environment as part of outdoor learning week. We have used our new multiplication knowledge to solve problems involving length, weight and area this week.
W/c: 3rd October 2016
After our fabulous myths and legends unit in Literacy, we have now begun our non-fiction unit. We started this unit by discussing the features of non-fiction texts and comparing these to fiction texts in a venn diagram. We have since been exploring alphabetical order and used this to find synonyms in thesauruses.
This week it was our week to share our music learning with the rest of the school. We really loved the song we performed as it was quite jolly! Here we are performing in the classroom:
W/c: 26th September 2016
Written by the children in Ash class:
This week, we've been writing our own Ancient Greek myths in Literacy. We have learnt what a myth is and can now include daring quests! We had to put lots of adverbs and adjectives in there and worked on building up suspense. We got to write them using our magic handwriting pens and were amazed how beautiful they made our handwriting!
In Maths, we have been learning about shapes. We have been learning about different types of triangles and quadrilaterals. Did you know a scalene triangle is a triangle that has 3 sides of different lengths?
In Science, we have been learning about electricity. We thought about what it would be like if we didn't have electricity. Some of us thought that we wouldn't be able to play any games.
In P.E we made our own penguin dances after watching a clip from Mary Poppins. We also learnt rugby passing skills outside.
Quadrilateral hunting
French- days of the week
W/c 19th September 2016
We had our first buddy reading session this week with the children in Pine class. We really enjoyed ourselves and got stuck into some good books.
Buddy reading
The creation story through drama
W/c 12th September 2016
We have really got stuck into our Ancient Greece topic this week! In Geography, we found Greece using an Atlas and discussed it's neighbouring countries. We also learnt that there are lots of mountains there.
W/c 5th September 2016
In Maths this week, we have been working hard to recognise the place value of numbers with up to 4 digits. We started by building numbers using base ten and place value counters, before learning how to use pictures to represent numbers. Towards the end of the week we used this to order numbers and position them on a number line.
Our start to Year 4:
We have had a great start to year 4 and are now all settled into our daily routines. We have had had lots of fun learning all about the Olympics. In Maths, we used our addition knowledge to work out sums about the number of medals earned by each country and in Literacy we imagined we had just won our very own gold medal and wrote a diary entry.
We also looked at videos of the opening ceremony from Rio and created some beautiful pieces of artwork:
