Welcome to our Class Page. This page will be updated each Friday and will share the children's learning and achievements with those at home. 

Important information: 

• If you need to contact Mr Lenton, Miss Gascoigne or Miss Hills and are unable to catch us on the playground, please email us at:

        Willowclass@manea.cambs.sch.uk (Mr Lenton) 

        Ashclass@manea.cambs.sch.uk  (Miss Gascoigne)

        Pearclass@manea.cambs.sch.uk (Miss Hills)

• We aim to reply as soon as we can but will always reply within 72 hours. 
• PE days for Year 3 and 4 are: Tuesday and Wednesday.
• Please ensure children come to school in their PE kits on these days. 
• Homework is set on a Friday which may include Literacy, Maths and Topic. The children will bring their homework home in their homework books. It is due in the following Wednesday. 

Click below to see the slides from our Key Stage 2 Welcome meeting. 

W/C 22.4.24 

Our week began by enjoying a variety of activities in the morning to help celebrate the differences of individuals. Regardless of differences, each person is unique in their own way and we looked at individuals who have ADHD and individuals who need a wheelchair. Whilst learning all about what their needs are, we also learnt how we are able to support this and ensure they feel valued inside and outside of school. This was a lovely time where the children had to use their values of team work, perseverance and aim high to complete the activities they were given. They all thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Our PE lessons have focussed on Tennis and a yoga session. During Tennis, the skill we practised was our back hand. This position was known as the ‘ready position’ where are dominant hand is placed at the bottom and the other hand is placed above, making sure two hands are on the racket at all times. The children then were able to enjoy a mini game of tennis with small groups.

W/C 15.4.24 

It was lovely to welcome the children back to school after hearing all of the exciting things they did over the Easter break with their friends and family. 

Our Guided Reading sessions this week allowed for the children to host their own dinner party table plan and allocate which character from Narnia should sit where and where they would also sit at the party. This was great fun as the children had to use their knowledge from the text to state why they believe certain characters should and shouldn't be able to sit next to one another based on what we know about their characteristics so far. 

In Maths, the Year 3 children have been looking at measuring different units of measurements and Year 4 have been focussing on their times tables and also adding to their prior knowledge of money.

It’s been a great first week back for the children and we are all ready for the Summer term ahead of us.

W/C 25.3.24 

Even though it's been a very short week for the children, we have still had very productive and busy days. On Tuesday, we held our Design and Technology Day. The day began with the children carrying out some research based on their target audience of children under 9 years old and what appeals to this demographic. It was great to see the children applying their own interests to this research as well as listening to their friends’ ideas and looking online. The task that the children had to research was based on what makes an effective night light. Subsequently, after all of the research was completed, the children then got to make their own night light based on their own design idea. It was great to watch the children’s’ ideas come to life.  Please take a look at some of our wonderful night lights.

We hope you all have a wonderful Easter break with your families and gain some energy ready for the Summer term. P.s. enjoy lots of chocolate 

W/C 18.3.24 

The children have really enjoyed carrying on with developing their Art work. The piece of work began by the children viewing the piece of art by Romare Bearden that they would be recreating. Additionally, the children explored the idea of painting with scissors. This involved the children focussing on the element of shape and colour and they simplified the image by identifying the shapes required. Next, the children explore the composition of their collage by exploring negative and positive shapes, whilst again practising their cutting skills. Finally, the children added further definition to the collaged composition and made it more dimensional. This involved them looking at the qualities of the lines the artist used within the original piece of art before they represented this within their work. 

The children have created some lovely pieces of work. Please take a look at them. 

W/C 11.3.24 

This week in Guided Reading, the children have read to the end of chapter 11 of the Chronicles of Narnia book. It has been interesting to read how the author writes about the environment changes from snowy to spring. The children were able to use their comprehension skills effectively during this question as they were able to use text from the book to help support their answers. They have worked really hard this week with their big think and deeper questions.

