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In order to encourage writing in play the children have free access to notebooks and diaries in which they can ‘write’ plans and notes on their learning. To enable this we would welcome donations of unwanted/partially used notebooks or diaries. Also any enticing writing implements ( ie glittery pencils/gel pens/ pencils with feathers etc – basically anything other than standard school issue type pencils/pens) These will be used in our ‘message trolley’. The children enjoy choosing resources from the trolley to use in their independent learning, promoting markmaking and early writing skills.
In our STEM area ( Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths the children enjoy creating structures and models from clean cardboard/plastic recycling. We would love to receive frequent donations of resources to support this area of learning, no amount is too much !
Our STEM area is a core part of our play curriculum in school. The end product may not look like much, but it is the process that matters. ‘Junk’ modelling helps to develop their imagination and creative abilities while challenging them to explore, investigate and problem solve as they bring their ideas to life.
Children can work on their own or co-operate with others, learning to negociate and share ideas. When they create something new it can give their confidence and self-esteem a big boost. They can also consider how their plans have worked out as they think about what they might have done differently or how they might improve their model.
With these materials they practice complex skills from fine and gross locomotor skills to higher order executive functioning; higher order thinking skills such as sequencing, hypothesis testing, divergent problem solvng, analysis and evaluation.
If they don’t take their model home at the end of the day it doesn’t matter – the learning has already happened. If it does come home, please value the process your child has gone through more than the product itself. Thank you.
A reminder to please name all items of clothing, water bottles and shoes, and to check names on items brought home in case your child accidentally acquires an item belonging to someone else.
Our learning this week
Another busy week in P1. Please look at the blog with your child to give them the opportunity to share their experiences with you.
Literacy focus
We have been doing some baseline assessments to ascertain the children’s prior knowledge of phonics.
We did some handwriting skills development, following pathways and creating lines.
Our writing programme starts with telling stories through detailed drawing. This week our drawing prompt was ‘My family’
Maths and numeracy focus
.We are about to begin our numeracy baseline assessments.
Other areas of the curriculum
We have created our Class Charter. Our school saying is Ready, Respectful Safe and we have talked about what this means for us in class. We also referred to the UNCRC and identified some of our important rights. We wrote our name and drew our picture on leaves to show that we will try to be Ready Respectful and Safe in school.
In PE we practised following instructions, taking turns and we investigated different ways of travelling, Skipping and hopping proved quite tricky for a few of the children, so please practice this at home.
Looking ahead to next week
PE days as before.
We will share more memory boxes.
Buckstone Primary School 