Author: Staff..114

Dear Parents,

We hope you had a great week. We cannot believe this is the last Reflective Friday blog for this term!

Important information:

• Reading books will be sent home this week but not next ( we will continue to work on reading skills at school) . Please return all reading books that you might have at home, we are missing quite a few of them.
• Change of clothes: Please ensure that your child has a spare change of clothes at school (including pants and socks); these don’t have to be school uniform. It is really helpful for them all to have them (especially when they get wet). Please label all the items.

This is a summary of our learning this week:

Literacy

• This week we have started learning about soft g. Soft g When g is in front of an i, y, or e, it is soft and says /j/. For example: giant, gym, and gem. Hard g When g is in front of any other letter, it says /g/. For example: go, gave, and gravel

This is a video that we have used in class and will support learning at home.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wS4v_YTJw8

We have practiced our reading skills: this week we have focused on comprehension and fluency.

We have continued to learn common words from block 6: idea, answer and usual. Please continue to practice tricky words at home. All children know in which block they are working on.

In writing we are learning to write descriptions. This week we have described a magical house.

At cursive handwriting. This week we have practice our name using cursive. Please continue to practice this at home.

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

Ideas for learning at home

• Practice words with g and ask your child to say if it is a soft or a hard g and how they know that.

• Please continue to read stories to your child every day at home.  
• Please continue to encourage your child to read at home. It is important that children practice reading every day. Please ensure you do this daily during the holidays. It doesn’t have to be long but daily practice is highly recommended.

Maths 

We have continued to learn money. This week our focus has been recording amounts accurately in different ways using the correct notation. Please continue to practice recognising coins at home as we have noticed that a few children they are still finding this difficult.

We have also worked on numeracy skills: addition and subtraction. Counting in 2s, 5s and 10s (3s and 4s for some). Please continue to practice these skills at home.

Ideas for learning at home: 

• Practice a couple of calculations every day (please choose accordingly with your child’s ability)
• If you have coins at home give an amount to your child and ask them to write it. You could write an amount and your child could make the amount with the coins.
• This is a website that we have used in class:

https://www.doorwayonline.org.uk/activities/cashing-in/cashing-in.html

Other areas

EXA and PE

In gymnastics we are working on landing, balancing and rolling skills. We have improved our forward rolls.

IDL

We have continued to work on Food Chains.

RME

We have learned about Easter.

We enjoyed watching the P4 show about Nessie and our loose parts session.

We learned about Down Syndrome to celebrate Down Syndrome’s day!

Have a wonderful and restful Easter break!

Mrs de Bonrostro

Dear Parents, 

We hope you have had a good week. 

Important Information 

We have loose parts on Friday 22^nd. Please come to school dressed for the weather.

Here is a summary of our learning: 

Literacy 

Phonics

We have continued to learn about soft c. When e, i and y come after /c/ it makes the /s/ sound. For example circus and cycle.

Reading

We have enjoyed working on our reading books this week. In particular we have been working on reading aloud with fluency.

Writing

We wrote descriptions about animals.

Spelling

As a class we were introduced to spelling the words those, first and buy. 

Handwriting

We continued to work on the f formation as it is very tricky and we have practiced our names using cursive. Here is the website we use in school to show the correct formation.   

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

Ideas for learning at home: 

Odd One Out

Write out some hard and soft c words on small pieces of paper. Choose 3 soft c words and 1 hard c word OR 3 hard c and 1 soft c word. Lay the words out in a row. Ask your child if they can read the words then identify the odd one out.

Examples of words to include are:

• Face
• Mice
• City
• Cycle
• Circus
• December
• Coat
• Click
• Camera
• Cobweb

Your child will know the block they are working on for spelling, please continue to revise the spelling words with your child.  

Reading books are being sent home today. Please ask your child to read this to you over the weekend. There are useful suggestions for questions to ask your child on the inside covers.

Maths and Numeracy

In our Maths work we are continuing our unit of work on money. Lots of children are still finding it tricky to identify coins and add them together. It would be very helpful if you could revise recognising coins at home.

In Numeracy we have been working on the links between addition and subtraction. For example, if you know that 25 + 5 = 30 then you also know that 5 + 25 = 30. You can also use this knowledge to work out that 30 – 25 = 5 and that 30 – 5 = 25. This is sometimes referred to as a fact family.

Ideas for learning at home: 

• As mentioned above, as much hands on practical experience with coins as possible.
• Challenge your child to make a fact family triangle to demonstrate their understanding of related addition and subtraction facts.
• We have used this website in class:
• https://www.topmarks.co.uk/money/coins-game

Other Areas  

PE 

We have been developing our gymnastics skills in PE. In particular forward rolls and balances. 

