Otter Class
Welcome to Otter Class! We are a mixed Year 5/6 class.
Our class teachers are Mrs Loudon on Mondays and Tuesdays, and Mrs Tomblin on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
Learning at Home
Reading
The children are asked to read at least 5 times per week at home (with an adult or independently) and record this in their reading journals. These will be collected on a Thursday and checked, so please ensure they are sent to school on this day.
Maths
Assignments are sent on Doodle Maths each Friday to consolidate the children's learning from the week. Children are encouraged to practise daily to build speed and accuracy across all areas of mathematics.
Ways in which you can support your child with their learning
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Encourage them to write for pleasure. Produce some writing together. Ask them ‘How can we make this sentence better?’ Discuss the impact of words.
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Share books. Talk about the characters and predict what might happen in stories. Ask children their thoughts on a book and how it compares to other books they have read.
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Have opportunities where all the family are involved in some sort of reading for example, newspapers and magazines.
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Ask them questions about their Maths homework, such as 'What strategies do you know?', 'What is the best way to solve this?'
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Play times-tables games. All children have their own login details for Times Table Rock Stars and Doodle Times Tables, so please ensure your child has plenty of practice.
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Help them learn their spellings and find other words that fit the spelling pattern with them.
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Discuss news events with them at their level.
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Research around our topics.
Growth Mindset
As a staff, we really believe in the importance of children developing a 'growth mindset' instead of a 'fixed mindset'. We want children to believe that their abilities are not fixed but that they can work towards the attainment of new skills. Just because they can’t solve a certain problem or achieve a specific goal right now, doesn’t mean they won’t be able to after working on it. We will be focussing on developing a growth mindset amongst all children, in all their learning.
SATS Revision
Below is a list of websites that we recommend in order to support the children in the run-up to SATS.
MATHS
Corbett Maths Primary: https://corbettmathsprimary.com/
- A fantastic website. Many of the resources can be printed, but could also be looked at on screen with practise being done on paper.
MathsBot (Y6 Arithmetic Practice): https://mathsbot.com/primary/ks2Mini
- This is another brilliant website. You can either practise all of the question types, or you can select the types of questions you find tricky.
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To select question types, click on the question number. (You can select more than one question at a time.)
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Next, click 'New', and the questions that match the types you selected will appear. (If there are too many, you can change the number of questions in the drop down box at the top, then click 'New' again.)
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To return to the original set of questions, click 'Reset'.
BBC Bitesize: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/z826n39
- A great website. Again, you can choose an area to look at. There are videos, explanations and short quizzes to help you. (Make sure you have Y6 selected.)
Guardians of Mathematica: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zd2f7nb/articles/zn2y7nb
- Our new favourite game!
16 Weeks of SATs Arithmetic: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLOgtrgJ78qEXgygB4rQxEjKEoBR3r4nWZ
- There are videos to help you with the different question types on the Arithmetic paper, with examples from previous papers. (We know that Vocabulary Ninja resources are always good, but you may be shown a slightly different way than what we do in school. If in doubt, please ask us. We will try to watch them, so that we can recommend the best ones.)
Times Tables:
MathsBot - Find the Primes: https://mathsbot.com/puzzles/findThePrimes
- Great for checking your understanding of prime numbers! You can adjust the time you are given for each round in the drop down box. Which level can you get to?
Telling the Time: https://www.topmarks.co.uk/time/teaching-clock
- A useful website to help you practise reading an analogue clock, a 12-hour digital clock and a 24-hour digital clock.
Missing Angles game: https://mathsframe.co.uk/en/resources/resource/234/missing-angles
- Scroll down to play the game. Once in the game menu, the first 5 game types will help you with what we've learned.
Reflection: https://www.teacherled.com/iresources/symmetry/symmetryshapes/
- If you want to practise your ability to reflect shapes, this will help:
Ooodle: https://mathszone.co.uk/resources/grid/ooodle/
- We know some of you love this game. It's great for practising BODMAS, but remember, this is only part of your revision.
SPAG
BBC Bitesize: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/subjects/zv48q6f
- The Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling section is most likely to be useful for revision. Make sure you click on the Y6 tab.
Rollama: https://rollama.com/index-games-toggle.php
- The llama-themed grammar, punctuation and spelling website, full of games to play
BBC Bitesize Crystal Explorers: https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/topics/zkbkf4j/articles/zbm8scw