In literacy, we began the week by looking at creating great effect when post-modifying nouns, participial phrases/clauses. Consequently, this allows the writer to be more economical with language and additionally helps to avoid unnecessary repetition. Towards the end of the week, the children began to look at inverted commas to understand how we know when the character in the text is speaking instead of the use of speech bubbles. Later, we made our speech even better by using a new method known as seat (speech, emotion, action thoughts). This has enabled us to punctuate their speech correctly and learn a new method to help us within this topic.  

W/C 4.3.24

Well, a highlight for the children and the adults this week has definitely been World book day on Thursday. The children’s outfits were all amazing and we can’t believe how fantastic they all looked. The children enjoyed their Guided Reading lesson of drinking hot chocolate whilst reading for pleasure or watching David Walliams reading to them a bit of his story Gangster Granny. Please take a look at lots of photos which were taken to remember this wonderful day.

In our science lessons this week, the children have carried on learning all about electricity and have carried out some experiments. This week, the children tested different materials within their simple circuit such as fabric, steel spoon and wood to test whether the materials are a conductor or an insulator as their new vocabulary for this lesson. Once the light bulb lit up, we were able to tell this material was a conductor and if the light bulb didn’t, this was an insulator.

W/C 26.2.24

It was lovely to welcome the children back to school and hearing all about their wonderful activities they did in the half term! 

The children this week have started to complete their new piece of independent writing in Literacy of how rocks are formed. They began by researching about igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary. Once they had found out all of the relevant information they needed to know, they began to write up their notes and begin to see how they would lay out their piece of text. It has been lovely to see the children writing independently and referring back to their ideas when it came to writing the whole piece. 

In Maths, Year 3 have been learning all about perimeter and how to calculate the perimeter of shapes. They've even worked out how to know the lengths of the sides of a shape which aren't labelled to work out some problems. Year 4 this week have been looking at the different types of fractions, especially focussing on subtracting with the same denominator that subsequently makes number fractions. 

W/C 12.2.24

This week, the children have enjoyed completing their science lessons every afternoon and experimenting with different materials to test whether they are magnetic or not. Before completing their experiments, they were able to predict what they believed the outcome would be. 

Our year threes had their last swimming lesson this week and thoroughly enjoyed swimming and playing with their friends in the pool. Of course, they managed to splash a few of the staff members too.

We hope you all have a lovely half term. The children all deserve a break after all of their hard work this term and we look forward to seeing you on Monday 26^th February!

W/C 5.2.24

This week, the year 3 and 4 children have performed their assemblies to you based on the theme of British values. We’d like to say thank you very much for coming in and supporting them and we hope, you enjoyed watching them as much as the children enjoyed presenting them to you.

In topic this week, the children have carried out an investigation based on a fair test. Before they could begin this experiment, we had to understand what a fair test was and how this looks like in science. They were all given the same experiment idea of seeing what surface a protractor moves the furthest on? In their groups, the children had to think of three different surfaces which they’d like to try this experiment on and predict which one they think would be the most successful. Once the children had created their prediction based on the surface types they had chosen, they could begin to conduct their experiment! What fun the children had pushing a protractor across a whiteboard, the playground and tables. Once they had finished the experiment, the children then had to write their conclusion based on how their experiment went and whether their predictions were correct.

W/C 29.1.24

The children this week, have begun their Science topic of forces and magnets. It was great fun to experiment with lots of different resources which items required a lot of force to move them and compare this to the items which didn't need a lot of force. The key words we have looked at in our first lesson are push and pull. 

Our Literacy lessons began with using our prior knowledge of how to write a setting. We used the skills of modifying a noun using our pre-modifiers and post modifiers to help us describe three new images we were shown. The children were then able to use this excellent information they had created to produce their own pieces of text. It has been lovely to see the children's ides coming to life through their writing. 

W/C 22.1.24

Wow! What a fun, exciting busy week all the children have had in year 3 and 4. They have all completed so much and we can't wait to share with you what we have done.

Burwell House:

The children arrived at Burwell Wednesday morning, to be greeted by Sharon who told them their plan for the next two days. After our little tour from Sharon, the children were able to begin one of their many teambuilding adventures planned. The challenges included a range of specific team challenging sessions where depending on how well the children worked resulted in how many tokens they would receive in return which would come in handy for the afternoon activity. After a few hours completing the challenges, the children went for their lunch and enjoyed lots of yummy pizza with veg followed by cake as their dessert.