Sustainability

We continued to work on Global Goals, our one is Goal 14: Life below water. Last week we read the book A Planet full of Plastic and discussed about plastic in the sea. This week we have linked this learning to food chains and thought about how this can affect us too.

We went outside after break and did litter picking…we were disappointed to see how much plastic we collected. To make a change in our environment we have decided that as a class on Fridays we are not going to use plastic for our snacks unless we can reuse it (like a plastic tub), can you help us?

We did amazing drawings of under the sea creatures using water colours.

Science

We have started to learn about basic food chains.

Eco garden Competition

There is an Eco -garden competition organised by the Eco-Enviros at school if your child would like to design an eco- garden for the school please have a look at the document below.

22.03.24 Eco Garden Competition.pdf

Have a lovely weekend, 

Mrs  de Bonrostro

Dear Parents,

We hope you had a great week.

Important information:

• Loose parts on Friday 15^th March.
• Please ensure that all your children’s items are labelled (including hats and gloves).
• Change of clothes: Please ensure that your child has a spare change of clothes at school (including pants and socks); these don’t have to be school uniform. It is really helpful for them all to have them (especially when they get wet). Please label all the items.

This is a summary of our learning this week:

Literacy

This week we have started learning about soft c. When e, i and y comes after /c/ it makes /s/ sound. We also learned about hard c: when a, o , u comes after /c/ it makes a /k/ sound.

This is a video that we have used in class and will support learning at home.

We have practiced our reading skills: this week we have focused on comprehension and fluency.

We have continued to learn common words from block 6: both, don’t and won’t . Please continue to practice tricky words at home. All children know in which block they are working on.

In writing we are learning to write descriptions. This week we have written descriptions about Katie Morag.

At cursive handwriting. This week we have practice f and k.  We have now learned how to write in cursive all the letters of the alphabet. See the link below of the formation we are practicing at school.

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

Ideas for learning at home

• Practice words with c and ask your child to say if it is a soft or a hard c and how they know that.

• Please continue to read stories to your child every day at home.
• Please continue to encourage your child to read at home. It is important that children practice reading every day.

Maths 

We have started to learn money. This week our focus has been on revising recognising coins and to work on value.

We have also worked on numeracy skills: addition and subtraction Please continue to practice these skills at home.

Ideas for learning at home: 

• Practice a couple of calculations every day (please choose accordingly with your child’s ability)

• If you have coins at home, ask your child to make different amounts using coins. Challenge: Use the less amount of coins as possible, e.g. To make 38p use  a 20p, 10p , 5p , 2p and 1p coins rather that 38 1p coins.
• This is a website that we have used in class:

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/7-11-years/money

Other areas

EXA and PE

We have played games to work on listening to instructions and reaction times.

In gymnastics we are working on landing, balancing and rolling skills.

IDL

We have started a small topic on Sustainability. We read the story ‘The tree of hope’. You could read the story at home.

Click to access The-Tree-of-Hope.pdf

We are thinking on different ways that we can Reduce, Recycle and Reuse at school and at home.

World Book Day

We celebrated World Book Day by creating our own books and reading at different times of the day wearing comfy clothes.

Here is a school quiz to do at home:

Famous Authors (office.com)

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Have a lovely Mother’s Day!

Mrs de Bonrostro

Dear Parents,

We hope you have had a good week.

It was lovely to talk to you at parents evenings.

Important Information

Loose parts on Wednesday 6^th March

We read our books in class this week but will not be sending them home today. Books will be sent home next Friday.

Here is a summary of our learning:

Literacy

This has been the final week in our Magic E unit of work. Magic e working on the vowel e. Examples of words with this spelling are: Pete, Steve, theme, these.

In writing we wrote a description of Grandma Mainland from the Katie Morag stories.

As a class we were introduced to spelling the words eye, even and above. Then we worked in our groups on the particular spelling block which we are focusing on.

The letters for handwriting were j and y. Here is the website we use in school to show the correct formation.  

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

Ideas for learning at home:

Real or nonsense words

Write these magic e words down on small pieces of paper. Can your child read the word then decide if it is a real or nonsense word?

cake

eve

fline

tube

smope

make

pine

spure

pole

clube

Your child will know the block they are working on for spelling, please continue to revise the spelling words with your child.

Numeracy

In numeracy we have continued to work on addition and subtraction skills. We are finding subtraction more tricky compared to addition. In order to help with this we are working on counting backwards, stopping and starting at different numbers, and paying close attention to crossing decades. It would be very helpful if you could work on this at home too in order to give extra reinforcement.

Ideas for learning at home:

As mentioned above, please work on counting backwards. This can be done in the car, walking home from school, any time you have a spare few minutes!

