Thank you for the many positive responses to our survey and the suggestions made. We will discuss these as a school team.

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 will also include this week’s ‘homework’ activities.

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

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

This week we have focussed on the sounds made by the graphemes m and e. For most children, the skill of blending sounds together to read a word is trickier than building it themselves and many of us still need to master this skill. Please continue to support your child at home to practise.

When revising these sounds at home please always use the pure sound of the letter (e.g. sssssss and not suh or the letter name Ess ). As we begin to use our knowledge of letter sounds to blend and build words to read and write, not using the correct pure sound can make things tricky for us. If you would like further explanation please just ask at the door.

Our storytelling prompt this week was “My friends”

Maths and numeracy

In P1 we use the SEAL programme ( Stages of Early Arithmetical Learning) which promotes number literacy. Pupils will be learning skills and strategies appropriate to their current stage of development. This includes ( but is not limited to) recognising numerals to 10, 20 and beyond; counting forwards and backwards in sequence; counting objects with accurate 1-1 correspondence; ascribing numerosity to random arrays, spatial and finger patterns; counting two seen/unseen collections; describing and creating equal groups; partitioning patterns and numbers.

Other areas of the Curriculum

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This week, we have been exploring magnets and learning some elephant facts.

We have begun to learn to say the names of colours in French.

We have looked at the RSHP units on making friends/being kind ( linked here and here for your further information should you wish to follow up at home)

PE days are 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 learning on Friday 11th October

Homework

Literacy

Spelling homework should ideally be done in several short sessions across the week . (5-10 minutes 4 times a week will have a huge impact)

Adult write the lowercase letters m, e, s, a, t and p, i and n on individual pieces of paper ( or can use magnetic letters if you have them)

Task 1.

Using the letter cards, the adult can build the following words

• met
• map
• ten
• pet
• pen
• sat
• pat
• at
• tap
• pin
• pan
• nap
• nip
• ( challenge spelling words) pants, past ,

The child should pronounce each sound as the pure sound, then blend the sounds together to read the word. This is the skill that most children find the trickiest.

Task 2

The adult should say one of the spelling words and the child uses the cards to build the word by fining the sound at the start, the sound in the middle, the sound at the end.

You may wish to keep the letter cards you make as we will be adding more sounds for spelling homework next week.

Other literacy activities

Play this game on a phone or tablet. Choose the ‘initial sounds’ option first please .

Play “robot I spy” Adult spies an object and breaks down the pronunciation, child blends the sounds together to guess the object that has been spotted – e.g. I spy a ‘v – a – n’

Play ‘ which sound is where ? ‘ Adult says a cvc word then asks the child to isolate which sound they can hear in the middle/at the end/ at the start. Children are used to saying which sound a letter starts with, but generally less comfortable identifying middle and ending sounds.

Numeracy

Practise the skill of subitising. Subitising is the ability to quickly and accurately determine the number of objects in a small group without counting them. arrange a small number of items under a piece of paper, then remove the paper for a few seconds ( not enough time to count) and re-cover. Ask how many were there? Start with regular dice patterns to 6, then extend to organised arrays up to 10, then introduce random arrays.

There is also a game here which we have been using in school which your child may want to show you. Choose the ‘game’ option – then the blue dice lead to the subitising activity. We also enjoy watching this short video which helps us to practise the subitising skill in different ways

All children acquire numeracy skills at different rates, so the homework activities are skills to practise. If your child finds it easy, increase the level of challenge by adjusting the range of number (eg, work within 10, up to 20, up to 50 etc)

• say the number AFTER a given number ( What comes after 7 ?) Children should answer quickly without the need to count from 1
• say the number BEFORE a given number
• explore teen numbers. e.g 11 = 10 and 1, 12 = 10 and 2. 13 is ten and how many more ?
• count forwards and backwards
• count a random collection of moveable or fixed items accurately with 1-1 correspondence.

Life Skills

• Practise folding paper from corner to corner
• Learn to turn sleeves the right way out
• Learn your address