P2MD Mrs McFarlane and Miss Davidson

P2MD Blog 09.02.24

Dear Parents,

We hope you have had a lovely week.

Important Information

Here is a summary of our learning.

Literacy

Spelling: As a class, we introduced the tricky words people, again and four. We then each worked on the particular spelling block we are focussing on.

Phonics: We have continued to learn about magic e. This week we have looked at words with the o vowel. Magic e makes the vowels say their letter name rather than their sound. For example, in the word hole the o makes an ‘oh’ sound. Magic e remains silent.

Writing: We wrote descriptions of Monet.

Handwriting: We have been learning to form the letters h and b. Here is the website we use in school to show the correct formation.

Continuous Cursive letter choice 3 beginners (teachhandwriting.co.uk) 

Ideas for home learning:

Ask your child to explain how magic e works. Do they understand? The focus this week was on words with the o vowel.

You could write the following words on a piece of paper then ask your child to wave their magic e wand then add an e at the end of the word. When you add magic e to the end of the word, can they read the new word that has been created? For example not would turn into note.

not

rob

con

hop

cod

slop

Here is a video with activities you could try with your child at home.

Long O with Magic E – 4 Minute Phonics (youtube.com)

Please continue to work on reading and spelling the tricky words block your child is focussing on. Here is an idea for a game to play at home.

Spelling Pairs

Play pairs in the same way that you would play to help your child to read the words but this time have a large piece of paper and a pen in the middle of the table. If you find a pair you can only keep the pair if you can write the word, spelling it correctly. Remember to give time to your child to look at the word and talk through ways to remember it.

Maths and Numeracy

Numeracy

We have continued to work on addition strategies. In particular, we have been working on missing addend sums. For example, 46 + ? = 50

Ideas for learning at home:

Ask your child to solve these sums:

  • 48 + ? = 52
  • 78 + ? = 81
  • 23 + ? = 25
  • 59 + ? = 62
  • 35 + ? = 39

For more challenge, you could pose these word problems.

  • Amy made some cupcakes. Then she made 8 more. Now she has 19. How many cupcakes did she make first?
  • There are 15 children ice skating. 6 of the children are in level 1. How many children are in level 2?

Shape

We have continued to work on vocabulary for describing the properties of 3D objects. The words we have been using are: faces, edges and vertices.

Ideas for learning at home:

  • Ask your child to describe a cube, cuboid, sphere, cylinder and prism. Can they use the correct vocabulary?
  • Then you could describe a 3D object using these words. Can they guess which shape you are thinking of?

Other Areas

French

We have continued to learn the names for colours in French.

Outdoor Learning

We enjoyed our session of loose parts on Tuesday.

Chinese New Year

We enjoyed learning about The Great Race as well as how Chinese New Year is celebrated.

IDL

We have continued to learn about Greyfriars Bobby.

HWB – Building Resilience

We are working on the unit of work titled ‘Respect Yourself’. We have enjoyed singing songs such as ‘I’m the Only I’ and ‘Fabby Dabby Dee’.

We also read the story ‘Only One You’. Here is a link to a read along version.

Read Aloud “Only One You” (youtube.com)

The illustrations in the book are of painted stones. During the holiday, if you would like to design and paint your own unique stone, we would love for you to bring it in to show the rest of the class.

HWB – RSHP

The children are working on the topic of My body. They will be learning about having a healthy body and keeping clean. This week we have been learning the correct names for male and female genitals. The body-part names covered this week were: nipples, penis, scrotum and testicles and vulva.

We use these terms because they help to remove any embarrassment or shame about these body parts. Also, knowing these words means that children can explain clearly if they are unwell or have a worry. Knowing these terms help to protect children because they also learn that these parts of the body are private – we will be doing more on this in class. We encourage parents and carers to use the same terms at home, we do understand that families often have informal body-part terms that they use, but we would ask that you take on board the need to use the same terms as school.

Have a lovely February holiday,
Mrs McFarlane