Once our food had settled down, the children used their tokens from their morning activities and put this towards purchasing from ‘eggs r us’. This shop enabled the children to use their tokens to purchase items that would protect their egg whilst being dropped from the top of fire escape stairs. The items to purchase varied from Sellotape to parachutes for their egg. The result of the great eggscape resulted in only three eggs not cracking after being dropped from a significant height. We all enjoyed an afternoon snack after this to give us the energy we needed to help make our beds.

Once our belongings had been taken to the rooms, we enjoyed some lovely dinner prepared for us by the chefs. The chicken goujons followed by jelly was a real winner. Our evening entertainment involved a talent show, a game of bingo and a hot chocolate whilst watching a film with colouring happening.

The next morning, the children had the joys of stripping the beds they had made the night before to be washed before they enjoyed a mixture of cold and hot food for breakfast. The morning consisted of a final two activities before heading home. For the first activity, the children were able to use their orienteering skills from school to help them to be the best foxes whilst the farmers (Mr Lenton, Miss Gascoigne, Miss Hills and Mrs Wayman) tried to capture them. After a quick snack, the children all ventured over into the TV studio to record their news broadcasts. The studio allowed the children to not only perform their broadcasts but, operate all of the technical equipment ensuring the show ran smoothly. Lunch was shortly followed after the morning before the children returned onto the coach and headed back to school. It was a great time for all!

The children at Manea:

The children began their school day in Ash class before they could start all of their activities Mrs Spencer, Ms Westwood and Miss Lockwood had planned. They began the day by performing the broadcasts they had all made earlier in the week. This involved the children holding interviews with one another…one group interviewed Ronaldo to come and join Manea Strikers!

After this, they learnt about Stonehenge and produced some wonderful leaflets to show and let other people know that this is one of the world’s most famous monuments and it can be seen from miles around. The children had to learn about what stone henge was before they could complete their next activity of building Stonehenge out of biscuits! Luckily, the children made enough biscuits so they could all eat one after their hard work.

The following day, the children all created woolly mammoths from mod rock and the use of paper Mache! The children really enjoyed the process of making their woolly mammoths and were able to design them amazingly due to their knowledge from the stone age of how they look and what features they have. There was even some time to paint them once they had been designed and watch Ice age to see even more woolly mammoths.  

After hearing all of the activities the children have completed, we are super proud of them all and think they are looking forward to the weekend!

W/C 15.1.24

This week the children have been focussing on the text Arabian Peninsula’.  for their Guided reading as this is linked to our key text of where the story of Aladdin is set. Each day, the children have used their key vocabulary and focussed on several words throughout the week to ensure they understand the definition and when they would be able to use that word within their own work.

Our Geography lessons this week have also been linked to our literacy and guided reading skills by identifying several features within the modelled text of how the water cycle works. It has been great to see the children applying their knowledge from previous lessons and linking it to another topic.

W/C 8.1.24

This week, we have been reading Aladdin! We've been looking carefully at the 'Tomb of Wonders' in the story and how it's described. Our unit for Literacy is setting descriptions and wow have we been working hard to make our writing engaging to read! We've been looking carefully at how to improve sentences within a paragraph, by adding expanded noun phrases and time adverbials. We've also been thinking about the senses - hear, smell and see- in order to add more detail! 

W/C 1.1.24

Firstly, we hope you and your families have had a lovely Christmas break! The children have been superstars with coming back to school for two days this week and getting back into their routines. Even though it has been a very short week, the children have conducted an experiment in Geography to help them understand the water cycle and how it works. Please take a look at the photos of what the children have done for this experiment.

The children have worked super hard in their Guided reading lesson too and we have taken some photos to show you.

W/C .11.12.23

This week we have finished writing our letters in Literacy to Jonathon's parents on how his trip with Om went and all of the adventures they did together. The children were able to use their fronted adverbials and subordinating conjunctions to improve their letter writing. 

