Otter Class

Welcome to Otter Class!

Class Leaders: Mrs Elliott and Mrs Chapman

We run Otter class on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

Otter class provides children with social, emotional and mental health needs the opportunity to work together in a smaller classroom environment. 

Week beginning Monday 15th March

We are so excited to be able to welcome the children back to Otter class. We have spent the time rearranging our class and planning some really wonderful activities for the children. To kick start our first week back we had a look at our allotment and all the lovely fruit, veg and flower seeds we have to plant. We planned the best places to plant each seed and got digging and turning over the soil in preparation. On Tuesday, we started planting our fruit and veg, some of the produce we are growing are beetroots, carrots, potatoes, herbs and wild flowers. We are really looking forward to watching them grow, we are hoping to have a little farm stall of our own selling the produce we've grown to make a profit for Otter class. By Thursday we were gardened out but felt really proud of what we have achieved. Keep your eyes peeled for any new shoots growing in the allotment!

Week beginning Tuesday 15th December

What an amazing term we have had in Otter class. This week we have taken part in lots of Christmas activities, card making, wreath printing and even turned ourselves into elves! To end our week we had a very special Otter class Christmas party and we watched the school nativity. We hope you all have a very Merry Christmas from all of us in Otter class.

Week beginning Tuesday 8th December

This week in Otter class we decided to bake cakes for each member of staff for wellbeing Wednesday. We all took it in turns to weigh out the ingredients we needed and in our separate bowls we mixed it altogether. Once our mixture was ready we carefully placed a spoonful into individual cake cases ready to be baked. Using frosting, icing, chocolate hearts, blue sprinkles, pink sprinkles and coloured icing we personalised each cake for every member of staff and added a wellbeing quote to them. We delivered our cakes and received lots of smiles in return. Still getting in the Christmas mood we turned on the Christmas songs and made our very own Christmas tree using cardboard. We painted our tree and made some wonderful decorations to complete it. We painted pine cones and added string to them, we also made paper baubles and chains. With a splash of glitter our Otter class tree is complete, doesn't it look fantastic!

Week beginning Tuesday 1st December

This week in Otter class we carried on our stone age theme. Now that our stone age jewellery is painted and has dried, we put them together using string. Don't they look glamourous! Looking at stone circles last week we decided to make our own using biscuits. We all helped out weighing the ingredients, then we rolled the dough out and cut out all different square and rectangle shapes ready to be cooked. Next we looked at natural dyes because the stone age people wouldn't have dyes like we do today. Using cloth to dye and beetroot, turmeric, basil and blueberries as the dyes. We put each natural herb or vegetable into hot water and dunked our cloth into it, after a couple of minutes we ringed the cloth out and let it dry. The best one was the turmeric, the cloth turned out bright yellow. Then we built our stone circle using our cooked biscuits and icing sugar, we had to use our resilience to make it stand up and the finished outcome was amazing! To finish our week and get in to the Christmas spirit we made ourselves a Santa advent calendar. Each day we pop a cotton wool bud over the number and by Christmas Santa should have a full fluffy, white beard again.

Week beginning Tuesday 24th November

This week in Otter class we went back in time to the stone age. We started our week by looking at the different tools stone age people would have used and thought about the materials they would have had, then we made our own axes and spears using wood, string and cardboard. Next week looked at some stone age jewellery, did you know they used animal teeth?! Using salt dough we had a go at making our own teeth and bone necklaces. Continuing our topic we look at some amazing cave paintings, we went foraging for some natural materials to have a go at creating our own cave art. We collected berries, leaves, mud, grass and twigs, we also used paints to copy the cave designs. Once our paintings were done we sprinkled some sand over the top to give it a cave like feel. Knowing that the stone age people lived in caves we made our own Otter class cave, we also added a stone fire to our settlement. To end our week we looked at different stone circles that were created around the UK like Stone Henge, we built a few stone circles of our own using the wooden blocks and even made some out of junk modelling. 

