Otters Class

Welcome to the Otters Class page. 

Otters Class staff:

Class Teachers: Mr P. Kelly 

Class Teaching Assistant: Mrs V. Lund 

Reading

• We encourage you to read with your children at home at least 5 times a week to foster a love of reading within your child. Children will be given a ZPD level once they have completed a reading quiz in the first 2 weeks back and therefore they know which colour book they should be reading.
•  Reading books are always collected in at school on a Friday and a new book will then be given out on the same day ready for the weekend. This allows children to read 5 out of 7 days a week at home.
• Please remember to write in your child's reading journal every time they have read at home. We also encourage the children in Year 2 to write a comment in their reading journal. They have been shown how to do this! 
• Children will have the opportunity to visit the library weekly.
• Please also ensure that you keep the reading books in school bags as we may want to record our reading with them in their reading journals too!
• Finally, the more words your child reads, the more of a word count they will have. Certificates are given out during our weekly celebration assembly to show how many words children are reading! These go up to 1000000 words! 

PE

• Otters Class have a PE lesson every Monday afternoon and Thursday morning.
• PE will take place inside and outside during the Autumn term, depending on the weather! 
• Please ensure all your child's PE kit is labelled.
• PE kits will be sent home with children on the last week of each half term.

Homework

• Children are asked to read their books at home as much as is possible. This will encourage children to learn new words and be able to write for longer. 
• Times Table Rockstars Battle of the Bands will commence every other week. We encourage your child to log on to TT Rockstars for 5 minutes every day and improve their speed and recall of multiplications! 
• Children should complete Accelerated Reader (AR) quizzes on the books they have read within 24 hours of finishing the book. If you are finding it difficult to access AR please speak to your child's class teacher. Please find the link below to access AR and type your child's username and password when prompted.
• https://ukhosted44.renlearn.co.uk/8045754 

Forest School

• Your child will attend a forest school session once every two weeks.
• Clothing will be kept at school.
• Children should have wet weather suits for these sessions to ensure that they are covered and safe.
• Children are split into either Group 1 or Group 2, for Otters Class. 
• Children will be getting their wet weather suits muddy! This is all part of the forest school experience. We are developing children's outdoor experiences and resilience. 

Autumn Term - Pudding to Pepys

Our Autumn Term always begins with an exciting and engaging start. We will be going on a journey to explore our concept question; 'Was the Great Fire of London (GFOL) a good thing?'. During this topic, the children will be learning more about the effects of the GFOL on the city of London and how it impacted on the lives of the people who lived there during the 17th century. We shall be exploring how the people fought the fires, why the fires happened and compare firefighting in the 17th century to that of the 21st century. During our time on this topic, we shall also be learning about a man called Samuel Pepys and his impact on the GFOL. Year 2 will learn how his life changed and influenced this time and the impact he has had on history itself. 

Key texts this term include: 

The Great Fire of London - Susanna Davidson

The Great Fire of London - An Illustrated History

Toby and the Great Fire of London - Margaret Nash

Who was Samuel Pepys? - Paul Harrison