The dance lesson this week have been focusing on Christmas festivities. I'm sure the children would love to show you their dance routines. Please use the link below for them to use:

Mariah Carey-All I Want for Christmas Is You | Rich and Groovy Tutorial (youtube.com) 

CHRISTMAS DANCE MEDLEY 2023 l CHRISTMAS REMIX l Dance Workout l Zumba (youtube.com) 

Only 3 more school days to go!

W/C 4.12.23

With only eight school days left until Christmas, the children are working super hard before they enjoy a well-deserved break.

Literacy lessons this week have focussed on writing our own introduction for a letter by applying skills previously learnt within Guided Reading. To begin this, we identified what the difference between a fact and opinion is whilst using active voice before modifying the nouns and verbs. We can't wait to finish writing our letters from Jonathan's perspective.

For Maths, the year 3s have been working on problem solving and using their three times table knowledge to help them complete multiplication and division questions. The children have been able to explain their understanding of these topics by using the conjunction because to show why they know that is the answer. Year 4s have persevered amazingly within their division tasks and each day have managed to complete several different tasks based on dividing.

In PE, we had our last dance lesson which featured on improving our dance routines from the week before which we received feedback on. It was great to see the children using the key vocabulary dynamic, canon and unison throughout their conversations on how to improve the routine. Watching the children create their own routines to their special location was lovely to see their dance moves being based around beats of eight.

W/C 27.11.23

The children this week have looked at what features are needed in order to write a successful letter. It's been great fun completing practical activities within lessons to remind ourselves of what the subject and verb is in a sentence. We were then able to challenge ourself by adding a co-ordinating conjunction to make this sentence even better.

In year 3 maths, we have looked at lots of things this week including inverse operations, equal groups and the use of arrays. The children have really worked well when focussing on different areas within maths this week and this has been shown through their understanding of the topics.

The year 4s have studied how to multiply two digits by one digit using various methods to help them work out some difficult questions. The children have worked really hard with using these methods and applying them.

Our topic of Geography this week, has focussed on looking at symbols. The children began to learn all about symbols and identifying whether they have seen any before and where they have seen them. They are now able to know why we have symbols in the world and how this can be helpful to individuals when they are travelling.

Within Guided reading, the children have really impressed us with their retrieval and application of knowledge to questions. They have looked at several pieces of texts this week and been able to develop their answers for all text pieces. Keep up the good work team!

W/C 20.11.23

The children have written their non-chronological reports this week in Literacy and have thoroughly persevered with their presentation. Learning about woolly mammoths and sabre-toothed cats in history and literacy has been great fun because we’ve learnt lots of interesting facts about these pre-historic creatures.

We began our Geography lessons this week and have learnt a fun way to help remember the four cardinal points… ‘Naughty Elephants Squirt Water.’ The children were able to locate different points within the classroom and school building in relation to whether they were North, East, South or West of the room.

In Maths, year 3 have focussed on a variety of things this week such as addition and subtraction, rounding to the nearest 10, 100 or 1,000 and estimation. They have completed lots of questions and applied their knowledge throughout. The year 4s have been learning about factor pairs in their lessons and multiplication-based questions.

Our PE lesson on Wednesday involved the children following a dance routine for a trip to the beach. It was great seeing them all performing this routine within their groups and adding their own touches to the routine.

W/C 13.11.23

In Literacy this week, we have started to draft our non-chronological reports with all of the facts and information we will need to know when writing about our prehistorical stone age creatures. It's been great to see and share all of the children’s ideas for how they will introduce their creatures to the reader. We are looking forward to seeing the final reports being written. 

Our Maths this week began with the children applying their maths skills for our orienteering course as it was Maths’s week. The children thoroughly enjoyed themself, even if it was a little bit muddy on the field. In year 3, the week focussed on adding two and three-digit numbers together. They have been able to answer lots of questions using their addition strategies previously learnt. Year 4 have been looking at their multiplications especially the 3s, 6s, 9s and 11s! Make sure you keep practicing your times tables. 

For our Science this week, we have looked at our rocks at even more detail and enjoyed thinking about our experiments we have recently carried out. Please take a look at some of our science pictures to see how much fun we had!

