We have had a great start to the term in P1. The children have been fantastic, taking the new routines in their stride and enjoying exploring the classroom.

This week’s blog post is a long one as there is lots of information to share !

Please check this blog every Friday as we will share the learning from the week. We would encourage you to look at it with your child so that they can talk to you about their experiences in class. The blog post may also include ‘homework’ activities or suggestions of things to try at home as well as requests for help such as the ones below.

We may also share other information via the blog during the week, so you may wish to set up an alert for new posts.

Purple folders

Thank you for your support and patience waiting for the purple folders to finally arrive. The children are welcome to personalise their folders with a small keyring to help them identify their own one, but we respectfully ask that it is only one small keyring and not a large collection or a particularly bulky soft toy type attachment. The folders are stored in a basket during the school day and the addition of multiple big toys means they don’t fit.

Can you help ?

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 negotiate 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.

Our learning this week

Here are some photographs of us developing our skills through our independent learning opportunities and experiences this week. Please take time to share these photographs with your child so they can share their learning with you.

Literacy focus

We have been doing some baseline assessments to ascertain the children’s prior knowledge of phonics.

Our writing programme starts with telling stories through detailed drawing. This week our drawing prompt was ‘My family’

Some of us have shared our memory boxes.

Maths and numeracy focus

We have been doing some baseline assessments to ascertain the children’s prior knowledge and understanding of number.

Other areas of the Curriculum

We have been demonstrating our cutting skills, learning to use scissors safely and efficiently.

In PE we have been developing skills in sharing the space and travelling safely. We also played a game to help us learn to listen and respond quickly.

PE days will be Wednesday and Thursday. Children should come to school dressed ready to participate as we will not change clothes in school -e.g joggers/leggings/shorts and a T shirt with a Buckstone jumper on top.

As far as the weather will allow , Thursday PE will take place outdoors until October so outdoor shoes on that day would ideally be trainers if possible.

Looking ahead to next week

Loose parts play ( aka messy play) on Monday. Children should come dressed with waterproof coats, overtrousers and wellies if possible. We do have some spares in school for anyone who forgets.

Outdoor loose parts play supports ( amongst other things) the development of metaskills, social interaction, physical strength, emotional regulation and academic understanding, and as such is an highly valued part of our week. We will have loose parts sessions regularly through the term – and will notify the date here.

Please return the Flu vaccination letter via the purple folders by Wednesday of next week at the latest. Thank you

‘Homework’ ( things to practice at home)

Most of the children are really independent, able to change their shoes, put coats on and open snack packets themselves. If this is something your child hasn’t quite mastered yet, please continue to practise at home. Opening fiddly straw packets on milk/juice cartons is one for a few of us to work on.

Focus on rhyme – identifying and creating rhyming words – even if the words are made up.

Play Rhyming I spy

Instead of looking for words beginning with a certain sound, ask your child to find something in the room that rhymes with another word.

This is a great way to practise recognising those important sounds in words.