Summer 1

It has been an incredibly busy half term in Otters class and the children have all worked exceptionally hard.

In Maths, this half term has been all about FRACTIONS!! 

Surprisingly the children have really enjoyed learning how to add and subtract them, and to find fractions of amounts. We also looked at Time- learning how to read the time to the nearest minute on analogue clocks as well as the more familiar digital format. It is really eye opening to see just how many children could not read and interpret the time on a clock with hands! hopefully they can now!

In English, we studied features of leaflets and, tying in with our topic on Victorian seasides, we produced some amazing persuasive leaflets all about Blackpool and it's attractions. 

We have also produced newspaper articles, reporting on the discovery of fossils in the school grounds.

We have loved doing some fantastic animal collages, linked to RE day and the significance of animals in the Hindu and Christian creation story.

On sculpture day, we designed and made our own doughnuts for the Otters class doughnut Cafe! they look fantastic!

Well done Otters, I am very proud of all your hard work.

Spring Term

Well, Spring term was certainly a huge challenge for everyone at South Wonston School!, but I am truly amazed at the resilience and strength of character shown by everyone in Otters class. They have been absolutely brilliant!

The daily zoom calls seem like a very long time ago now, but at the time they were an essential part of our day, ensuring that the home learners still had that valuable contact with their friends!!

We were all thrilled when we were able to be back together again!

The first few days were all about re establishing friendships and learning routines and expectations again, but the Otters did this quickly and easily.

We have really enjoyed starting fractions in maths - we have so far covered halves, thirds, quarters, tenths and unit and non unit fractions. They definitely aren't as scary as the children thought they would be!

In English we really enjoyed writing our adventure stories, based on the tunnel by Michael Morpurgo - the children worked so hard to include the grammar features we have learned and the end results were really impressive.

We started to read Charlotte's Web in Guided Reading, after loving the Iron Man during lockdown, and we are enjoying making predictions about what Wilbur's fate will be.

As part of our Topic on Winchester, we made information guides encouraging visitors to come and also some wonderful landscapes of Winchester including St Catherines Hill, The statue of King Alfred and the Water

Meadows.

We are all looking forward to a fun Summer term when we can enjoy all being together.

Autumn term 2

We have had an incredibly busy and enjoyable half term in Otters class, and we are currently getting very excited about Christmas and all the fun that brings.

Our topic has been Rivers and as well as our amazing trip to the River in Beaullieu, we have been learning about features of rivers, the water cycle and all things water related! We linked some of our English work to the topic too and wrote detailed explanatory texts about the water cycle. We are really proud of them and were amazed to learn that the water we see today is the same as the water that the dinosaurs had.

We have also been learning about poetry - especially the poems of Valerie Bloom. We have created our own poetry journals and learnt lots of grammar - similes, metaphors, rhyme and personification to make our own poems really effective.

In Maths we have been working hard on multiplication and division - learning the formal written methods for both...we have also loved doing tables torture and have a class competition going on with 'hit the button' which is a game we love.

I am so proud of the children, they have worked really hard and that is reflected in the progress they have made and the standard of their work . 

We are really looking forward to our next topic of the Saxons, and the Saxon day we have planned for 11th January. 

I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas! and thankyou all for your support in some of the changes we have had to make during this challenging time, to keep our children safe.

MESSING ABOUT ON THE RIVER

Last week, Otters class went on our much anticipated trip to Beaulieu River! 

We were very pleased that the sun was shining. We had a wonderful day walking along the river and conducting experiments testing speed and velocity of the river. This involved getting INTO the river and some of us got quite wet!!

In the afternoon, after having our lunch in the treehouse, we did some pond dipping, where we had to identify the different creatures that lived in the water. We found a lot of water nymphs and mayflies!

We were all very tired after such a lot of walking and being out in the fresh air, but still managed a good sing song on the coach back to school. 

A big thankyou from Mrs Broadway and the children to the parent helpers who came on the trip! We really appreciate it!

We have had a really great first half term in Otters class, adjusting to being back at school and settling in our new routines.

The children have loved being back with their friends and making new ones.

It has been lovely to see how quickly the children have adapted and how they have made so much progress in such a short space of time.

We have worked really hard on developing their writing skills and building their stamina back up. They loved learning about the features of fairy tales and eventually creating their own versions of well known tales, adding in new characters and new scenarios. There are certainly some fantastic imaginations in Otters!!

We have found our topic on Scott of the Antarctic really fascinating, not just the story and the fact that no-one made it back alive, but also looking at  sources of evidence and investigating how we have such a clear understanding of what happened when there was nobody to tell the tale. The children enjoyed designing their monuments dedicated to Scott and also creating their own penguin colony using watercolour paints!

We have studied the book 'Jack and the baked Beanstalk' for guided reading, and really enjoyed the twist in the tale where the giant comes down the beanstalk and comes to work in Jack's cafe. We had lots of fun designing the menu!

We have loved making the most of our time outside in the fresh air and have tried to get out as often as we can - the children have bonded within our bubble and enjoy playing a variety of games together.

In Science, we have been looking at the life cycle of plants and we investigated the question 'How does water impact the growth of a plant'. The children planted their own beans and loved watching them and monitoring their growth each week! By the end of the experiment some of us were convinced we were going to end up with our very own beanstalks!!

In Maths we have been consolidating and revisiting units missed last year and building on the skills ready to move on. We practised place value and addition and subtraction and of course our times tables. The children are loving TT rockstars and being competitive with their new class.

Whilst things are by no means back to normal, and sacrifices are having to be made, such as eating in the classrooms at lunchtimes and a lack of singing and whole school assemblies, we have had a great half term and the children are happy and positive. We are very much looking forward to next half term and the lead up to Christmas.