Here are a couple of links to online games which will reinforce subtraction skills.

If your child is finding this difficult:

https://www.sheppardsoftware.com/math/subtraction/catch-the-stars

For more challenge.

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/maths-games/subtraction-grids

Other Areas 

Outdoor Learning

We enjoyed our session of Loose Parts session on Monday.

PE

We have been developing our gymnastics skills in PE.

HWB – Building Resilience
We are working on the unit of work titled ‘Respect Yourself’. We have been learning that we all have similarities and differences, but we are all unique. We have been drawing and writing about what makes each of us special and unique.

HWB – RSHP

We have been learning about Privacy and the PANTS rule.

P is for privates are private.

A is for always remember your body belongs to you.

N is for no.

T is for talk about secrets that upset you.

S is for speak up, someone can help.

This is a good website with ideas:

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/preventing-abuse/keeping-children-safe/underwear-rule

This is the song we have listened to: https://youtu.be/_SzbMEVYiyg

Have a lovely weekend,

Mrs de Bonrostro

Dear Parents,

We hope you had a great week.

Important information:

• Loose parts on Monday 26^th February.
• Please ensure that all your children’s items are labelled (including hats and gloves).
• Change of clothes: Please ensure that your child has a spare change of clothes at school (including pants and socks); these don’t have to be school uniform. It is really helpful for them all to have them (especially when they get wet). Please label all the items.
• Please bring junk for our stem/craft area in the classroom.

This is a summary of our learning this week:

Literacy

This week we continued to learn about magic e. This week was magic e with an u. Eg: cube, tube, mule, rude.

This is a video that we have used in class and will support learning at home.

We have practiced our reading skills: this week we have focused on comprehension.

We have continued to learn common words from block 5: eight, learn and money. Please continue to practice tricky words at home. All children know in which block they are working on.

In writing we are learning to write descriptions. This week we have written descriptions about Granny Island from Katie Morag’s books.

At cursive handwriting. This week we have practice p and u. See the link below of the formation we are practicing at school.

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

Ideas for learning at home

• Use your magic e wand for these words: cub, cut, tub, etc. Ask your child to write them and then add the magic e band at the end of the word and see which words they have now.
• Please continue to read stories to your child every day at home.
• Please continue to encourage your child to read at home. It is important that children practice reading every day.

Maths 

We have started to learn about tessellation or tilling: what is tessellation and which 2D shapes can we use for creating tessellations.

We are learning to identify examples of tiling in the environment and to apply knowledge of the features of 2D shapes to create tiling patterns incorporating two different shapes.

We have also worked on numeracy skills: addition and subtraction (missing addends). Please continue to practice these skills at home.

Ideas for learning at home: 

• Look for tessellations around the house and when on a walk.
• Lego tessellation activity: Make your child use their coloured building blocks as an awesome learning tool. Ask them to make symmetric patterns using their Lego.

• Practice a couple of calculations every day ( please choose accordingly with your child’s ability)

Other areas

EXA and PE

We have played games to work on listening to instructions and reaction times.

In gymnastics we are learning landing and balancing skills.

RSHP

We are learning about Privacy and what makes us unique.

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Mrs de Bonrostro

Blog 9th February 2024

Dear Parents,

We hope you have had a lovely week.

Here is a link to a whole school quiz. We hope you enjoy it!

Buckstone Friday Quiz

Important Information

· We did reading in class this week but we will not be sending the books home over the holiday.

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 Mrs Imrie.

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

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 Edinburgh Castle and enjoyed making junk model castles in small groups.

The children have taken an interest on endangered animals and we have been learning about them and writing about them. It has been great to see how an interested that started by a few children is now an interest for all.

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 de Bonrostro

Dear Parents,

We hope you had a great week.

It was lovely to see you at the Drop-in session on Tuesday.

Important information:

• On Thursday we will build castles made of junk. Please could you bring cardboard boxes, empty kitchen rolls ( no toilet paper ones, please), etc. on that day? Please do not bring it before Thursday as we don’t have space to storage it.
• Loose parts on Tuesday 6^th February.
• Please ensure that all your children’s items are labelled (including hats and gloves).
• Change of clothes: Please ensure that your child has a spare change of clothes at school (including pants and socks); these don’t have to be school uniform. It is really helpful for them all to have them (especially when they get wet). Please label all the items.
• Next week we will not send reading books home.

This is a summary of our learning this week:

Literacy

This week we continued to learn about magic e. This week was magic e with an i. Eg: time, kite, pipe, etc.

We have practiced our reading skills: prediction and fluency are our focus.

We have continued to learn common words from block 5: write, great and move. Please continue to practice tricky words at home. All children know in which block they are working on.