We also received our song this week, that the children created with The Younguns. Please have a listen.

davideagle.co.uk/wp-admin/schools/Manea Song - When Fenlands Sing - The Young%27uns.mp3 

W/C 6.11.23

Year 3 and 4 have had an interesting week learning how to write non-chronological reports during their literacy lessons. We have been putting into practice our secure knowledge of the place value of punctuation and grammar, so the children can create their reports with fluency and accuracy.

In Maths, Year 4 have been cementing their skills with the 6 times table, understanding that they can use their knowledge of the 3 times table to help them. Meanwhile, Year 3 have been working hard with adding and subtracting numbers of 3 digits learning how to exchange with the hundred column.

Following last week, when we made the three types of rock with Starbursts, we have been continuing to learn about the rock cycle in science. The children have consolidated their understanding of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks.

We have also been told about the relaunch of Accelerated Reader and Year 3 and 4 are excited to get reading more books in the hope to be the class/year group who reads the most words to win the prizes we have in store. It’s very exciting and delightful seeing the children so enthused to be reading.

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W/C:30.10.23

The children began their first week of Autumn 2, by completing the second part of When Fenland Sings Project. The children were able to apply the knowledge they’d previously leant about Manea and the surrounding areas they live in and created a song. Throughout the week, the children have been practising the song because on Thursday morning, there was a zoom concert for the children to hear all of the other songs created by the other schools who participated. 

Our new topic of non-chronological reports in Literacy began this week. The children learnt lots of key features that would be found within this specific style of writing, before they created their own. We were able to link our history work from last term into our fact’s subheading as the non-chronological report was based on animals from the Stone age period. 

In Maths, Year 3 have been focussed on addition this week as their new topic and have persevered with answering lots of tricky questions. Year 4 have started to look at area and multiplication. One of the key maths vocabularies we have learnt this week is ‘to compare’. 

Our Topic this term is rocks. The children have spent their first few lessons studying different types of rocks and identifying which rocks have the same features and which rocks are different. The children enjoyed using adjectives such as dark/sparkly, big/small and rough/smooth for comparing them. Studying rocks this term will include lots of exciting experiments for the children to see and deepen their understanding. 

W/C:16.10.23

We have had a really busy week preparing for and performing our Harvest Festival assembly. The children did really well and were proud to show off their work to everyone who came to watch. We were also very proud of THEM.  

For the last few weeks we have been learning how to draw with charcoal and the children have created some super gestural drawings. These have included mysterious scenes of darkness to more defined pieces of work where they drew animals to resemble the art cave people created thousands of years ago. This week in particular, we have been creating our own caves and experimenting with chiaroscuro lighting effects. It’s been messy but good fun and some of the final pieces are brilliant.  

Our literacy lessons on the Place Value of Punctuation and Grammar have been going well and we have been working hard to make sure all our sentences are correctly punctuated. We look forward to putting this writing knowledge in to practice after half term. For Maths, the children have been mastering the skill of exchanging numbers with addition and subtraction calculations and we are pleased with how they are progressing with this process.  

It has been a really busy and exciting half term and we wish all the children a safe and restful holiday. We look forward to seeing them back in school on Monday 30th October.  

W/C:9.10.23

The children have completed lots of exciting tasks this week and have thoroughly enjoyed themself during the activities. On Tuesday, as a school we celebrated World Mental Health Day where all the year 3 & 4 classes spent the morning completing an orienteering lesson that had been tailored to focus on mental health. This involved the children using their orienteering skills learnt from their PE lesson and finding the different locations around the school playground and field before answering questions as a team. Teamwork was a strong point from the children as they had to see which team could find the most correct answers in the time given.

On Wednesday and Thursday, we had a live zoom call from a man called Thomas who represents the project ‘When Fenland Sings.’ The children have learnt a lot about where they live in Manea and what life was like way before anyone moved here. The children have been able to link this knowledge to their history topic of the Stone Age and have seen that Manea featured items like gold torc and an axe. These items were found within half a mile from the school which the children were shocked to find out to learn.