Week beginning Tuesday 17th November

This week in Otter class we have been exploring emotions and looking at our qualities that make us unique. We coloured in and made our own calm cube to use when we feel we are in the red zone. Using bright felt tips we coloured in all our amazing qualities and also created some wonderful self portraits. To end our week we thought about times when we felt happy, sad, angry and even scared.

Week beginning Tuesday 10th November

This week in Otter class we reflected on what Remembrance Day means and what the poppy stands for. We listened to a story of how the poppy came about, then we made our own poppy wreaths using paint. We proudly displayed these in Otter class. Using clay we also made our own poppies and painted some poppy pictures. Next we looked at biplanes and what they were used for during the war, to challenge ourselves we made our own biplanes out of paper. Then we continued to look at different world war planes and created our own using a water bottle, paper, paint, cardboard and a straw for the propeller. We were super proud of our finished planes. Towards the end of the week we had a look at air raid shelters and evacuees. We created our own air raid shelters under our desks and filled them with supplies we thought we would need...lego and race cars! Listening to a story about evacuee children, we thought what it would be like and how we might of felt if we had to be evacuees. Using a suitcase template we packed our cases with what we would need.

Week beginning Tuesday 3rd November

This week in Otter class we learnt a bit about Guy Fawkes and why we have bonfire night. We started our week by talking about fire and the dangers of it, we created our amazing fire pictures using sticks we collected from the playground. Using toilet rolls and tissue paper we made some super out of this world rockets. As we were approaching fireworks night, we watched some spectacular fireworks displays from around the world and we decided to create our own fireworks mural. We created this by cutting the end of toilet rolls, dipping them in paint and printing on to fabric. Next we tried a rocket experiment. We did this by tying a piece of string from one side of the room to the other, attaching a straw to a blown up balloon and threading this on to the string. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...blast off! It shocked us at how fast it whizzed through the air. Our next science experiment was creating a lava bottle. We loved watching the different patterns the coloured water made in the oil once we dropped a fizzing tablet in to the bottle. To finish off we made scrumptious edible sparklers. We dipped biscuit sticks in melted chocolate then into galaxy sprinkles...YUM!

Week beginning Tuesday 20th October

This week in Otter class we have been doing Halloween activities.  We started the week by creating our own Splat monsters by using paint, straws and googly eyes, we also designed our very own trick or treat bags. Continuing our spooky theme we made our very own spider, bat and ghost mobiles using string, pipe cleaners and tissue paper. To finish off our week we carved our very own pumpkins.  In between our crafting and carving we had a cuddle with the Guinea Pigs and had a look at the night vision camera to see who had been visiting our pond area. 

Week beginning Tuesday 13th October

This week in Otter class we thought about the different bugs that might live in our bug hotels and had a go at making them out of clay. Once the clay had dried we painted our little bugs and we are going to place them around our bug hotels. We also had a go at making origami boats and showed great resilience when they didn't go to plan. Thinking about the different animals houses we have been looking at, bird houses and bug hotels, we worked together to make ourselves a den using the play pod materials. Our den turned out amazing with 2 rooms, a roof and even a doorway. To end our week we went on a leaf hunt and picked some wonderful looking leaves ready to preserve them. Using melted beeswax we dipped our leaves very carefully in it and let the dry, we are going to use these to decorate Otter class. With the left over leaves we made leaf rubbings and even made pictures sticking leaves on to paper. 

Week beginning Tuesday 6th October

This week in Otter class we painted bird houses and had a go at making some out of junk modelling. We worked together to make bird feeders to hang up in our pond area, using plastic bottles, bird seed, string and a skewer. To challenge ourselves we tried to make different origami animals. Using natural materials and buckets we recycled from the gardening shed we made bugs hotels that sit proudly in our pond area. 

Week beginning Tuesday 29th September

In Otter class we have been learning about Isambard Kingdom Brunel this week.  We were inspired by his construction of the Clifton suspension bridge and the railway lines he made so we had a go at building some ourselves.  We also selected some prize winning conkers and had a conker tournament.  As well as the school guinea pigs, we have pet worms in our class.  They live in the wormery and enjoy eating old leaves.