Welcome to the Primary 1 Lion’s blog!
The Lion’s have had another great week in Primary 1! We have had lots of fun playing with our friends both inside the classroom and outside in the playground.
Literacy
This week we learned two more sounds: ‘p’ and ‘n’.
When we learn a new sound, we love watching Geraldine the Giraffe to help introduce the new learning. You could watch these again at home. (video below) We also learn the jolly phonics song for each sound. This week we even pretended to be noisy aeroplanes flying around the classroom. The full list of jolly phonics songs is linked below, find the sounds we know and have a practice at home!
We enjoyed painting pink pigs and noisy aeroplanes to help us learn the new sounds. We also enjoyed practising all the sounds we know so far outside. We drew the letters with chalk, made the letters out of leaves, sticks and rocks and also practised writing them in the sand pit. Some P1s also wrote words using the sounds we had learned so far. Here is what we did.
We also did our first piece of writing this week. We talked about a time when they had to reach up high for something. We walked around the classroom pretending to reach up high for something, imagining what it was and why we wanted it. We also thought about if there was anyone else around to help us reach it and where exactly it was, for example, up high in the sky, on a big tree, on top of a tall shelf etc. We then told our story in a picture where we had to draw a very detailed and colourful picture. Well done P1 for completing your first piece of writing!
Here is our literacy home learning:
Numeracy
This week we continued the SEAL maths programme which teaches children the foundation skills in maths. We practised counting forwards and backwards to 10 and beyond together, counting claps, recognising dice patterns and random dot patterns and counting in sequences. The children are already showing that they are retaining the knowledge they are learning, which is showing greatly in our small group time.
We also have continued to practise writing numbers with the help of our number animal friends. Each number has a story which helps the children to remember what the number looks like. This week we learned about Six, Seven and Eight. The children have loved learning how to write the numbers with the help of the animals!
The video below is also great for practising the skills we are currently learning in numeracy. Have a go at home and challenge someone in your family to have a go with you.
Other Areas
P1 has also been having lots of fun playing outside in the playground. In P.E we have been working on our fitness and spatial awareness when running around the playground. We also have been learning about different ways to move around the playground such as running, jumping, hopping, skipping etc.
This week we also started our castles topic. This is our first child-led topic in P1 and we have had such a fun week! Last week the children had been writing letters to Kings and Queens, building castles in the brick corner and playing pretend games in the house corner. This was the perfect stimulus for the topic and on Tuesday we planned what we would like to learn about. We talked about what we knew already about castles, what we would like to learn and how we would like to learn about castles. We then learned all about the different parts of a castle, went on a virtual tour of Edinburgh Castle and watched some videos about what castles were like a long time ago. We also learned about the different people who lived in castles and created our own Coat of Arms/Royal Crests. We also designed our own castles we would like to live in. To finish the week off, we created a giant castle together which has transformed our house corner into a great big lovely castle! Thank you to everyone who has provided materials for next week’s learning where each child will be building their own mini castle.
This week we also tried something new. After lunch time and playing outside, we sometimes were a little bit too energetic. So everyday we have been coming inside from lunch and doing a very brief mindfulness meditation. This allows us to relax and calm down after having lots of fun outside and settle us before continuing learning. The children are becoming experts and meditating and finding ways to relax and calm themselves. Have a practise at home, if you have time!
We have had lots of fun developing our social skills by playing with our peers in the classroom. We have lots of fun drawing pictures and making crafts, playing in the home corner and reading in the book corner. We also have lots of fun building castles and towers with the construction blocks. There is always lots of fun things to do in the classroom to support our learning and play.
Things to Try at Home
- It would be lovely if all P1s could practice recognising and writing their own name. This is something which will help with the daily routines in P1 and a vital skill to assist their learning. You could practice making your name out of materials found in your garden, creating it out of playdough, writing it in sand or colouring it in.
- Ask your child to give you X amount of various things. For example sticks, leaves, stones. Whatever you can find. This will help with our counting skills.
- Practice using your ‘bunny ears’. Ask your child to show you a number on their fingers using the bunny ears method. They should practice holding up the number of fingers straight away without needing to count each finger. They then look at their fingers to check if they are correct. This is great for numeracy development.
- Ask and adult to clap their hands so many times, can you count how many times they clapped? For an extra tricky challenge try clapping your hands at different speeds, for example 2 slow and 3 quick. Can your child count the number of claps?
- Practice making words out of the sounds we have learned so far – ‘a’ ‘t’ ‘p’ and ‘n’ – for an extra challenge can you write and sound out the words you have made?
- Could you find out any interesting facts about castles by talking to someone in your family? This would be great for both our castles topic and talking and listening skills.
P1 Lion’s Favourite Things of the Week!
“I enjoyed playing in the castle with Islay.” – Georgie
“I enjoyed learning about castles.” – Maximos
“I enjoyed drawing at the craft table.” – Alistair
“I enjoyed making cakes with the numicon with Joe.” – Jack
“I enjoyed learning all about the castles.” – Barney
“I enjoyed making chocolate factories and hotels in the brick corner.” – Murray
Happy Weekend!
- Some parents have been asking about parents evening. We still do not know what format this will take place in yet but they will be the week of 5.10.20. If you have any further questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch!
- Also, it would be greatly appreciated if you could drop off and collect your child from the top of the steps in the upper playground. The small courtyard outside the classroom sometimes becomes too busy, especially now with 3 classes dismissing in this area.
- P.E will be on Mondays and Thursdays – please come dressed and ready for P.E. (only on Thursday next week)
- This was emailed home regarding reading in P1. Here is another copy in case you didn’t see it.
Thank you for your continued support with your child’s learning and time in school, it is greatly appreciated. I hope you have a lovely long weekend and I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday!
From Miss McGillivray
Buckstone Primary School 