As a whole school, we celebrated Magic Day on Thursday and the children all looked fabulous. We enjoyed our magical setting lesson in Literacy and used our imagination to create some wonderful pieces of writing. Please take a look at our photos from this special day.

As always, the children have all persevered well within their other lessons this week. Only four more school days to go until a well-deserved break!

W/C 2.10.23

It has been another busy and productive week with the children working hard on with their literacy skills. We have been learning about single-clause sentences and where a full stop should go when there are two single-clause sentences placed side-by-side. Understanding where to correctly place a full stop will really help the children develop their understanding of sentence structure. We look forward to seeing their writing develop over the coming weeks.

In Maths, we have been learning what it means to ‘exchange’ when adding and subtracting and the children have enjoyed working out a range of sums and explaining where and why numbers should be exchanged.

We have had some exciting Art lessons where we have been learning to draw with charcoal. We’ve been smudging and blending to create grey misty scenes along with using an eraser to create light against the darkness. The children also drew their own hands, using dark lines and smudging to create shadows. We’ve then discussed the sort of mood and atmosphere which our charcoal drawings created. It’s been messy but very creative.

W/C:25.9.23

To start the week off, the children revisited what they have learnt already about nouns and verbs in their literacy lessons. The children know that every sentence they write, must have one verb and one subject. Towards the end of the week in our lessons, we started to analyse words to identify which letters are a vowel or consonant. 

In Maths, Year 3 have been focusing on applying number bonds within 10 to questions. This has been very handy for when answering addition and subtraction questions already knowing these facts. Year 4 have also been busy and focused this week on rounding numbers to the nearest 100 or 1000. They have answered questions using their column method skills.  

Our PE lessons this week ensured the children focused on their balancing skills and how they could apply this to two different movements. Once the children learnt how to effectively jump and hop, they competed against one another to see what tricks enabled them to go further whilst still having good balance.  

W/C:18.9.23

The children have been working really hard consolidating their understanding of verbs. We have been paying particular attention to the “to be” verb forms as well as regular and irregular verbs. They have also started to complete books which are on the Accelerated Reader list enabling them to complete the allocated quizzes. This is something we are really pleased to see – please do keep reading at home.

In Maths we have been continuing to work on the place value of numbers including hundreds, tens and ones. We have also discovered a handy trick for working out whether large numbers are multiples of 3. We became human number lines where children were asked to give themselves a 4 digit number between 1,000 and 10,000 and place themselves on a number line using their estimation skills.

We have been reading the opening chapter of “Rage of the Sea Witch (The Adventures of Billy Shaman)” by Roland Chambers in Guided Reading and the children have been keen to discuss their thoughts and feelings about some of the characters and how they behave. There is a great twist in the narration which hopefully the children can explain to you.

W/C:11.9.23

The children have been settling well into their classes for a second week and are enjoying their routines as a year three and year four.

In Maths, the year three children have been practicing their three times table. They have also studied how to partition numbers varying from two - digit, to four – digit numbers. The year four children have also been focusing on their multiplications of three and identifying the place value of numbers including thousands and tens of thousands.

There has been lots of new key vocabulary learnt in History this week and some words are very tricky to pronounce such as Palaeolithic, excavation and domestication. The children have continued to use their skills of interpreting evidence and have explained throughout their work what key features have changed from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic.

This week, the children enjoyed their first of many KS2 assemblies. Each week the children have assemblies that will cover different subjects and celebrate the children's achievements through our PARTY certificates.

W/C:4.9.23

What a great first week it has been!

The children have been hard at work learning all the routines a new year bring.

In maths year three have been looking at place value. they have been learning to write numbers up to 1,000 in numerals and number words!

Year four have also been looking at place value and looking at where numbers fall on a number line.

The classes have started their history topic of  The stone age to the Iron age. We have been using many historical skills to explore this topic already! we have looked at change and continuity and interpreting evidence. The children have had some great ideas! 

In PE we were lucky to have some visitors from Cross-Curricular Orienteering to lead a special session with us to launch our fantastic new orienteering course that we have installed around our school grounds. We are excited to train the children up to develop these skills and uses the courses in many different lessons.