Otter Class

Welcome to Otter Class

Years 1 and 2 

Class Teacher - Mrs. Plant

HLTA - Mrs. Harvey (1:1)

TA - Mrs. Cousins (1:1)

Summer Term

Welcome Back Otter Class!

I hope you had a fantastic break and enjoyed seeing friends and family throughout the Easter break 

We are in for a very exciting term in Otter class as we delve into our new topic and all the fantastic events that are planned throughout this term! Think Victorian experience days, Sports Day, skipping challenges, sandwich creations and so much more! 

School Days

This term our topic, in Otter Class, will be School Days. We will be developing our History skills through exploring life during the Victorian era and how it compares to our lives now. We will look closely at how children were taught, what they learnt and how schooling differs between then and now. In Science, the children will be both exploring plants and animals, identifying their different features and life cycles. Our DT skills will be developed through a project on designing and making a new sandwich too. However, we will kick start this term with an art project, focusing on the work of James Rizzi, an American pop-artist.

Spring Term

General Information: Updates and Polite Reminders

Winter

Whilst the weather remains chilly, and damp underfoot, please can you ensure that your child has both indoor and outdoor shoes to wear, and that all clothing and footwear is clearly named. We positively encourage the children to hang up and keep all their personal items on their pegs, however, there are occasions when belongings are not always found where we expect them to be. If they are clearly named it is much easier, and quicker, for us to return them to their owner.

We appreciate your continued support with this  - The Otter Class Team

PE
Throughout the Spring Term, PE will take place in two shorter sessions across the week. These will take place on a Tuesday and Thursday afternoon. Please continue to send your children to school, dressed in suitable clothing and footwear, with long hair tied up and back, and earrings removed. 

Childhood

This term our topic will be Childhood.

In the Childhood project, the children will learn words and phrases related to the passage of time. They will explore artefacts to help them to understand childhood in the past and how childhood has changed over time. They will explore the six stages of life and explore timelines and family trees. Everyday life in the 1950s will be explored, including shopping, transport, family life and childhood. They will also learn about the significance of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1953 by studying photographs and online sources. 

Please see our termly newsletter for further information on what we will be covering in each individual subject.

Autumn Term

General Information

Our daily routine follows a simple structure focusing primarily on the core subjects of reading, writing and Maths in the mornings, and exploring the Foundation subjects (Science, History, Geography etc) during the afternoons. Morning break is from 10:45-11:00 am and lunch is from 12:00-1:10pm. 

From Monday 8th November PE will take place on Tuesday afternoons. We encourage the children to come to school ready and prepared in their PE clothing.  With the colder, wetter months coming, providing items such as jumpers, outdoor sports shoes and trousers/leggings will be much appreciated. 

Reading

It has been fantastic to see so many of the children reading regularly at home throughout the course of the first half term. It is so wonderful to read that they are enthusiastic and achieving so much through the reading they do at home with friends and family. 

Please continue to hear your child read regularly at home. It is important to read each book several times through, to support developing fluency. Asking relevant questions, about the text, is also key to supporting developing comprehension skills (i.e. characters, events, features, meaning of words).

Home reading books will continue to be swapped on a Tuesday and a Friday each week.

Home Learning

The children will receive home learning tasks every Friday. Please return homework books by the Wednesday of each week. Further details can be found under the home learning tab below.

Bright Lights, Big City!

This half term we will be exploring the city of London as it is today. We will be learning: about the location of London (UK and in relation to us in Coton); the physical and human features of a place; develop our fieldwork and observation skills; explore London's many famous landmarks and compare it to another city around the world. We will be identifying and exploring how vehicles move; searching the internet, safely, for key facts as well as creating algorithms to program objects to move from a to b.