Welcome to Otter Class

General Information

PE

PE will be on a Tuesday afternoon.  Please make sure your child comes to school in their PE kits on a Tuesday.

Water bottles

Please ensure your child comes to school with a filled water bottle; we are able to refill these during the day.  Please encourage your child to bring water only.

Tuck

Tuck will be available for children everyday for 50p. A variety of snacks will be available - from fruit and yoghurt to sausage and bacon rolls. Please encourage children to bring their money in a sealed envelope, these are available at the front office. 

Homework

Homework will be set on a Friday and will be due back in on Tuesday; this is to give us time for it to be marked and then new homework issued. If your child is finding a piece of homework difficult, please tell them to come to myself or Mrs Evans on the Monday and we can support them. 

Our Curriculum

Geography

During our geography lessons this half term, the children have been learning about earthquakes, volcanoes and mountains. The children have learnt about the layers of the earth, the tectonic plates, the tectonic plate touches and how these touches create earthquakes, volcanoes and mountains.

Here are some lovely pictures of the children using crackers as tectonic plates to create different touches. They demonstrated colliding, pulling apart and scraping. They can even name the different types of boundaries (transform, divergent and convergent!

For the last few lessons of this topic, the children have researched and presented information about the four main types of volcanoes; they have then chosen a type of volcano and created this using paper mache! 

The four types of volcano:

• stratovolcano (steep sides, huge explosions, tall and lava of high viscosity)
• caldera volcano (collapsed stratovolcano, cauldron shaped open, huge explosions, lava of high viscosity).
• shield volcano (gentle slopes, calmer explosion, runny lava - low viscosity)
• fissure volcano (volcano open is a large fissure, when it explodes, the lava hardens and it creates another layer)

Science

The children have been learning about the circulatory system. We acted out the circulatory system using water (blood), blue cups (deoxygenated blood) and red cups (oxygenated blood).

We then delved deeper and learnt more about the heart. We discussed and labelled the four chambers and the blood vessels. The children then wrote about the pathway the blood takes when it enters and leaves the heart. Following on from this, Year 6 then made their own clay heart which really showcased the different chambers. 

Reading

During this half term, we will be reading Pig Heart Boy (by Marlorie Blackman) as well as a range of extracts with linking themes. The children will be learning how to use reading skills to answer a range of questions. These reading skills include:

• summarising
• retrieving 
• inferring 
• predicting
• understanding themes
• authorial intent 

Design and Technology: Food and Nutrition

During the course of this food and nutrition unit, the children have been answering the question: can street food save us? During the second lesson, the children made pitta and hummus.  Before cooking, the children researched the nutritional value of the ingredients and discussed whether it was a healthy option. 

Maths

In today's maths lesson Otter's were learning about squared and cubed numbers. The children explored the concept through the use of manipulatives - they created squared and cubed numbers using cubes. They then used this knowledge to solve a range of fluency, reasoning and problem solving questions. 

Remembrance Day

Today, Otter's visited the local memorial to reflect and remember all the soldiers that fought and died for our country during WW1 and WW2. It was a lovely service led by Vicar Sue Nutt.

Lest we forget

Writing

This week the children have been writing remembrance poems based on the animation, 'A War to end no Wars'. The children had to pick out the nouns within the animation and create expanded noun phrases. Then, they had to extend the expanded noun phrases by adding figurative language at the end (personification, metaphors, alliteration, similes) to create powerful imagery within their writing. They then used these sentences to create remembrance poems - they are so powerful!

School Closure Home Learning: Thursday 2nd November 2023

Writing: Could you please write a chronological recount of your day at Duxford yesterday? Your piece of writing needs to include an introduction and a conclusion. I have produced a paragraph plan to help you.

Maths: Could you complete the two Mathsframe worksheets. Once you have done these, I have listed some related Mathsframe games. 

Science: Please can you complete the electricity home learning pack; this consolidates all the learning we have done so far!

If you want more information, or you do not have a printer, go to google classroom and hopefully you can access things a little easier :) 

If you have any questions, please do email: cclarke@barnham.org

In relation to our WW2 topic based on our locality, Year 6 were fortunate enough to go on a school trip to Duxford Imperial War Museum.

They have been learning about how East Anglia (our local area) had a significant impact on the war effort during World War 2. The children have learnt that East Anglia was great for building and using airbases because of our rural surroundings, flat land, being close to the coast with easy access to Germany. Because of this, the friendly invasion happened! During WW2, more than 70000 Americans came to the county of Suffolk to perform their military duties. 

The trip to Duxford Imperial War Museum really highlighted the historic events during WW2 that impacted our locality and our lives today. The children were able to get up close and encounter a range of aircrafts that took to the skies during that era. 

What an amazing day out! 

During our visit to Duxford Imperial War Museum, each child became a documentarian; they were expert analysts on many historical objects from WW2. The children had to work in groups to produce a documentary about a historical items within the Battle of Britain hangar that we visited. The photos above show the children carrying out their documentaries! 

Design and Technology: Food and Nutrition

During the course of this food and nutrition unit, the children will be answering the question: can street food save us? For the first lesson, the children made burritos; they discussed the ingredients that they wanted to include in their burritos, and they looked up the nutritional value of each ingredient. When making their burritos, they all mastered the bridge and claw technique when slicing and dicing vegetables. It is safe to say that Year 6 thoroughly enjoyed themselves during this lesson. 

RE

For part of our RE topic, the children were able to visit our local to church with Vicar Cat. Vicar Cat was able to share the importance of how the gospels are shown to be of great value in the church. Year 6 learnt that both the pulpit and lectern are important pieces of furniture that show the importance of the bible and gospels. 

Science

Our topic for this half term is 'Electricity' and to kick start this unit of work, the children had to understand how electricity works. We explored the structure of atoms, and distinguished how energy is given to the electrons which then jump from different atoms to create electricity! The children then created this structure using themselves!

Investigation

We investigated conductors and insulators. The children created their own investigation to find out if materials were insulators or conductors. After the investigation, we spoke about what materials make good conductors. 

Our focus text for the half term is: 

Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell

During this half term, we will be reading Rooftoppers (by Katherine Rundell) as well as a range of extracts with linking themes. The children will be learning how to use reading skills to answer a range of questions. These reading skills include:

• summarising
• retrieving 
• inferring 
• predicting
• understanding themes
• authorial intent