In writing we are learning to write descriptions. This week we have written wonderful descriptions about Monet. We are really impressed with the work produced!

At cursive handwriting. This week we have practice m and n. See the link below of the formation we are practicing at school.

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

We did our ‘Twa Leggit mice’ recitation and two children have been selected to perform at the school assembly. Well done to all the children who took part and learned the poem; it was a very hard decision!

Ideas for learning at home

• Please ask your child to read the school reading book at home.
• Use your magic e wand for these words: kit, bit, fin , etc. Ask your child to write them and then add the magic e band at the end of the word and see which words they have now.
• Ask your child to write and read these words: kite, bite, time, white, bike, line, slide, five, etc. You can write the words and ask your child to look for the initial blends and circle them.  
• Please continue to read stories to your child at home.
• Please continue to encourage your child to read at home. It is important that children practice reading every day.

Maths 

We have started to learn about properties of 3D objects: faces, edges and vertices; stack and roll.

Ideas for learning at home: 

• When talking to your child ensure you use vocabulary using 3D Objects: we have learned cube, cuboid, sphere, cylinder and prism.
• 3D object hunt around the house and outdoors.
• This video will help to reinforce the learning:

Other areas

EXA and PE

We have continued to learn Scottish Dance. We are learning to combine actions to create movement sequences independently and with others in response to music. We can now dance the Flying Scotsman’s Dance.

In gymnastics we are learning landing and balancing skills.

FRENCH

We are learning about colours.

SOCIAL STUDIES

We are learning about Edinburgh Castle We are learning to use evidence to recreate the story of place of local historical interest. 

We hope you have a lovely weekend.

Mrs de Bonrostro

Dear Parents/Carers, 

We hope you have had a lovely week. It has been a busy one in P2! 

IMPORTANT INFORMATION 

Please ensure learning stories are returned ASAP. 

Your child will be taking home a poem to practice at home ‘Twa Leggit mice’. Information about the Robert Burns competition went out in the homelink yesterday. As mention there only children who want to take part will do so but we would like all children to learn this poem. We have used this video at school to help us to learn it:

Here is a summary of our learning. 

Literacy 

Spelling: As a class we introduced the tricky words story, does and done. We then each worked on the particular spelling block we are focussing on. 

Phonics: We have started to learn about “magic e”. Magic e makes the vowels say their letter name rather than their sound. For example in the word cake the a makes an ay sound rather than ah. Magic e remains silent. 

Here is a fun video which demonstrates this. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00qzlrx/alphablocks-series-1-18-magic

Writing: We wrote descriptions of a family member, trying to include as much detail as possible. 

Handwriting: We have been learning to form the letters v and w. 

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 a vowel. 

You could write the following words on a piece of paper then ask your child to wave their magic e wand (sent home today!) 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 cap would turn into cape. 

cap 

mad 

hat 

tap 

gap 

at 

can 

mat 

car 

van 

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. 

I’m thinking of a word 

Write the words out on pieces of paper / card. Spread the cards out. Pick a word but do not tell your child which word you are thinking of. Say ‘I’m thinking of a word, the word has … letters’. The child is to guess what the word might be from the words spread out. If they guess correctly, they can keep the word card. If they cannot guess, give them another clue. ‘I’m thinking of a word that starts with the sound …’ or ‘ends with …’ or ‘rhymes with …’. Keep giving clues until they guess the word. This game will encourage your child to think carefully about the tricky words and ways to memorise them.  

Please also go over their reading book at the weekend before returning it on Monday. 

Maths and Numeracy 

We have been working on naming 2D shapes and linking this with patterns. 

Here is a fun game to play at home to reinforce this learning. 

https://www.topmarks.co.uk/ordering-and-sequencing/shape-patterns

In our number work we have continued to work on doubles and addition and subtraction strategies. For those who are confident with doubles and the doubles plus one strategy, we have linked this to addition and subtraction strategies and used larger numbers. 

Here is a fun video on doubles and halves. 

BBC iPlayer – Numberblocks – Series 2: Double Trouble 

For those pupils who are confidently adding and subtracting, we encourage the discussion of different strategies. You could challenge your child with some sums and ask them to explain how they reached their answer. For example, for 21 + 13 do they count in 1s? Or can they use a more effective strategy, such as first to add 10 to get to 31 then add 3 to get to 34.  

Other Areas: 

We have continued to learn about Monet as part of our artist study this term. 

As part of our health and well-being programme we have started the next unit of work which is called ‘Respect Yourself’. We have been thinking about valuing ourselves, accepting compliments and about the skills and qualities which make us each unique. 

We have learned about Robert Burns

We have continued to work on our fitness as well as Scottish dancing. 

Have a lovely weekend. 

Mrs de Bonrostro